good morning and welcome to the deanery at canterbury cathedral on the tuesday morning the 9th of november as we gather from right across the world to say our morning prayers we've been following day by day the agenda of the cop 26 climate change conference in glasgow which is now on its ninth day and will end at the end of this week and the agenda today gives the topic the exploration of how women are disproportionately impacted by climate change and the importance of their leadership it's talking about gender equality in climate action and for the ease of reference in this short broadcast of morning prayer i shall be speaking in binary language and so if that offends some i apologize so we are talking then about the way in which the voices of all can be heard with an equality and the resources of all will help the decisions made by that equality let's begin our prayers then on this morning oh lord open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise your faithful servants bless you they make known the glory of your kingdom blessed are you sovereign god ruler and judge of all to you be praise and glory forever in the darkness of this age that is passing away may the light of your presence which the saints enjoy surround our steps as we journey on may we reflect your glory this day and so be made ready to see your face in the heavenly city where night shall be no more blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever the night has passed and the day lies open before us let us pray with one heart and mind and as we rejoice in the gift of this new day so may the light of your presence o god set our hearts on fire with love for you now and forever amen we've come to a particular position in the deanery right on top of the north tower so that we can look around the city where traffic is beginning the city's work as we make our prayers this morning and can pray for the city but what we see around us in canterbury are places of education and they're places of education where gender of all kinds are accepted within the context of that education there is a freedom we are looking at two universities here the university of kent in canterbury on the hill on that side which i can see very well from where i'm sitting and the uh christ church canterbury university on this side taking its name from christchurch here the cathedral this is very much a university which was founded on the same foundation as this cathedral here and is one of the anglican episcopal universities of the world but around us are the buildings of our own cathedral school the king's school canterbury there's also the choir house which belongs to uh saint well the house belongs to us but the the boys who are our choristers uh who live there are are educated at st edmund school up on the hill which i can see when i'm sitting at the piano in the drawing room in the in the deanery because the city is like a basin and all around us are the hills with the trees uh you can see this morning but there's one particular place that i do want to mention this morning first of all uh perhaps we should look across at the pepper pot towers of the old gate house of the sint augustine's monastery now part again part of our king's school and with girls and boys houses over there because many are borders here but also behind me here uh a new house the newest of our houses in this way which used to be the diocesan payne smith school and before that uh simply named after robert payne smith who was a predecessor of mine was dean here from 1870 to 1895 and he had a vision for girls education as well as boys and the school which he had the vision to found in that way where equal numbers would come became the painsmith school when i came it was the diocesan payne smith school and then through amalgamation with other schools and a new building it ceased to be a school and was in danger of being brought up for housing development and everything else there and so we bought it and brought it back again into the cathedral foundation and created there a girl's house a boarding house which lost the name we'll go back to robert payne smith when we're reflecting but i lost the name of payne smith but at the same time gained the name the first name of a woman to be attached to one of the houses here and that name is lady kingstown house now rose kingston is one of the um great visionary people of our county hugely respected and was when i came here her husband robin was the lord lieutenant uh but uh and rose was a governor of the king's school but after his death she has kept a prime place in the vision and activities of this county and it was a wonderful thing that we could name the school after her because her vision for girls education was always shining bright and still is and i know that she's a member of our garden congregation so we thank her this morning for all that she has done for this vision of gender equality in this to give that voice because education is so much part of that voice and the education of girls and boys uh in these schools and in these universities intensely important so let's uh go first though to our reading and our psalm and then we will explore a little bit of that and then come back to the agenda for the cop 26 delegates as they work on through we hope with the same kind of vision for gender equality the world over giving people a voice so that the decisions can be balanced and good ones our sound this morning is psalm 46 for this ninth morning of the month god is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble therefore we will not fear though the earth be moved and though the mountains tremble in the heart of the sea though the waters rage and swell and though the mountains quake at the towering seas there is a river whose streams make glad the city of god the holy place of the dwelling of the most high god is in the midst of her therefore shall she not be removed god shall help her at the break of day the nations are in uproar and the kingdoms are shaken but god utters his voice and the earth shall melt away the lord of hosts is with us the god of jacob is our stronghold come and behold the works of the lord what destruction he has wrought upon the earth he makes wars to cease in all the world he shatters the bow and snaps the spear and burns the chariots in the fire be still and know that i am god i will be exalted among the nations i will be exalted in the earth the lord of hosts is with us the god of jacob is our stronghold we return to the people's journey in the wilderness in the book of exodus yesterday we saw how the bread of heaven the manor came down with the morning dew and needed to be gathered early each morning we continue that story today but a different kind of hand is writing it and we can talk about that at the end of reading this passage i'm starting at verse 22 of chapter 16. on the sixth day the people gathered twice as much bread two omers each and when all the leaders of the congregation came and told moses he said to them this is what the lord has commanded tomorrow is a day of solemn rest a holy sabbath to the lord bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning so they laid it aside till the morning as moses commanded them and it did not stink and there were no worms in it moses said eat it today for today is a sabbath to the lord today you will not find manna in the field for six days you shall gather it but on the seventh day which is a sabbath there will be none on the seventh day some of the people went out together but they found none and the lord said to moses how long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws see the lord has given you the sabbath therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days remain each of you in their place let no one go out of their place on the seventh day so the people rested on the seventh day now the house of israel called its name mana it was like coriander seed white and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey moses said this is what the lord has commanded let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations so that they may see the bread with which i fed you in the wilderness when i brought you out of the land of egypt and moses said to aaron take a jar and put an omer of manna in it and place it before the lord to be kept throughout your generations as the lord commanded moses so aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept the people of israel at the manor for 40 years till they came to a habitable land they etched the manor till they came to the border of the land of canaan now an omer is the tenth part of an ether now this shows a very different kind of hand writing as the story is committed to words and a certain kind of should we call it liturgical regularity here is a priestly hand writing with liturgical instruction you and i might wonder how any of that was possible in the confusion of the wilderness and the gathering of a completely different kind of foodstuff the bread of heaven as the psalmist calls it but this manner which means we don't know what it is really what is it uh this manner became the staple food and see how moses says bake it boil it and and use it but now another set of instructions start coming in and they are liturgical instructions they are like the presenter sheets i've said that before for how we worship in the cathedral in a settled habitation now a tabernacle a tent will be constructed as they travel in the wilderness and they will carry that with them and set it up will come to all those parts of the story but at the moment they're hardly through the red sea before they start grumbling and at that point they begin to discover there are new kinds of foodstuffs which the lord provides the quails and the manner and now a hand steps forward and says how the liturgical the instructions for worship began to develop it's a parallel line if you like but what we've got there first of all is the holiness of the sabbath now the strict keeping of the sabbath with all kinds of regulations became one of the points of huge tension between jesus and those who insisted that it be kept in every dot and little tittle as we call it of the law and uh in synagogue in uh his own galilee in the earliest of the gospels in syd marks it's there the