Peer Learning Summit: Gender-responsive National Adaptation Plan (NAP) Processes Montego Bay, Jamaica​ | July 26-28, 2022​

1. Women's
Leadership &
Climate Activism in
the Caribbean
Peer Learning Summit: Gender
Responsive National Adaptation
Processes
Jamaica| 2022
Presented by Ayesha Constable
GirlsCARE

2. Outline
My journey
Women’s Leadership & Representation
Young & Movement Building
Opportunities & challenges for young women
The Enabling Framework
Empowering Activists

3. My Journey
• Rural upbringing and climate
exposure
• Women in my community vs
men in my community
• Mentorship and empowerment
• Mary Seacole Hall and lived
reality of girls

4. Academia & Research
• Doctoral research
Determinants of Adaptation among Small Farmers in Sherwood Content, Jamaica
• Academic papers
•Clarke, Constable and Richardson. (2021). The cost of political activism: Mapping the
feminization of poverty, political persecution and disempowerment in St Kitts and
Nevis. Department of Social Justice Education, OISE, University of Toronto
•Constable, A. (2021). Feminist Climate Activism in the Caribbean and Latin America: The
Role of Young Women & Girls, University of Toronto.
•Constable, A. (2015). A gender analysis of climate change perceptions and adaptation
among small farmers in Sherwood Content, Jamaica. Caribbean Geography, 20, 24–40.
•Constable, A. (2016). Globalization, Agriculture and Food in the Caribbean: Climate
Change, Gender and Geography. (C. L. Beckford & K. Rhiney, Eds.) (1st ed.). London:
Palgrave Macmillan.

5. Advocacy & Activism
• UNFCCC COP
• National campaigns-
#youth4PuertoBueno
• Regional campaigns-
#1.5tostayalive
• Caribbean Youth Environment
Network (CYEN)
• 350.org
• Global campaigns- Sustainable
Solutions Youth Network
- Commonwealth Climate Youth
Network

6. Leadership &
Representation

7. Gender Justice in Climate
Action
• Gender inequality in the Caribbean
• Role of women in Caribbean
societies
• Feminization of poverty in Caribbean
societies
• Structure of Caribbean societies
• Composition of Caribbean societies
• Race, color & class and colonial
legacies in Caribbean societies

8. Young Women &
Movement Building
• Young women and girls – voice and
power
• Youth engagement and empowerment
• Amplify Caribbean youth voices
• Build cadre of youth activists
• Promote intersectional and climate
justice approach to climate action
• Cross-regional collaboration

9. Women & Climate Action
• Led by groups working on economic
empowerment, gender-based violence and
related issues
• Seen as ‘women's’ work based on gender-
stereotypes in the region
• Often unpaid thereby adding to women’s burden
of care and time poverty
• Emerged as a response to the Rio Summit of
1992

10. Young Women in Climate Action
• The ‘danger of a single story’
• Intersectionality
• Youth demographics
• Break the bias
• Locally led adaptation and frontline actors

11. Women-led movements/communities in the
Caribbean
GirlsCARE
Coastal Area
Management
JNRWP
Sticting Projeckta
Policy Forum
Environmental
Awareness Group
MEPA Trust
Helen’s Daughter
Equality Bahamas

12. Strategies and tactics for
advocacy
• Youth and women led
• Focused largely on public education, resource
mobilization & bringing global attention to
regional issues
• Social media campaigns
• Public education campaigns
• Integrated into other movements and actions
• Representation at global level as part of the
UNFCCC process & gender conventions

13. GirlsCARE
• Feminist activist led initiative
based in Jamaica
• Provides mentorship to young
women and girls in feminist
activism
• Uses a climate justice and
intersectional framework to co-
create knowledge

14. Caribbean Young Women Led
Initiatives

15. Challenges & Opportunities for
Young Women in CA
Challenges Opportunities
Time poor Capacity building
Unpaid work Innovative ideas
Victimization Movement/community building
Ageism Regional collaboration
Access to resources- money,
media
Climate justice/human rights in
practice

16. Gender & Climate in Policies & Plans
• Mentioned in most national policies and
plans including climate policies, NAPs,
NDCs
• Not treated as an intersectional issue
• Narrow framing of gender in national plans
• No legislative mandates to support
institutionalization
• Limited resources allocated to implement

17. Priority areas for to accelerate gender-responsive
adaptation action
• Capacity building: training and development in project development and
management and in the technical aspects of climate change
• Research: data on gender and climate change and support for research
• Local led adaptation: resourcing frontline communities to support adaptation
planning at the local level, integrating indigenous knowledge and empowering
marginalized groups
• Cross regional collaboration: Facilitation cross regional dialogue, knowledge
co-creating and sharing with Latin America, Pacific Islands, etc.
• Public awareness & education: Funding for campaigns using various tools to
build awareness in all sectors and at all levels

18. Recommendations
• Integrate climate action in the curriculum
• Provide incentives for young women’s and
girls participation
• Provide training and capacity building
• Implement the strategies and plans for
gender-responsive climate planning
• Gender transformative education for climate
justice in the Caribbean

19. #GirlActivist
• Read
• Research
• Think
• Ask questions
• Collaborate
• Show up
• Speak up
• Take up space