The Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Maggie Sotyu says with women recognised as the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change, inclusive economic growth is key to addressing gender inequality.
Sotyu said this when she participated in the debate on International Women’s Day during a sitting of the National Assembly on Tuesday.
She said women are increasingly being recognised as more vulnerable to climate change impact than men as they constitute the majority of the world’s poor as they are more dependent on natural resources which climate change threatens the most.
“It is therefore important that inclusive economic growth is key to addressing unemployment, gender equality, health and other poverty-related issues,” she said.
Sotyu said government’s National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy, which was approved in 2020, defines the country’s vulnerabilities and outlines plans to reduce those vulnerabilities.
She also said that the strategy leverages opportunities and outlines required resources for such action, with demonstrating progress on climate change adaptation.
“It also outlines the set objections, interventions and outcomes to enable the country to give expression to its commitment on the Paris Agreement.
“As a guiding principle, our strategy aims to promote the participation of women, take gender differences and vulnerabilities to climate change into account and address the needs and priorities of both women and children,” she said.
Sotyu said the years 2020 and 2021 have been record-breaking for extreme weather events around the world with extreme weather that is more frequent, intense and widespread than experienced in past years.
She also said that the vulnerability to biodiversity loss and climate change impact are deeply connected to gender and sustainability interventions, responses and solutions need to consider gender issues if they are to fully meet the objects for which they were established.
“We are also promoting integration of gender issues in disaster resilient-related programmes, including promoting and requiring the generation of gender disaggregated data and analysis and the monitoring and evaluation of the specific impact these events have on women and girls.
“Furthermore, our department has developed a strategy towards gender mainstreaming in the environment 2016-2021 – the first of such sector strategy in the country – to provide strategic guidance for gender mainstreaming in the environment sector. This is with the purpose to ensure that initiatives in the sector are aimed to support the creation of policies that support gender analysis and mainstreaming during the development of new projects and including gender perspective into the whole project cycle management.” – SAnews.gov.za