sabbath that the tension starts to rise and jesus always says again and again in his loyalty to the law his own loyalty to the day of rest his loyalty to the honoring of the one he called father on that day the sabbath but he always gave the the lesson that the sabbath the rest was created for the benefit and welfare of humankind all of humankind let's say all its diversity in the work they're called to do needs rest so that in taking up the work again then work is done with more energy more intention because of that day of rest and also the putting of everything into a spiritual dimension remember that the tenets of the the life of this place when it was a benedictine monastery and still undergirding our life the honoring of a community in body mind and soul but those who kept the benedictine monastery knew perfectly well that work had to become and had to be done on on the day of rest to keep the creatures fed and watered to keep any out of danger who were in dangerous places and all of that comes as part of ordinary life i'm sure jesus was used to the fact and he mentions all these little stories about uh which of you would would have a an an ox or a donkey falling into a pit and not on the sabbath day choose to rescue him and are you saying to me that i can't heal this person who has been bound by whatever disease or infliction has been given to their body or their mind on the sabbath day the sabbath day was made for humankind and then he establishes with his favorite phrase meaning heavens incarnation of all humankind the son of man he calls it the son of man is lord of the sabbath that's a very strong statement but it actually rests on the fact that everything on the sabbath day was created for not only the honoring of the creator but also the welfare of humankind in a day of rest that's the first principle but here the the the the nuts and bolts of the law start to come into that story as it's written down probably hundreds of years later but it became the tenets of faith of that community which was set up in a habitable place but in the journey in the wilderness that sabbath was kept but it was of benefit to all and so more manner was gathered and probably boiled and baked on the day before the day of rest and everyone the next day had to keep the day of rest the same kind of of question marks came when that society which they formed in the habitable land not too many uh um hundreds of years before jesus himself was living in that land when matatis and his sons had to to say well do we fight against those who are threatening our law our faith and everything else on the sabbath or do we as some of our brothers and sisters have done simply become absolutely still and refuse to fight because it's not honoring the sabbath and become annihilated hard questions but they make a choice to resist for the sake of the faith which gives them the day of rest and the honoring of the creator in the sanctuary well that takes me then to the next point of the keeping of the oma of mana in the pot and that was a a solemn covenant that that pot it was thought was kept the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies when the temple itself was established together with the tablets of the law and aaron's rod which flowers and in that ark of the covenant only the high priest of course goes into the holy of holies at that time it's i think believe by most that when the temple of solomon was destroyed with the uh invasion when the jews were again taken into exile and we were looking at the way in which ezekiel was dealing with that exile hundreds of years later that that was destroyed and probably by the time of the temple that was nearing the end of its construction herrera the great temple at the time of jesus that that was no longer the case but it was still very much part of what the people believed and those representations of their time in the wilderness the manor the tablets of stone which we haven't come to yet and aaron's rod itself aaron's staff itself became symbols and signs of what is going on and the holiness of all that then gets attached to the transportable tabernacle the tent which is often called in the wilderness as they as they travel these are at the moment are traveling journeying wayfaring community and you could go back to that hymn which we used yesterday of um strangers and pilgrims and still seeking the city of god well the city of god for them became the holy mountain of zion later on but the image of the city of god is for all nations as we as we saw and then we have that extraordinary little explanation as it is given to us who are not understanding right at the end they at the manor for 40 years until they came to a habitable land and at it until they came to the border of the land of canaan and then in parenthesis in most uh uh translations you get an oma is the tenth part of an ifa which is a really sort of uh an explanation of weights and measures at that time as say someone is saying looking back through all those years now let me not let you be confused anoma is a tense part of an ifa i remember it uh at the end of a dean's conference in the saint albans diocese and we were eating at hatfield that night and one of the canons uh a humorist at saint albans cathedral at that time this is years ago uh said was asked to say grace and we had that lesson read in course that even song and he said a marvelous grace praying for anything everything and giving thanks for this thanks for that and he ended and that an omar is the tenth part of an ether we give thanks and everyone laughed and thought that this priestly hand putting in the explanation is there giving the lesson for us to receive that signs of the pastor important but they are signs which serve humankind rather as jesus said the sabbath must serve humankind and at that point um perhaps i'm going to bend down and we've got lily here with us this morning hello little girl here we are i'm going to give you something or rather yeah i know it's not very nice up here is it it's rainy and wet but never mind you can have something here just to cheer you up a little bit there we are so let's go then to everything that is being discussed in terms of exploring how women across the world are disproportionately impacted by climate change and the importance of women's leadership and imagination in a different perspective because of the jobs that they find themselves particularly in poorer communities across the world forced to do to care for the family and that intention is hindered by the fact of not owning the land and not having economic resources to help themselves very often when the land is struck with drought and they are not able to be part of the decision making and these things are being addressed by the uh the the cop 26 intention that all should have a right first of all to education equality of education for all gender equality and we're knowing that uh throughout the world i've seen this over and over again working in tanzania and we're praying for the diocese of northern highlands in tanzania in our prayers for the communion this morning but working there in southern tanzania very often the ones who do the work in the fields are the women themselves planning it planting it finding the water to water the plantings digging out the runnels in order that the food should be provided for family life and at the same time keeping we talked about the woman with the chicken farm yesterday who when it kept flooding turned to keeping ducks instead being innovative and at the same time to be really innovative you need both economic power but also to be part of the decision-making bodies about the landscape and about what kind of changes need to be made and what kind of adaptations were back on that again adaptations need to be affected in order that things can happen the enormous increase in flooding the enormous increase in droughts across the world and transforming the species of crops which need to be grown the enormous increase in wildfires but also the way in which burning particular types of fuel increases the climatic instability and is not helping at all to reduce that uh climate that warming of the earth sorry and down once again to 1.5 uh degrees uh by 1.5 degrees down to that point so so that with the we're reducing only a little bit what is happening but as we saw yesterday people across the world are having to deal with that now and in so many ways let's go back to that patriarchal society we've been talking about i wonder who gathered most of the manor and i wonder also who gathered the fuel but most of all we've seen who is sent out to get the water from the well oftentimes a long journey to seek for water sources that is very often still the the absolute uh task of women to go out and often that the the walking through these areas causes them to be in particular kinds of vulnerable situations but the carrying of water and some walk miles to find water and sometimes water is unavailable and so all of these things to keep family life going become hugely important that in adapting the minds of those who go out to find water who go out to find fuel and come back and light that fuel and bake and boil and provide the meals for the family and in so many societies that is still massively the job of women to go out and do that but quite often in those same societies the women have no right to own the land where they're developing all of that nor do they have independent economic resources of their own if something desperate in terms of climatic change or a storm or a fire destroys things to put things right or to make decisions which will say if we transform this piece of land into that then those kind of things won't happen and the family can be protected of course it's a job for all genders but at this moment we don't have gender equality in decision making or resource holding and that's what this is about today we're finding and i remember so well the work of the mothers union both in sudan and in tanzania and in zimbabwe going there all across there and it's it's real physical and very often dangerous work taking food into prisons taking food into hospitals when it's not provided and going there as teams and yet at the same time very often the the councils and decisions are made without that