Equality in climate protection

“We’ve got a chance to develop tools and techniques to bring women, girls and other at-risk groups on board,”says Deliani Poetriayu Siregar as she reflects on her experiences with the IKI, Germany’s international climate protection initiative. She is an expert on urban planning, gender and social inclusion at the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy in Indonesia, and she stresses the need to give the groups affected a voice and make it easier for them to access services such as public transport. “In all our IKI projects we try to bring these groups closer to representatives of local authorities so they get a chance to engage in dialogue or discussion,” she says.In her view, women’s groups should “no longer have to rely on others speaking about or on behalf of their communities and mobility opportunities.” 

Through the IKI initiative Germany is supporting many different projects focused on finding solutions in developing and emerging countries In 2021 the IKI Gender Strategy was brought in to provide an overarching framework to promote gender equality. It aims to work with a range of projects to dismantle gender-based discrimination and disadvantage. All too often, efforts to meet the challenges of climate protection fail to make full use of the potential of women, non-binary and trans people, so these groups are now receiving targeted funding. 

Equality in agriculture 

Time and again it is clear how important gender equality is for climate protection in industries such as agriculture. Just one example of a project on the issue is entitled “Equal Access for Female Farmers to Climate-Related Information and Adaptation Methods”, which is taking place in Kenya with funding from the IKI. Female famers in the region are facing a very particular form of digital discrimination, as, while simple mobile phones are common, women are much less likely to own a smartphone than men. As is the case with IKI projects in Indonesia, communication is key. The project has created an SMS service which gives women access to weather forecasts and real-time weather warnings, along with information on agricultural adaptation strategies and opportunities to get financial support.