6 May, TASHKENT – The webinar ‘Climate policy with a gender perspective: State and prospects in Uzbekistan’ has been held within the framework of the regional project ‘Policy Action for Climate Security in Central Asia’ as implemented by UNDP and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). This event was held with the participation of representatives of ministries and state organizations, civil society, and climate change experts.

The main topics discussed at the webinar included the gender aspects of climate-smart agriculture, and climate change’s impact on gender in Uzbekistan’s water sector, women entrepreneurs, and aspects of gender equality in improving labour relations in rural areas. Also discussed was the relationship between water consumption and meteorological indicators within the context of climate change.

“It is impossible to ensure the right to life without the right to clean drinking water, decent housing, and the environment. Similarly, gender equality cannot be achieved without taking into account all the challenges of the modern world, such as climate change. The vulnerable position of women and unresolved challenges in ensuring rights and freedoms are exacerbating the impact of climate change on women. Therefore, today's discussion of the meeting is important both from the point of view of climate change, and from the point of view of respecting and ensuring human rights” -  said Mukhabbat Turkmenova, UNDP Gender Expert in her opening speech.

Gender inequality in rural regions of Central Asian countries is a particular concern. These regions face varied development challenges including poverty, malnutrition, rapid population growth and pressure on natural resources, all exacerbated by the negative impacts of climate change.

“Women in the developing world are most the affected by climate change. Without their full involvement to the decision-making process, real sustainability in adaptation and mitigation of climate change is not possible” - said Natalya Agaltseva, Head of the Project Preparation and Monitoring Department, Uzhydromet.

Being a group most vulnerable to these impacts, rural women play an important function in implementing local adaptation policies. They require assistance to fulfil this role, however, as they continue to have less access to the benefits of education, decent professional employment, and to finances and other resources, compared to men and urban women.

In her speech, Dilfuza Egamberdieva, Ph.D. The Leibniz Center for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) noted that there is a need to consider increasing women's participation and leadership in agriculture and in decision-making on climate change.

The webinar has been a platform for discussing provisions and requirements of the implementation of gender aspects set out in the decisions of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). These include tools for integrating a gender perspective into approaches to climate change adaptation, and measures to mitigate its impacts.

The most discussed topics at the event were current policy issues in the field of climate change and their relationship to gender matters in Uzbekistan, and promising practices that can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and improving gender equality.