Gender and Climate Change: Toolkit for Women on Climate Change

Developed by Isis International as part of an endeavour by to explore innovative and strategic ways to communicate gender justice and climate justice issues, especially from Southern feminist perspectives, this toolkit presents communication tools and strategies and describes the use of both traditional and new information and communication technologies (ICTs), with a particular focus on the usefulness of community radio and strategies. In plain language, it provides community-based or grassroots organisations basic information on climate change and how to communicate climate justice with their constituencies and target groups. It looks at how to use different forms of advocacy, including: lobbying, information and communication campaigns, community organising, new ICTs, and social media tools. It shows how to build an advocacy plan. This information is accompanied by real-life stories and experiences of women around the world, featuring photographs and colourful illustrations.

The rationale behind the toolkit, according to Isis International, is that the impacts of climate change are not gender-neutral. On the one hand, women are indeed the most affected because of long-standing gender inequalities; on the other hand, they are also active agents in addressing immediate and strategic solutions to climate justice. However, Isis says, this consciousness has not yet permeated the current discussions and negotiations or the production of knowledge on climate justice.

The first part of this toolkit answers the questions: What is climate change and what are the effects of climate change? What is climate justice and what does climate justice have to do with gender? It shows how international bodies concerned with climate change do not take women's needs or gender issues sufficiently into account. It looks at the potential solutions proposed by international bodies and at what needs to be done to make these solutions more inclusive of women and women's needs.

The second part looks at how groups and organisations can use communication and advocacy to work towards climate justice and gender justice. A "communication agenda" can be developed to map out the steps for using information and communication in strategic ways to work towards climate justice. This includes: surfacing women's experiences of climate change (particularly those from developing countries); analysing the data; and applying a feminist development communication framework to empower women and advocate for women's human rights and gender justice. Text boxes with step-by-step guidance and experience summaries are meant to suggest concrete ways for developing an advocacy plan; a sample template of an advocacy plan is meant to help create a map for running a successful climate justice campaign.