Bangladesh
Women Leadership | Climate Change PM Hasina calls for increased participation of women in addressing climate change risks
Dhaka, November 3: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said that women as the main victims of climate change, need greater participation in tackling these risks and more bold steps are needed to empower them, especially in developing resilience.
The Prime Minister was speaking at a high-level panel discussion on women and climate change on the sidelines of COP26 in Scotland, UK on Tuesday. She said it was important to create a position for women in the decision-making process to address vulnerabilities caused by climate change.
The Prime Minister called upon the women leaders to take bold and specific steps at the COP 26 conference for global solidarity to build a tolerant community in the face of the adverse effects of climate change, where both women and men can participate equally.
She said, "The adverse effects of climate change are the most vulnerable and marginalized people in the world due to a number of socio-economic and cultural factors. Most of them are women and girls."
Sheikh Hasina said the existing structural inequalities in human society, the underlying social norms are having an unbalanced impact of climate change on women.
Noting that women generally do not have equal access to wealth around the world, Sheikh Hasina said that in many societies they do not have the power to make decisions and they are often engaged in low paid and unpaid jobs and activities. "For all these reasons, women are more affected by climate change than men," she said.
Noting the importance of acknowledging the extreme vulnerability of women in the response to climate change, the Prime Minister said her government is committed to ensuring women's participation in all areas of sustainable development in tackling the effects of climate change.
Later in the panel Q&A session, she said it was important to ensure women's participation in the decision-making process to address the risks of climate change.
Sheikh Hasina further said that Bangladesh has already ensured women leadership in the decision making process from the parliamentary level to the grassroots level.
She said the Bangladesh National Adaptation Program of Action (NAPA) has extensively included women as part of adaptation solutions.
Hasina said her government has developed a National Climate Change and Gender Action Plan to ensure gender equality in policies, strategies and measures related to climate change.