gender diversity and equality of voice so that all experiences are known valued treasured and go into the decisions that are being made that's what this is all about today just getting the right voices round the table those who realize that there are easy ways with solar power to create light and the way in which that that we the the the uh the women of those lands that i've been talking about are learning that but you learn it through education so although 51 of the global population with women they make up a very small percentage of land owners and cash and credit to buy tools aren't available for so many of them they also in so many societies have reduced access to education or possibly no education at all offered and are much more and vulnerable to environmental and climatic changes in all the tasks that they have to do they don't as i've said they don't have land don't in have the land they work on and so that freedom of resource is not there for them so this is a day about honoring women's choices so that they can make decisions for themselves not just in rural areas but in cities too because they see in looking after the families exactly what kind of requirements there are and this is so often done of course by all genders together in that family but so often in in different societies that's not yet been achieved and neither has equality of education so that scarcity of food becomes one of the things that we're talking about today adaptation we're still talking about resilience and women have to be resilient for their children resilient when they are in pregnancy resilient and kept out of danger and resourced properly in health terms all of those become a huge concern it's a concern for all of us we're talking about gender equality but at the same time different insights come from different places and the voice has to be one which is a collective voice so that norms and traditions and policies which exclude voices are not helpful when those voices actually have the real realization about what the answer the effective answer to adapting and finding that resilience and that transfer motion nation or also the ways in which society and land can be protected from the desperate dangers they're in at the same time and the the sense of home is one that is totally precious to the family and climate induced migration having to leave home is something very foreign to those who want to create home where they've always been but they have to make be given the chance to make the right decisions and give them the right resources to to stay in that place and not to have to wonder because of everything that's going on and the choice is not being able to be made all of those things um we've added in in clips again that you can look into after we finished uh with the blessing this morning and and just see there's a wonderful one where the former irish president mary robinson is interviewed and she says in that i want to emphasize very strongly how important it is that we have women's leadership on climate change and i mean women's leadership at all levels well i think i've tried to make that point enough let's go back to robert payne smith whose portrait hangs in the drawing room down below and uh he was as i said the dean here from 1870 to 1895 but had a vision for the education of women he also had a vision when the lambeth conference was happening in those days it was held at lambuth with uh far fewer bishops and all of them traveling back to here and he had a vision to bring them all down here and make this place a focus for all the nations of the communion which were growing and growing and now of course we're preparing for one in july of next year and august when representatives of all the nations where an anglican bishop is will be here either physically or maybe some online in order to make the right decisions and that gender equality is beginning to be a factor in that as well one remembers that robert payne smith who came from gloucestershire as i do was educated at chipping camden grammar school but he learned hebrew and he was a fine fine hebrew scholar but also i was a scholar in sanskrit too and an orientalist but he learned hebrew from his sister esther teaching him at home and i think that that at home caused him to think that esther is far cleverer than i am and she's a wonderful teacher and then gave him that vision for gender equality in all education so thanks be to god for him and thanks be to god for all those who have a vision for that voice of gender equality the world over in climate change because it can do nothing but good in decision making from where i'm sitting i can look across at the roof of the old palace which is the archbishop's home when he comes here the archbishop and caroline welby um and i wanted to mention caroline in her very significant and independent ministry to the women of the anglican communion and particularly the spouses of primates and bishops throughout the world so that when they gather here in canterbury next year for the lambeth conference in july and in august many of them hopefully physically and others may be online she will have a almost an independent ministry to uphold the torch of what we've been talking about this morning and give that voice a a real underlining but we admire her courage and and the way in which the energy uh takes her across the world in so many different ways and and just as we've thanked her we also return if i point down to it we've got here behind me the building of what was the payne smith's diocesan school named after robert payne smith and now lady kingstown house it's not the first girl's house but other girls houses in this now equal numbers of boys and girls in at our cathedrals called our king school canterbury that now they the girls houses tended to take over boys houses which had been founded with the names of men in the past this is the very first one that was founded as a girl's house and there's lady kingstown's name and that also is a torch for the equality of all genders in in in the in education and and the the choice that we want to give to all to equal opportunities in education below just there you see the gardens cottage there but just along here is the little gate which goes through the ancient wall into the payne smith school as it was lady king's own house there because later on other deans which followed on from robert payne smith would go in there to teach when it was a primary school and also that and people still have stories about this that the the little children would come in with their teachers and and be on the lawn and be entertained there and perhaps play little games because there's no there's not much land attached to that particular place now of course there are plentiful playing fields and everything else because lady kingstown house belongs to the whole foundation with all its sports fields and opportunities that goes with it so it's become a little torch with that just in front of interest you're seeing next to the deanery cottage there the little tomato house which we were sitting in yesterday being prepared now to be a protective space for some of the the turkeys and chickens uh in the winter and beyond the big greenhouse and the little greenhouse where we were talking in the big greenhouse we talked about succulents yesterday before we went on to the bastion garden and then in the little greenhouse at the moment we've got lizzie and her pulse and also the tortoises and hedgehogs and everything else just to locate you as we sit up here on this quite nice morning now with the cloud beginning to break up this is a massive topic but it shows how much prayer is needed for the intricate decisions that those delegates in glasgow have to make on this the ninth morning of their conference and the days are gradually running out for decisions to be made let's say then our prayers on this day i've already said that we're praying for the diocese of the northern highlands in tanzania and we're thinking of all life there and um as we remember this diocese and the this diocese we pray for archbishop justin and caroline this morning uh and also um bishop rose of dover and uh bishop emma at lambeth the diocese has a a strap line this morning on 9th of november you remember we're not praying parish by parish and the strap line is this includes you well we might say that and and you know i point to myself as well all that we've been saying includes me to learn lessons on the way through going back to robert payne smith when he died in 1895 he chose to be buried up at st martin's church which i can just see in the distance which was the church that queen bertha used long before augustine came here because she came as a princess of the frankish nation and was already christian when she came here and brought her priest to celebrate with her there in the old roman church which went back father since martin's church on the hilda where robert paine smith is buried is actually the oldest church in the english-speaking world and that's a lovely thing to think of as i look across the trees here it's shrouded a little bit for me by the leaves of the trees but that's a lovely thing too thinking of that queen bertha's way the queen's way which you can walk down and through the queen's gate which then leads into the dean's walk or across the memorial garden so lily's come back hello um let's go let's say then the prayer for this particular day the third sunday before advent is the colleague we're using and bring your own prayers from right across the world your own intentions and anything that has been stirred within you remember the diocesan strap line this includes you almighty father whose will it is to restore all things in your beloved son the king of all govern the hearts and minds of those in authority and bring the families of the nations divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin to be subject to his just and gentle rule who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit one god now and forever amen so we say the prayer our savior taught us in whatever language you like to use our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever are men moment of silence now for our reflection this morning [Music] is [Music] is earth it is [Music] it is [Music] my [Music] for the price of wisdom [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Music] and [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] to make [Music] is [Music] [Music] the [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] he said before the fear of the lord [Music] [Music] of the is forever [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] is [Music] me [Music] lily loves coming up high here and this morning this is a great treat for her but she's an interesting character she lives in rather a male household with uh leo and tiger and um formerly otto and monkey and then fletcher and me but there's no doubt in anyone's mind who is in charge of the house when she uses all kinds of methods to make absolutely sure that she's the one who calls the shots and here she is today just reminding me that maybe something needs to be happening downstairs as well so let's um end with our blessing the peace of god which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of god and if his son jesus christ our lord and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you love and upon those whom you would pray for today and always amen right we have actually finished we can go downstairs now if you'd like to what we're not going to do is leave you up here which has happened before find yourself on the roof which you haven't minded particularly have you everything is in excitement okay let's go come on [Music] i want to emphasize very strongly how important it is that we have women's leadership on climate change and i mean women's leadership at all levels women at grassroots who are faced with the shocks of climate change which do have different impacts on the lives of men and women boys and girls the impact on women is usually much more severe if there is prolonged drought if she has to go further for firewood if there is flooding she has to cope with the problems of food the problems are keeping the family together and if she's a farmer we know the impact on poor subsistence farmers of the fact that weather is much more less predictable there are weather shocks there are no seasons we're seeing it all over africa it's something that has been focused on very much by africa itself under the leadership of south africa in holding meetings to focus on the gender dimensions so we have an opportunity if we link the leadership of women at grassroots their wisdom their knowledge their coping mechanisms their need for more money and resources for adaptation we link this with the fact that more and more women our ministers have access to the negotiating tables have access to the important meetings where decisions are being taken and it is their responsibility and our endeavors in that regard that there will be a decision at every level on gender whether it is on mitigation and adaptation and transfer of technologies on financing on legal form of a new climate agreement it's important that we make progress on that we won't get a final result in durban but we have to make progress towards that final result because that's important also for the negative impacts that climate can have and also working towards rio plus 20 the importance of access to affordable renewable energy that too has a strong gender dimension and if we can really show our strengths as women leaders in durban we will change the narrative we will genuinely change the debate on climate change itself and we will make it a much more practical solution in the future [Music] from rising sea levels to agricultural shortfalls and urban floods the world is feeling the effects of climate change the impact is particularly acute for women who make up a large number of the poor communities that depend on natural resources for their livelihood with such strong ties to the environment women have the knowledge and skills to be key agents for building resilience and supporting low emission development successful action on climate change depends on engaging women as stakeholders and planners and ensuring that both women and men can access and control the resources they need to adapt to and mitigate climate change gender equality and women's empowerment are vital to undp's work undp is on the ground supporting partners to engage women in climate change adaptation and mitigation undp is supporting improved access for women to climate information water resources and climate resilient farming practices with new harvesting techniques and improved production and processing methods women are increasing their income gaining financial independence and taking on more leadership roles in their community undp has supported pilot initiatives in africa and asia that are training rural women to install and use cleaner cook stoves that use less wood than traditional stoves reducing time needed to search for firewood undp and partners helped train women to build and create off-grid solar power units providing clean inexpensive electricity to poor communities similarly undp's innovative project of creating reservoirs and embankments have helped to cultivate fish and vegetables as a result the communities have enough food an increase in income the world's response to climate change must ensure that women and men benefit equally and have opportunities in the new green economy [Music] [Music] climate change is not neutral it's not going to affect all of us equally who you are where you live how much money you make the strength of your community many many different factors determine how you'll be impacted and climate change is definitely not gender neutral and neither are some of the solutions to climate change gender inequity is a global problem steeped in long-held cultural attitudes laws and institutions and it's many of those ideas and structures that contribute the most to environmental impacts so it isn't that surprising that there's a strong relationship between gender and climate change that's charlie from the youtube channel are changing climate he makes video essays about the environment and how we interact with it and he's here today to help me explore eco-feminism and the gendered aspects of climate change now if i put on my sjw hat for a second and say that gender is essentially made up and how we present and move the world is essentially determined by where we grew up and what our parents and friends said that we are and if the whole world recognized that individuals or individuals and that our sex does not determine our value in the world well then we wouldn't be having this problem but as it is in many cultures and places men and women are treated really differently cook aside i apologize to my non-binary friends out there most of the research in this field looks at gender exclusively as a binary which sucks and obviously means a lot of people are falling through the cracks gender inequality has a lot of ramifications but looking at agriculture is one of the easiest ways to see how the impacts of climate change are gendered despite making up 51 percent of the global population women make up only a small percentage of land holders and they often have less access than men to cash and credit to buy necessary tools fertilizers and seeds compounded with reduced access to education outside funding or co-ops women are more vulnerable than men to environmental and climatic changes for example if you don't own the land that you work on or you don't have cash in hand a drought is going to hit you really hard you may lose access to the area that you're farming or you might not be able to replant this season or next and you might not be able to recover improving the livelihood of women farmers and closing what is often called the agricultural gender gap will provide not only deeply needed support for women but may also reduce emissions women make up about 43 of the agricultural workforce in developing countries but because of all those things that charlie mentioned on average women produce less from the same amount of land as men now this isn't because women aren't capable farmers not at all providing women with access to the same resources as men can increase their yields 20 to 30 percent providing food to up to 150 million people who are hungry and here's where the possible emissions reductions come in as it currently stands with half the population underfunded and or actively repressed areas that could provide plenty of resources like food don't this leads to pressure for further land development so people start growing out looking for more places to farm this can lead to deforestation which is a large driver of emissions part of closing that agricultural gender gap will rely on women having access to better education but beyond that research has shown that educating women is the single most important social and economic factor associated with a reduction in vulnerability to environmental disasters the number one thing that reduces the impact of disasters is educating women and not just the impact of disasters on women but on everyone that's a huge deal because climate change is intensifying environmental disasters like cyclones forest fires droughts and floods but what exactly does education mean here is it like special courses or best practices in this context and much of the research in this area education means level of educational attainment so that stat that charlie just mentioned that education is one of the single biggest factors in reducing vulnerability that looks at the number of women who have reached secondary or higher levels of schooling so my brain that means high school your mileage may differ based on where you live and how they label schooling educating women also improves economic outcomes through access to jobs and greater upward mobility it improves health outcomes decreasing the number of women who die in childbirth improving infant mortality and disease risk and educating more women it'll also help us reduce emissions education goes hand in hand with voluntary family planning when women have access to the information to choose when and how to have a family it improves health outcomes and life expectancy of women and children and family planning programs lead to women having fewer children overall which means fewer people contributing to carbon emissions however before we go barreling into that whole can of worms