• Determine the extent to which existing climate change-related policies and strategies address gender issues and gaps. Revise if necessary.
• Ensure that development of related strategies is gender-sensitive, for example the strategies to implement the NDC and National Adaptation Plans. If the National Adaptation Plan is not yet completed, critically assess the process to determine whether it is gender equitable (for example is sufficient room made for comments and inputs from both men and women). Use assessment of gender differences to inform inclusion of activities.
• Establish monitoring frameworks using sex-disaggregated indicators.

3. Implementation

• Determine budget needs to effectively implement gender-responsive climate policies and strategies.
• Apply gender budgeting, highlighting how public resources will be allocated such that both men and women benefit equitably. If the policies and strategies which they are planned to implement have already been made gender-responsive, gender budgeting involves ensuring that resources allocated to their implementation also equitably benefit men and women (for example if resources allocated are less than that required for full implementation).
• Monitor budgetary allocations with the support of sex-disaggregated indicators.
• Apply gender-responsive evaluation.

4.1 Establish an implementation team
Ensuring gender-responsive implementation of the Paris Agreement will be most effective if a team is
assigned to lead the process. This team should have appropriate authority, resourcing and capacity. They will be responsible for various tasks, including gender analysis, screening of policy documents and strategies, designing gender-responsive adaptation and mitigation interventions, and designing an implementation framework with gender-responsive monitoring and evaluation. Ensuring that the team is inclusive and provides opportunities for women’s leadership contributes also contributes to the GAP. At the same time, commitments to capacity building at global level through UNFCCC Secretariat assistance will support the development of such a team. Box 3 outlines selected indicators for evaluating gender integration and mainstreaming to ensure that the process of implementing the Paris Agreement is gender-responsive.

Box 3: Selected indicators for evaluating gender integration and mainstreaming
To verify the use of a gender-responsive framework for implementing the Paris Agreement, a variety of potential indicators can be used. Note these are for a country to use to check that its process of
implementing the Paris Agreement is gender-responsive. They are different from indicators for use in
monitoring the implementation of specific gender-responsive interventions that may have been designed to enable a country to meet is commitments to the Paris Agreement.
Consistency with objectives of the GAP, and the relevant indicators (see Annex A) are noted in italics in
brackets.
Inclusion

• Have measures been put in place to ensure equitable participation of men and women in decision- making (including inputs to policy development)? (B1, B3, B4, E1c)
• Have measures been put in place to encourage equitable participation of men and women in climate change response? (B4)

Institutional capacity and leadership

• Is there a body/structure with sufficient mandate to lead on gender issues? (D3)
• Is there are a cadre of staff trained in gender? (A1, C2)
• Is there evidence of commitment to gender equality among senior staff? (D3)

Policies

• Is there a high level commitment to gender-responsiveness? (C2, D3)
• Are there mechanisms in place to ensure gender is integrated in implementation? (D3)
• Is there a commitment to mainstreaming gender in sectoral policies, strategies and plans? (E1b)

Budgeting

• Is sufficient budget available for a gender equitable inclusive design process? (D1, D3)
• Is there sufficient budget in place to ensure gender-responsive monitoring and implementation of adaptation and mitigation interventions? (D3)

Monitoring and evaluation

• Is sex-disaggregated data collected/available (e.g. in household surveys)? (E1a)
• Is there a mechanism in place to monitor effectiveness of gender-responsiveness in government policies, strategies and plans? (E1b)
• Is a system in place to ensure gender analysis of interventions, and their effects on gender equality? (E2)

4.2 Gender analysis
Since gender roles and relations are socially constructed, they differ from place to place and over time. A gender analysis serves to highlight gender differences. It provides insights into gender differences in roles, needs, rights, priorities, access to and control over resources and decision-making processes, as well as socio- economic relationships as affected by, for example, age, ethnicity, income, class and healthiii. These can then be used to identify and explain gender differences in vulnerability and adaptive capacity that prevent men and women from experiencing and adapting to climate change impacts on an equal basis. Having this information is also relevant to objective E (monitoring and reporting) under the GAP. Case study 1 outlines how gender analysis was used to identify gender-responsive adaptation in Mali.
As well as highlighting differences in gender roles and relations, gender analysis should also consider the socio-economic, cultural and institutional frameworks that give rise to such gender differences. This will illuminate where policies and institutions may be reinforcing inequality through gender blindness. It will also highlight key priority areas for gender-responsive strategies.

