Session Proponent: Anna Mosley (Oxfam, NZ)

The aim of the session is to explore a range of experiences and strategies used to support more equal decision-making on strategic issues, particularly those relevant to climate change.

 

Gender and governance work often focuses on the national political arena, using strategies like Temporary Special Measures to ensure women are represented in national parliaments. While this is critical, there are many other arenas in which strategic decisions take place and from which women are often marginalised. In the context of climate change, inclusive decisions around national and sub-national policy priorities and allocation of climate finance, climate mobility, and governance of resources held by communities and households are equally important – and yet gender mainstreaming and encouraging women’s participation often fail to shift the informal and often invisible norms, rules and structures that maintain women’s unequal position in communities and societies, so that even when women do speak up, their views are not always given equal weight.

 

This session will explore a range of experiences, strategies and methods used by local actors to shift gender norms and transform underlying rules and structures. The panel discussion will be chaired by Christine Nurminen (tbc) and will include presentations from civil society organisations from the Pacific and Southeast Asia (online). Oxfam Aotearoa will facilitate four or five presentations from its partner organisations from Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste and Lao PDR, as follows:

 

• West ‘Are’are Rokotanikeni Association (Solomon Islands): WARA is an indigenous, women-led organisation with deep experience of gender equity and women’s empowerment in rural communities in Solomon Islands. Their presentation will focus on how women’s economic empowerment via savings groups has, over time, equipped Malaitan women to articulate their opinions in both community and tribal leadership forums, and for women’s voices to be heard and given serious consideration by male leaders.
• Rede ba Rai (Timor-Leste): Although Timor-Leste’s legal framework guarantees men and women equal rights to land, this has not translated into equitable land registration processes or meaningful inclusion of women in decision-making on land. Rede ba Rai (the Land Network) is advancing approaches that empower women to speak up safely in decision-making forums on land. From their stories of applying do-no-harm strategies around land consultation, this demonstrates how women can be supported before, during, and after meetings, to become meaningful contributors in this space and realise their land rights.
• Community Association for Knowledge in Development (Lao PDR): CAMKID has facilitated discussions on community grants for economic recovery and resilience. This project’s gendered approach integrates women’s views into community-level decision-making, ensuring equity is prioritised throughout all stages of the process.
• Solomon Islands Climate Action Network (SICAN): SICAN unites a collective of diverse stakeholders urging climate change action, with an exciting ambition to go big and be visible on a national scale through climate justice forums. SICAN has ensured that women and girls from various sectors – NGOs, communities, and government – are heard in these national forums, and that their concerns are incorporated into communiqués, policy submissions and negotiating positions. SICAN’s insights highlight the need to elevate women to be equal participants in decision-making processes in all scales of community organisation, in particular these high-profile forums.
• Timor-Leste: Masine Neo Oecusse (MANEO): A women-led organisation, MANEO successfully uses methods such as savings groups and the Gender Action Learning System to build household cooperation and more equal sharing of responsibilities to support all members of rural Timorese households to achieve their aspirations.

 

There is also the opportunity for other speakers or organisations to present as part of the panel. Possible topics include

• Encouraging equity in household decisions via household dialogues
• The role of women in community governance and/or natural resource management
• Implementing the COP Lima Work Programme
• Data governance
• Women’s leadership and empowerment
• Young women’s participation and leadership on climate change
• Women in business

Gendered adaptation planning and implementation