Taking Gender Mainstreaming Seriously in Climate Finance

The policy brief argues that climate finance is largely gender-neutral and fails to address the differentiated impacts of climate change on women, men, boys, and girls. It identifies significant barriers, including a lack of technical capacity and a tendency to conflate 'gender' with 'women's issues.' The document calls on public development banks (PDBs) to adopt a gender-transformative approach that addresses root causes of inequality through staff training, dedicated gender units, and the integration of gender analysis into operational frameworks.

• Climate change impacts are differentiated by gender, with women and girls—particularly in the Global South—often facing greater burdens from climatic shocks. These vulnerabilities include higher health risks, hygiene and sanitation challenges, and increased exposure to gender-based violence, including human trafficking and child forced marriages. Conversely, men and boys face unique vulnerabilities and constraints linked to expectations of manhood, though these are rarely documented.
• Despite the recognition of gender equality as a tool for effective climate action and its inclusion in UNFCCC mandates like the Paris Agreement, climate finance has a poor record of integrating gender. Most climate finance remains 'gender neutral,' and there is a lack of enforcement mechanisms to ensure that gender equality commitments are implemented in practice.
• Several barriers hinder the integration of gender into climate financing, including a lack of gender analysis to inform budgets, limited technical capacity among experts, and a general misunderstanding of 'gender' and 'gender mainstreaming' among policymakers and financial institutions. Additionally, there is political resistance based on the fear that focusing on gender might detract from efforts to increase overall financing amounts.
• Public development banks (PDBs) have a significant opportunity to lead gender-equitable climate financing, as evidenced by the 2020 Finance in Common Summit where 450 PDBs signed a joint declaration to reorient financial flows toward the SDGs and the Paris Agreement. However, current operational frameworks are often flawed because PDBs frequently conflate 'gender' with 'women and girls,' leading to women-focused strategies rather than true gender mainstreaming.
• To be effective, PDBs must move beyond 'business as usual' and adopt a gender-transformative approach. This involves tackling the root causes of inequality—such as power imbalances and social norms—rather than just treating symptoms. Recommended actions include training staff on the gender-climate nexus, applying transformational mainstreaming to resource mobilisation and deployment, and establishing gender units and focal point systems for accountability.

APA

South African Institute of International Affairs (2023). Taking Gender Mainstreaming Seriously in Climate Finance. https://saiia.org.za/research/taking-gender-mainstreaming-seriously-in-climate-finance/

Chicago

South African Institute of International Affairs. Taking Gender Mainstreaming Seriously in Climate Finance. 2023. https://saiia.org.za/research/taking-gender-mainstreaming-seriously-in-climate-finance/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=South African Institute of International Affairs |title=Taking Gender Mainstreaming Seriously in Climate Finance |date=11 July 2023 |url=https://saiia.org.za/research/taking-gender-mainstreaming-seriously-in-climate-finance/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{southafricaninstituteofinternationalaffairs2023taking, author = {{South African Institute of International Affairs}}, title = {{Taking Gender Mainstreaming Seriously in Climate Finance}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2023}, month = jul, url = {https://saiia.org.za/research/taking-gender-mainstreaming-seriously-in-climate-finance/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }