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Women at the frontline of climate change: Gender risks and hopes

Report / White Paper

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September 23, 2013

Women at the frontline of climate change: Gender risks and hopes

Patterns of development and settlements put the poor and the vulnerable at increased risk with many forced to settle on the only land available at the time – land that all too often is prone to flooding and mud slides. This report underlines that women are disproportionately likely to lose their lives in such events. 

During disasters, such as drought or floods, women are also more vulnerable to organised criminal traffickers as a result of communities being scattered, and protective patterns in families and society become disrupted: a point underlined by INTERPOL and non-governmental organisations in this report and a pattern of exploitation known from armed conflicts and other disasters.
 
More than 1.3 billion people live in the watersheds of Asia’s mountain ranges. With more than half of South Asia’s cereal production taking place downstream from the Hindu KushHimalayas, the impacts on food security will become ever more important with increasing climate change. Here, adaptation will become crucial.

Resource type
Editor
Christian Nellemann, Ritu Verma, Lawrence Hislop
Publisher
UNEP
Publication year
2011
Patterns of development and settlements put the poor and the vulnerable at increased risk with many forced to settle on the only land available at the time – land that all too often is prone to flooding and mud slides. This report underlines that women are disproportionately likely to lose their lives in such events. 

During disasters, such as drought or floods, women are also more vulnerable to organised criminal traffickers as a result of communities being scattered, and protective patterns in families and society become disrupted: a point underlined by INTERPOL and non-governmental organisations in this report and a pattern of exploitation known from armed conflicts and other disasters.
 
More than 1.3 billion people live in the watersheds of Asia’s mountain ranges. With more than half of South Asia’s cereal production taking place downstream from the Hindu KushHimalayas, the impacts on food security will become ever more important with increasing climate change. Here, adaptation will become crucial.

Resource type
Editor
Christian Nellemann, Ritu Verma, Lawrence Hislop
Publisher
UNEP
Publication year
2011