Coordinating Climate-Resilient Development

This policy brief argues that climate change adaptation is only effective and sustainable if it accounts for gender differences in vulnerability, needs, and capacities. It defines gender-responsive approaches as those that actively address gender norms and inequalities to promote equality, rather than just acknowledging differences. The brief outlines a framework for integrating gender across the NAP cycle—planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation (M&E)—and across enabling factors like institutional arrangements and capacity development. A pilot review of NAP documents from 15 countries in Asia, Africa, and the Americas found that while gender is often recognized as a factor or cross-cutting issue, there is a lack of detailed steps for implementation and resource allocation.

• Adaptation efforts risk being ineffective or unsustainable if they ignore gender, as women often face social norms and practices that limit their access to resources, information, and opportunities compared to men.
• Failure to integrate gender in NAP processes can lead to negative outcomes, such as increasing the workload of women or reducing their decision-making power.
• Gender-responsive approaches are distinguished from gender-sensitive ones by their active effort to promote gender equality and challenge social norms and structures to empower women.
• A gender-responsive NAP process requires three core components: recognizing differences in adaptation needs and capacities, ensuring equitable participation in decision-making, and ensuring equitable access to financial resources and benefits.
• The framework for gender-responsive NAPs suggests specific actions across the process cycle, including the use of sex-disaggregated data in planning, gender-responsive budgeting in implementation, and the inclusion of gender equality indicators in M&E.
• A pilot review of NAP documents from 15 countries across Asia, Africa, and the Americas indicated that while gender is frequently mentioned as a cross-cutting issue, there is insufficient detail on how to prioritize actions or allocate finance in a gender-responsive manner.

APA

Dazé, A., & Dekens, J. (2017). Coordinating Climate-Resilient Development. NAP Global Network. https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/napgn-en-2017-a-framework-for-gender-responsive-nap-processes.pdf

Chicago

Dazé, Angie, and Julie Dekens. Coordinating Climate-Resilient Development. NAP Global Network, 2017. https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/napgn-en-2017-a-framework-for-gender-responsive-nap-processes.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Dazé |first1=Angie |last2=Dekens |first2=Julie |title=Coordinating Climate-Resilient Development |publisher=NAP Global Network |date=August 2017 |url=https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/napgn-en-2017-a-framework-for-gender-responsive-nap-processes.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{daz2017coordinating, author = {Dazé, Angie and Dekens, Julie}, title = {{Coordinating Climate-Resilient Development}}, institution = {NAP Global Network}, year = {2017}, month = aug, url = {https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/napgn-en-2017-a-framework-for-gender-responsive-nap-processes.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }