The Climate-Gender-Conflict Nexus
Climate-conflict linkages create pervasive and gendered effects.
The world is confronted by rapidly accelerating threats of climate change and conflict, and the gendered impacts they generate. For policymakers and practitioners, promoting the contributions and capacity of women in environmental peacebuilding and natural resource-related conflict resolution can accelerate gains across peace, conservation and sustainability.
Climate change destabilizes political systems, undermines agricultural production and deepens poverty. In fragile contexts, climate change aggravates underlying political, social and economic conditions that can provoke increased or renewed conflict. Among the various potential manifestations of this feedback loop, climate change is intensifying the depletion of already stressed natural resources, including fresh water, arable land and forest resources. This deepens pre-existing livelihood and food insecurities, which in turn exacerbate local tensions and erode peace and security.
Climate-conflict linkages create pervasive and gendered effects. In rural areas of developing countries, women often rely on natural resources as a critical source of sustenance and income for themselves and their families. Despite being the key gatherers and suppliers of these resources, women lack equal rights of ownership and control over land, property and other assets. These gendered disparities, coupled with discriminatory norms, put women at a disadvantage in situations of conflict or crisis and can increase their vulnerability to climate impacts. The impacts of climate change on women can be further exacerbated at the intersection of gender with class, race and ethnicity, thereby impacting the lives of Indigenous and other marginalized women differently.
The same structural factors and inequalities that can make women disproportionately vulnerable to climate change can also exclude them from processes, platforms and discussions surrounding natural resource management and conflict mediation. Women have been traditionally excluded from these male-dominated local-level spaces and mechanisms, despite being on the frontlines of these challenges.
Where women can overcome structural barriers to their participation, they are uniquely positioned to contribute to sustainable natural resource management, climate-resilient communities and enhanced peace and stability.
Yet as this report affirms, women are not solely victims of conflict or climate change threats. Where women can overcome structural barriers to their participation, they are uniquely positioned to contribute to sustainable natural resource management, climate-resilient communities and enhanced peace and stability. Therefore, marginalization of women from climate change-related conflict resolution is a missed opportunity for policymakers to develop effective climate change mitigation, adaptation and conflict reduction strategies.
Literature on the role of women, particularly at the grassroots level, in natural resource management and in addressing climate-related challenges, is scarce. There is, however, growing attention to the centrality of women at the climate-conflict nexus, and expanding portfolios of research and programming by the Joint Programme on Women, Natural Resources, and Peace, co-hosted by UN Women, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) and the UN Environment Program (UNEP).
This report, based on a comprehensive desk review and case study analysis, aims to further address gaps in the literature by providing an overview of the linkages within the climate-gender-conflict nexus and investigating how these play out differently across three diverse contexts.
Chapter 1 explores the linkages between climate change and conflict and how gender is a cross-cutting lens through which people experience both issues. It also explores the critical role women play in sustainable natural resource management and the barriers to their meaningful participation.
Chapter 2 investigates the gaps in frameworks, policy, knowledge and evidence within the climate-gender-conflict nexus. It outlines that while commitments and action continue to advance gender equality globally, in particular, through the Women, Peace and Security Agenda, policymakers and practitioners are siloed in their respective climate, gender and security spheres.
Chapter 3 studies how the dynamics of climate change and conflict are unfolding in Colombia, Sudan and Nepal and how in each case, women are contributing to enhanced peace and sustainability in their local communities despite gendered obstacles. In Chocó and Antioquia, Colombia, Afro-Colombian and Indigenous women are leveraging peace agreements to cement their place in environmental activism and advocate for land tenure security. In North Kordofan, Sudan, women are building their knowledge and capacity in sustainable natural resource management as an entry point into local natural resource dispute management spaces. And in the Terai region of Nepal, women from marginalized castes are deepening their engagement in forest management.
Finally, Chapter 4 draws from this analysis to formulate five priority areas of action and outline recommendations to accelerate gender-equal and climate-resilient communities:
- Buffer the disproportionate vulnerabilities women bear from climate change impacts.
- Center women as crucial actors in climate, peace, and security.
- Strengthen linkages between the different levels and sectors in the climate-gender-conflict nexus.
- Address knowledge gaps within the nexus.
- Promote women’s leadership in climate-related conflict mitigation and prevention and reduce barriers to inclusion.
This report is a real-time call for policymakers and practitioners to invest in research and policy within the climate-gender-conflict nexus and expand the evidence base on why women’s meaningful engagement is crucial to successfully addressing these formidable challenges. This work begins with learning from the legacy of women who have long been building peace and preserving resources in their communities. Addressing barriers to women’s meaningful participation and local leadership will further accelerate gains across gender equality, peace and security, sustainability and climate resilience.