After Rio+20, the proposed post-2015 framework needs to learn from the shortcomings of the MDG-process and merge care economy and green economy approaches to advance and finance truly gender-equitable sustainable development

As the Board of the Green Climate Fund meets in Paris from October 7-10 with a long agenda and the urgency to move ahead with far-reaching decisions, it is crucial that the mandate of the Governing Instrument's for the GCF to follow "a gender-sensitive approach" is considered in the context of the policies waiting for for the Board's approval. See a joint policy brief by the Heinrich Böll Foundation North America and the climate finance working group of the Global Gender and Climate Alliance.

At COP18 in Doha, a decision was made urging Parties to promote gender balance in bodies established under the international climate regime. This HBF submission details actions to make UNFCCC climate finance bodies not only gender-balanced, but more gender-responsive…

Gender equality efforts at the World Bank are not new. Several recent World Bank and external reports have taken stock of how successfully gender equality concerns have been mainstreamed in World Bank activities in the past few years. This analysis finds that while there have been some improvements ,persistent weaknesses in implementation remain largely due to a focus on internal process over gender equality impacts in developing countries.

The post-2015 development agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have the potential to make a positive, long-lasting difference in addressing today's myriad of unresolved challenges and fundamental crises if they focus on gender equality and macro-economic policy reform. This paper analyses how gender equality is taken up in the post-Rio+20 process.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has a mandate to fund mitigation and adaption action in developing countries while "taking a gender-sensitive approach." With the Fund Board set to discuss and decide the vision, objectives and business model for the Fund, this paper makes a case for mainstreaming gender into the processes and financing of the GCF in conjunction with these decisions.

The policy priorities of the G20 have profound gender implications, although the G20 rarely recognizes this fact. This report explores the possibilities for gender bias in the G20's policies, including those related to: fiscal and monetary priorities, employment, social protection, and development.

Afghanistan represents a very particular case of military intervention-cum-state-building-cum-democratization. Afghan women parliamentarians and civil society actors have positioned themselves against a complete withdrawal of the international community by 2014.

Gender-Responsive Multilateral Adaptation Investments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region – This study analyses how gender-responsive multilateral adaptation projects in the MENA region are, finding and discussing both best and worst practice examples. The authors demands that multilateral institutions in all their MENA adaptation projects implement gender safeguard policies consistent with existing international conventions and instruments on gender equality.

On the eve of Rio+20, the Heinrich Böll Stiftung North America has asked several of its partners from civil society to reflect in short commentaries about some of the linkages and synergies between gender equity and key issue areas of sustainable development.

The urgent need to address climate change, the concerns of depleting fossil fuel reserves, volatile global oil prices and continued economic crisis amongst other reasons have put energy at the center of public policy debates. While the discussions are centered around addressing energy security, often focused primarily around electricity generation, the more immediate energy crisis is in creating equitable energy access and eradicating energy poverty.

Recognizing the significance of inequitable gender relations for women’s vulnerability to climate change, this study analyzes if and how an adaptation measure involving a relocation program that gives titles to new public housing to women implemented in response to severe flooding in the Mexican state of Tabasco in 2007, has contributed to modifying gender relations and strengthening gender equality.

The effects of climate change and current policy responses have disproportionately negative impacts on women. As part of the effort to address the imbalance, this research assesses policies and practices for gender-just adaption in India.

  Today, prospects for sustainable development remain a serious challenge as our global economy, our natural environment, our social well-being, and our political structures are in crisis. From the economy to climate change to food and agriculture, systems of governance are in disarray. Everyone is struggling more intensely in today’s world – particularly women and girls.

During the Arab uprisings, an unprecedented number of women took to the streets, paving the way for a more important role in politics. However, in the transitional period that follows, they now have to fight against their exclusion from the political arena.

Climate change is not gender-neutral. Suffering from gender-based vulnerabilities to climate change, women are more often victims of climate change than men; however, women also possess knowledge of and experiences in capacities to mitigate as well as strategies to cope and adapt, which makes them important “agents of change” in the fight against global warming.

