Slender on Gender AND Transparency « Climate Equity

Many hopes around the globe are directed at the work of the UN High-Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing, which has been working now for a couple of weeks on finding innovative ways to raise the US$ 100 billion per year by 2020 that the Copenhagen Accord had promised long-term for fighting climate change.  God knows, we need urgent actions on adaptation and mitigation, especially in the poorest countries, and the financial commitments and North-South transfers to pay for them.

But for me personally, the 19-member expert panel and its process have already become a big disappointment — even before they present any preliminary findings, as they are scheduled to do  in a few weeks time at the climate talks in Bonn. 

Two main shortcomings are the cause for my dashed hopes: The composition of the 19 member panel is all-male — as if women (at last count still slightly more than 50 percent of the human population) weren’t affected by climate change and thus shouldn’t have views on how to finance actions to combat it.  And the work of the panel is non-transparent, non-participatory and — at least so far —  unaccountable.

Slender on gender AND on transparency — a double-whammy (by the way, obvioulsy related) that for me cuts to the heart of whether anything this group will come up with by Cancun has legitimacy and moral standing.

When the composition of the all-male expert group, among them some four head of states (including the hapless British Premier Gordon Brown who after Thursday might not be head of state much longer — will he then stay on the panel?) was announced in early March, many development, environment and women’s groups objected.  While UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon, who appointed the panel members, obviously strove for a balance between developing and developed countries, the need for gender balance (or at bare minimum, some gender awareness) slipped his mind.  This is bitter as the Secretary General on other occasions has acknowledged the gendered dimensions of climate change.  And it is even more disappointing as there was no shortage of distinguished female former heads of states, women ministers and development and finance experts, Ban Ki-moon could have named.

Women’s organizations not only sent an open letter to Secretary-General Ban, suggesting names like Michelle Bachelet (former President of Chile), Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (President of Liberia) or Gro Harlem Brundtland (the UN’s own Special Envoy on Climate Change) to be added to the expert group’s raster, they also lobbyed behind the scenes, meeting for example with Rachel Mayanja, the UN Special Advisor on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women, and urging the inclusion of a women in the panel.

Did they succeed?  Actually, it is not possible to verify this — at least not via the public information domain, the internet.  I heard rumors that apparently a French woman Minister was included (thus, are they now 20 or 19 on the panel)?  However, as the High Level Advisory Panel on Climate Change Financing has no official website, cannot be found on the UN’s own website (except for some press release references), thus appears to have no formal contact point, secretariat or gatekeeper, no formalized process for consulting with or allowing for the participation of the wider civil society, does not publish minutes or transcripts of meetings and discussions (have they had other than the March 31st meeting in London?), and finally, has apparently no intention to change any of these shortcomings in terms of accountability, transparency, participation and legitimacy any time soon — we might not know before the Panel officially ends its roughly 10-month mandate in November.

Does it matter? Absolutely: trust, openness, fairness, accountability and equity, including gender-equity, are essential building blocs for a succesful and durable global climate financing package — the very thing, the High Level Panel on Climate Change Financing is tasked to do.  For the panel’s work, being slender on gender and transparency almost inevitably will translate into slender on substance.

Photo: bodymindhealer – with Creative Commons Licence

Tags: climate finance, gender