it's important to acknowledge that hundreds of millions of women around the world want the access to that education and those family planning programs as well as the tools to prevent pregnancy family planning programs importantly need to be voluntary to honor the right of women to choose what they want their own lives to look like and we're not just talking about some high fancy u.s horse over here the u.s is notorious for our poor sex education and here something like 45 percent of pregnancies are unintended providing women around the globe with better family planning is wanted and needed and it has the added benefit of reducing emissions so to wrap this all up environmental and climate impacts are gendered because of societal and cultural structures to change that we need to provide women with access to the education and resources so that they get to make decisions themselves about how they make money how they feed themselves and their families and what their families look like this also means including women when structuring climate or environmental and frankly any policies but it also means that we should more often be looking at the problem of global climate change in a gendered way asking questions like how do climatic changes impact a crop that's predominantly farmed by women or do women in this area have access to the resources to survive say a massive flood one possible framework for answering those questions is eco-feminism which uses a feminist lens to examine the relationship between the natural world and the oppression of women over on my channel we ask the questions what is eco-feminism and is it a useful lens for understanding our current social and environmental circumstances it's a great video and a perfect part too to inform this more practical discussion of gender and climate with loftier academic and theoretical ideas it also kind of gets at the attention of looking with a purely gendered lens go check out that video subscribe to our changing climate let us know if you have any questions in the comments down below and thank you for watching [Music] my name is julia machi i'm leading the cities for women program at city's alliance and our program really focus on making cities more inclusive towards women's need and capacity to engage more women in in the city making process we believe that a city that is more responsive to women's needed capacity is a city that works for everyone is better for everyone this session we'll do a very short session looking at the implication of gender in climate adaptation action climate change affects women and men differently extreme weather events such as droughts and floats have a greater impact on the poor and most vulnerable we're in fact talking about feminization of poverty as we define climate adaptation responses and projects in cities we first need to understand the underlying drivers of inequity and how they make specific groups of women men and poor more vulnerable to climate change these drivers of inequity are three the first one is gender responsibilities and roles women in fact are often responsible for gathering producing food collecting water and sourcing fuel for eating and cooking with climate change these tasks are becoming more difficult limiting also opportunities for education and income generation and increasing exposure to violence including also sexual violence care work due to health impact of climate change may also increase putting additional burden on those who are mainly responsible for that which are again women globally also women produce 60 percent of the food but are more likely than men to report food insecurity as a coping strategy in the face of food scarcity again related to climate change women are more likely than men to reduce the amount they eat so this is related to gender responsibility and roles the second driver of inequity is health climate change produces conditions that propel the spread of malaria especially floating and high temperature growing evidence and data indicates that malaria has specific gender effects which are felt mostly by poor and marginalized people prevalent gender inequalities also tend to get exacerbated in the wake of disasters for example women and girls become more vulnerable to gender-based violence and this is the case also with the kovi 19 domestic violence is increasing the third driver of inequity is related to rights so women's access to productive agricultural resources and services for instance is not equal to men's access this reduces women's adaptive capacity especially during critical climate change events the right of women to own property which is often denied by law or also in the current practice is also an important requirement for post-hazard reconstruction of human settlements owning land owning properties housing ownership or occupancy rights precludes eviction and enhanced security and in the post-hazard reconstruction phase rebuilding as storm resistance and gender sensitive structures is key to create resilient cities in nepal right now with unops we are leading a participatory process to collect ideas of forum from women for the post-earthquake reconstruction in kathmandu so really trying to collect what do they need how do they see their cities and how they want to see the city of the future adaptation measures and responses needs to take into account these drivers of inequality which are gendered roles and responsibilities rights and and health which which in themselves make adaptation less effective so every projects and actions need to challenge for instance gender norms responsibilities and roles looking at health access so trying to put the most marginalized at the center of these responses looking at rights how laws are defined and how the laws are put in practice access to land is key there are examples of initiatives that also we are conducting at the moment together with our partners and members that try to apply an equity lens to enable women youth and ethnic group to lead efforts also to adapt to climate change for example in liberia we have gathered women's idea needs through dedicated participatory process related to the formulation of the city development strategies to so to engage women from different groups and to get their priorities needs and we we include them into the formulation of the plan then we are also starting now a process of construction of water kiosk in two informal communities and we are again engaging women's group in the co-design process in the construction and later on they will be really in charge of the maintenance and management of the water kiosk so gender is a key component of these initiatives empowering women to take on leading roles in water committees at their time is no longer burdened with by water gathering but just i wanted to underline what are the three elements that for me are key to taking into consideration when we are going to develop projects related to community gender and kind of climate adaptation so resilience require data gender statistics and sex disaggregated data also provide evidence necessary to assess gender gaps across all areas of urban life including also linkages between these areas which form the basis of gender inequalities limitations in available data still exist with a lack of qualitative data questioning quantitative data from a gender perspective with the use of perceptions of qualitative data helps to interpret better the statistics cities alliance has developed recently and tested already toolkit that combine numbers and quantitative data with perception story qualitative responses to understand women's engagement in city development looking at space politics culture and economy and i invite you to have a look to this toolkit because there are different methods and approaches you can also use in your in your projects so data are important sex is aggregated data qualitative data are important the second aspect is really the participatory approach designing implement action with women really engaging them giving them a voice so it's important to recognize the contributions of women as decision makers stakeholders educators experts across different sectors in the city they can lead their participation to successful long-term solutions to climate change women have proven to be leading the way towards more sustainable solutions to climate change across sector women's innovations expertise also community leadership they are really engaged in their community we could see that also during the covet situation or to to be able to reach out the poor the community we needed to go through and engage women because they knew better what were their needs there are still patriarchal norms gender stereotypes as i said gender roles that limit women's capacity to act so we really need through our project to empower women in a sense give them the possibility to to really have a say the third is connecting action on the ground with advocacy so everything that you do trying to use there's the stories also of your project the results to change policy making at the city level um at at your neighborhood level or this possible national level globally and we need to establish dialogues with institutions and key stakeholders to show how gender equality matters in climate change actions in cities the important thing when we start a project when we start an action is to ask to ourself who matters who decides and who benefits and of course the right answer to all this question is of course everyone so everyone matters when we come to managing the impacts of climate change and particularly those who are least able to adapt thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] why gender matters for effective adaptation to climate change the impacts of climate change including seasonal changes sea level rise and extreme weather events are already affecting people's lives in both subtle and devastating ways adaptation to climate change is the process of building the resilience of communities ecosystems and economies to these impacts it requires action at all levels from individuals governments and the international community for adaptation to be effective it's important to recognize that the impacts of climate change affect different people in different ways how they are affected