Creating a Just Social Order: The Role of Gender Equity in Climate Action

The paper explores the intersection of gender inequality and climate change, particularly in Africa, highlighting how women are disproportionately affected by climate-related displacement, food insecurity, and energy poverty. It details structural barriers in employment, land ownership, and political representation that limit women's adaptive capacity. The document reviews international frameworks like the Paris Agreement and the Lima Work Programme on Gender, and calls for COP29 to prioritize honoring financial pledges, increasing women's access to clean energy, and investing in gender-disaggregated data to ensure a just social order.

• Climate change disproportionately impacts marginalised populations, with women making up 54-63% of the poor and 80% of people displaced by climate-related impacts.
• Women face significant structural economic barriers, including a stagnant global gender pay gap of 16% and a high prevalence of informal work, with 70% of women's employment in developing economies coming from the informal sector.
• Gender inequalities in the care sector are severe, with women performing 76.2% of unpaid care work globally; climate change is projected to increase the time women spend collecting water by up to 30% by 2050.
• In sub-Saharan Africa, women perform 48.7% of agricultural labour but own only 15% of agricultural land, contributing to higher food insecurity; 240 million more women and girls are expected to experience climate-induced food insecurity compared to 131 million more men and boys.
• Energy poverty heavily affects Africa, where 83% of the global electricity access deficit is concentrated and four out of five people cook over open fires or traditional stoves, leading to health risks that disproportionately kill women.
• Women are underrepresented in political leadership and STEM fields, with women's representation in parliament remaining below 20% in half of African countries as of 2020.
• The paper identifies critical opportunities for COP29 to advance gender justice, including closing the financing gap for women-owned MSMEs, which currently bear 32% of a USD 5 trillion financing gap.
• Transitioning to clean cooking in sub-Saharan Africa could prevent 463,000 annual deaths and save USD 66 billion in healthcare costs, yet women hold less than a third of jobs in the renewable energy sector.

APA

Mbungu, G. (2024). Creating a Just Social Order: The Role of Gender Equity in Climate Action. Africa Policy Research Institute. https://afripoli.org/creating-a-just-social-order-the-role-of-gender-equity-in-climate-action

Chicago

Mbungu, Grace. Creating a Just Social Order: The Role of Gender Equity in Climate Action. Africa Policy Research Institute, 2024. https://afripoli.org/creating-a-just-social-order-the-role-of-gender-equity-in-climate-action.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Mbungu |first1=Grace |title=Creating a Just Social Order: The Role of Gender Equity in Climate Action |publisher=Africa Policy Research Institute |date=11 November 2024 |url=https://afripoli.org/creating-a-just-social-order-the-role-of-gender-equity-in-climate-action |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mbungu2024creating, author = {Mbungu, Grace}, title = {{Creating a Just Social Order: The Role of Gender Equity in Climate Action}}, institution = {Africa Policy Research Institute}, year = {2024}, month = nov, url = {https://afripoli.org/creating-a-just-social-order-the-role-of-gender-equity-in-climate-action}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }