Back to events

WORKSHOP ON

Climate vulnerability assessment methodologies in the water, forest, and agriculture sectors through a gendered lens

Venue

Microsoft Teams

Date & Time

29 January 2021 to 05 February 2021

Co-organized by: International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD); University of Toronto, Canada

 

Background

Natural resource management is one of the central drivers of proactive change in watershed development programmes in the Hindu Kush Himalaya. It enables poverty alleviation, diversifies income, lessens the indebtedness of farmers, increases food security, and more generally supports actions that lead towards an improvement of the environment. But increasing population growth and the resultant pressure on the environment to maintain and increase food production, fodder, water, and other goods and services has led to a significant amount of depletion and lowered resilience of natural resource systems.

In such circumstances, any detrimental change in an ecosystem’s ability to provide goods and services (e.g. as with climatic change) is disproportionately felt in poorer households, particularly women-headed households and marginalized groups/communities. Women (across all socioeconomic groups) who take on a disproportionate burden of securing household food, water and fuel requirements, for instance, are at a clear disadvantage and bear the brunt of negative environmental impacts. Women lack access to and control over natural and agricultural resources predominantly because of structural barriers that privilege men. Consequently, the broader, sustainable, equitable success of proactive resource management initiatives is hindered from the very start.

Unfortunately, the realities of power relations that result in differential access and control over resources are often unnoticed or disregarded by development professionals. Thus, there is an urgent need to integrate gender and socially sensitive/responsive approaches across stakeholder groups to account for these systemic inadequacies. Stakeholders include policymakers, practitioners, and community members, including women and men from different socio-cultural and economic groups. Inclusiveness will be essential to break the aforementioned barriers; a gendered lens in resource and vulnerability assessments, as well as planning and implementation, will better guide and orient the identification, priority setting, and targeting of beneficial outcomes for the environment and society.

The proposed workshop is intended to strengthen the capacity of professionals to develop and deliver gender responsive and transformative programming. The workshop will also provide a reflexive platform for knowledge integration, application, and communication. Through this forum, our intention is to create a window of opportunity where complex issues relating to social and gender structures, attitudes, and practices are explored in developing innovative management solutions to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

About the workshop

This capacity-building workshop will frame gender and social issues within the context of natural resource management activities that are affected by climatic change. We will focus on the deeper challenges faced by participants in their work and highlight the numerous and unequal effects that normalized practices may have upon marginalized groups. Within this context, we will use gender as the common thread when discussing natural resource planning and management to highlight and integrate gender and social concerns.

In particular, we will discuss the utilization of “assessment” methodologies, applied in natural resource planning and management, and focus on outcomes and impacts regarding gender. Assessment methods are diverse and highly flexible, allowing for multiple entry points, but care must be taken in tailoring them to the needs of stakeholders. We will review a diverse range of such tools and underscore how gender can become a focal point of their cultivation and application.

Objectives

Gender-focused objectives

  • Understand the linkages between gender and social differentials within the water, forest, and agriculture sectors
  • Enhance understanding of risks and vulnerabilities from a gender lens
  • Explore how gender and social intersectionality perpetuates inequalities and exclusion
  • Build capacity and skills on gender tools and methods of data collection, analysis, and planning

Technical assessment tools

  • Increase stakeholders’ ability to understand the variety of assessment tools and the context in which they are used globally, their benefits, and their limits. This will include discussions on risk assessment, impact assessment (social and environmental), vulnerability, adaptation and resilience assessments, and other assessment models, including those specific to gender.
  • Enhance the capacity of stakeholders to curate the wide variety of assessment tools and choose the most relevant methodology for their specific project application
  • Enhance the capacity of stakeholders to tailor assessment methodologies to meet specific objectives
Participants

The training will enhance the capacity of professionals – foresters, hydrologists, engineers, agriculturalists – from the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. A total of 15 professionals will participate in the capacity-building training programme.

Methodology

The training workshop will be conducted through daily, three-hour online sessions for a period of five days in addition to two 2-hour sessions. Additional material will be available online. The training will follow the principles of adult learning hosted through Microsoft Teams. Participants will learn about multiple assessment methods that are used globally across various management levels. The gendered perspective adopted in social impact assessment (SIA), gender impact assessment (GIA), Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+), and gender assessment and analysis tools and methods will help anchor the field realities experienced among the participants.

To apply

The application has been closed.

Application deadline: 25 Jan 2020 (5 pm, Nepali Standard Time, UTC+05:45)

Successful candidates notified by: 27 Jan 2020

Eligibility: foresters, hydrologists, engineers, agriculturalists from the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

Total number of selected applicants from the open call: 5-8

Expected outcomes
  • Enhanced understanding of gender and identity and how this links to access, control, and use of natural resources
  • The knowledge and capacity to apply and use gender and social analytical tools and methods to integrate these within technical subjects and sectors
  • A broader awareness of the assessment tools, data, and methodologies that are available to consider social and environmental issues
Agenda

All timings are in Nepal Standard Time (UTC+05:45).