depends on where they live and how they earn their livelihoods in many contexts it also depends on their gender women men and non-binary people often play different roles in their households and communities they also have different access to resources and opportunities these differences influence their vulnerability to climate risks as well as their capacity to prepare for and manage the impacts women and non-binary people are often at a disadvantage as they face barriers in realizing their rights due to norms traditions and policies that perpetuate gender inequality other forms of discrimination for example based on race being indigenous or having a disability also play a role in making some people more vulnerable than others to the same climate impacts this means we can't look at gender in isolation a gender responsive approach is intersectional recognizing that people have multiple identities that shape their experiences a gender-responsive approach focuses on three things who matters who decides and who benefits the answer to the question of who matters is of course everyone everyone matters when it comes to managing the impacts of climate change this means that investments in adaptation must be designed to meet different needs taking into account people's gender and their social status when it comes to who decides we must consider who is typically excluded from planning and decision making a gender responsive approach brings diverse voices to the table recognizing the value of their knowledge and their potential as agents of change without careful attention to gender and social dynamics there is a risk that adaptation investments actually reinforce existing inequalities in wealth and power structures rather than benefiting the most vulnerable people adaptation is effective when it is equitable providing opportunities and benefits for all people governments private sector actors civil society organizations and communities around the world are ramping up efforts to respond to the impacts of climate change we have an opportunity to ensure that these efforts also generate progress towards gender equality to make this happen we need a gender responsive approach to adaptation this is the only way we can build families communities and societies that are resilient to the impacts of climate change [Music] farmers overwhelmingly i think are noticing changes in their environment they're noticing milder winters that's the number one observation that i hear winters are becoming milder there are changes in precipitation the growing season is changing and in fact if we look at the climatological scenarios and the climatological data that we have farmers perceptions are very much in line with what's happening climatologically so they know they understand what's happening i grew up on a farm myself i spent my childhood doing a lot of the things that rural farm kids do i learned to value the environment i spent a lot of time outside i grew up with an understanding of the importance of the environment around me and so i think in many ways that has really caused me to pay attention and to want to do research that is about environment and climate i also grew up watching the incredible contributions that women were making to the community where i grew up as a researcher my interest is in bringing those contributions to light and looking at those contributions and looking at how important those contributions are in the event of climate extremes so when people are dealing with floods and droughts what are women contributing farming here in canada is still seen very much as the masculine profession and because of men's sort of closeness to the livestock to the crops they have in fact a large amount of emotional and psychological vulnerability when that farm is threatened in light of impending climate change and the floods and the droughts that we can expect to see the kind of work that women are doing not only in terms of their labor but also in terms of their emotional labor will become very important as well and so the the women that i talked to when i asked them about tell me about that drought you experienced or tell me about that flood that you went through on the farm they'll say things like well i was the supporter i was the buffer i was holding everybody together emotionally and i think it's really important not only to pay attention to in this case men's vulnerability when the farm fails and the livestock are suffering and the crop is dying but also at the same time to recognize that we need to support the people who are supporting everybody else and in many cases that's women [Music] [Music] on a saturday morning across fiji local markets are filled to capacity with fresh produce from its lush environment local eggplants coriander pineapple watermelons and other vegetables line the stalls in local markets in particular this vegetable the other has been prepared for sale by the women of nassau and has traveled kilometers from the interior of thai level to be sold in the market today for a dollar a bundle [Music] in the pacific islands the marketplace system is the way of life for many women who earn essential cash income for the survival of their families the journey of this vegetable begins in the highlands of thai level in the village of nassau nestled in the thick vegetation in the province of thai level the village of nassau is just a two-hour drive from silver city yet there's no electricity in the village and women play an active role in providing for their families through the marketplace system the first half of this journey begins with the women of nassau rising before sunrise and feeding their families then making the long winding track through thick vegetation to harvest this green fern called ota to sell at city or town markets for their income this is what is commonly known as basar derived from the word bazaar [Music] foreign [Music] foreign um [Music] [Music] the practice of massa is often passed on to women and girls in successive generations of the family with no prospect of improved conditions or more secure incomes the women of nassau travel treacherous bush tracks and spend hours harvesting and preparing their cash crops then it's another early morning start in the cold dark and thick fog of tai levu this truck starts its pickup route at nassau children are wrapped in warm clothes in anticipation of the open vehicle ride one truck to at least nine to ten men women and children plus their cargo is a death trap space is limited and the young men are reduced to stand on the back of the truck and grab the rails for support for two to three hours in the cold [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign rural women working as food producer distributor and trader face the additional challenges of unreliable and hazardous transport arrangements traveling often in the dark cold wet and difficult hours of night and very early morning by road sea river on foot or horseback in bad weather and even in times of disaster rural women vendors produce distribute and trade in fresh food products in weekly cycles commencing mid to late week some plan and cooperate in village groups to overcome a multitude of supply chain problems from farm to market the final part of the journey ends here in the marketplace where unfortunately these women are battling inequality everywhere poor dangerous and dysfunctional infrastructure security and transport and disaster risk and recovery that undermine vendors guarantees of fair returns reliability of incomes and the realization of women's potential for economic empowerment these women are on the brink of poverty or already in poverty the income that they earn each day is crucial to meeting basic needs like education for children market trade is the only way the rural and poor majority of pacific island women can earn essential cash income but it's no easy feat the work of trading on markets directly as producer or through reselling involves serious hardships and hazards very long working hours in crowded dirty poorly lit and ventilated spaces water supply and toilets are barely adequate and often unreliable women and children brave the elements to protect their produce it's do or die the women of nassau are considered rural vendors they sell in the perimeters of the market one to three days a week and they're not permitted membership of the vendor organizations poor urban women resellers are silenced by male leadership men employed as managers cleaners and fee collectors tend to bully and belittle women and often embezzle their fees formal and informal security guards extort protection money marginalize male youth drug and alcohol affected congregate and persuade and coerce women to donate loose cash rural producer vendors experience the greatest marginalization in the markets with no option but to sell outdoors outside and around main market shelters [Music] me um [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign foreign them [Music] [Laughter] locked out from the main buildings in the evenings from 6 pm to 6 a.m they must sleep overnight on the pavements around the market exposed to the elements but also having to watch over produce and to wake early morning to compete for the strategic selling spots municipalities very rarely consult or plan with vendors or their representatives instead they pass bylaws and rules that are top directive and intended to install authority law and order minimizing tension between inside and outside vendors but also turning a blind eye to the beggars criminals and drug and alcohol affected men who frequent markets and prevail upon women vendors to give them coins foreign mostly my flowers i grew them at home my dad's place there in buku we had a farm there yeah and then i get flowers from the ladies in the winning book road i collect them when i come to the market i hire the vet then i collect the flowers from the ladies on one in one groud it's a very hard job for us we have to fetch our waters from inside the market carry waters from inside and bring it outside and we have to otherwise we have to pay the wheelbarrow boys to fetch our waters for two dollars for one three buckets a load and get it out and during sunny when it's hot sun our flowers are usually damaged and we can't get a good sail