Gender equality is the key to water and climate resilience
Women bear the heaviest burden of water and climate crises — yet remain locked out of the decisions that shape them. We spoke to AGWA's Dani Gaillard-Picher on why moving from procedural inclusion to substantive power-sharing is the only path to resilient climate policy.
Climate change is not gender-neutral, nor are water crises: they disproportionately affect the same women and girls who are systematically excluded from decision making and climate planning. This year, UN-Water is highlighting water as a powerful force for gender equality.
Women play vital roles in managing water but remain underrepresented in leadership. 14% of countries still have no mechanisms to ensure the effective participation of women in decision-making and water management. This oversight not only jeopardizes the right to participate but the outcome of policymaking by excluding concrete knowledge.
AGWA’s Senior Policy Advisor Dani Gaillard-Picher has worked on water and climate policy for nearly two decades and has seen momentum build – and wane – for more inclusive processes. She recently became the chair of the board of the Community of Women in Water which seeks to connect women working on water and enable more inclusive processes through meaningful connections and knowledge-sharing.
What is the current state of gender inclusion into UNFCCC and water policy processes?
There is encouraging momentum with several global frameworks increasingly referencing gender equality as well as intersecting needs like Indigenous rights, disability inclusion, and participatory governance. The gap we see, and need to urgently address, is that the prevailing approach remains largely procedural, rather than substantive.
The adoption of the Belem Gender Action Plan at COP30 was seen as a particularly valuable victory that marks a significant evolution in the UNFCCC’s approach to gendered impacts of climate change. Produced through a 5-year extension of the Enhanced Lima Work Programme on Gender, it formally acknowledges that climate impacts are not gender-neutral and that inclusive, equitable responses are essential for effective climate governance.
Progress is lacking, what is holding the transition from procedure to substance back?
Inclusion is always weakest where commitments are voluntary, funding is limited or inaccessible to local actors, decision-making spaces remain exclusive, siloed, and opaque, and monitoring frameworks emphasize reporting over redistribution of power.
This is a pattern we have seen in the aftermath of the establishment or promising initiatives. For as long as gender remains a sole question of inclusion we will struggle to incentivize truly inclusive processes. There have been a slew of reports that demonstrate the net benefit to projects and the communities they serve through inclusive processes, be it gender equality, indigenous rights, youth engagement or others.
How can we redesign policy and decision-making spaces to better integrate and include gender equality?
To be truly transformational, discussions need to be strategic, focusing on impacts and outcomes, not just on representation.
Inclusion must be a political and financial priority, driven by strong leadership that recognizes its value in achieving broader policy objectives. Countries committed to tackling the causes and impacts of climate change, as well as addressing the growing inequalities in access to safe drinking water, must commit to inclusion.
In terms of how this could look in practice, we penned a report for the Water Resilience Tracker on how it can best mainstream Gender Equality, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) into its very foundation. Not because it is a good thing to do or even the right thing to do but because it will make the project more robust and resilient and increase its likelihood of success. Which increases the likelihood of water resilience and in turn climate resilience for some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.
How are women more affected by climate change?
An estimated 4 out of 5 people displaced by the impacts of climate change are women and girls. Acute disasters can also disrupt essential services, including sexual and reproductive health care, compounding the negative impacts for women and girls