National Action Plan on Gender and Climate Change for Nigeria.

This National Action Plan, based on a series of informed consultations with different stakeholders, using inclusive participatory approaches (Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies, women, youth, farmers, persons with disability, elderly persons), moves from the need to guide the implementation of gender and climate change-related policies, strategies, programmes, negotiations and actions at Federal, State and Local Government levels, as the negative impact of climate change is considered a serious threat to the social and economic realities of people, especially women, living in Nigeria. This Action Plan covers the period 2020-2025 and its priority sectors include: Agriculture, Forestry and Land Use; Food Security and Health; Energy and Transport; Waste Management; Water and Sanitation. The implementation of the Action Plan will be governed by a participatory research involving the government at all levels, academic and research institutions, women and youth groups, private sector and other non-state actors, as well as development partners. In line with Nigeria’s intention to empower and respond to the needs of women in the context of climate change, this National Action Plan focuses on effective strategies for integrating gender into the implementation of national climate change initiatives, including the Paris Agreement and the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). The Action Plan presents milestones for ensuring that in building a climate-resilient Nigeria, the important and critical roles of women, youth and other vulnerable groups are carried along in the implementation of relevant national policies and strategies.
The National Action Plan is subdivided into 4 sections: Section 1 provides an introduction, with a brief Country overview. Section 2 concerns the importance of gender issue in climate change negotiations. Section 3 focuses on the legal frameworks related to gender and environment, both at federal and international level and includes funding, monitoring and evaluation of the Plan. Section 4 defines goal and objectives and identifies five priority sectors functional to its implementation. Particularly, the goal of the Action Plan aims at ensuring that national climate change processes in Nigeria mainstream gender considerations, in order to guarantee inclusivity of all demographics in the formulation and implementation of climate change initiatives, programs and policies. The Action Plan defines the following objectives: 1) increase the understanding of climate change impact among women, youth and other vulnerable groups; 2) promote mainstreaming of gender in all policies, programs and processes of climate change management in various sectors of the economy; 3) integrate gender concerns and gender-responsive innovative approaches in the implementation of Paris Agreement and related policies; 4) increase participation of vulnerable groups especially women, youth and persons with disability in climate change policies and negotiations at local, state, national and international levels; 5) implement gender responsive and sustainable adaptation and mitigation initiatives, in order to minimise risks associated with climate change and maximise opportunities for women, youth and other vulnerable groups; 6) establish a gender responsive monitoring and evaluation system for the collection and regular dissemination of sex disaggregated data on climate change issues; 7) promote climate finance to implement gender-sensitive adaptation initiatives to enhance the resilience of women, youth and other vulnerable group; 8) strengthen capacity of the Department of Climate Change for gender mainstreaming in the national climate change response; 9) provide an implementation guide for partnerships building and coordination among key stakeholders working on gender and climate change in Nigeria.
Concerning the implementation of the linkage between gender issue and climate change in its priority sectors, the Plan defines specific objectives, action steps and timeline, indicators, responsible institutions and outcomes. Main objectives regarding Agriculture, Forestry and Land Use are: improving agriculture related infrastructure to adapt to the effects of climate change; enhancing local communities’ participation in forestry and agricultural sector; encouraging women to acquire education in agriculture and forestry and increasing their access to land; ensuring gender responsive budgeting. Food Security and Health’s objectives focus on: integration of gender and climate change in national health policy and programs; ensuring alternative livelihood opportunities for women affected by climate change in urban and rural settings; promotion of gender sensitive health care delivery services related to climate change; improving disease surveillance programs. Energy sector points out: the need for awareness on the relationship between climate change, energy and gender; the importance of supporting women to gain knowledge in energy technologies; the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases and the increasing of budget allocation on climate change and gender programs. Waste Management objectives are: integrate climate change and gender in waste management system; promote effective waste management practices in communities; create access to finance women participation in waste management business. Water and Sanitation aims at: building technical capacity of women in water management; increase access to safe drinking water in rural and urban communities; development of gender-based programs for integrated water resources management.