The World Bank Must View Climate Change Through a Gendered Lens
The climate crisis is one of the most pressing threats of our time, yet is rarely viewed through a gendered lens, even by organizations such as the World Bank. Climate change is often referred to as a “threat multiplier” since it exacerbates the severity of other issues, such as food insecurity, resource scarcity, and economic instability. The World Bank Group (WBG) estimates that even if all of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were met by 2030, the severity of the climate crisis could easily negate all the positive benefits reaped by achieving these SDGs. Additionally, the outcomes of other development efforts are dependent on urgent climate action, therefore, multilateral institutions such as the World Bank must act accordingly.
To address the threat of climate change, the World Bank published the Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) in June 2021. This plan outlines three main objectives for the World Bank to achieve between 2021 and 2025: integrating climate and development, prioritizing mitigation and adaptation opportunities, and leveraging climate finance. The World Bank has committed to investing 35 percent in climate financing across the entire WBG as an average from 2021 to 2025. This is an increase from the 26 percent they invested in climate financing from 2016 to 2020.
Overview of the CCAP
The CCAP is an ambitious plan set forth by the World Bank to tackle climate change, and it has positive aspects as well as certain gaps. This plan has zeroed in on the systems and industries that contribute to 90 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. These include energy, agriculture, food, water and land, cities, transport, and manufacturing. By targeting these specific systems, the World Bank has narrowed its scope and can focus on delivering solutions tailored to these industries.
The CCAP also has country-specific solutions. For instance, small island developing states (SIDS) and low and middle income countries (LMICs) produce the lowest greenhouse gas emissions yet are experiencing the most climate change-related impacts. For these countries, the World Bank plans to focus on adaptation and mitigation strategies. In fact, the World Bank intends to use 50 percent of its climate finance spending towards adaptation. Furthermore, the CCAP introduces a new diagnostic tool, Country Climate, and Development Reports (CCRDs), which have already received positive feedback. CCRDs identify specific priorities for each country along with specific investments, opportunities, and management strategies.
The biggest gap in the CCAP is that there is no mention of gender and how women are and will continue to be impacted differently by the effects of climate change. The CCAP states that those who are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change are often the least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions and links climate action with alleviating poverty. A majority of the world’s population that is impoverished is made up of women, often those living in rural areas. Effective climate action will benefit these women, yet the word “women'' is not mentioned in the CCAP at all. There is a brief mention of gender on page seven of the introduction, “A people-centered approach. . . requires citizen engagement. . .that consider diverse viewpoints, including gender. The WBG will mainstream gender sensitive approaches to climate action. . .'' However, there are no specifics of how this will be achieved. In a 60-page document on climate action where gender is only mentioned twice, it is difficult to picture how the World Bank plans to mainstream and prioritize gender if such specifics are not given.
Women and Climate Change
In 2019, the UN Secretary General issued an annual report on Women, Peace, and Security, stating “the global threat of climate change. . .is poised to exacerbate the already increasing number of complex emergencies, which disproportionately affect women and girls.” Not addressing these specific risks that arise for women as a result of climate change can inadvertently deepen current inequalities and vulnerabilities that exist for women.
In the global south, roughly two-thirds of the female labor force is involved in agriculture. Despite this, women are often unable to own assets such as land or make decisions regarding how resources are used, even though they are uniquely positioned to offer the best insight on such decisions. Women’s exclusion from asset ownership and decision making is often a result of discriminatory gender norms and lack of access to income. The fact that climate change leads to unpredictable weather patterns causing reduced agricultural output threatens the livelihoods of the women involved in this industry. Lack of ownership access makes women more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than their male counterparts. It decreases their chances of recovering from climate shocks and increases the disproportionate burdens they have to bear, especially since they are most dependent on the natural resources that are becoming increasingly scarce.
Climate change leads to changes in weather patterns, such as floods and droughts, which have and will continue to result in water scarcity. In many areas in the global south, women are tasked with collecting water for the household, especially in rural areas. As water becomes scarce, women will have to travel farther away from the safety of their communities to collect water. Another result of increased flooding is increased cases of water-borne diseases. The gendered division of labor results in women performing more unpaid reproductive care work in the home. If more members of the household and community are getting sick from water-borne diseases, women will have to spend more time caring for the sick, preventing them from performing other tasks.
The adaptation and mitigation efforts outlined in the CCAP should specifically address the additional challenges that arise for women in regard to agriculture, water, and food insecurity. The World Bank prides itself on its commitment to climate action, claiming to be the “largest multilateral funder of climate investments in developing countries, with $83 billion committed to climate-related investments over the past five years.” The World Bank should route climate financing to projects and organizations that encourage women’s leadership and presence in resource management, governance, and other forms of climate action.
The CCAP is supposed to be a living document that evolves over time. Moving forward, the World Bank should conduct a gender analysis and find ways to mainstream gender throughout development projects. Adding specific ways to mainstream gender throughout the document can be an ongoing project. For instance, the World Bank can commit to directing a percentage of funding towards women-led natural resource management organizations. One of the goals of the CCAP is to mainstream climate into all development-related work. The World Bank must take this one step further by mainstreaming gender into all climate action work.
Author: Anusha Tamhane
Managing Editor: Aidan Christopherson
Web Editor: Shreya Lad