- Naila Kabeer, Professor of Gender and Development, London School of Economics and Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow
- Grace Mbungu, Head of Climate Change Program, African Policy Research Institute
In our increasingly interdependent world, the multiple challenges that characterise the current era can no longer be adequately addressed by countries acting on their own. We need to find collective and coordinated responses to these challenges even if solutions may have to be tailored to the specificities of particular contexts.
The aim of this workshop is to explore the gender dimensions of the two major challenges of our time, rising inequality and accelerating climate change, within a unified framework. We know that a small minority of people (‘the 1%’) own a disproportionate share of the world’s wealth and claim a disproportionate share of its earnings. Women as a group own less of this wealth than men, earn just a third of global income and are generally poorer. These economic inequalities are exacerbated by the intersection of gender with other forms of identity-based inequalities, such as race, caste, ethnicity and sexuality.
We also know that inequalities of various kinds mediate the impact of accelerating climate change. Climate change is not gender neutral. Men and women experience climate change differently based on their geographic, economic and social contexts. By and large, it is the wealthy of the world, mostly based in the Global North, who are responsible for rising levels of carbon emissions, while it is poor, rural women based mainly in the Global South, who bear the brunt of climate change. Understanding how climate change impacts these groups differently is crucial for achieving a gender-just transition. We will use evidence from the African context to explore how climate change plays out in one of the most climate change vulnerable regions of the world.
The workshop will explore the common underlying causes of these different forms of inequalities and injustice, causes that are rooted in an unfair economic system. It will also consider the range of solutions being discussed by different constituencies, researchers, policy makers and civil society organisations, to see if we can find common ground and chart a way forward.
Participation is by invitation only.