This document was provided as background to the Green Climate Fund Meeting of the Board, 24-26 March 2015 in Songdo, Republic of Korea.
The document covers linkages with other documents, lessons learned from other climate funds, gender policy and next steps.
In making the case for why gender and climate change matters, the document highlights that women’s mortality from climate-related disasters is higher and that various manifestations of climate change, such as drought, exacerbate fuelwood and water scarcity and add more to the domestic burdens of women than to those of men. Women tend to rely more on natural resources for their livelihood, the decline in land and biomass productivity affects women more than men, especially in rural areas, and exacerbates their poverty. It also points out that in urban areas, after climate-related disasters, it is harder for poor women than for poor men to recover their economic status and welfare, also that women, as well as men, significantly contribute to combating climate change as knowledgeable small-scale farmers and leaders of climate-change adaptation and mitigation initiatives.