Don’t forget women in new UN climate fund, policymakers urged

DHAKA: At home on a flood-prone island in northern Bangladesh, Mosammat Shahina and her family take refuge from frequent inundations on a boat, causing upheaval that adds to her domestic workload.

“I have to try my best to get food for the family as we float on water, and attend to my children who get sick during these disasters,” the 32-year-old told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

As officials race to set up the new UN climate loss and damage fund and start allocating aid, rights groups say they must take into account the uneven burden shouldered by women like Shahina in hard-hit Global South nations.

Without that, they say the fund agreed at the COP28 climate summit in November will struggle to achieve its aim of helping communities repair damage, recover from losses, and become more resilient to disasters.

A series of delays have slowed the fund’s launch progress and so far only seven of the 25 people appointed to serve on its 26-member board are female.

That has drawn criticism from women’s rights advocates, who say rising climate change impacts - from floods to droughts and extreme heat - are taking a disproportionate toll on women.

“The growing impact of climate change affects female-headed households particularly badly - as women struggle to earn a living, put food on the family’s table and take care of the family members under strained circumstances,” said Pearl Mokgatlhane from the Botswana Society for Human Development, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in the drought-hit southern African country.