Empowering women of Bhaise and Satkanya communities to influence a Gender Responsive Budgeting of their Local Government for the Adaptation of Climate Change

Description

Climate justices Feminist Participatory Action Research (CJ-FPAR 2019-2021) under Feminist Fossil Fuel Free Futures Sub-Grants For NDC Monitoring and Equity- APWLD has recently been concluded with entitled on Empowering women of Bhaise and Satkanya communities to influence a Gender Responsive Budgeting of their Local Government for the Adaptation of Climate Change.

The research communities, Bhaise and Satkanya are the rural villages of south Lalitpur. These villages are about 30 kilometers away from the capital city of Nepal, Kathmandu. Both communities represent ward 3 of Bagmati Rural Municipality with typical rural settlement. In the community, most women engage in household work along with agriculture and cattle farming. For a long time, these communities have been facing climate change impacts, for example landslides, drought, loss of livelihood etc. but due to the lack of knowledge, they are silent about their problem. This FPAR focused on empowering women to build capacity for climate adaptation programmes in their communities. The community women have limited knowledge on climate change impact, women’s human rights, local policies, programme regarding the climate change, budget provision for communities. So Women want to have   capacity building training programmes on different subjects such as climate change adaptation, mitigation, tree plantation and soil protection. Kitchen gardening local level leadership development. They also expect the municipality to manage the market and vehicle services in order for them to sell their products. So, the project aims to empower women for influencing gender budgeting in local government and its effective utilization in the women capacity enhancement.

There are some successful women’s initiatives in both communities, such as mother’s groups and women’s cooperatives, which provides opportunities for women in various sectors such as saving and credit facilities , trainings, exposure visits,  which helps to make their daily lives easier.

The successful women’s initiatives in both communities are mother’s groups and women’s cooperatives. These initiatives help women to be independent and able to take action at a time of violence. Mother’s groups encourage women to participate in social functions such as festivals, celebrations, raising awareness, and occasionally doing entertainment programs. Not only that, but they also collect a small amount of money each month, which can help women save money. On the other hand, women’s cooperatives provide opportunities for women in different sectors. This serves as a role model for women in the community because it empowers women with agricultural knowledge, educated illiterate women, and assists women in becoming self-sufficient using local resources.

This FPAR focused on empowering women to build capacity for climate adaptation programmes in their communities. So the main advocacy goal will be empowering and influencing community women along with the local government to implement a climate adaptation gender budget for the community women.