Gender Equality and Climate Policy Scorecard produced by the Kaschak Institute
The Kaschak Institute for Social Justice, in partnership with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and UN Women launched their Scorecard brief at the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP 29) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Baku, Azerbaijan this past November.
This brief provides guidance on key criteria, questions, and promising examples to
strengthen gender and climate commitments within the Nationally Determined Contributions
reports (NDCs) that each country must prepare that outlines their climate action plan.
The brief set the stage for the that is being produced by the Kaschak Institute, IUCN and UN Women.
Mentorship Program for Gender Negotiators Under the UNFCCC
The Kaschak Institute, in alliance with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has been providing on-going mentorship with gender delegates to help them strengthen their technical competence and negotiation skills in the realm of climate change. These delegates are drawn from environmental ministries as well as negotiators from Indigenous women's groups – and include Indigenous girl youth to shadow and learn the art of climate negotiations. This program was launched in 2022 and proved critical to the negotations in Baku, Azerbaijan this past November, when talks on gender nearly collapsed.
Our first gender negotiators program was a 3-day workshop held in July 2023 at ÂÌñÉç University. Delegates from several countries were trained, with a group of ÂÌñÉç University students shadowing them. A recent grant from IUCN will enable the Institute to replicate this work with women delegates under the United Nations Convention on Desertification (UNCCD). This project will be implemented over the next two years with the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Bern and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Climate Change Gender Action Plans (ccGAP)
The Institute's Executive Director, Lorena Aguilar, is a pioneer in the field of climate change and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature requested the Institute's support to enhance its capacity to develop Climate Change Gender Action Plans (ccGAP). ccGAPs build on national development and climate change strategies, identifying gender-specific issues across priority sectors. The participatory, multi-stakeholder methodology includes action plans that enhance mitigation and adaptation efforts. The ccGAP methodology, implemented in 28 countries, presents a path to gender mainstreaming that moves away from business as usual by building capacity across stakeholders to construct nationally appropriate non-conventional solutions that are concrete, practical, and innovative. The ccGAP moves beyond framing women and girls as vulnerable victims to recognize gender equality as a driver for transformational change. These plans foster a comprehensive approach that embeds gender equality in the policy frameworks of technical sectors, offers strategies to eliminate institutional barriers to implementation, and highlights innovative activities that are driven by and engage women as entrepreneurs, leaders, and partners in climate change response for more resilient communities and countries.
In 2022-23 we supported the development of Guatemala’s ccGAP and in 2024 we worked on Rwanda's ccGAP. This work offered students a unique hands-on experience working on climate change and gender policy and facilitating dialogue with local communities.
The Development of a ccGAP has Four Steps
1. Take stock. Analyze the country's legislative and policy framework and any institutional initiatives in areas as diverse as natural resources, disaster risk reduction, socio-economic issues, industry, energy, gender equality, and finance.
2. Level the playing field. Enhance the engagement of women and women's organizations in the development of the ccGAP, through a training session conducted to build both technical knowledge and women's confidence in climate change themes and to identify women's priorities and ideas.
3. Capture diverse voices and views. As part of a multi-stakeholder workshop, representatives from government, non-governmental institutions, academia, international institutions, and community groups, among others, assess the country's current situation concerning gender and climate change, envision a future scenario across priority sectors, and agree on action steps toward that scenario.
4. Prioritize and put into action. A national team elected by participants in the multi-stakeholder workshop finalizes the action steps into an action plan and continues after the workshop to gather input from various stakeholders to complete the ccGAP.
Examples of ccGAPs in Latin America and Caribbean countries are:
Peru:
Dominican-Republic:
