3-Day Online Training Program on “Gender Equality, Climate Change and Sustainable Development Goals”, May 27-29, 2021 IMPRI Team DAY 1: 27th May, 2021 A three-day Online Training Program on the theme “Gender Equality, Climate Change and Sustainable Development Goals” a joint initiative of National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, Center for Environment, Climate Change and Sustainable Development at IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi commenced on 27th of May, 2021. Inaugurating the program, Dr Simi Mehta, CEO & Editorial Director, IMPRI welcomed the speakers and participants to the program with an introduction to eminent panelists. She highlighted that climate change is real and is manifesting itself in different ways and forms on a regular basis and ensuring gender equality becomes very important as in the absence of it almost 50% of the population stands to be on the losing side making them vulnerable. She highlighted that as scholars, practitioners and policymakers, there is need to understand the background, issues and problems thereby objectively analyzing them to chart the best ways forward. Day 1 of the program included eminent speakers Prof Anil K Gupta Head ECDRM, NIDM, New Delhi, Prof Vibhuti Patel Former Professor, TATA Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and Dr Sukriti Chauhan Founder, Empower. Transform. Inspire. (ETI); Former Program Lead, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) with patron being Patron: Maj Gen Manoj K Bindal Executive Director, NIDM, New Delhi. The co-convener of the program, Professor Anil K Gupta Head ECDRM, NIDM, New Delhi expressed that the current journey of year 2015 – 2030 is for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)and is a period of very significant global paradigms of looking at development from entirely a more holistic and sustainable perspective. Humankind has observed great technological changes in every field and has observed changing complexities of challenges. He highlighted that day by day the magnitude of complexities of disasters have increased from cyclones coming in the west and coasts of India, flood occurring in non-flood prone areas, emergence of urban drought like forest droughts , drinking water droughts and health droughts.  He further underscored that there are increased social complexities on issues like empowerment of women, equity and equality in developing countries. In India there has been lot of disparity where women had to face lot of challenges which often get aggravated by climate change impacts. Women in India spend most of their time in acquiring fundamental need of water and sanitation. Talking about the implications of climate change, he stated that climate change implications leading to lack of access of water, food and energy at household level is one of the biggest challenged face in the country. Prof Gupta said that we need to look at leadership qualities in women as the women’s capacity and strength to help address the challenge of climate change and to continue on the track of sustainable development role is immense. It is important to acknowledge the role of women in each of the 17 SDG. He stressed the importance of technological dimensions in changing the life of women. Sharing his views he thanked the organizers and expressed that the program would be beneficial in creating a better environment for the society through research contribution and case studies formulating a way to work together in bringing about a change on ground. Prof Vibhuti Patel, Former Professor, TATA Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai Sharing her views Prof Vibhuti Patel stated that the discourse of sustainable development began in year 2000 by United Nations. She highlighted the importance of SDG 13 which adheres to climate action. She stated that the normative definition of sustainable development is one that meets the needs and aspirations of the current generation without compromising the ability to meet those of future generations. Human development approach towards sustainable development enables individuals and communities in developing countries to raise living standards through just and fair trade, non-exploitative product pricing, and production processes consistent with minimizing adverse environmental effects. She further talked about Agenda 30 that urges to take action to combat climate change and its impacts. Highlighting the vision of SDGs she stated that it is important to have sustainable development model which is aimed at inter-generational justice through economic growth, ecological sustainability, empowerment of the marginalized, and people’s participation in decision making. She underlined the various pillars of sustainable development which include economic aspects of skills and employment, livelihood, social aspects of education, health, entitlements and environmental aspects of reduction of carbon footprints- coping with climate change. Talking on gender concerns, Prof Patel stated that women in many developing countries are responsible for climatically sensitive tasks such as securing food, water and energy which ensure well-being of a household. The effects of climate change – droughts, floods, coastal erosion, sea level rise and rising temperatures – puts greater pressure on women to shoulder the adverse consequences on the household. Despite women’s vulnerabilities, women’s knowledge and social practices could be used to build community resilience if women were included in adaptation and mitigation efforts with their participation in decision-making. She highlighted the need of doing gender audit of micro- and macro-planning and program implementation and providing platform to women farmers, community workers, students and youth in concerning environmental issues. Discussing the Indian experience, she pointed that Indian women are extremely vulnerable to climate change. As women are often responsible for providing daily essentials such as food and water, when climate-related disasters strike the poorest families, the workload of women and girls increases and they tend to miss out on opportunities. Throwing light on aspects of climatic threats to life she stated that It is predicted that climate change will lead to increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather conditions, precipitating the occurrence of natural disasters around the globe. She further highlighted that women and children are 14 times more likely to die than men during natural disasters. Further, there is limited ownership rights for women, and as such, they are constrained by a lack of economic freedoms, … Continue reading Gender Equality, Climate Change and Sustainable Development Goals