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Stakeholders on Wednesday, advocated gender-sensitive laws, implementation of climate policies and women’s empowerment for improved climate adaptation, and resilience in the country.
They stated this at the sixth edition of the Nigerian Academy of Science conference themed, “Climate adaptation and resilience in Nigeria,” in Abuja.
Speaking during a panel sub-themed, “Gender and intersectionality dimensions of climate change,” at the conference, the Deputy Clerk at the Federal House of Representatives, and Development Research and Projects Centre Technical Advisory on climate-smart national responses, Vivian Njemanze said there is a need to establish more research, especially on the environment, to support the action of the government.
Njemanze noted that the research will involve the development of legislative frameworks aimed at fostering a democratic body of knowledge on climate change.
She highlighted that women play a key role in natural resource management, enabling them to contribute to livelihood strategies that adapt to changing environmental conditions.
She, therefore, recommended the need to integrate gender perspectives into mitigation and adaptation actions.
“Climate change actions need to be based on consultation with women, to build and incorporate their skills and knowledge, and to provide opportunities for improving health, education and livelihoods. Women’s issues, needs and contributions should be integrated across the planning and execution cycles of climate change policies and projects.
“Increasing women’s participation would result in more environmental and productivity gains and would create mutual benefits and greater returns across the Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG 5 (gender equality and women’s empowerment) and SDG 13 (action to combat climate change). Ensuring mitigation and adaptation efforts also address sources of gender-based vulnerability, gender inequality and poverty. Climate change responses need to address women’s historic and current disadvantages
“Conducting an in-depth and evidence-based analysis of women’s and men’s roles in sectors impacted by and their strategies for coping with climate change. Improved understanding of women’s and men’s knowledge, roles and abilities will provide a solid basis for policy and programmes developed to address and combat the differentiated impacts of climate change on both genders,” she emphasised.
The Director of Projects at dRPC, Dr Stanley Ukpai, emphasised that climate change disproportionately affects vulnerable populations, citing recent flooding and the receding of the Lake Chad basin, which impacts food security.
“For us, what we are doing is to look at that intersection between climate change, vulnerable population and intersectionality with gender. It’s not news that more than 50 per cent of the agricultural workforce is populated by women, and even in conflict zones, people who are escaping either conflict-related issues or climate change-related issues, women are more affected.
“Through this conference, we are looking at creating a body of work with all of the scientists, and researchers who are present to find how we can integrate the issues of gender into climate resilience, climate adaptation strategy, for better policy-making process.”
On her part, the Director of the Centre Energy and Environmental Strategy Research at the Kaduna State University, Dr Saadatu Baba, stated that gender plays a crucial role in climate change adaptation and resilience.
Baba who is also a Board Member of dRPC, said, “This is because climate change is a threat multiplier. What it does is that it exacerbates existing inequalities and inequities in society. And we know that women are actually faced with structural inequities in society through no fault of their own.
“So the projections are that impacts of climate change will be disproportionately more in vulnerable populations. Women, children, displaced people, people living with disabilities, poor people and people living in hard-to-reach areas are all vulnerable populations.
“The impact of climate change will be felt more by them because their adaptive capacity is lower than for other sections of the population. So that’s why gender is very important when it comes to climate change adaptation and resilience.”Restating the importance of gender-sensitive laws and policies, Baba highlighted that such measures can help women adapt to climate change and enhance their resilience.
“Whether they are women farmers, women working in all sectors of the society, there have to be policies and laws that are targeted towards their specific vulnerabilities. As well as the general population, because everyone is affected by climate change, it’s just the disproportionate nature of the impact on women that has to be addressed,” she added.
