Integrating gender and social dynamics to tackle health impacts of air pollution

About the event

We are organising this workshop to bring together relevant partners and government officials from both the central and provincial levels within the Ministry of Women, Children, and Senior Citizens (MoWCSC) and the Ministry of Health and Population to design action for future collaboration and complementary investment in the gender equality and social inclusion (GESI)-responsive air pollution and health mitigation roadmap.

ICIMOD’s Action Area for Stimulating Action for Clean Air has been working with the Department of Environment (DoE) on policy formulation and facilitation to address and mitigate air pollution issues, along with air quality monitoring. Building on our ongoing initiatives and collaborations, we would like to extend the scope of our efforts to encompass gender and social integration within the context of air pollution’s health impacts and its consequences.

This event is supported by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)-funded Himalayan Resilience Enabling Action Programme (HI-REAP) under the Climate Action for a Resilient Asia (CARA) programme.

Objectives

• Identify GESI-responsive air pollution mitigation opportunities and possible collaborative actions
• Enhance collaboration with and leverage complementary investment in GESI-responsive health and air pollution from other government agencies

Background

South Asia is a global hotspot of air pollution and home to 37 to 40 most polluted cities in the world. Air pollution comes with a multitude of health and environmental impacts. However, these impacts are not evenly shared. People from socially and economically marginalised groups face greater health issues from air pollution despite their minimal contribution to the overall air pollution.

Vulnerable groups often lack access to air quality information, which could play a catalysed role in the prevention of air pollution exposure. Similarly, socially and economically marginalised groups are more susceptible to health threats due to limited access to health services. Moreover, pollution sources such as landfill-side, factories area, with increasing harmful pollutants, tend to be located near the settlements of vulnerable communities/groups. A higher number of these vulnerable groups also tend to work in the informal sector, such as brick factories and landfill sites, further increasing the risk of exposure to air pollution and its impacts.