Various women’s groups have offered the following recommendations to the international community working on climate change problems:
- The UNFCCC International Adaptation Fund must include gender considerations.
- National and international adaptation plans, strategies, and budgets should mainstream gender.
- Global and national studies should produce gender-differentiated data on the impacts of climate change and emphasize the capacities of men and women to adapt and mitigate climate changes. Studies should also determine the advantages of implementing gender-sensitive adaptation projects.
- Governments should understand and use the knowledge and specialized skills of women in natural disaster survival and management strategies.
- Women must be recognized as powerful agents of change and that their leadership is critical. Women should be included in all levels of strategies to adapt to climate change.
- Women’s access to, and control over, natural resources need to be improved in order to reduce poverty and vulnerability and to ensure that women have resources to adapt properly.
- Training and educational programs for women and girls (especially in vulnerable communities) that provide general information about disasters, and strategies to cope with them should be developed.