Gender considerations are currently not systematically addressed in existing climate financing instruments; where gender appears, it is in bits and pieces. This is where the Green Climate Fund, currently designed by the 40 members of the Transitional Committee, has a chance to do better.

On 22 February, the Heinrich Böll Foundation North America, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), Women Organizing for Change and Natural Resource Management (WOCAN) and the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS) co-organized a panel discussion on "Climate Adaptation Challenges from a Gender Perspective - CSO Messages for Rio +20."

It is certainly laudable that gender equality gets the serious consideration it deserves in the current international development discourse, and having a WDR exclusively focused on gender equality gives it yet another ‘stamp of approval’ of being an intrinsic development issue. Too bad, that the World Bank is not using this occasion to accompany the academic exercise internally with a serious reflection and reconsideration of the Bank’s own understanding of and approach to gender equality.

This edition of the Heinrich Boell Foundation’s series on Democracy analyzes the historical and current developments of gender relationships, and the role of women in the politics of Egypt, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait.

On October 22, Nancy Alexander spoke at the Global Capital Forum of the Korean Women's Development Institute about the importance of women's leadership in achieving sustainable development. Her paper appears here.

Gender equality is highlighted as a special theme in the ongoing 16th round of replenishment talks for the World Bank Group’s International Development Association (IDA 16). A discussion about gender equality at the World Bank group is not new. Since 2001, the World Bank has had an official gender mainstreaming strategy. Yet there are some structural weaknesses in the way the World Bank addresses gender considerations that need to be overcome in order for IDA 16 to be able to contribute to gender-equitable development in the poorest developing countries.

Although various studies have focused on climate change impacts and adaptation opportunities in Africa, few have focused on the household level and in particular on gender differentiated impacts of climate change. This study, commissioned by Heinrich Böll Stiftung, provides an analysis and summary of the findings of eight case studies carried out in four southern African countries. Furthermore, the study aims to identify various policies, programmes and activities that could address these issues.

Climate change has already severe impacts especially in the poorest countries and for the most vulnerable people and groups, among them disproportionally many women. Adapting to these impacts will be very costly but unavoidable.

The United States has been dominated by a political coalition in which conservative evangelical Protestants have played a major role leading to a vociferous conservativism in U.S. policy on issues of both gender and sexuality. Although the elections in 2008 ushered in a new alliance toward more progressivism, the result on questions of gender and sexuality is by no means obvious.

This paper shows how the mortage debacle in the US affected not only the world economy, but also, and most seriously women and the poor.

Climate change is real, it is happening already, and its impacts on people are not gender-neutral. It is affecting men and women all over the world differently, especially in the world’s poorest countries and amongst the most vulnerable people and communities.1 As women and men have different adaptive and mitigative capabilities, the financing instruments and mechanisms committed to climate change activities in mitigation and adaption need to take these gender-differentiated impacts into account in funds design and operationalization as well as concrete project financing.

August 2009"The United States is a women’s success story in many ways... Yet for the past two decades at least, policies in other countries are catching up with and exceeding those in the United States, so that we can no longer consider ourselves the leader in women’s achievement or economic well-being."

In this analysis, Lanyan Chen analysis China's consequences of the aftermath of the financial crisis with regard to women.

Based on the premise that “there will be no climate justice without gender justice,”7 and vice versa, this introductory paper takes a preliminary look at the linkages between climate change, gender justice and the International Financial Institutions (IFIs).

This is the report for a roundtable held on September 21, and which was a landmark event, one of the first high-level sessions to focus on the linkages between gender equality and climatechange.

Although publicly-funded International Financial Institutions (IFIs) have missions to reduce poverty and promote economic growth, IFI projects often ignore gender inequality and increase poverty, prostitution, and HIV/AIDS, particularly among women and girls.

Sevetny persent of the world's poor are women...Any policies that aim to reduce poverty must address the female face of poverty today.