Gender and Climate Change –Challenges and way forward

Author: Abdou Rahman Sallah

            Executive Director BAJ Gambia

Gender inequalities substantially limit women’s access to control over and use of services and productive resources. As a result, natural hazards have different impact on men and women. These inequalities make the effect more devastating for women. With equal gender opportunities, a new environmentally friendly perspective needs to be developed that makes men and women equally accountable for their personal consumption and renders them responsible for the impact they have on the environment.

Urgent actions are needed to combat climate change but lack of information on gender and climate change has slowed our reactions. Today, there is inadequate information on gender issues relating to climate change. Further research is therefore needed in several aspects to establish the linkages between gender and climate change.

One key challenge is the small proportion of women in relevant professions and position of authority. International climate change process would be achieve sustainably we need to espouse the principles of gender in all stages of the process from research, through analysis, agenda formation, negotiation and decision making, regime implementation etc.

GAMBIA: IFAD President to discuss investments in smallholder agriculture, women and youth

Kanayo F. Nwanze IFAD's President

The President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Kanayo F. Nwanze, will arrive in the Republic of The Gambia on 20 August for a two-day official visit to meet with His ExcellencySheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya AJJ Jammeh, President of the Republic of The Gambia, and high-levelgovernment officials. The focus of discussions will be on strengthening partnershipsand furthering work to transform rural areas into economically vibrant places.

“Investments in smallholder agriculture that prioritize rural people, and in particular women and youth, will be on the top of my agenda during my discussions with country leaders in Banjul,”said Nwanze prior to his departure. “Smallholder family agriculture  can be a high-yielding, efficient and lucrative businessas well as a dignified profession that produces food, creates jobs, sustains families and puts countries on the road to stable, inclusive development.”

Regional training on sustainable land mgt, climate change adaptation in Banjul

A five-day training on local project management for recipient communities of the regional sustainable land management and climate change adaptation in the Sahel and West Africa Programme (PRGD) will run from the 11^th till 15^th August 2014, at the Ocean Bay Hotel.

In his welcoming remarks, the governor of North Bank Region, Lamin Queen Jammeh, said the forum was aimed at developing the capacities of rural communities, project managers and promoters through training, using a regional approach towards Sustainable Land Management (SLM) and climate change adaptation in the Sahel and West Africa.

It was due to the commitment of the respective governments, development partners and individuals’ efforts that the PRGDT project was conceived some time back, he said.

He noted that individual projects under the main project are being harmonised for training and are currently being attended to with great enthusiasm from participants in The Gambia.

“This training workshop, which converged all stakeholders on SLM starting from the local communities at rural policy makers and at national levels, was a clear manifestation that decentralization is taking place in a context of differential but shared responsibility in the management of our scarce resources,” Governor Jammeh added.

He said countries through the realization of the impact of climate change, particularly in the rural areas, is affecting livelihoods, and adaptation as a climate response to the communities could not be overemphasized.

The use of sound knowledge and appropriate tools to address climate change effects and impacts as desired by the training could be one of the surest means of improving community livelihood which would ensure environmental sustainability.

GAMBIA: GEF-UNIDO to promote investment in Renewable Energy for sustainable development

Edward Saja Sanneh Minister of Energy has said that the objective of Global Environment Facility –United Nations Industrial Development Organization (GEF/UNIDO) project is to develop and promote a market environment that would stimulate investment in renewable energy based mini-grids for productive uses in the rural areas of The Gambia.

"It is salient to mention that no government can single-handedly finance and manage the whole energy sector without the direct involvement of the other key stakeholders, particularly the private sector," said the energy minister.

Minister Sanneh was speaking recently at a ceremony of a five-day training of trainers on renewable energy expert held at Gambia Technical Training Institute premises organized by Global Environment Facility –United Nations Industrial Development Organization (GEF/UNIDO) 4 project in The Gambia.

According to him, Ministry of Energy is working closely with relevant stakeholders to review the list of renewable energy components that would benefit from zero tax on importation.

Environment advocates in the wild

About thirty (30) journalists from Biodiversity Action Journalists Gambia (BAJ Gambia) led by the staff of Department of Parks and Wildlife Managemen, Mr, Abdoulie Sawo from the 24^th to 25^th July, 2014 embarked on a two days visits to national parks; aim at obtaining first-hand information about the existing parks in the country.

BAJ Gambia members

The places visited included Tanji Bird Reserve, Abuko Nature Reserve and Kiang West National Parks thanks to the support of UNDP-GEF Small Grant Programme.

The first place to visit was Tanji Bird Reserve in the Kombo North, West Coast Region, shortly before they go in the parks they (BAJ-Gambia) were briefed by staff of the department on the ground on history and activities of the park including benefits, challenges and way-forward.

Mamadou Edrisa Njie, Director of Programme for BAJ-Gambia in his introduction stated that the visit is the final activity of the UNDP/ GEF-Small Grants Programme financed programme and this came after series of programmes implemented across the country as stated in the project document, thus encourage public participation in environmental protection.

Nutrition-sensitive agriculture: Connecting the dots

ROME, 24 July 2014 – As the importance of nutrition-sensitive agriculture rises on the global development agenda, IFAD and its partners are working to "mainstream" nutrition into their investments and activities. As a result, there is an increasing demand for experts who understand the links between agriculture and nutrition. In the coming years, they will be called upon to design nutrition-sensitive agricultural and rural development projects that effectively contribute to ending hunger and malnutrition in poor and vulnerable communities.

Woman picks cucumbers in her vegetable field in Bangladesh. ©IFAD/GMB Akash

To expand the pool of experts who can take on such assignments, IFAD hosted an intensive training workshop at its Rome headquarters last week. About 40 staff and consultants  participated in the four-day session, which was developed jointly by IFAD, the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and REACH, a partnership of United Nations agencies working to scale up food and nutrition interventions.

"This is a watershed moment," said Bibi Giyose, senior nutrition policy officer at FAO and previously nutrition advisor at the New Partnership for Africa's Development, or NEPAD. The session was an example of UN agencies "working together for one big, wonderful cause," she noted.