Gender Mainstreaming in Environmental Assessment and Early Warning

The purpose of this study is to assist the Division of Early Warning and Assessment (DEWA), a division within the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in meeting its goals of incorporating gender mainstreaming throughout the entirety of its programme of work, activities, and products. Gender mainstreaming is best understood as a continuous process of infusing both the institutional culture and the programmatic and analytical efforts of agencies with gendered perspectives. Gender mainstreaming means taking gender seriously – and taking it into account in all aspects of the workplace and the work products of the institution.

Key Features of this Report

This report provides:
• a summary of current definitions and best practices of gender mainstreaming in cognate international organizations and assessment of the institutional conditions under which gender mainstreaming succeeds or fails (Chapter One).
• a substantive review of four areas of gendered environmental research: water, poverty, security/conflict, and vulnerability/disaster. These four represent areas of work that already are high on the agenda of UNEP and DEWA; we identify promising research trajectories that could shape DEWA's contributions to these fields (Chapter Three).
• an analysis of the institutional and intellectual challenges that DEWA will need to take into account as it develops its gender mainstreaming agenda, including: keeping gender on the agenda in the face of competing mandates and in a climate of apparent diminishing commitment to gender analysis; combining science-based and technical environmental analysis with social science and qualitative-based gender analysis; avoiding iconic and essentialized tropes about women and the environment; and manage this information despite the lack of genderdisaggregated data and indicators (Chapter Four).
• a close reading and analysis of the current treatment of gender in two of the signature publications of DEWA, the African Environment Outlook (AEO) and the Global Environment Outlook (GEO), and detailed suggestions for ways to improve on this treatment (Chapter Five).
• a substantial set of recommendations to advance DEWA's institutional and programmatic integration of gender (Chapter Six).

Key Findings

• DEWA's mandate as the primary rapporteur to the world's governments about the state of the earth requires that it take on board the most sophisticated environmental assessments. It is not possible to fulfil this mandate effectively without incorporating the analytical insights and empirical evidence of gender in the environment.
• Three decades of deep and extensive work in gender and the environment from NGOs and academic researchers provide a strong foundation for DEWA's work.
• However, to date, gender has been largely absent from DEWA's and UNEP's main work programmes and work products. • With their unique command of resources and global prestige, DEWA and UNEP are positioned to make strong contributions to the global agenda for gendered environmental research; DEWA can and should take global leadership in advancing gender and environment work and visibility. To date, neither DEWA nor UNEP has been proactive in bringing gendered analysis into its work, but the institutional conditions, including leadership commitments, are now in place for strong forward movement in this field.
• The four substantive issues discussed in this review (water, poverty, security/ conflict, and vulnerability/disaster) represent areas of innovative gendered environmental analysis; currently, though, most of the work conducted by UNEP in these areas does not incorporate gendered analysis.
• DEWA is especially well placed to play an active role in advancing the “toolkit” available for gender and environment work. Rather than being a passive recipient of gender research generated elsewhere, DEWA can become an engine of cutting-edge research and, in particular, DEWA could undertake projects that prioritise the development of genderdisaggregated data and indicator sets that will support “gender and the environment” analyses.

Key Recommendations

• That DEWA (and UNEP) develop and support in-house gender expertise.
• That DEWA adopts this simple yardstick of the effectiveness of gender mainstreaming: every staff member should be able to give a “gendered account” of the work he or she is doing. The extent to which he or she is able or unable to do so suggests the extent to iv which gender mainstreaming is working.
• That DEWA/UNEP highlights gender issues in its public statements of mission, programs and policies – including on its web sites. It is crucial that UNEP and DEWA are seen to be taking a visible lead in this field.
• That DEWA institutes a standing procedure of internal “gender review” for all work products – and for all phases of work from project planning, to content development for publications, to final sign-off on work products.
• That DEWA commits to using independent (external) gender-review experts as part of the expert cohort in all cases where publications and work products are sent out for external peer review.
• That DEWA prioritises the inclusion of gender-disaggregated and gendersensitive materials in all programmatic areas. In particular DEWA should issue guidelines to data-providing organizations requiring that they provide the broadest range of genderdisaggregated and gender-sensitive information available. • That DEWA actively engages with – and advances – cutting edge intellectual research and researchers within the “gender and environment” field. • That DEWA makes greater use of partnerships, both within and outside the UN system.