in our flowers because we don't have a shade and that's very hard and during rainy weather it's hard for us because we are in the rain selling there's no shade here and in the night we sleep there to look after our flowers there's no security provided for us from the city council so we have to look after our own house in the night and we have to sleep on the floor in the market yeah outside [Music] we have to have some money i i have to look after my son [Music] many women vendors have to care for their young children as they work adding to their multitasking burden strategies and risks supermarket research in 1994 recorded an average of 400 vendors daily in 2012 silver city council reports figures of 1500 to 2 000 vendors on peak selling days that's fridays and saturdays the governance and administration of fiji's markets has changed little over the past five decades the swelling numbers of people working as market vendors is characterized by higher ratios of women vendors to men four to one women vendors are typically small and struggling operators while men tend to consolidate their control over multiple selling spaces the enduring commitment of thousands of poor women to these highly demanding routines for the specific purpose of earning regular cash incomes is one of the most urgent yet largely overlooked development problems of the pacific region and a critical entry point for poverty reduction and women's economic empowerment women manage their cash incomes differently to men prioritizing the basic needs of their families and community however most women market vendors do not have access to saving facilities and few have real control over their incomes husbands and children often press them to hand over cash even during the working day in the worst cases women's failures to meet men's demand for cash often for his leisure or pleasure can result in him committing physical violence and verbal abuse against her this is reported in all market surveys suggesting it's not exceptional at the inaugural planning workshop for un women's pim project in fiji young male market managers refer to rural women vendors as a bunch of unruly and troublemaking women carrying a whole lot of rubbish into town unfriendly and insensitive market managers rules and regulations cause great suffering amongst women who struggle to maintain their dignity manage multiple health safety and security risks in order to make adequate cash income to keep their family afloat when one of the constraints at the moment is the place that they're selling their produce when they get the produce from them from the village or from the farm it's really fresh so when they come to the market there are permanent store inside the belly and other temporary stalls outside and there are other spaces on the basement of the market they are marked to sell produce the fee paid are the same say 3.40 if if that is the case why don't they differ the the fee say those who are less chance of getting a temporary stall to be less compared with the you know when they are selling on the basement of the veranda most of the time woman say they are left behind in development especially when while i work it seems that a lady seems to be treated as a this is second class nowhere in fiji are rural vendors included in the existing market vendors associations municipal markets so their specific needs and concerns are not voiced or heard and they have little or no access to or influence over market management [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] women vendors are the majority but not in solidarity in their struggle for better conditions they have few male advocates local government leaders and administrators are not gender sensitized they do not recognize the important role of markets in local economic development or the role of vendors in poverty prevention they do not acknowledge that substantial daily local government revenues are collected through fees and taxes paid by vendors mostly women there is little or no recognition of the potential of markets or political will to change [Music] foreign um [Music] [Applause] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] colombia it's home to a bounty of one of the world's most precious resources yet not all colombians are getting their fair share we travel to a remote corner of the country where an extraordinary woman is fighting for her community's very survival [Music] in some parts of the world it's as rare as gold and getting hold of some nearly impossible are you going to give some of the water to the community where we live for the school and the village griselda polanco says her community's water is being stolen the water that's going to be taken out of our land here we are not able to benefit from it griselda is why you one of colombia's largest indigenous groups and she believes they're being discriminated against by the authorities [Music] i asked them to give us water for the village for all the inhabitants of pesoapa and a year ago they promised they would but until now the water hasn't arrived fresh water or yu gold as they call it will soon be siphoned from yu lands through new pipes to a nearby town where the population are not indigenous and griselda will do whatever it takes to at least keep some of their water want to know who is the contractor here to talk to him and if not we are going to stop this work such struggles for ethnic rights are repeated across the country recently 10 000 representatives of indigenous groups took to the streets of the capital bogota they were demanding among other things their right to water [Applause] without access to it the very survival of many indigenous peoples is threatened and no group more so than the yu whose ancestral land in the northeastern la guajira region is largely desert griselda's family has lived on yu land for generations a grandmother is anywhere between 80 and 102. my four children grew up here when i arrived there was hardly anyone here i came with my goats and my donkeys in those days rainfall here was more frequent and food for the animals abundant but with the changing climate water has become ever scarcer says griselda's mother before there were not only dry seasons there were wet seasons but now two years can go by without it raining the result the traditional water reserves are drying up putting 300 000 yus across the region in jeopardy filled with collected rains these reserves are their main source of water but now they contain just a fraction of what they're used to and what's left is stagnant and almost undrinkable there are still people who have to drink this green water though there are only the drugs left but it's harmful it gives us diarrhea it fills the children with parasites you can see some of the children are really thin but they have big tummies that's because of the water [Music] the problem is so bad that acute diarrhea is one of the leading killers amongst local children under five with no clean water left in these reservoirs the yu have no choice but to turn to their only other source of water taps scattered across their lands linked to underground reserves as she does several times a day griselda's aunt sets off to one of the distant taps it's noon and almost 42 degrees centigrade as she trudges through the sand a kilometer later she finally arrives but the water that comes out is far from sweet it's from an underground spring but it was perforated it's now salt water a painful reminder griselda says of the urgent need to secure safe and plentiful water for her people and alongside grizelda in the front line of this fight her own sister orsinia as the first indigenous woman elected to the colombian congress in 2006 her highest priority has always been to have water recognized as a fundamental right for all colombians one of my biggest dreams which i've always fought for and argued is that there's water for the waiyu people it's the main thing i want but the bill she introduced in 2009 failed to pass disappointing many the state has a huge responsibility to support indigenous peoples in preserving their culture margarita buesso of un women says the indigenous struggle for basic rights like water is especially complicated in colombia decades of violent conflict over drugs and politics have taken a particularly heavy toll on ethnic communities too often they are the victims of massacres or tragically caught up in the crossfire between various armed groups it's the men who die in the confrontations between the different illegal armed groups the women are the survivors of the conflict and this leaves them bearing the burden of the struggle to survive something made even more difficult by their dwindling water resources says griselda in order to feed ourselves we raise animals but at the moment the animals are dying of hunger because there are no pastures and they are suffering the same as we are from the lack of water back at the village much to griselda's surprise the chief water engineer suddenly turns up and wants to talk to her she longs for a glimmer of hope but he has no real answers what i'm going to do is look at the calculations and see if the water really can reach here grizelda however is skeptical she believes the only reason for his visit is because of the filming the engineer who is in charge when he saw you with your cameras that was when they decided to talk and to tell us that they are going to bring water to the community but they weren't saying this before if they do get some of this water this yu community's survival at least in the short term is assured but if these are yet more empty promises griselda fears the prospects for her people are bleak the truth is that we will have a future if we manage to get the free water they told us they are going to give us without the water we have no future [Music] climate change is accelerating and impacting more and more communities around the world the worst affected are the poorest countries with rising sea levels increasing temperatures and extreme weather conditions within these countries the poorest most marginalized groups have the fewest opportunities to protect themselves due to discrimination and gender norms women and men are impacted differently by climate change in many developing countries men work away