Programme Rationale
Across Asia Pacific women’s lives and livelihoods are threatened by climate change events, environmental degradation, militarisation, ethnic and religious discrimination and economic policies that make small scale subsistence farming unsustainable.
Women are affected more severely and are more at risk from natural disasters and extreme weather events, including during post-disaster response efforts. Women’s exclusion from decision-making and limited access to and control over resources impedes their rights, and in the case of climate change, means that women’s voices are absent from decisions about environmental management, climate change adaptation and mitigation, with long-term consequences for the wellbeing of women, their families and the sustainability of their communities. It is therefore important to articulate rural and indigenous women’s critical role and capacity in the nurturing of a sustainable ecological system.
In 2010 Women in Pakistan battled the worst disaster to hit the country with an estimated 20 million people driven from their homes, left without clean water, without food or without livelihoods. Floods and mudslides in Indonesia, typhoons in the Philippines and drought in Southeast Asia early in the year all had devastating effects on rural and indigenous women in Asia Pacific.
To equip our rural and indigenous members to have a voice in local and international policy making around global warming APWLD has a two prong approach through our climate justice project. First is to work with rural and indigenous women to document their own practices ensuring they become the voices of their community. Second is to find advocacy spaces at national, regional and international level to ensure rural and indigenous women get heard.
This same approach – of using feminist community-lead research methods and then developing national, regional and international advocacy strategies was used to develop our new human rights documentation workshop for rural, indigenous and migrant women.
Current Initiatives
New Campaign Coming Soon!
Rio+20 Campaign - Assert Women’s Rights to Resources & Development!
APWLD is a member of the Women’s Major Group (WMG) of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, a network of over 50 women’s organisations worldwide. We are helping lead the way, adding the voices of Asia Pacific women into the Rio+20 outcome document.
The campaign is based on the rights and equality-based approach to promoting development. Development will not be sustainable without fulfilling the human rights of marginalised women.
Partner activists and groups are encouraged to share information on your activities and keep us informed on what is happening in your community as well as nationally, regionally and internationally. Read more here.
Women-led participatory research for climate justice
To gain a voice in policy debates over climate it is important that rural and indigenous women document their own practices and experiences and are the authors of their own research. Women lead participatory research promotes democratic participation of women in policy making around development at local, national, regional and international levels.
APWLD is working with six (6) partner organisations (based in Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Philippines x 2 and Indonesia) to undertake research detailing their own experiences of climate change and their local strategies of adaptation / mitigation.
In 2010 the partner researchers collaborated to come up with a research tool-kit establishing shared resources and methods. In 2011 the organisations conducted and documented the research and commence advocacy strategies. A mid-research evaluation meeting will be held to share progress and address barriers. Findings will be collated for both national and international advocacy strategies.
Climate Justice Briefs: Women’s Adaptation Strategies
These briefs document the multi-layered issues of climate change and the impact on women in Asia Pacific, from the perspective of rural, indigenous and Dalit women who directly participated in the research. See briefs here
News
APWLD submission regarding the World Bank’s role in Green Climate Fund
Legal argument acknowledgment: Advocate S.K. Priya
APWLD has four main concerns about the World Bank’s role in the Transitional Committee (TC) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF), including a significant possibility of conflict of interest; a track record of imposing policy conditions and programs on developing countries and its undemocratic governance; continuing to be a top financier of fossil fuels; and ineffectiveness in ensuring a gender-responsive climate finance mechanism.
APWLD submission on GCF 28 Sept, 2011
Civil society describes Pakistan floods as “man made
By Zubeda Birwani, Executive Director, Trust for Conservation of Coastal Resources (TCCR)
The recent floods in Sindh may appear to be a repetition of last year’s devastating water flows. However, in terms of damages caused in the areas concerned, the distress brought about by the floods remains severe, compounded by an inadequate response by the state and non-governmental sector to the crisis. Twenty three districts of the province have been flooded following heavy rains in early August 2011. Of the more than five million people swamped, 2.6 million are women. The UNFPA estimates that more than 100,000 of these women are pregnant with a large proportion in need of medical assistance.
As was the case in 2010, gaps in response will aggravate the sense of deprivation and marginalization already persistent in the province. A limited number of initiatives towards flood relief have been launched by the civil society, but there is need to maintain focus on advocacy for tighter state response to the disaster.
Pakistan floods in Sindh- Zubeda Birwani
Asia-Pacific Regional Preparatory Meeting for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development 2012
“The Road to Rio 2012: Charting Our Path”
The Major Groups and Stakeholders Asia Pacific Meeting 2011 was held from 17–18 October 2011, immediately prior to the Asia–Pacific Regional Preparatory Committee Meeting for the Earth Summit 2012 on 19-20 October.
The UN Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012 (Rio+20) provides a critical and timely platform for governments at the highest level to secure renewed political commitment for sustainable development. Since 1992 the ecological crisis has worsened and the world has experienced a series of financial shocks and crises. Income and social inequalities have escalated even as high economic growth took place in several countries. There was a commitment to a paradigm shift towards sustainable development, but this has remained elusive.
The Rio+20 Conference should therefore honestly appraise the implementation of the sustainable development commitments and action plans, and identify the gaps and obstacles, to ensure the transformation of the economic, social and ecological dimensions and their effective integration. This needs to take place at the local, national, regional and international levels.
Asia Pacific: As a diverse region that comprises developing countries, including small island developing states, land-locked nations and least developed countries, as well as developed countries, the Asia Pacific region has many common but also particular sub-regional priorities and challenges.
Full report: Major Groups Meeting- The Road to Rio 2012- Charting Our Path
Indigenous Peoples Major Group Submission for the Zero Draft for RIO+20
For immediate release: 6 December 2011
Recognise the Rights and Roles of Rural and Indigenous Women in Tackling Climate Change
Durban, South Africa: Women and men, due to their gender roles and existing unequal power relations between them, have different vulnerabilities and responses to the impact of critical and harmful conditions resulting from global climate change. They have differentiated capabilities and preferences regarding policies and measures to tackle the problems. The existing policy framework to tackle climate change, however, is ignorant of unequal power relations between men and women. Download the full press release here
For immediate release: 6 December 2011
End Marginalisation of Women’s Concerns and Integrate Women Fully into Negotiations
Durban, South Africa: We acknowledge that “gender” has gained recognition and that gender language has been included in the official documents and appears in many projects or side events at the United Nations Framework on Climate Change COP17. However, we are concerned that the term “gender” has been poorly conceptualised in official documents and lacks the critical edge that we have been advocating for. To achieve gender and climate justice, a fundamental transformation in the current global economic system and climate change negotiations has to occur. Central to this is ending the marginalisation of women’s concerns and integrating women fully into these negotiations as key agents in making this transformation happen. Download full press release here
