Harnessing climate finance to advance women's climate leadership
The paper aims to provide a conceptual approach to understanding women’s climate leadership and the barriers women face and highlight selected examples of best practices. Based on this conceptual approach a Diagnostic Questionnaire, which can be used at the project design stage to analyze gaps and identify actions to address structural barriers to women’s leadership is introduced. Women, who are disproportionately affected by climate change, bring to the climate finance arena unique perspectives, knowledge, and skills that are essential for effective climate action. Women climate leaders inspire and empower others, challenge traditional gender roles, and drive transformative change toward a more sustainable and just future. The inclusion of women’s expertise, concerns, and insights in adaptation and mitigation policy making can thus enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of resource allocation, ensuring that financial resources are directed toward sustainable and socially inclusive projects.
In this paper, researchers aim to equip climate finance providers with a comprehensive approach to the following:
- Analyzing the gaps in women’s climate leadership across three domains — state/public institutions, markets/private sector, and civil society;
- Identifying cross-cutting barriers, reflecting formal and informal or “invisible” power, that prevent women from accessing and thriving in leadership spaces;
- Assessing existing and potential policy and programmatic responses that could promote women’s leadership.