Gender-responsive education key to climate action and justice
According to the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI), gender-transformative education can empower girls to tackle the climate crisis.
What you need to know:
- Drought and floods have a greater impact on the most vulnerable, 70 per cent of whom are women.
- This year alone, climate change will prevent at least four million girls from completing their education.
At the COP 26 in Glasgow, Scotland, global leaders committed to increase the uptake of clean technologies. However, addressing climate change will remain a tall order until the world is ready to deal with gender, environmental and developmental inequalities.
In poor settings, women are often responsible for gathering and producing food, collecting water and sourcing fuel for heating and cooking. Drought and floods have a greater impact on the most vulnerable, 70 per cent of whom are women. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this year alone, climate change will prevent at least four million girls from completing their education.
Equity and justice
According to the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI), gender-transformative education can empower girls to tackle the climate crisis, claim and exercise their rights and become leaders and decision-makers.
Girls’ education
A study commissioned by Plan International, The Brookings Institution and Unicef found that the spirit of the Paris Agreement for climate action on issues of fairness, equity and justice is not translating into country-level climate strategies.
The study recommends that national climate strategies must pay greater attention to the key sociological underpinnings driving climate change. One way is to pay greater attention to girls’ education.
Kenya’s delegation led by President Uhuru Kenyatta reaffirmed the country’s commitment to implementation of the National Adaptation Plan 2015-2030, which envisages strong economic growth powered by green and renewable energy, resilient ecosystems through restoration of degraded water towers and accelerated restoration of tree cover to the minimum target of 10 per cent of the country’s land mass.
Kenya’s climate finance policy is underpinned by the Kenya Climate Change Act 2016, National Climate Finance Policy 2018 and the NCCAP 2013-2022. Devolution of climate funds, however, remains a major challenge.
The writer is Country Director, Plan International, Kenya