Time Programme Speakers/resource persons
10:00–12:00 Introduction Kanchan Shrestha, ICIMOD
Background and overview of the training James MacLellan, University of Toronto

Aditya Bastola, ICIMOD

Setting up the MS Teams platform Ujjwal Bajracharya, ICIMOD
Participants’ introduction and pre-assessment results Kanchan Shrestha, ICIMOD
12:00–12:15 Participants’ expectations Kanchan Shrestha, ICIMOD
12:15–12:30 Assigning groups and group leads for reflections and group work Aditya Bastola, ICIMOD

Time Session Programme Speakers/resource persons Session recordings
09:30–09:45 Session A1

 

Sign-in MS Teams Nishikant Gupta, ICIMOD
09:45–09:55 Welcome remarks Pema Gyamtsho, ICIMOD

James MacLellan, University of Toronto

09:55–10:15 Global climate trends Philippe Gachon, University of Quebec at Montreal
10:15–10:35 Regional climate trends Arun B Shrestha, ICIMOD
10:35–10:45 Session break
10:45–11:00 Session A2

 

Objectives of the workshop James MacLellan, University of Toronto

Kanchan Shrestha, ICIMOD

11:00–12:30 Understanding gender and identities Chanda Gurung Goodrich and Aditya Bastola, ICIMOD

Time Session Programme Speakers/resource persons Session recordings
09:30–09:45 Sign-in on MS Teams Nishikant Gupta, ICIMOD
09:45–09:55 Recap of Day 1 Participants
09:55–11:00 Session B1 Understanding gender concepts Chanda Gurung Goodrich and Aditya Bastola, ICIMOD Deepa Oli, Ministry of Forest and Environment, Nepal
11:00–11:10 Session break
11:10–11:40 Session B2 Linkages between gender, water, forestry and agriculture sectors Chanda Gurung Goodrich and Aditya Bastola, ICIMOD
11:40–12:30 Session B3 Climate change and gendered impacts focusing on water, agriculture, and forest Chanda Gurung Goodrich and Aditya Bastola, ICIMOD

Time Session Programme Speakers/resource persons Session recordings
09:30–09:45   Sign-in on MS Teams Participants
09:45–09:55 Recap of Day 2 Nishikant Gupta, ICIMOD
09:55–11:30 Session C1 Assessment tools

General trends in methodological development

  • Scale
  • Structural elements
  • Functional elements
  • Application pathways and risks
James MacLellan, University of Toronto

Kim Reeder, University of New Brunswick

11:30–11:40 Session break
11:40–12:30 Session C2 Inter-sectoral synergies

  • Climate challenge
  • Environmental challenge
  • Institutional challenge
James MacLellan, University of Toronto

Charles Bourque, University of New Brunswick

 

12:30–14:00 Lunch break
14:00–14:15 Sign-in Nishikant Gupta, ICIMOD
14:15–16:15 Session C3 Group work: Identifying your functional role in assessment structure

Group work (participants work in groups)

James MacLellan, University of Toronto

Kim Reeder, University of New Brunswick

Time Session Programme Speakers/resource persons Session recordings
09:30–09:40 Sign in and recap of Day 3 Nishikant Gupta, ICIMOD, and participants
09:40–10:15 Report back from group – group leads Nishikant Gupta, ICIMOD
10:15–12:30 Session D1 Value and risk: The response to challenging sectoral interdependencies

  • Expenditure pathways
  • Perceptions (economic discounting)

Group work: Decision pathways

James MacLellan, University of Toronto Kim Reeder, University of New Brunswick

 

12:30–14:00 Lunch break
14:00–14:15 Sign-in Nishikant Gupta, ICIMOD
14:15–15:15 Session D2 Reporting back from the group James MacLellan, University of Toronto Kim Reeder, University of New Brunswick

Time Session Programme Speakers/resource persons Session recordings
09:30–09:40 Recap of Day 4 Nishikant Gupta, ICIMOD
09:40–11:15 Session E1 Gender tools and analysis

  • Activity and its benefit and incentive profile
  • Access, control, and their benefit and incentive profile
  • Institutional access, constraints, and benefit profile
Chanda Gurung Goodrich and Aditya Bastola, ICIMOD
11:15–11:25 Session break
11:25–12:30 Session E2 Climate vulnerability and adaptation assessment tools Chanda Gurung Goodrich and Aditya Bastola, ICIMOD
12:30–14:00 Lunch break
14:00–14:15 Sign-in on MS Teams Nishikant Gupta, ICIMOD
14:15–15:15 Session  E3 Closing session Post-workshop assessment form Reflection by participants Certificate distribution Closing remarks