Case study 1: Use of gender analysis tools to optimise gender-responsive adaptation in Mali
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) reports how it used gender analysis tools to optimise gender-responsive adaptation.“Mali was committed to securing agricultural production in a context of more drought conditions, more heat and lower rainfall. In order to do this in a gender- responsive way, the Fostering Agricultural Productivity Project used participatory approaches to identify, document and understand differences in women’s and men’s knowledge, their respective vulnerabilities and their existing capacities for adaptation. This step was critical to developing effective, well-targeted interventions. The process allowed men and women to assess their situation and vulnerability to different threats and see how these affected them in different ways because of gender roles, social patterns, and their knowledge about different aspects of environmental management. The process allowed them to develop adaptation plans that involved women and men where their concerns were greatest and where their knowledge and skills could have the best results. Consequently, one of the main gender-related benefits is in irrigated land allocations, which are now more inclusive of women, supporting improved livelihoods and family food security. The project will also collect and analyse male/female household headship data, sex-disaggregated information on agricultural yields for specific products, and data on producers adopting new technologies; further, it will track the numbers of women benefiting from specific subprojects, including newly irrigated land areas.”

4.3 Screen policy documents and strategies for gender-responsiveness
A critical step in ensuring gender-responsive implementation of the Paris Agreement is to identify gender blindness in policy documents and strategies. This involves a systematic analysis of the potential gender differences in the focus and objectives, and in the plans and actions. When gender is ignored – a situation known as gender blindness – there is no opportunity to highlight the differences between men and women and boys and girls. When this is the case, plans and actions will also not consider differences between men and women, and thus they run the risk of reinforcing existing inequalities. As well as national policy,documents and strategies, this also applies to international commitments, such as the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). Having this information is also relevant to objective E (monitoring and reporting) under the GAP.

4.3.1 Revise NDCs and NAPs
As well as national policy documents and strategies, there is the opportunity to ensure that international commitments are gender-responsive. Parties to the UNFCCC were invited to submit Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) in advance of COP21, outlining their intended commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions (a later decision also invited INDCs to include inputs into proposed adaptation planning). Once each Party ratifies the Paris Agreement, their Intended Nationally Determined Contribution becomes their Nationally Determined Contribution, and the benchmark against which progress will be reported. Three quarters of sub-Saharan African Parties reference “gender” or “women” in their (I)NDCs, making the region a global leader in integrating gender equality into sustainable development prioritiesvi. National Adaptation Plans were established at COP16 under the Cancun Adaptation Framework. NAPs enable countries to identify adaptation needs and outline strategies to address those needs. As of April 2017, only four African countries have submitted NAPs (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Kenya and Sudan), but they are under preparation across the continent. NDCs can be revised to reflect greater ambition, and NAPs are also
intended to be living documents. This means that, even if gender has not explicitly been considered, there is still potential for it to be included. The UNFCCC secretariat, and specifically the Gender Unit, has developed guidelines for integrating gender into climate activities and processes that is useful for policy development and implementation (FCCC/TP/2016/2)vii. 4.4 Design gender-responsive adaptation and mitigation interventions Gender analysis and screening of policy documents and strategies should inform the definition of the focus and objectives, and plans and activities. This is important so that they do not reinforce or worsen the barriers caused by gender inequalities, while also identifying the various types of knowledge that both women and men can contribute in crafting effective and sustainable solutions. An important element of designing gender-responsive adaptation and mitigation interventions is to ensure that both men’s and women’s voices are heard during the consultation period. The GAP recognizes the importance of such inclusion under priority area B (gender balance, participation and women’s leadership).

4.4.1 Principle of good practice – ensure both men’s and women’s voices are heard
Participation is a key underlying principle of good governance, and recognition of participation is highlighted in the Paris Agreement. Article 7 on adaptation mentions “a…participatory and fully transparent approach, taking into consideration vulnerable groups…”, whilst Article 11 on capacity building talks of capacity building being “…an effective, iterative process that is participatory.”
Ensuring that the voices of men and women are heard requires understanding of, and responsiveness to gender roles and relations. This is the case whether the intention is to determine the gendered nature of vulnerability, or to design gender-responsive interventions. The construction of gender roles means that men’s and women’s typical daily activities engage different spaces over different times. Organizing a consultation in a rural community in the morning, for example, may disadvantage women. This is because it clashes with the time that they may be travelling to fetch water and begin the process of preparing meals. Similarly the location of consultation needs to be gender-sensitive. Men are more likely to have access to transport than women, as well as greater mobility and fewer ties to the home. Some cultural and religious norms restrict women’s access to public places. Expecting travel to a public event in a different community is likely to inhibit optimal participation of women, thereby also reinforcing existing inequalities. In such a case, being gender-responsive may require a flexible approach whereby consultation takes place with men and women separately; or at least an option provided for timings and location (case study 2).

Case study 2: Ensuring women’s voices are heard-an example from Morocco
In Moroccan rural communities women usually gather privately. The best way to give them a voice is
therefore to organise a meeting in a woman’s home. Women reported feeling more comfortable in this setting than an official building (such as a school or government office), and were thus more likely to share their inputs.

4.4.2 Adaptation
It is sign of commitment that the Paris Agreement acknowledges that adaptation action should be gender- responsive and take into consideration vulnerable groups. Because of gender roles and relations, it is likely that supporting adaptation for men and supporting adaptation for women may require different interventions. This is because we are starting from a situation of inequality, and gender blindness in adaptation runs the risk of reinforcing the existing gendered nature of vulnerability. Support for cash cropping or other commercially-oriented production in rural areas as a mechanism of livelihood diversification, for example, is likely to preferentially enable adaptation of menix. This is because they typically have access to land and the education and mobility that enables them to participate in value chains and travel to markets, whilst gender roles marginalize women from these opportunities. The result is that adaptation among men would increase, whilst women would stay at the same level of vulnerability to climate change, thereby reinforcing and worsening existing inequalities. Given that we are starting from a situation of inequality, addressing the gendered nature of vulnerability to climate change often involves components of women’s empowerment (case study 3).

Case study 3: Targeting women’s empowerment to contribute to gender equality
As well as the social arguments for gender equality and addressing differential vulnerability, a case study in Nigeria showed that there are wider positive economic benefits of women’s empowerment. The Community-Based Agricultural and Rural Development Programme, implemented by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), targeted men and women for vulnerability reduction. Women’s economic empowerment was a key aim. This was brought about through the provision of credit and seed capital for income-generating activities, and raising women’s voices in domestic and community decision- making (as a result of economic success). From this IFAD learned that targeted investments for women are critical, alongside gender mainstreaming. They plan to replicate the successes in a follow-up programme which aims to support the creation of job
opportunities around value chains in a number of commodities. Training will be provided in business plan development, operations and management, with starter packs of inputs provided to graduates of the training scheme. To actively encourage women’s ongoing participation there will be a component to support women and young people setting up enterprises: the Enterprise Development Fund for Women and Youth.
4.4.3 Mitigation
Whereas women are widely recognized as key to adaptation, mitigation is seen more as a male issue.
Although agriculture is the main source of greenhouse gas emissions in many African countries, energy usage is rising. Part of the ethos of the UNFCCC is to support technology transfer to enable developing countries to leapfrog the fossil fuel-driven industrialization pathway, and rather attain energy security based on renewable resources. Gender roles mean that men are typically relatively more involved in high emitting industrial activities, and also have greater mobility, thereby contributing to transport-based emissions. However, gender blindness in addressing mitigation issues could inadvertently reinforce gender inequality. Whilst women may be relatively less energy-intensive through employment and transport, they still typically experience greater energy poverty. As a result of gender roles, addressing this energy poverty also adds to women’s work burdens and thus further disadvantages them relative to men. This typically relates to women’s responsibility for procuring energy for domestic purposes. In rural areas this is likely to mean procurement of biomass (e.g. gathering wood); whereas in urban areas it means purchasing cooking fuels.

In rural areas, energy poverty means that women often spend more time searching for biomass to use for fuels. Since gender roles typically ascribe responsibility for cash and income management to men, women in urban areas often have less control over energy availability without the capacity to purchase. Another key mitigation practice that has been particularly promoted for developing countries is Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). By reducing deforestation and maintaining sound land use practices, developing countries could not only reduce carbon emissions, but also receive the co- benefit of conservation (hence REDD is now referred to as REDD+). There was also hope that carbon projects could be managed in such a way as to actively improve livelihoods for local stakeholders. Promoting afforestation and agroforestry potentially offers the opportunity to contribute to carbon credits for the market whilst also generating sustainable incomes. However, gender roles and land ownership policies can mean that, without explicit consideration of gender, women are marginalised from the process and have their inequality reinforced (see case studies 4 and 5).

Case study 4: Gender-equitable capacity building to enable gender-equitable mitigation opportunities
Gender-responsive adaptation and mitigation interventions typically require gender-equitable application of finance, technology and capacity building. The Nyimba Forest Project in Zambia is one example where targeted capacity building of women enabled gender-equitable participation in a REDD+ programme and contributed to greater gender equalityxi. In the project a concerted effort was made to include gender considerations in order to enable gender-equitable distribution of future benefits. Women’s inputs were sought in the research process to capture their knowledge, and capacity building facilitated their participation in decision-making processes. At project level the ratio of men and women participating was 53 to 47, and an environment was created where women had equal opportunity to participate in project implementation. At national level, the project aided in the production of recommendations and guidelines for addressing gender issues in projects and policies, as well as in the national REDD+ Strategy.

Case study 5: Ensuring gender-responsive energy access in the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS)
Recognising the need for gender sensitivity in energy policies and projects, ECOWAS is integrating gender sensitivity into its Bioenergy Programme and the West African Clean Cooking Alliance. These
commitments have led to the integration of the specific, and differing, needs of men and women being integrated into regional institutional frameworks, capacity-building and clean energy interventions. This integration includes budget allocations to implement programmes. ECOWAS’s Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency is also developing regional policies to remove barriers to equal participation of women and men in improved access to clean and renewable energy.

4.5 Design an implementation framework with gender-responsive monitoring and
evaluation
4.5.1 Use sex-disaggregated data for the baseline and monitoring
One of the main causes of ongoing invisibility of women, and perpetuation of inequality, is that there is often an absence of sex-disaggregated data. Sex-disaggregated data opens up the opportunity to link sex with other variables – such as livelihood activity, production level, access to land, and participation in decision- making. Ensuring women’s voices are heard, as outlined above, means that qualitative data, as well as quantitative, can highlight gender differences. Sex-disaggregated data then enables calculation of gender indicators which show how women perform relative to men in key areas, and can be used to monitor progress. They can therefore highlight the effect of implementation of the Paris Agreement on gender equality, in terms of both mitigation and adaptation options. In some cases countries already collect sex- disaggregated data, for example as part of the census and/or integrated household surveys. Other international commitments, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), are also encouraging sex-disaggregated data, so there is impetus for existing national data collection mechanisms to take this on board. The GAP also requires sex-disaggregated data and paying attention to coherence with the SDGs.

4.5.2 Apply gender budgeting
Gender budgeting aims to ensure that appropriate resources are available for implementing gender- responsive activities, highlighting how public resources will equitably benefit men and women. It does this by applying a gender lens to the budgeting process, thereby ensuring that the budget identifies potential need for different expenditure levels on men and women so that resources can be equitably allocated. Gender budgeting has the advantage that sex-disaggregated indicators would then be necessary to effectively monitoring progress, thereby reinforcing the likelihood of effective gender-responsiveness in project implementation and benefits. Support for gender-based budgeting is highlighted under priority area D (gender-responsive implementation and means of implementation) of the GAP.

4.4.3 Undertake gender-responsive evaluation
A gender-responsive evaluation ensures that the systematic and objective assessment of expected and achieved results takes into account the extent to which men and women have participated in, and benefited from, an intervention. It builds on and uses the sex-disaggregated data collecting during the baseline and monitoring. Compared to a standard evaluation it also assesses the extent to which gender roles and relations and the situation of (in)equality have changed as a result of an intervention. Both the evaluation itself and the process of undertaking the evaluation can enhance gender equality and the empowerment of women by highlighting ongoing structural causes of inequality and identifying how to prevent further discrimination and exclusion.

5. Opportunities for gender transformation
Identifying gender-responsive mechanisms to implement the Paris Agreement, in terms of adaptation and mitigation initiatives, is important to stop reinforcing existing inequalities. Ensuring implementation is gender-responsive also offers opportunities to change gender relations through women’s empowerment, and contribute to greater equality (as outlined, for example, in case studies 3, 4, 5 and 6). However, for equality to be sustained there needs to be wider social change in the ways in which gender roles are constructed. This is because all interventions take place within a broader societal context – and thus addressing that context is essential.

Access to land, for example, typically exhibits strong gendered dimensions and women’s lack of control over land is recognized to be a driver of vulnerability and impediment to adaptation. Many countries have attempted to change this by altering their land laws. However, without concomitant efforts to change constructions of women’s roles, even such an intervention can reinforce inequality. In Burkina Faso, for example, gender roles dictate that women first farm the family plot (typically controlled by their husbands – or men in the family) before they can dedicate time to their own; and that men lay claim to outputs and profits from any farmland within their family. As a result of this, attempting to secure land rights for women did little to support their adaptation and, in fact, often reinforced inequality. They typically had to work longer to farm the larger area and, in so doing, the additional outputs accrued first to the men, widening inequality. Similarly women farmers were reluctant to farm their own plots in Niger after land rights had been secured. This was because of concern that their husbands would claim the profits and use them for additional wives. In turn, this would place additional burdens on the women as they would have the responsibility for the food security of a larger family. In order to be successful at reducing inequality, efforts at women’s empowerment must therefore take place within a full understanding of gender roles and relations.

Case study 6: How gender-responsive adaptation can be transformative for women’s lives.

A project under the Canada-UNDP climate adaptation facility intended to improve water access through providing individual water tanks for storage. The project teams prioritised the most vulnerable households. Criteria for these households included: large number of people, limited livelihood options, and women-headed. One elderly widow, who heads a nine-person household comprising her children and grandchildren, highlighted two main benefits to her life after she received an individual water tank built in front of her house. The first was not having to go down to the well in the middle of the night (located about 200m down the hill); and the second was not having to put up with social tensions around water in the dry season. During the dry season (May-July), the well dries up at the end of the day and recharges at night. “Whoever gets there first gets the water,” she says. “So I used to go there around midnight and sleep there, in order to be the first to draw water from the well”. As well as enabling her to adapt to climate change, this intervention has been transformative in her life by reducing labour burden.

