Climate Change Challenges in the Arab Middle East and North Africa
Climate change will have an impact on all parts of the world, but the Arab countries of the Middle East and North Africa are certainly among those most affected by it. Some of the most significant effects of climate change which have already affected or will affect most of the 340 million people in the Arab region are increased average temperatures, less or more erratic precipitation and sea level rise, in a region which already suffers from aridity, recurrent drought and water scarcity. Climate change is a threat to poverty reduction and economic growth while restricting the fulfillment of human potential and disempowering people and communities, constraining their ability to protect and enrich their livelihoods.
At the same time, the impacts of climate change will be most severely experienced by economically challenged nations and by those segments of the population who are already in vulnerable situations owing to factors such as geography, poverty, gender, age, indigenous or minority status. Worldwide, women comprise about 70% of those living below the poverty line and as a result are likely to bear the heaviest burdens when natural disasters strike. Despite this fact, many adaptation strategies do not address gender issues and thus fortify existing risk-imbalances while ignoring women’s capacities as potential contributors to climate change solutions. Another aspect that is often overlooked is the immense impact that climate change will have (and in some cases already is having) on urban areas. With increasing population, population densities and activities in the Arab MENA region, as well as high rates of urbanization, urban areas especially in the coastal zone are particularly vulnerable to impacts of climate change.
All of this comes in line with the global need for a strict endorsement of environmental justice that caters for the needs of the societies and the environment actively and effectively. Climate Change is fundamentally an issue of human rights as environmental rights are closely related to human rights. While environmental rights do not fit neatly into the so-called “generations” of human rights, they are extending over all the various categories, depending on one’s perspective. Existing civil and political rights can be used to give individuals, groups and NGOs access to environmental information, judicial remedies and political processes. At the same time, a decent, healthy or sound environment can be treated as an economic or social right, comparable to those whose progressive attainment is promoted by the 1966 UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Lastly, environmental quality can be viewed as a collective or solidarity right, giving communities rather than individuals a right to determine how their environment and natural resources should be protected and managed.
Therefore, in its second regional Summer School, the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Ramallah, in cooperation with the regional offices Beirut and Tunis, will focus on climate change adaptation strategies throughout the Arab Middle East and North Africa, tackling specifically the question of gender-responsiveness in these efforts (overall assessment, best practices, risks and challenges) and the impact of climate change on urban livelihoods and living conditions.
1. Gender-Responsive Climate Change Adaptation
The impacts of climate change are not gender neutral. While it is unlikely that any share of society will be spared feeling the effects of changing climate conditions, it is generally the poorest of society who are the most vulnerable to climate change repercussions as their sensitivity to the exposure to the impacts is increased and their adaptive capacity is reduced. Gender inequalities are a major reinforcing factor in this case. Throughout the Arab MENA region, women are among those least able to adapt to the impacts of change as they are more likely to be poor than men. They are often responsible for natural resource and household management, in particular in rural areas but they lack access to resources and opportunities for improving and diversifying livelihoods, and have limited participation in decision-making. At the same time, women should not only be seen as the main victims of climate change. Their role as positive agents of change and contributors to livelihood adaptation strategies makes them an integral part of any comprehensive strategy. Ignoring them as key stakeholders not only fortifies existing inequalities and risk-imbalances but also limits every strategy’s potential for sustainable impact. Gender equality is both a development goal in itself and a condition for the achievement of sustainable development. Therefore, gender equality is also a condition for successful adaptation to climate change. A gender-responsive adaptation approach to climate change needs to integrate instruments to identify the specific local gender- and adaptation-related issues, raise awareness on them, and develop strategies to address them.
2. Urban Livelihoods and Living Conditions
In 19 out of 22 Arab countries, the annual urbanization rate exceeds the rate of population growth with the exceptions of Djibouti, Bahrain, and United Arab Emirates (three countries with over 75 percent urban populations). City location in the coastal zones, population densities, governance and extension of the surrounding land use and the efficiency of energy utilization dictate the performance and efficiency of the city in the climate changing era. As climate change intensifies, urban centers will face growing risks from storms, floods, heat waves and water shortages. Nations and cities most at risk are often those nations and cities that have contributed least to the creation of the problem. This is why a strict call for a shared responsibility is imperative at this point. Climate change will certainly exacerbate the problems associated with voluntary or involuntary eco-migration to large and intermediate cities, away from flood-prone localities, as well as potentially large-scale internal and cross-border mobility away from agricultural zones undermined by changing climatic conditions or declining water availability and droughts. Vulnerable populations such as the urban poor, children, women, the elderly, and minority groups generally have a lower capacity to adapt to the impacts of climate change due to limited financial, political, social, and information resources. The dependence of poor women on livelihood activities which depend on ecological goods and services produced naturally from the environment makes them incredibly vulnerable to climate change impacts in both rural and urban areas. Land use and urban planning regulations in the Arab MENA region largely ignore basic adaptation requirements to climate change. An estimated 75% of buildings and infrastructure in the region are at direct risk of climate change impacts, mainly from sea level rise, higher intensity and frequency of hot days and storm surges. Reliability of transportation systems, water supply and waste-water networks, and energy generation stations will be at risk. All of these sectors have profound effects on social and gender relations. The diminished capability of public institutions to deliver services can serve to exacerbate existing tensions and inequalities, and adaptation strategies might add to this effect if they are one-sidedly focused on the mere ecological consequences and do not include a social dimension. Therefore it is essential to examine both the impacts of climate change and the respective adaptation strategies in terms of their effect on social and gender relations.
Participants:
The Summer School is designed to build the capacities of the participants and to stir a debate about urgent current policy topics. It will also provide the international lecturers with information about and viewpoints from the region, and offer an excellent platform for exchanging ideas, opinions, arguments and sharing experiences across the region. This program shall promote networking among civil society actors, researchers and activists in the region active in the field of climate, adaptation and mitigation strategies, gender and environment. This Summer School inter alia addresses junior professionals, postgraduates, activists, and researchers working at NGO’s, civil society organizations, think tanks or other institutions from Palestine, Jordan, the Gulf, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria). The age range is between 25 and 35. The methodology will be varied, including lectures, working groups, round table discussions, workshops and other.
Heinrich Böll Foundation will select 2 participants based on their performance during the Summer School and invite them to participate in the HBS delegation to COP18 in Qatar at the end of the year.
Application:
To be considered, an application should include the attached application form and a Curriculum Vita in English as well as a short paper (2 pages maximum, English or Arabic).
The paper should focus on one subtopic of the Summer School (A Gender-Responsive Climate Change Adaptation or B Urban Livelihoods and Living Conditions) and show the applicant’s knowledge as well as their ability to work independently and creatively. To this end, the applicant should choose a topic from within the subject area and point out its relevance to their local or national context, e.g. by introducing an exemplary project, a current debate etc. This can be written in form of an essay.
The Summer School will be conducted in Arabic and English with potential translation. A good command of the English language is preferential. The participants are asked to indicate their English level in the application form. Travel and accommodation costs of the participants will be covered by the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
Please hand in the documents by email to:
Heinrich Böll Stiftung Ramallah, Ms. Svenja Oberender (Svenja.Oberender@ps.boell..org)
Heinrich Böll Stiftung Beirut, Mrs. Corinne Deek (Corinne.Deek@lb.boell.org)
Heinrich Böll Stiftung MENA - Tunis, Mr. Waleed Mansour (tn-external1@tn.boell.org)
Deadline for application is 04 August 2012.
DOWNLOAD - Application Form - Ramallah
DOWNLOAD - Summer School Poster - ENG
DOWNLOAD - Summer School Poster - ARB