Climate Change and GEDSI Training for Tautua and CSO Partners

Across the Pacific, climate change and disasters are having a significant impact on existing inequalities, including gender.  On the 7^th of December 2023, representatives from organizations including Samoa Victim Support, Samoan Women of Growers, and Women in Business Development and staff from Samoa Tautua Program participated in a training to explore the links between gender, climate change, and disaster risk reduction.

Participants were encouraged to consider how to best incorporate gender-responsive approaches in the planning and implementation of climate change resilience.

Key points to support inclusive action included:

• Nothing About Us Without Us – actions must be informed by consultations with affected people and communities through their representative organization.
• Amplify Agency – actions should recognize people’s existing capabilities and the action already underway as well as support people to take the actions they choose.
• Enable Collective Action – actions should maximize the opportunity for people to form networks and work together, including through formal groups or informal community networks.
• Dismantle Barriers – actions should address the barriers to participation in programs including physical barriers, attitudinal barriers, or institutional barriers.

Participants also actively participated in the activities and learned to sign language some key words of climate with the help of a participant with special needs. 

The training was delivered by Maria Sapatu-Kennar for the Australia Pacific Climate Partnership as part of the ‘Tautua’ partnership program, which fosters collective action on human development priorities in Samoa including health, education, gender, disability, and social protection.