BY: REGINA SELMAN MOORE From Barbados Advocate

Recognising that women are the most adversely affected by climate change, Environment Canada, in partnership with the Women’s Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO), held a Caribbean Women Climate Change Negotiators Workshop at UN House yesterday.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme, which is implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is hosting the four-day workshop and National Coordinator, David Bynoe, joined with High Commissioner of Canada to Barbados, Marie Legault, to emphasise the importance of such a workshop, for women in Barbados and across the region.

“This workshop is particularly important, in light of the most recent devastating climatic events faced by the Caribbean. Hurricane Irma and Maria clearly demonstrated that although the Caribbean did not contribute significantly to climate change, we are the ones most vulnerable to it,” Bynoe told those gathered.

“The importance of this workshop is augmented by the fact that women are the most adversely impacted by climate change. Climate change-driven events such as hurricanes, the likes of which the Caribbean has recently faced, do not ask whether you are a man or woman. However, when the dust has cleared from Hurricane Maria and Irma, the stark reality is – these climate change-driven events will have impacted women differently and disproportionately, when compared to men.

He added, “It is a great global injustice that women are the most impacted by climate change, but yet they are under-represented at all levels of the climate change dialogue and policy making process.”
He meanwhile suggested that the workshop will serve as an important step in changing the status quo.

“It will develop skills among our Caribbean women in leadership and diplomacy with reference to climate change, including drafting text for interventions, decisions and other written outcomes of the negotiating process, with the aim of strengthening participants’ capacity to participate effectively in the negotiating process,” Bynoe asserted.

Canadian High Commissioner, Marie Legault, meanwhile encouraged the women to make the most use of the skills learnt, even as they venture back to their respective countries. “Please ensure that when you go back to your country you use these skills, you use the network that is created, as well as the resources from WEDO and UN, to really let your voices be heard,” she urged.

IMAGES:
High Commissioner of Canada to Barbados, Marie Legault (2nd step, 2nd left) and David Bynoe (front step, 1st left), National Coordinator of the GEF Small Grants Programme, pose for a photograph with local and regional participants of the Caribbean Women Climate Change Negotiators Workshop, on the steps of UN House
High Commissioner of Canada to Barbados, Marie Legault, addresses local and regional participants gathered for the Caribbean Women Climate Change Negotiators Workshop at UN House, as David Bynoe, National Coordinator of the GEF Small Grants Programme, lends a listening ear.

For more on this story go to: https://www.barbadosadvocate.com/news/caribbean-women-benefit-climate-change-workshop