.Implementing Gender comittments of the

Rio Conventions :Are we the change we want to see?

_______________________________________________Gender Day

UNCCD COP 12, Ankara, Turkey16 October 2015

Presented by Janet Kabeberi-MachariaHead, Gender and Social Safeguards Unit,

UNEP1

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1.Introduction2.Gender commitments of the Rio Conventions3.Challenges faced in implementation4. Recommendations

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Order of presentation

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INTRODUCTION

The United Nations Conference of Sustainable Development (Rio+20) which convened in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012 recognized the significant contributions to sustainable development made by the multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). Parties to MEAs were encouraged to inter alia:

•promote policy coherence at all relevant levels, •improve efficiency, •reduce unnecessary overlap and duplication, •and enhance coordination and cooperation among MEAs

Opens up space for harmonising the gender commitments under the three Rio Conventions 3

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• Key objective is to enable secretariat staff, partners and parties at the national, regional and global levels, to overcome constraints and take advantage of opportunities to promote gender equality within its work.

• The GePA sets out possible mainstreaming actions to be undertaken by parties and for the secretariat in four key spheres of influence: Policy, Organizational , Constituency and Delivery

• The GePA calls on Parties to undertake gender mainstreaming activities, including mainstreaming gender into national biodiversity strategies and action plans.  Implementation of the 2015-2020 Plan is now underway

THE CONVENTION BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY : GENDER PLAN OF ACTION (GePA) 2015-2020

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GENDER COMMITMENTS OF THE RIO CONVENTIONS

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THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATIONGender Mandate in UNCCD is well articulated. Various COP decisions have reiterated the relevance of gender associated with core aspects of the Convention

Decision 9/COP.10, parties approved the approved the Advocacy Policy Framework (APF) on gender and requested the UNCCD Secretariat to work on the implementation of the recommendations of the document. The APF

pursues the strategic objective of identifying targets for mainstreaming gender issues into the implementation of the 10-year Strategy.promotes the integration of gender within the implementation of the UNCCD and calls for recognition of roles of men and women in implementing the UNCCD Focuses on four key spheres of influence: Policy, Organizational Constituency and Delivery as is found in the CBD GePA. Its focus is on the secretariat and no commitments for state parties

GENDER COMMITMENTS OF THE RIO CONVENTIONS

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THE UNITED NATIONS FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE

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• The UNFCCC secretariat is yet to develop a Gender Policy or Plan of Action as has been done by the other two Secretariats. Has an internal team working on gender issues though not full time

• Over past four years the UNFCCC secretariat has been vocal in bringing gender issues to the fore of climate change negotiations through its Momentum for Change initiative and high level discussions during the COP meetings

• The UNFCCC secretariat has a very strong gender constituency that has continuously created visibility of the gender issues in climate change negotiations and goes further to build capacity of key stakeholders from government to civil society levels.

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Challenges in meeting MEA commitments on

gender

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Overall challenges to MEA implementation

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Meeting the global, regional and national commitments outlined in the MEAs continues to be constrained by various factors which have an implication in meeting the gender commitments:

Environmental :

• Climate change variations, • Continuous ecological degradation, Natural and climate related disasters• Deepening human poverty as the poorer populations that are mostly natural resource dependent become poorer

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Overall challenges to MEA implementation

Capacity constraints

•Different levels of capacity to implement MEA commitments . Many countries are at different stages of developing national environmental governance frameworks.

•Institutions and authorities dealing with environmental issues often face challenges regarding the requisite technical, human, legal and financial capacity

•Limited capacity of civil society actors ranging from non-governmental organizations to the private sector caused by poor access to justice, barriers in access to information and effective public participation. 9

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Challenges to implementation MEA gender commitments

Weak organizational arrangements in the Secretariats A strong organizational structure to implement the MEA

Convention’s gender commitments within Secretariats is lacking even where there is a Plan of action/framework in place . For example

CBD has 1 Gender Programme officer and no support staff. Is

required to set up a Gender focal team to support her/his work

Ability to address gender mainstreaming work of parties through a project supported by Japan

UNCCD No full time Gender staff

UNFCC C - No full time Gender staff. Voluntary gender team in place

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Challenges to implementation MEA gender commitments

Unequal gender balance in representation in decision making processes

•Despite their valuable knowledge and fundamental role in society, women are not sufficiently represented in decision-making processes and debates on climate change at the local, national and international level.

