Pakistan Need To Acknowledge Women Clearly Facing Stress, Climate Change Impacts: Sherry

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Pakistan need to acknowledge women clearly facing stress, climate change impacts: Sherry

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Jul, 2022 ) :Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman Wednesday said it was high time for Pakistan to acknowledge that women clearly face stress and impacts of climate change both in authority and out of power differently.

In her video message played at the launching ceremony of the first-ever National Climate Change Gender Action Plan (ccGAP) jointly prepared by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC), she said there was need to enhance the preparedness for climate resilience with a clear intent to give women higher opportunities in the process.

Senator Sherry Rehman thanked all the stakeholders and key partners for supporting and guiding the Plan.

"Pakistan is one the front line of adverse climate change impacts and consistently among the top ten countries most affected due to environmental degradation," she added.

The ccGAP, she said had plans and points for every sector to address the most vulnerable groups, adding, "Women and children are on the ground zero of every conflict in Pakistan. Women are the real agents of change whose role is imperative in efforts like nature based solutions and major transformation to be owned by the communities." She urged that the women who were in power should empower and disperse opportunities for women in extreme trenches of trauma due to climate change and rising vulnerability due to worst natural calamities.

Give them more opportunities for better disaster preparedness and mitigation for vulnerabilities, she also commended the IUCN Pakistan efforts to develop maiden ccGAP document.

Country Representative, IUCN Pakistan, Mahmood Akhtar Cheema in his welcome remarks said this was the foremost ccGAP document prepared with the support of Green Climate Fund (GCF).

He informed the participants that the IUCN Pakistan had stakeholder consultations and followed the process having debates across all the six prioritized sectors at local and international level through the IUCN.

"We followed the half glass filled approach with the aim that the rest to be filled in a collaborative fashion. The Minister and Secretary MoCC gave great support for the cause. We also had distinguished presence of donors from EU delegation, Italy, US and others who actively assisted the process," Cheema said.

While providing a brief presentation on the ccGAP, Programme Coordinator IUCN Pakistan, Fauzia Bilqis Malik said the IUCN vision was to have a just world that valued and conserved nature.

"Pakistan is ranked 145th out of 148 countries in terms of gender balance where women in Pakistan are disproportionately affected due to climate change," she added.

Malik said climate change exacerbated the cycle of poverty for women where the plan provides a framework for integrated gender responsive climate actions.

"The plan will enhance implementation of gender components under national climate change policy," she said.

Regional Director IUCN, Dr Dindo Campilan said the project itself was an example of resilience and the entire team making it a success despite COVID-19 deserves appreciation.

"IUCN has intergovernmental coordination and linkages with governments and ministeries representing it at various levels," he added.

He said the project was going to continue till the end of this year and would help translate the plan into actions, adding, "This is a great product that could be shared with the member states across the world".

Chairman Federal Flood Commission (FFC) Ahmed Kamal said during the 2010 floods mostly women almost 50% including children got affected which demanded us to develop gender inclusive plans for future.

"We should ensure gender inclusive approach in all our decisions and strategies to overcome disasters," he said.

Head EU Delegation, Dr Riina Kionka said the EU had a tradition in fighting climate change for landmark initiatives taken from Kyoto to Paris.

"Green EU vision sets our commitment to achieve net zero development by 2050 which cannot be achieved alone rather world response required to achieve decarbonisation of power and other sectors," she added.

She mentioned that the EU was the biggest contributor of global climate finance with 21 billion Euros contributed for developing countries.

The EU, she said was also supporting water projects in Balochistan, forestation in KP, malnutrition mitigation in Sindh and food security initiatives in other parts of the country.

"Climate change and environment adaptation and mitigation efforts need to address the gap of women in decision making through gender inclusive strategies. We can take inspiration from the ccGAP and can learn together from it," she said.

Additional Secretary MoCC, Jodat Ayaz said climate change was impacting the agricultural patterns in Pakistan where March was the hottest this year in Islamabad and colder in Riyadh.

"We initiated the ccGAP formulation project in March 2021 and this action plan has been launched within a year today. The Ministry is cognisant of gender balance and have decent number of female officers serving in its office. Living Indus Initiative is also taking into account gender balance in different tiers and opportunities," he added.