GGCA Gender and Climate Change Training Manual - Women's ...

particularly communities at risk and people living in poverty, must be prepared
for the effects of global warming.
Adaptation strategies for climate change will be more effective if
made in a decision-making process in which all the parties affected
participate. In this respect, it is essential to take the following into account:
• Access, control and distribution of benefits;
• Viability of communal and natural resources;
108
• Levels of vulnerability, resilience and autonomy of men and women
when confronted with different threats;
• Importance of local knowledge for social and economic
development;
• Present subsistence and adaptation gender strategies; and
• Disaster risk reduction (DDR) management to take action on causes
and lessen impacts.
4.2 Gender inequalities intersect with risks and vulnerabilities
Box 2 Definition of vulnerability
“Vulnerability is the degree to which
a system is susceptible to and
unable to cope with adverse effects
of climate change including climate
variability and extremes. Vulnerability
is a function of the character,
magnitude and rate of climate
change and the variation to which
a system is exposed, its sensitivity
and its adaptive capacity.”
Source: IPCC, 2007.
Vulnerability is the condition
in which a population is exposed to or
in danger of being affected by natural
or human-made phenomena. It is
dynamic and changes with time, place
and social, economic, and political
conditions (Wilches-Chaux, 1998).
The vulnerability approach
in understanding relations between
human populations and their
environment tells us that vulnerability
and therefore risk are social constructs,
related to development processes.
Disasters related to natural or human-made phenomena, including climate
variability and change, are not natural but are a result of decisions made within
a social, economic and political context. Gender relations tend to play a
major role in the structuring of this context and therefore will have importance
in vulnerability and risk construction, and their effects.