Mainstreaming gender into environment statistics in Asia and the Pacific: Progress and next steps

Just as women and men have unequal access to rights, resources and opportunities, they relate to and interact with the natural environment in different ways, face differing vulnerabilities and impacts, and have unique knowledge and adaptive capacity related to climate change, disasters and use of natural resources. The nexus between environment and gender has been of interest for decades, with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development providing renewed impetus to the discussion.

The paper provides an overview of recent initiatives undertaken by UN Women, UNESCAP, UNEP and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to consolidate a set of indicators capturing issues at the nexus of environment and gender in the Asia-Pacific region. The proposed set of indicators is drawn mostly from existing global and regional indicator frameworks, including the global Sustainable Development Goals framework.