Gender sensitivity of Sub-Saharan Africa National Adaptation Programmes of Action: findings from a desk review of 31 countries

Abstract

There is growing realization that ignoring the mediating influence of gender relations may impact on the effectiveness of adaptation and mitigation policies, which has gradually brought gender issues onto the agenda of national and international fora. Against this background, this article confronts discourse with reality, by investigating to what extent and in what way 31 Sub-Saharan African National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs) integrate a gender dimension into the different phases of the NAPA cycle, and the different sectors that are especially related to climate change. Additionally, this paper analyses the extent to which women and gender experts participate in diagnosis and decision-making, as well as the gender sensitivity of the format used for participation. The findings of the gender scan demonstrate, among other things, that there is a decline in gender sensitivity throughout the intervention cycle. Furthermore, processes have been more gender-sensitive than the actual content of NAPAs, which suggests that gender actors around the table in NAPA decision-making have not always been able to influence the content of the NAPAs. When it comes to integrating gender issues in climate change budgets, our study suggests that the insights, approaches and tools of gender budgeting could be particularly useful.