UNU-GEST Lecture Series 25 February - Gender and Climate Change: the Story of Our Lives
In her presentation Irene goes back to the 1980s/1990s, when understanding of the relation of gender and environment was beginning to grow. This gave impetus to a wide range of feminist activism – focusing on the inclusion of social dimensions in environment and sustainable development policies and actions. Results have been mixed. It is only in the last 15 years that the effects of climatic changes worldwide have been interpreted from a social perspective, and the importance of women’s full and meaningful participation has been recognized. Since that time women/gender-climate change organizations have played a crucial role in bringing a gender dimension to policy negotiations and mechanisms, most recently, last December, to the Climate Conference in Paris. Although the outcomes were a relief to many, from a gender perspective the analysis is critical. The role of diverse stakeholders in institutionalizing gender in climate actions, including NGOs, UN and several governmental agencies, will be discussed as well as lessons and challenges for academia. Ultimately, what we strive for is gender and climate justice in all the realities where people live.
The lecture is given in English, is open to everyone and admission is free. Moderator is Auður H. Ingólfsdóttir, assistant professor at Bifröst University.
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The UNU-GEST Spring 2016 Lecture Series are held in collaboration with RIKK - Institute for Gender, Equality and Difference at the University of Iceland.
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Irene Dankelman is a lecturer at the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands. An ecologist by background, she is also the director of IRDANA, which gives advice on gender and sustainable development. During her 35 years professional life she has worked for UNIFEM (now UN Women) and Oxfam-Novib, IUCN-Netherlands, the Agricultural University in Wageningen and the Free University in Amsterdam. She still is actively involved in international, national and local organizations, including WEDO (Women’s Environment and Development Organisation), WECF (Women in Europe for a Common Future), Stichting wAarde (foundation value earth) and Both ENDs (Environment and Development Services for NGOs), and took part in international environmental, climate change and sustainable development negotiations. She advices several UN agencies (UN Women, UNEP, UNDP, FAO, UNESCO), EU, government agencies and non-governmental organizations on gender and environment/climate change issues and has lectured and written extensively on the issue, starting with the book ‘Women and Environment in the Third World’ (Earthscan, 1988; with Joan Davidson) and the book ‘Gender and Climate Change: an introduction’ (Earthscan, 2010). Irene has worked in many countries in the world, with a special focus on Asia.