  1. ICIMOD
  2. University of Toronto
Aditya Bastola, ICIMOD Kanchan Shrestha, ICIMOD Arun B Shrestha, ICIMOD James MacLellan, University of Toronto
Further information

Workshop coordinator

Aditya Bastola, Gender Specialist, ICIMOD

Kanchan Shrestha, Programme Coordinator, Koshi Basin Initiative, ICIMOD

Logistics

Nishikant Gupta, Programme Officer, Koshi Basin Initiative, ICIMOD

Govinda Shrestha, Senior Programme Associate, Koshi Basin Initiative, ICIMOD

Resource persons

Aditya Bastola

Gender Specialist, ICIMOD

Arun Bhakta Shrestha

Arun Bhakta Shrestha

Regional Program Manager, River Basins and Cryosphere, ICIMOD

Chanda Goodrich Gurung

Chanda Goodrich Gurung

Senior Gender Specialist, ICIMOD

Charles Bourque

Charles Bourque

Professor, Acting Director of Graduate Studies, University of New Brunswick

Jim MacLellan

Jim MacLellan

Environmental Science Program Director, University of Toronto Scarborough

Kanchan Shrestha

Kanchan Shrestha

Programme Coordinator, Koshi Basin Initiative, ICIMOD

Nishikant Gupta

Nishikant Gupta

Programme Officer, Koshi Basin Initiative, ICIMOD

Philippe Gachon

Philippe Gachon

Professeur d’hydroclimatologie, Université du Québec à Montréal

Kim Reeder

Kim Reeder

University of New Brunswick

Kim Reeder is a consultant with over two decades of experience in facilitating natural resource-based research and community development projects. As a forest technologist, she has led various organizations in utilizing forested lands for public education. She also holds a Master’s in Environmental Management from the University of New Brunswick (UNB) and continues to be involved with UNB, working on environmental projects in the faculties of forestry and sociology. Reeder annually supervises a team of UNB graduate students in a four-month practicum experience. Reeder has been involved in many climate vulnerability and risk assessments in rural areas of New Brunswick and is currently working on the same for the largest floodplain in New Brunswick. She is also working on the communications and legacy team for the largest dam decommissioning project to-date in Canada.

Deepa Oli

Deepa Oli

Assistant Forest Officer

Deepa Oli is an Assistant Forest Officer with the Ministry of Forests and Environment, Government of Nepal, where her key responsibilities include working on planning and monitoring activities and ensuring gender integration in the planning, implementation, and budgeting processes. She has over seven years of experience championing gender integration in natural resources management, and she is a member secretary of the ministry-level Gender Working Group on Forests, Environment, and Climate Change. She was previously involved with implementing soil conservation and watershed management activities in Dailekh as a Soil Conservation Assistant at the Department of Forest and Soil Conservation. She holds an MSc in Environment Management from Pokhara University and a BSc in Forestry from Tribhuvan University.

Follow the event on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn with the hashtags #climatevulnerability #genderlens.

Name

Organization

Title/position

Gender

Kinley Choden

Ugyen Wangchuck Institute for Conservation and Environmental Research

Senior Environment Officer

F

Chen Qiong

College of Geographic Sciences, Qinghai Normal University, Xining, China

Professor

F

YANG Xinyue 

Sichuan University 

 

F

Xiaoyang Hu

IGSNRR, Physical Geography and Land Change Science

 

F

Mohan K. Rai

IGSNRR, Bio-geography and Land Use Change

 

M

Siteng Jia

Gender and Dev. Study at AIT

Master in Anthropology

M

Sh Kulbhushan Gopal

 Bihar State Disaster Management Authority

Sr. Editor

M

Sayema Jamal (Ms)

Department of Geology, Patna University

Asst. Professor

F

Bhavuk Sharma

Forest Research and Training Centre, Babar Mahal

Asst. Professor

M

Arti Sinha

Water Resource Department, FMIS, Bihar

Deputy Director-3

F

Amita Singh

Water Resource Department, FMIS, Bihar

Assistant Director-3

F

Ashok Kumar Sharma

Bihar State Disaster Management Authority

Project Officer

M

Indira Mulepati

Department of Forest and Soil Conservation, Babar Mahal

Asst. Soil Conservation Officer

F

Bimala Lama

Forest Research and Training Centre, Babar Mahal

Asst. Res. Officer

F

Bishnu Dhakal

Forest Research and Training Centre, Babar Mahal

Asst. Planning Officer

M

Sunil Kumar Singh

Department of Agriculture, Harihar Bhawan, Lalitpur

Senior Agri. Economist

M

Asha Sharma

Department of Agriculture, Harihar Bhawan

Senior Agri. Economist

F

Ikram Ullah Khan

UNDP GLOF II

Project Engineer for Gilgit

M