The gender perspective in climate change policies

The project on mainstreaming the gender perspective in climate change policies is implemented by Gender CC – Women for Climate Justice and based on the premise that it is essential to incorporate gender in urban planning to improve the resilience of cities to climate change impacts.

Based in Berlin, GenderCC is a global network of civil organizations, experts and activists working for gender equality and climate justice. GenderCC began working on the project in 2015 with organizations from India, South Africa and Indonesia, with Mexico joining last year. Overall, it operates in 12 cities across the four countries.

The objective is to contribute to the promotion of strategies with a gender perspective – intersectoral and long-term at the local level – for the transition to a low-carbon development model.

The project seeks to strengthen the capacity of citizens to involve themselves in the design/implementation of climate change policies through capacity building related to completing bureaucratic procedures and developing public policy recommendations with a gender perspective. This is expected to help build viable alternatives for gender equality, as well as to improve the sustainability, effectiveness, and social, economic and environmental co-benefits of mitigation and adaptation policies.

In Mexico, Mexico City and Tlaxcala were chosen as pilot cities since the Equidad organization has experience working in both places. The two cities were selected due to their distinct environmental, institutional, political and socioeconomic contexts.

The steps Mexico City has taken towards gender equality are well recognized, as it finds itself at the forefront nationally. Equidad has helped Mexico City strengthen its processes for policy advocacy. In comparison, although the city of Tlaxcala does not have the same civil society advocacy capacity, it has pursued various efforts to incorporate a gender perspective into its institutions, regulatory framework, public plans and programs, particularly in the climate change field.

In these entities, we began the work under the premise that sustainable development is not possible without gender equality. Conversely, gender equality is also a key driver of sustainable development.