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

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The content of this document is also a
reflection of the increasing awareness that
gender equality and women’s empowerment
are important prerequisites for environmental
conservation and sustainable development.
UNEP’s Gender Plan of Action reads:
“Gender mainstreaming has been the primary
methodology for integrating a gender approach
into any development or environmental effort.
Gender mainstreaming is intended to bring
the diverse roles and needs of women and
men to bear on the development agenda.
Rather than adding women’s participation and
a gender approach onto existing strategies
and programmes, gender mainstreaming aims
to transform unequal social and institutional
structures in order to make them profoundly
responsive to gender. Achieving gender
equality and equity is a matter of shifting
existing power relationships to benefit those
that are less empowered.”
This Plan of Action defines the role that
UNEP will play in stimulating and facilitating
efforts, both in-house and with partners at
the national, regional and global levels, to
overcome constraints and take advantage of
opportunities to promote gender equality and
equity within the environmental sector. It has
been defined as a changing document that will
continue to evolve according to institutional,
political, and global and regional realities.
2. To promote equality of opportunity
and treatment between women and men in
the environmental sector at national, regional
and global levels; and
3. To increase the quality and efficiency of
UNEP’s work in environmental conservation
and promotion of sustainable development.
The implementation of this Plan has already
begun and several of the organizational
measures recommended have already been
accomplished: first, with the appointment of
a Senior Gender Adviser; second, with the
formation of a group of 15 gender focal points in
UNEP’s offices and divisions; and third, having
each Regional Office develop and implement
its own gender plan of action independently.
These new efforts will not only benefit
thousands of men and women worldwide,
but will also enhance the execution of
UNEP’s mission, since the Plan establishes
strategies with reachable targets and proposes
instruments to address gender concerns in
UNEP technical areas.
Complete text of the UNEP Gender Plan of Action can be
found at: www.unep.org/civil_society/PDF_docs/Unep-
Gender-Action-Plan-5Feb07.pdf
The Plan has three strategic objectives:
1. To ensure that gender equality and equity
and women’s rights are well respected,
women’s positions are improved, and
women’s active participation is ensured
throughout UNEP’s policies and work;