Gender and Climate Change. An Emperical Legal Study of Gender Responsiveness in Kenyan Climate Change Response Documents

Abstract

Climate change, also referred to as global warming, is affecting every continent of the world, affecting lives and causing significant impacts on the environment as well national economies. Kenya and neighbouring countries in East Africa are some of the countries hardest hit by the impacts of climate change. A major challenge in these countries is also the unequal and gendered dimension of climate change impacts. As the first country in Africa, and one of few countries worldwide, Kenya enacted a climate change law in 2016. Along with different climate change action plans and strategies, the Climate Change Act aims to challenge climate change impacts and to promote climate resilient development in Kenya.

This thesis examines the implementation of the legislation and policies on climate change response, applying a gender policy analysis based on a theoretical framework developed by Carol Bacchi. The thesis is divided in two analytical sections. The first part is a textual gender analysis of the Kenyan legal framework on climate change response. The second part comprises a study of the implementation of the legal documents, based on an analysis of interview data. The stakeholders include representatives from different environmental organisations and institutes working with gender and climate change response on different levels.

One result from the analysis is that the legal framework recognises the gendered dimension of climate change and reveals a shift towards more gender responsiveness in climate change governance generally. Many documents are, however, too vaguely formulated regarding concepts such as gender and equality, which complicates the implementation process. This is explained by the lack of awareness and knowledge regarding gender. Another explanation to the implementation issue is that there is a gap between the policy makers and the communities at the grassroots level. There is a need to create more awareness as well as a better exchange of existing knowledge and expertise. The current focus on legal measures as an efficient means of climate change response is also questioned. Alternative or complementing approaches and strategies are suggested in order to fill the gaps which legislative measures are unable to solve.