The global community needs to keep pushing the button for increased coordination on the climate gender equality issue

On 17 October the EESC'S External Relations Section (REX) held a debate on the impact of the climate crisis on gender equality. Gender inequality linked to the climate crisis is one of today's greatest challenges. The European Union and United Nations Women, the biggest players in international community, should continue to work together on this issue.

Women in developing countries are generally the first to respond to managing the environmental capital that surrounds them. From collecting water for cooking and cleaning to firewood, women all over the planet use and interact with natural resources and ecosystems daily.

Florence Raes, Director at UN Women's Brussels Office and keynote speaker of the event, highlighted that climate change may push 160 million women and girls into poverty. Women have less access to migration compared to men, so they are doubly impacted by the climate when a crisis occurs. Also, most women in Africa and Asia are small scale farmers, which means that about 3.2 billion people are affected in their daily activity for whom the income and means of subsistence are sharply reduced, as they have less access to land and the land becomes less productive.

In discussing key challenges related to the climate crisis, Ms. Raes mentioned the intensification of gender-based violence, the gender food security gap, the impacts on sexual and reproductive health and rights, the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, women's lower survival rates in disasters and the increase in paid and unpaid care and domestic work among women.

The 66^th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 66) that took place last year from 14-25 March 2022 in New York was dedicated to gender and climate change and put the emphasis on strengthening interlinkages at the normative level between all global governmental bodies related to climate and environment and those related to the gender framework.

The key area is coordination, and even though the international community with the UN and the EU being the big players has been pushing the button of coordination for many decades in alignment with various conventions, reaching goals, what we see on the ground is that we need to keep pushing for increased coordination and collaboration, said Ms. Raes.

Closing her speech, Ms. Raes shared with the audience the example of Africa and the pilot programme called "climate smart agriculture", which is implemented in 14 countries and is largely based on building the resilience of women in communities affected by floods, droughts and conflicts.

This project helps women have not only traditional access to land but also take stock of development and digital technology so that they can be at the forefront of transformation and sustainable economic growth in their communities.