Integrating Gender into Climate Change Policies, Programs & Projects

The Ministry of Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management, through the Enabling Gender-Responsive Disaster Recovery, Climate and Environmental Resilience in the Caribbean Project, is hosting a two-day training to introduce gender into climate policies. It is looking at how climate change affects various groups differently and how decisions being made to mitigate and adapt are all inclusive. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.

Duane Moody, Reporting

Today, the National Climate Change Office completed day one of a training that is critical for the successful implementation of the country’s National Climate Change Gender Action Plan that spans through to 2027. The goal is to integrate gender considerations into socioeconomic development in indigenous communities, remote areas and among communities that are already being impacted by climate change.

Colin Mattis

Colin Mattis, Deputy Chief Climate Change Officer, National Climate Change Office

“When we create these policies and plans, it is not for us to internalise them and to implement them ourselves. It’s for us to work with everyone in order to ensure that they are implemented. Our job is to work with everyone. We all have a part to play in managing climate change – whether you are in government and out of government – so we have to reach everybody, we have to give them the education, we need to give them the capacity, we need to help them to get the resources whether it is financial or otherwise.”

…and so, the training is engaging ministries and also non-governmental organizations that deal with vulnerable groups and communities across the country. Ya’axche Conservation Trust works in southern Belize with Maya communities, where there is intergenerational dependency on forest resources for livelihoods.  Carleen Myvett shares the importance of building their resiliency to climate change.

Carleen Myvett

Carleen Myvett, Development Manager, Ya’axche Conservation Trust

“We work with indigenous communities that are dependent on the forest resources. And typically the communities that are heavily dependent on forest resources; those are the communities that are impacted a lot by climate change and we felt that it was necessary to participate in this initiative so we can learn from what our partners in conservation are doing and also that we can share in best practices.  We do a lot of farming and we know that food security is one of the things that the communities that we work with are very much concerned about. So we wanted to see how we can build our capacity to incorporate men and women and even the youth in our initiatives.”

There is always space for youths to be engaged. And Daril Avila from YLAB explains how the information will be disseminated to young people across the country.

Daril Avila

Daril Avila, Representative, YLAB

“We want to start to integrate ourselves in these types of workshops because climate change is something that is prominent all over the world. So we want to create a space where we can go back into these communities, especially vulnerable communities to inform not only the mature population, but also the younger population that is coming up so that they can be able to help their own communities and help themselves to be resilient to climate change.”

So far, the project has carried out a number of activities, some of which were outlined by Deputy Chief Climate Change Officer Colin Mattis.

Colin Mattis

“The project is doing a lot of activities that reach out to farmers that are in need. People in marginalized communities that maybe need water. The ministry of rural transformation got a water bowser, some call it a water truck, that is used to distribute water around these communities, giving financial assistance to NGOs that need money to implement their activities for climate change resilience. And so those are some of the main activities that the project is implementing within the country. But the project is also ensuring that gender is mainstreamed in strategies and policies and actions in our sister ministries and departments.”

The EnGenDER Project is sponsored by the UK and Canadian governments and is being implemented in nine Caribbean countries.  Duane Moody for News Five.