•We have to identify the various sites of power where women can be effective decision makers on environmental management. Be they at community or international level

•Limited use of Gender experts coupled with inadequate requisite data and research constraints influencing decision making

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Challenges to implementation MEA gender commitments

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Gender missing from national level planning and reporting

•Recent analysis by CBD secretariat shows that parties are not reporting on gender in their National Reports, and there is little in the NBSAPs that relates to gender. 

•Overall analysis of many national planning documents addressing natural resources management reveals that gender issues are not adequately addressed mainly resulting from weak capacity to mainstream gender and report on this

•At the national level, most policies do not take into account how capacities of women and men can be used to cope with challenges at the local, national and regional levels, and how these can best be developed and strengthened.

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Suggested way forward

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Strengthened capacity to mainstream gender into secretariat activities is a necessary first step if we are to build/enhance capacities of parties to the Conventions. This will include:

•Development of Gender Policies and Plans of Action for the secretariat – UNFCCC. This will also be in line with UNSWAP requirements. •Appoint Senior Programme Officers to coordinate's implementation of the Polices/Plans of action. Minimum level P4. •Allocate financial and human resources to implement the gender policies and plans of action

•A joint Gender Plan of Action – given the similarities of the CBD and UNCCD documents can be considered. Example of BRS

Strengthened capacity of the Rio Conventions’ Secretariats

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• In July 2012 the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and

Stockholm Conventions established the BRS Gender Task Team to develop targets and an approach to gender mainstreaming within the BRS Secretariat.

• The BRS Gender Task Team prepared the BRS Gender Action Plan (BRS-GAP) in 2013 which includes a vision, a list of expected short, medium and long-term goals, and monitoring and reporting plans.

• The vision of the BRS-GAP aims to ensure that principles of gender equality are firmly embedded in activities undertaken by the BRS Secretariat.

• No full time staff appointed

The Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm (BRS) Conventions : 2013 Gender Plan of Action

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• The BRS Conventions, and pertinent decisions

of the respective Conventions’ bodies, make reference to gender issues at various points.

• The Conferences of the Parties have addressed the gender issues related to implementation of the conventions particularly the impact of poor management of hazardous chemicals and wastes on vulnerable groups such as women and young children.  Integration of gender to be reflected in activities under the programme of work for 2016-2017.

• Advantage : Secretariats of the three Conventions merged to form one secretariat which has streamlined a lot is institutional related issues and implementation processes

The Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm (BRS) Conventions :

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In the short to medium term establish a Joint Gender Working Group to support gender activities . The JGWG can be involved in

•Socio-economic (gender) analysis on common issues

•Joint project development

Strategic planningDevelopment of guidelines on project development/implementation/monitoringAdvocacy and networkingKnowledge, information and communication management

Possible ways of harmonizing gender activities of the Rio Conventions secretariats

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• Support to state parties to reduce the reporting burden

Over 50 countries have the same national focal point for all three conventions – enhance capacity of these focal points to enable, joint/comprehensive reports on implementation of gender commitments

Quick review of the roles of the focal points, their capacity/knowledge on gender mainstreaming, challenges faced?

Capacity building activities be carried out together with partners

Possible ways of harmonizing gender activities of the Rio Conventions secretariats

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• Systematic capacity building for secretariat staff and member states

Awareness raising on gender issues in implementation of the conventions

Joint preparation of technical briefs/reports on GM for distribution to members states

Ensure gender issues have greater visibility across the work of the secretariats and its partners

Joint dissemination of information

• Joint Peer review mechanism to meet UNSWAP and GEF requirements (if required) with support from other UN agencies.

Possible ways of harmonizing gender activities of the Rio Conventions secretariats

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. THANK YOU

Q & A

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