How do gender approaches improve climate compatible development? Lessons from India

The document argues that gender-sensitive approaches are essential for the sustainability and impact of climate resilience efforts in urban India, noting that urban vulnerabilities differ significantly from rural ones due to complex social dimensions of caste, class, and gender.

• Gender-sensitive approaches to climate compatible development in Indian cities differ fundamentally from rural approaches because urban scenarios are highly complex, involving intersecting social dimensions of caste, gender, and class.
• Urban residents face distinct climate vulnerabilities compared to rural populations, specifically higher risks of food insecurity, waterlogging and flooding caused by poor basic services and infrastructure, and weaker social cohesion which increases the dependency of women and marginalised groups on external assistance.
• Active participation of women in resilience planning significantly enhances the impact and sustainability of climate projects, leading to better public services, improved committee functioning, increased access to potable water, and the adoption of climate resilient agricultural techniques.
• The ACCCRN project demonstrated that treating women as agents of change rather than passive recipients leads to greater transformation, though the lack of a systematic gender-based design can lead to the misconception that such approaches are optional or burdensome.
• Strong patriarchal structures in India act as barriers to climate risk management for both men and women, and gender mainstreaming is often not viewed as imperative by local actors, with insistence typically coming from donor organisations.
• To improve urban climate resilience, the brief recommends that national and state policy-makers in India fully implement the 74th Constitutional Amendment to mandate community involvement in urban planning and integrate women's perspectives into National and State Action Plans on Climate Change.

APA

Sogani, R., Viswanathan, K. R., & Clements, R. (2016). How do gender approaches improve climate compatible development? Lessons from India. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/India-gender-brief-FINAL.pdf

Chicago

Sogani, Reetu, K. R. Viswanathan, and Rebecca Clements. How do gender approaches improve climate compatible development? Lessons from India. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2016. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/India-gender-brief-FINAL.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Sogani |first1=Reetu |last2=Viswanathan |first2=K. R. |last3=Clements |first3=Rebecca |title=How do gender approaches improve climate compatible development? Lessons from India |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=May 2016 |url=http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/India-gender-brief-FINAL.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{sogani2016how, author = {Sogani, Reetu and Viswanathan, K. R. and Clements, Rebecca}, title = {{How do gender approaches improve climate compatible development? Lessons from India}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2016}, month = may, url = {http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/India-gender-brief-FINAL.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }