Gender Justice and Climate Justice: Community-based strategies to increase women’s political agency in watershed management in times of climate change

Socially vulnerable people, and women in particular, are disproportionately affected by global climate change because of their gendered socioeconomic roles and often their geographic location; yet they are least equipped to deal with those impacts due to their disadvantaged economic and political position. Women, however, have special contributions to make towards climate change adaptation because of gendered differences in positional knowledge of ecological and water-related conditions. To date, women have been largely underrepresented, and in the majority of cases, excluded from formal decision-making processes related to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Including women in these processes and building their capacity and resilience is required for the development of effective and gender-sensitive climate change adaptation policy. Also, preparing women for the short and long-term impacts of climate change is crucial for addressing some of the social aspects of this phenomenon and for preventing further aggravation of existing gender inequalities. This paper discusses South-North initiatives and models for community-based environmental and climate change education which are using the democratic opening provided by watershed-based governance structures to broaden grassroots participation, especially of women, in political processes. We outline the activities and results of two international projects, the Sister Watersheds project, with Brazilian and Canadian partners (2002-2008), and a Climate Change Adaptation in Africa project with partners in Canada, Kenya, Mozambique, and South Africa (2010-2013).