Rwanda Case Study: From Gender-Relevant to Gender-Transformative Climate Finance
Introduction
The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation has been advocating for women's rights since 1993, aiming to protect and enhance the influence and power of women globally. Development Initiatives (DI) works to leverage data to drive effective policies and investments that combat poverty, inequality, and crisis.
In Rwanda, the climate crisis disproportionately affects women and girls, highlighting the need for targeted resources and policies. Current funding mechanisms often fail to address the deeper gender dynamics, underscoring the importance of gender-transformative climate finance—where financial resources not only tackle climate challenges but also transform gender dynamics and empower marginalized communities.
Key Challenges and Opportunities
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Barriers to Accessing Climate Finance
- Limited Awareness and Access: Women's rights organizations (WROs) often lack knowledge about available climate finance and the processes required to access it.
- Capacity and Time Constraints: WROs face challenges in building the necessary capacity and managing the time required to navigate complex systems.
- Insufficient Climate Finance: The scale of available climate finance does not match the magnitude of the need.
- Disaggregation of Climate Finance: It is challenging to identify and track funds specifically focused on women and girls.
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Gender-Transformative Climate Finance
- Definition: Gender-relevant climate finance (GRCF) is defined as climate-relevant official development assistance (ODA) that integrates gender equality as a significant or principal objective.
- Importance: Funding WROs is crucial for achieving gender equality and sustainable climate action.
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Impact of Climate Change on Women and Girls
- Agriculture and Livelihoods: Women in Rwanda make up 86% of the agricultural workforce and are primarily smallholder farmers. Climate change disrupts agricultural productivity due to unpredictable weather patterns, flooding, erosion, and drought. This leads to increased pressure on women to sustain their families.
- Unpaid Domestic Work: Women in Rwanda perform at least two-and-a-half times more unpaid household and care work than men. Climate impacts exacerbate this burden, making tasks like collecting firewood and water more time-consuming and hazardous.
Recommendations
- Strengthening Partnerships: Collaborate closely with WROs to ensure their input in project design and implementation, focusing on the specific needs of women and marginalized groups.
- Monitoring and Evaluation: Use a gender and intersectional lens to monitor and evaluate the impact of climate-relevant projects.
- Capacity Building: Provide capacity-building support to WROs to help them navigate and access climate finance.
- Advocacy: Advocate for gender-transformative climate policies and budget allocations.
- Bottom-Up Approach: Establish a bottom-up approach to align local and national priorities, ensuring that the voices and experiences of women on the frontline of the climate crisis are heard.
By targeting financial flows to the real needs on the ground, we can foster resilient communities and empower women and other marginalized groups in climate action.
This summary highlights the critical need for gender-transformative climate finance in Rwanda, emphasizing the barriers faced by women's rights organizations and proposing actionable recommendations to address these challenges.