from the home while women cultivate tiny plots of land without irrigation to produce food for their families climate change directly affects their ability to grow crops on top of that women often face barriers to basic education employment and to owning property this often leaves women voiceless in advocating for climate change solutions and vulnerable to its adverse effects by paying special attention to the different needs and contributions of men and women gender responsive climate finance not only addresses climate change but also reduces gender inequalities and empowers women effective projects ensure equal benefits take for example a climate project used to fund sustainable public transport do women feel safe while using the system can they afford the fair does the schedule meet their specific needs without answering these questions the project will not serve a large part of the population climate action that disregards half of the population cannot be efficient or effective taking women's needs into consideration is not only the right thing but also the smart thing to do in short only gender responsive climate projects can be equitable effective and efficient to achieve gender responsive climate finance there are a number of essential steps one climate projects need to involve more women on the ground both in consultation and in implementation what exactly are women's needs and contributions and how can these projects respond accordingly for example a project that provides women with access to renewable energy not only provides them with electricity but also decreases their work burden in caring for families and communities second climate funds need to have social and gender experts not just technical ones policymakers need to look beyond the scientific and economic aspects of climate change and incorporate social and human rights dimensions as well third more women should hold a seat at the table to affect the focus and the way climate decisions are made in most climate funds there are currently very few women holding these seats this must change fourth funds should be made directly accessible in the form of loans or grants to women's groups or female entrepreneurs working on climate action this would empower them to be agents of change for clean energy projects it is high time for decision makers and funding mechanisms to fully support women as important stakeholders in climate action over the last 10 years advocacy groups such as the hunchball stiftung have pushed for more recognition of the gender dimensions of climate finance so far there has been some success look at the green climate fund currently the largest multilateral climate fund which started its operations with an explicit gender equality mandate this is an important step and a signal to the world even if there's still a lot of work left to do if you want to know more about the green climate fund or the basic principles guiding climate finance and its delivery check out our other two videos [Music] overload you know it was like a sensory overload in every every form i can imagine it was the smell visually it was like i can't believe people you know are living in these conditions and [Music] they don't have energy or they don't have you know they used to have flying toilets everywhere just the way that you know that's why it smells that way that's why you have is basically in the sewage everywhere the government is not doing anything to get them out of that situation they are doing it for themselves and then they have you know practical action and they just created all these amazing um ways to get them out of the situation you know so that's the the hopeful part and the amazing part they created is the centers where people can go and use their bathrooms and they can with that waste they used to you know to create biogas and then the biogas they can cook with the biogas and i i love how how spiritual they are and how and how hopeful and how um trusting and they're just joyous and they're just happy and they're gonna and they're focused on the solution i don't think if you come and you give something to them they would appreciate it as much i think i think that to me also i mean they have a huge sense of entrepreneurship there you know they want to work i mean they want to do they are they're giving 150 all the time they're giving their all it's like it's it's so inspiring and they're doing everything they can to find a solution that did bring like joy to my heart [Music] [Music] they have to walk for sometimes hours to come here and collect the wood because without the wood they can really feed their family because they don't have the money to buy there's no other option for them because they're poor and they and they don't have the financial um they can't afford any other any other way so basically this is their survival actually today they they got a couple but they say that it's usually like five times as much as this right that you carry all of this by yourself there's no firewood there is no cooking and there is no eating noise there is no eating [Music] they have an open fire inside their house so all the smoke is going inside of their house i couldn't even keep my eyes open it was burning it was very difficult the smell i mean you inhale it you almost feel like you were suffocating and almost 2 million women and children die every year from smoke inhalation from in-house cooking they don't have other options until now there is this new improved cooking stoves and the idea with them is to improve cooking so they can use 50 less firewood and produce 70 less smoke we were actually able to see an installation of a stove in one of the houses and they had to break an opening in the wall so they had a window and they had to have a way for the smoke to get out they spent so much of their time collecting firewood and the stove actually uses 50 less wood i think that's amazing because one of the concerns i felt from the women was that they had to go so far to collect the firewood and it's running out there's only so many trees left they made these fireless cookers which were kind of like an oven they kept things warm so they can start the cooking process on the stoves leave it for five or ten minutes depending on what they're cooking they can put it in there they can go to work and do whatever they need to do and the food is kept inside and kept warm for up to nine hours it's really about survival you know i mean they spend all day long collecting water collecting firewood taking care of their kids i mean these women they're like wonder woman they're amazing [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] in this situation uh over there is like they have small little rivers or even tiny little streams and they do they make it with whatever they have you know they put community together they try to bring you know organizations from outside to see what they're doing and trying to get funding and and they've done it there's going to be like 7 000 people are going to be served from that by using their natural resources they can tap into a river which is like clean energy you know and they can have um much better life and and basically protecting the environment at the same time because they're not burning cold they're not using kerosene they're not burning wood they're not cutting down trees you know they're really just using a micro hydro way from a stream from a river which is a clean energy to you know to you know support themselves and to have a better life [Music] the main thing of electricity is that when kids have electricity they can study she says that a while ago they only had people that went to university from really far like villages and now they're so proud to say oh there's a kid from this family that went to school and they went to university and there's a kid from that village you know like so they actually have people surrounding them they had that have been able to get education and you can see there there's a pride and there's a there's such a sense of like you know we made this happen for ourselves you know we did it i mean it's amazing to see how their strengths and their and their just their passion for you know changing their lives two out of every three families live without electricity but you go there and people are happy and they're helping each other again one thing i could i could sense in all those villages and communities and different places we visited the strip no matter how large or small they were it was always a very strong sense of community and people helping one another you know they i don't think they have any other option there is always like a part where it's heartbreaking but there's also a part that is so inspiring you know to see the strength of the people to see their passion to get out of their life and and to change and i think i'm just leaving this trip and i'm feeling completely um so grateful to have had this experience so grateful for um for my life you know to have what i have i mean you don't realize that when you go home you know you turn on a switch and the light goes on and you flush the toilet and it's gone you know and here like people are living in a i mean it's a they're just happy to have one lamp so the kids can study you know and then maybe a radio and you know it's it's it's a really hard reality [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] poverty levels are very high and with the changing climate and resulting loss of income earning opportunities migration is often seen as the only means to earn a living in the southwest of bangladesh women and men are affected differently by migration most often male family members migrate and the [Music] [Music] [Music] the male members of the family travel to cities near and far for periods of three to six months in search of work some struggle to find work suffer from illnesses or injuries and often cannot send money back to their families firoza began's husband has returned to the village after falling down [Music] is also trying to manage her family in the absence of her husband [Music] [Music] these are some of the voices from the front line the women and men confronted with the realities of climate induced migration [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] uh [Music] you