A Missing Link: the UNFCCC Gender Action Plan and Gender Based Violence

This blog is based on a report written by Francesca Rhodes and Naomi Clugston.

Efforts to renew the UNFCCC Gender Action Plan, present a vital opportunity to advance both climate justice and gender equality. What’s missing? Specific language on addressing gender-based violence (GBV) through climate action. Research shows that GBV is derailing climate action globally, undermining women’s participation and community resilience. The UNFCCC Gender Action Plan could help address this by including language related to the identification, prevention and elimination of all forms of gender-based discrimination and violence.

A strong precedent already exists in the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Gender Plan of Action, which includes an objective to “identify and eliminate, prevent and respond, to all forms of gender-based discrimination and violence, in particular in relation to control, ownership and access to sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity, including protecting women environmental human rights defenders and park rangers." Drawing on this, similar language could be applied more broadly to climate change, identifying groups who face intersecting inequalities and higher vulnerabilities to climate change.

How could this be done?

Priority area A: Capacity-building, knowledge management and communication

Activity A.3: Enhance capacity-building for governments and other relevant stakeholders to collect, analyse and apply sex-disaggregated data and gender analysis in the context of climate change where applicable.

Opportunity: This activity could include capacity building on how to safely and ethically collect data on GBV prevalence, taking a survivor-centered approach.

Activity A.4: Strengthen the evidence base and understanding of the differentiated impacts of climate change on men and women and the role of women as agents of change and on opportunities for women.

Opportunity: This activity could include collection of data on GBV, including data disaggregated by disability, age and gender.

Priority area B: Gender balance, participation and women’s leadership

Opportunity: This priority area could include an activity specifically on monitoring and addressing the instances and impact of GBV on women who are participating in climate decision making, at all levels.

Priority area C: Coherence

Activity C.3: Strengthen coordination between the work on gender considerations of the subsidiary bodies under the Convention and the Paris Agreement and other relevant United Nations entities and processes, in particular the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as applicable.

Opportunity: There could be more specific outcomes for this activity, and mandate given to relevant bodies / Parties, to monitor and address the impacts of climate change on achieving the Gender Equality Goal in the SDGs. This could include reference to target 5.2.1 Eliminate violence against women and girls: Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.

Priority area D: Gender-responsive implementation and means of implementation

Opportunity: This priority area could include activities focused on GBV, for example:

‘Identify and address all forms of gender-based discrimination and violence resulting from and exacerbated by climate change as well as from efforts to protect natural resources important to combat climate change, including by protecting women environmental defenders, park rangers, and land tenure activists.’

Opportunity: This priority area could also include language on increasing the amount of climate finance that is directed towards addressing and preventing GBV.

Activity D.7: Enhance the availability of sex-disaggregated data for gender analysis, taking into consideration multidimensional factors, to better inform gender responsive climate policies, plans, strategies and action, as appropriate.

Opportunity: This activity could include collection of data on GBV, including data disaggregated by disability, age and gender.

Priority area E: Monitoring and reporting

Opportunity: This priority area could include a specific mandate to monitor and report on impacts of climate change on GBV and occurrence of GBV within climate action, in order to inform the design of national policies, budgets, and plans.

Why should this be done?

Why should this be a priority for the renewal of the Gender Action Plan? There are three key reasons. Integrating language on GBV into the GAP would:

1. Ensure that the GAP reflects the growing body of evidence that shows addressing GBV is foundational to building effective, inclusive and resilient climate action. Addressing GBV through climate action opens doors for women, girls and gender diverse people to lead and participate fully in decision-making. It strengthens their ability to adapt and build resilience in the face of climate change. And it helps reduce the heightened risks of violence they face during climate emergencies. Protecting women human rights defenders working on environmental issues and climate activists from intimidation and violence is crucial to ensuring they can continue their vital work raising the alarm on climate change. And, in the transition to a green economy, addressing GBV and sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (SEAH) supports women and gender-diverse people to contribute their expertise without fear of backlash.

2. Align the GAP with existing United Nation agreements related to climate change and biological diversity, that recognise the links between GBV and climate action. For example, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Draft Post-2020 Gender Plan of Action (paragraph 5) states that, "Measures to eliminate gender-based violence can thereby contribute to curbing practices harmful to biodiversity, upholding human rights, and creating the conditions necessary to enable more sustainable management of natural resources.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) on Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, also highlights that food security interventions targeting women can be undermined by high rates of GBV (section 9.10.3.2). It also notes that when adaptation and mitigation projects are implemented without consideration of local social dynamics, this can cause an increase in conflict within communities (which can include GBV) (section 7). The report also references documented increases in intimate partner violence, child marriage, sexual exploitation and trafficking following extreme weather events and linked to rises in temperature and climate-related resource scarcity (sections CCP3.2.2.3, 6.2.2.2, 7.2.7.4, 9.10.2.2.2, 9.10.2.6.1, 14.5.10.11).

3. Strengthen the GAP as a tool for influencing and mandating international and national policy and channelling resources towards preventing and responding to GBV in climate-affected contexts and linked to climate action. The need for this is clear. GBV has been identified as a key obstacle to the implementation of the GAP. In 2024, through a review of implementation progress, the synthesis report of Parties’ submissions cited “increasing gender-based violence” as a key obstacle to GAP implementation.

Integrating GBV into the GAP can also motivate governments to access climate finance for these issues, support policy coherence at the national level, and drive action and accountability. Current estimates suggest that this a tiny fraction of total climate finance integrates GBV so far. For example, an analysis of the US$12.7 billion of climate finance allocated to Rwanda between 2013 and 2022 shows that only 0.01% of interventions incorporate the GBV purpose code.

Stronger references to GBV in the new GAP could also help accelerate the number of Parties who include analysis and action on GBV in their national plans. Simply put, integrating GBV into climate policy is a prerequisite for climate justice and impact. The GAP presents an opportunity to recognise this, which we cannot afford to miss.

More information

• Read our Report: Overcoming an Unseen Barrier to Effective Climate Action

• The What Works to Prevent Violence: Impact at Scale Programme (What Works II), the UK’s flagship programme to end violence against women and girls (VAWG), strives to eliminate VAWG on a global scale. Funded by the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the seven-year Programme is focused on VAWG prevention. Find out more.