The theme for International Women’s Day, 8 March, 2022 (IWD 2022) is, “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”, recognizing the contribution of women and girls around the world, who are leading the charge on climate change adaptation, mitigation, and response, to build a more sustainable future for all. The theme comes in the middle of a global crisis that realizes that women are increasingly being recognized as more vulnerable to climate change impacts than men, as they constitute the majority of the world’s poor and are more dependent on the natural resources which climate change threatens the most.

In exploring the inequality of vulnerability, this webinar will examine the emerging challenges at the intersection of climate change and gender equality, focusing on how marginalised persons within the LGBTQIA+ community are disproportionately impacted. It will conceptualise an understanding of “women in all their diversity” and how the socio-economic, religious, cultural and political contexts in which they exist limit their access to climate responsive services and finance. Research conducted by Seglah, H A & Blanchard, K (2021) on LGBTQIA+ People and Disasters indicates that “this marginalisation has also been reported in the disaster response phase, with people within the LGBTQIA+ community being discriminated against and not receiving the appropriate aid and assistance. Despite some work being done at an international level to recognise diverse gender and sexual minorities in human rights (see the Yogyakarta Principles (2007) and the Yogyakarta Principles Plus 10 (2017)) the very limited success and implementation of this work has allowed for their exclusion from key international disaster policy instruments (Barbelet and Wake, 2020)."

Thus, the webinar will explore climate change through an intersectional lens, looking deeper at what climate justice entails for women and girls in all their diversity, it will emphasise the need for gender sensitive approaches in addressing the unique needs of women within the LGBTQIA+ community and improving greater access to finance for marginalised groups. These topics will be explored through centering the voices of the most impacted, grounding the importance of storytelling, capacity building, access to finance and transforming masculinities as pillars of inclusive and gender responsive climate action.

The webinar sets the stage for the SAEDI Consulting Barbados Inc. Parallel Event at the NGO CSW66 Forum on Gender Responsive Resourcing for Climate Resilience Action, scheduled for 22nd March 2022.