Status of gender, vulnerabilities and adaptation to climate change in the Hindu Kush Himalaya

Impacts and implications for livelihoods, and sustainable mountain development

Taking into account the tremendous role of women in mountains towards climate change adaptation measures, opportunities and challenges, the main finding of the paper it that it is important to initiate and ensure gender-responsive climate financing mechanisms which could support gender-sensitive and gender-responsive innovations. It is hoped this study will help understand in particular women’s resilience to climate change impacts, mainly in the context of natural resource management and sustainable mountain development. It will also contribute towards efforts to strengthen the gendered components of planned adaptation measures and policies by underscoring how taking into account women’s prominent role and gendered knowledge in natural resource management can play a critical role in supporting sustainable development initiatives.

The paper looks at a range of materials in order to develop a better understanding of how communities in general and women more particularly impacted, are coping with and adapting to their changing circumstances; the lessons that community-based adaptations from the wider South Asian region offer for helping to mitigate adverse conditions; the state of climate adaptation policies, national and local action plans (NAPAs and LAPAs) of countries of the HKH; and, finally, identifies research gaps in the regional material available on climate change and gender and makes suggestions for future actions.