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Sam Matema Herald Correspondent
As we embark on the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence (GBV), it is imperative that we deploy the climate change lens and locate our activities and GBV discourse in the context of gender neutrality or lack thereof.
This should be in cognisant of the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) adoption of a Gender Action Plan (GAP) post the Conference of Parties (COP) 25 and the position that Zimbabwe took with respect to gender mainstreaming and climate change.
Climate change is a threat multiplier on account of it impinging on the rights that women should enjoy unfettered and unhindered.
Women in different jurisdictions in both the global north and south, are a vulnerable group, and climate change multiplies their vulnerability.
Women suffer from both primary and secondary impacts of climate change with respect to their bearing on physical, sexual and emotional violence.
Vulnerability speaks to “the deminished capacity of an individual or group to anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from the impact of a natural or man-made hazard” (IFRC, 2019).
This vulnerability can be on account of physical, social, economic or political factors — gender, age, incomes and geography or any such other demography or distinction.
From the foregoing, there are, therefore, four levels or classes of vulnerabilities to which women are exposed, that is social, economic, environmental and political vulnerabilities.
As we activate 16 Days of Activism against gender based violence, it is prudent to locate how eco-socio-political and environmental justice issues have impacted women in different domains and how the right holders and duty-bearers converge and intersect.
The duty-bearers principally play three duties, that is to respect, protect and fulfil the rights.
The question is, are we respecting, protecting and fulfilling the rights of women in society, economic issues and in politics in light of climate change and climate change impacts?
Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which refers to the right to adequate standard of living in terms of food, clothing, housing, medical care and security, is directly related to climate change.
Social impact
Acknowledging that women are in the majority in absolute terms, they form the majority in terms of poverty, despite the fact that they contribute up to 45-80 percent of all food production in developing countries.
An estimated 86 percent of women in rural Zimbabwe, depended on land and forest services for livelihoods, while making the majority of smallholder farmers; they are prone to climate vulnerabilities.
Climate justice and gender justice are intertwined and they must be interrogated in that light from a point of intersection.
Women and girls in their majority, are the most disproportionately affected and impacted, but least represented in different spheres of life.
It is in light of the aforementioned that the benefits and costs of climate change should be shared equally and fairly without both implicit and explicit discrimination.
When there is drought that affects food availability, accessibility and affordability, and other food systems, it is the women that suffer the most to the extent that sometimes, girls are married off to raise incomes to buy food and reduce the food burden on the family.
Girls are the first to be taken out of school in such eventualities.
When males are drought-induced to migrate in search of new opportunities, they leave women-headed families, and these are open to manipulation with respect to relief efforts, food distribution and any other interventions led by male dominated committees.
Gender-based violence is rampant post disasters as was the case in the aftermath of earthquakes in Japan in 1997 and 2010, and to a lesser extent post Cyclone Idai, where sexual and physical violence were reported in evacuation centres.
Rape cases among displaced women post Hurricane Katrina in 2005 were 53.6 percent higher than the 2004 Mississipi baseline.
The responsibility to fetch water from far flung areas rests on the shoulders of women in drought situations as they play dual roles in most cases.
Economic impact
Climate change and attendant shocks primarily divert resources from productive sectors of the economy towards disaster management and disaster risk reduction activities, and the opportunity cost of such a move largely bears the face of a women or girl.
Climate financing responding to the challenges that women and girls are confronted with is challenging because few women are at the helm of such processes and interventions.
Resources that should be directed to women to deal with their health issues, food issues and education among others are directed towards mitigating climate change impacts, for example to rehabilitate basic infrastructure in education, health, on farms and post climate-related disasters.
Environmental impact
Climate change impacts the natural food systems in terms of forest services and or ecosystem services primarily from a provisioning and regulating services.
Because a majority of women and girls depend on the natural environment with respect to energy, food production and water among others, the destruction of natural resources through environmental shocks like flooding, drought, veld fires destroy their livelihoods.
Women are better stewards of the environment, and therefore should be at the forefront in terms of interventions to reclaim and save degraded natural environments occasioned by anthropogenic factors.
Political impact
Women cannot confidently challenge their male counterparts. They are the majority in absolute terms, but are the minority in political leadership positions.
According to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), during the 2023 harmonised elections, only 11 percent of the total nominations for the House of Assembly and 15.26 percent for local authorities were women, the fact that they made up 53.66 percent of the total registered voters notwithstanding.
This is a contradiction and ‘violence’ and injustice that needs correction and alignment.
The sustainable future
Gender and climate change mainstreaming is critical supported with relevant and progressive pieces of legislation and smart climate financing and programming around mitigation, adaptation and resilience.
Affirmative action to right the wrongs of yesteryear should be cautiously adopted and adapted so that it is not discriminatory against men, to the extent that there may be need in the future for an affirmative action programme in reverse to right the imbalance(s) that will visit men as a result and product of an activities in favour of women.
Today’s solution should never be tomorrow’s problem.
The sustainability of the future in the context of the 3Es (Ecology, Economy and the Environment) and the 3Rs (Roles, Rights and Responsibilities) of women revolves around mitigation and adaptation, building capacities and coping mechanisms towards resilience finding expression in the provisions and prescriptions of the Gender Action Plan.
Sam Matema is the Member of Parlaiment for Buhera Central Constituency.
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