6. International opportunities for gender-responsiveness in addressing climate change
Ensuring gender-responsive implementation of the Paris Agreement requires gender sensitivity in the design of adaptation and mitigation initiatives at national level, as well as any attempts at technology development and capacity building. Much of the latter is provided internationally through the UNFCCC. Whilst gender- responsiveness was highlighted in Article 11 on capacity building, it was not mentioned in Article 10 on technology – despite gender-equitable technology being essential to achieve benefits for both men and women. Since the operationalization of these mechanisms is ongoing, there remains the imperative for African countries to advocate for gender-responsiveness as frameworks are established. Likewise, Article 9 on finance is not explicit about gender-responsiveness, despite the availability of finance being essential to achieve benefits for both men and women. As well as advocacy at the international level, the existing multilateral open access funds all encourage gender-responsiveness which, in turn, incentivizes gender- responsive national interventions.
6.1 Continuing advocacy for gender-responsiveness within the UNFCCC
The Lima Work Programme on Gender outlined a two year work programme to move the focus from concepts to implementation in recognition of a gap in information and understanding among Parties about gender- responsive climate policy. It culminated in the decision on the GAP in 2017, reinforcing the importance of gender-responsive climate policy, mainstreaming a gender perspective in implementation of the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, and increasing women’s participation in the UNFCCC process. In line with this, the UNFCCC Secretariat has undertaken analysis of the gender compositionxiv and investigated entry points for integrating gender into UNFCCC workstreams. Continuing the momentum at national level is also essential for the gender-responsive implementation of the Paris Agreement.

Discussions on scoping the modalities of implementation of the Paris Agreement began at COP21 and have continued. The UNFCCC Secretariat has a number of support mechanisms in place, under various institutions, to facilitate commitment of Parties to the Convention and implementation of its legally-binding documents such as the Paris Agreement-including the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA). Ensuring that these bodies also work in a gender responsive manner, consistent with the GAP, is also important. Among other tasks, the SBI is spearheading attempts at capacity building, and has responsibility for reviewing the implementation of the capacity building framework and organizing annual sessions of the Paris Committee on Capacity Building. Since Article 11 elaborated the
importance of capacity building being gender-responsive, ensuring that these efforts reflect different needs of men and women is essential. SBSTA is responsible for developing a stock-take of the implementation of the Agreement, and accounting of public finance. What the stock-take should contain and how it should operate are still under discussion, so there is scope to advocate for gender-sensitivity. SBSTA is also mandated to look at accounting of public finance. Since Article 9 on finance made no reference to gender- responsiveness, there is also scope to ensure it is included in the development of a monitoring framework.

6.2 Gender and finance, technology and capacity building

Significant international opportunities exist to access climate finance, and for technology transfer and
capacity building. The technology transfer framework was created to enhance the implementation of Article 4, Paragraph 5 of the UNFCCC. Support is provided through the Convention for technology needs assessments, as well as the creation of enabling environments and mechanisms for technology transfer, and capacity building. Gender analysis can inform the technology need assessment such that it highlights gender- responsive actions. This can, in turn, act a prerequisite for support for other sources, including from international climate finance.
Significant quantities of climate finance are available from bilateral and multilateral donors, as well as from the open access multilateral funds, such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) and Adaptation Fund. Although Article 9 on finance does not specify gender-responsiveness, the open access multilateral funds under the Convention all require evidence of gender-sensitivity in project design and implementation.
Demonstrating the gender-responsiveness of projects to implement the Paris Agreement is inherent in the application process for all open access multilateral funds. The Global Environment Facility (which administers the LDCF and SCCF), the Adaptation Fund and the GCF require that environmental and social safeguards that must be in place to ensure that intended projects do no harm. They also have gender policies and explicit requirements in the application procedures for identifying how the gender dimensions will be addressed in proposed projects. These variously require gender analysis in assessments of vulnerability, gender-sensitive budgeting, inclusion of women’s perspectives in project development and implementation and sex- disaggregated indicators for monitoring and evaluation.

Annex A: Gender Action Plan priority areas and activities