Putting a spotlight on gender in climate risk assessments

Dina Khan, Climate and Development Knowledge Network Project Manager, discusses how a climate risk assessment approach piloted in Central Asia is shedding light on the gender dimension of climate change.

Climate change presents a wide and complex range of risks to human safety and welfare. However, these risks are disproportionately spread across regions, social groups, and genders, and risk management planning must also consider this variability to be effective and equitable.

In a climate risk assessment approach (CRA) recently piloted in Central Asia by the UNDP and partner CAMP Alatoo with support from the CDKN, there was special attention to gender mainstreaming. The assessment is designed to feed into long term adaptation plans of Central Asian Governments and partners to reduce climate change vulnerabilities in the region. This required paying attention to the gender dimension within the methodology and the analysis, and the results revealed some interesting insights.