FIIAPP promotes climate policies that address women’s needs

The Secretary General of the FIIAPP, Inma Zamora, opened yesterday the regional meeting of the working group on gender and environment, held in Panama in the framework of the European project EUROCLIMA+. A study on women’s access to green jobs was presented there, which reveals that women occupy only one out of every four green jobs in the region. On March 24 and 25, 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries will participate in this meeting to exchange experiences, challenges and opportunities for integrating the gender approach into national climate change mitigation and adaptation policies.

The impacts of climate change have a greater impact on women, but even more so in developing countries, where they are highly dependent on natural resources, as Inma Zamora, secretary general of the FIIAPP, explained: “Although 80 percent of women are engaged in family farming, only two out of ten own the land they cultivate. As a result, not only do they have no access to credit, but they are also left out in the cold when it comes to accessing aid for climatic disasters, which are becoming increasingly common in the region”.

Today, only one in four green jobs is held by women. The EUROCLIMA+ program presented yesterday in Panama the Study on women’s access to green jobs in Latin America, which puts on the table concrete proposals for public climate policies to close this gender gap through specific training for women in potential green jobs, whether in tourism, livestock or energy.

Moreover, less than a third of those involved in political decision-making processes are women. “Therefore, we need our climate policies to take into account the differentiated impacts of climate change, to favor greater participation of women in decision-making and to integrate the gender perspective in climate policies,” added Cecilia Castillo, EUROCLIMA+ Climate Governance Manager at FIIAPP.

The meeting was inaugurated by the Chilean Minister of the Environment, the regional director and representative of the United Nations Environment Program in Latin America and the Caribbean, the secretary general of the Panamanian Ministry of the Environment, a representative of the European Union Delegation in Panama, and the secretary general of FIIAPP. This regional working group was created at the Forum of Ministers and Ministers of Environment in Barbados in November 2019, after, at its 4th Environment Assembly, the UN adopted a decision to promote gender equity, human rights and the empowerment of women and girls in environmental governance.