̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Kim van Daalen

Gender inequality ingrained in global climate negotiations, say researchers

cjb250 — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 08:52:16 +0000

In an article published today in Lancet Planetary Health, a team of researchers – including several from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge – argue that much more needs to be done to mitigate the impacts of climate change on women, girls and gender-diverse individuals.

Focusing specifically on the intersection between climate change, gender, and human health, the researchers call on countries to work harder to ensure there is gender equity within their delegations to climate conferences and to ensure climate strategies identify gender-specific risks and vulnerabilities and address their root causes.

As the world prepares for COP29, concerns about gender representation and equality have reignited following the initial appointment of 28 men and no women to the COP29 organising committee in January 2024.

̽��ֱ��effects of climate change – from heavy rains, rising temperatures, storms and floods through to sea level rises and droughts – exacerbate systemic inequalities and disproportionately affect marginalised populations, particularly those living in low-income areas.

While the specific situation may be different depending on where people live or their social background (like their class, race, ability, sexuality, age, or location), women, girls, and gender minorities are often at greater risk from the impacts of climate change. For example, in many countries, women are less likely to own land and resources to protect them in post-disaster situations, and have less control over income and less access to information, resulting in increased vulnerability to acute and long-term climate change impacts.

They are also particularly at risk from climate-related threats to their health, say the researchers. For example, studies have linked high temperatures to adverse birth outcomes such as spontaneous preterm births, pre-eclampsia and birth defects. Extreme events, which are expected to become more likely and intense due to climate change, also take a severe toll on women's social, physical, and mental well-being. Numerous studies highlight that gender-based violence is reported to increase during or after extreme events, often due to factors related to economic instability, food insecurity, disrupted infrastructure and mental stress.

Dr Kim Robin van Daalen, a former Gates Cambridge Scholar at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, and researcher at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), said: “Given how disproportionately climate change affects women, girls and gender minorities – a situation that is only likely to get worse – we need to ensure that their voices are heard and meaningfully included in discussions of how we respond to this urgent climate crisis. This is not currently happening at anywhere near the level it needs to.”

̽��ֱ��team summarised the inclusion of gender, health and their intersection in key decisions and initiatives under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and analysed gender representation among representatives of Party and Observer State delegations at COPs between 1995-2023. Progress has been slow, they say.

They highlight how previous scholars have consistently noted that emphasis remains mainly on achieving a gender ‘number-based balance’ in climate governance, over exploring gender-specific risks and vulnerabilities and addressing their root causes. They also discuss how there remains limited recognition of the role climate change has in worsening gendered impacts on health, including gender-based violence and the lack of safeguarding reproductive health in the face of climate change.

Although the situation is slowly improving, at COP28, almost three-quarters (73%) of Party delegations were still majority men, and only just over one in six (16%) showed gender parity (that is, 45-55% women). In fact, gender parity has only been achieved in the ‘Western European and Other’ UN grouping (which also includes North America, Australia and New Zealand). Based on current trends, several countries - particularly those in the Asia-Pacific and Africa regions - are expected to take at least a decade from COP28 before reaching gender parity in their delegations.

Dr Ramit Debnath, former Gates Cambridge Scholar and now an Assistant Professor at Cambridge, said: “ ̽��ֱ��urgency of climate action, as well as the slow understanding of climate, gender, and health connections, is cause for concern. Institutions like the UNFCCC must recognize these disparities, design appropriate methods to improve gender parity in climate governance, and keep these representation gaps from growing into societal and health injustices.”

Beyond ensuring that their voices are heard, more equitable inclusion of women has consistently been suggested to transform policymaking across political and social systems, including the generation of policies that better represent women’s interests. Previous recent analyses of 49 European countries revealed that greater women’s political representation correlates with reduced inequalities in self-reported health, lower geographical inequalities in infant mortality and fewer disability-adjusted life-years lost across genders.

Similar positive findings have been reported related to environmental policies, with women’s representation in national parliaments being associated with increased ratification of environmental treaties and more stringent climate change policies. For example, women legislators in the European parliament and US House of Representatives have been found to be more inclined to support environmental legislation than men.

Dr Ronita Bardhan, Associate Professor at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: "Achieving equitable gender representation in climate action is not just about fairness - it's a strategic necessity with significant co-benefits. We can shape climate policies and infrastructure that address a broader spectrum of societal needs, leading to more inclusive solutions enhancing public health, social equity, and environmental resilience."

While the researchers’ analyses focused on achieving gender balance, studies on women’s involvement in climate governance suggest that increased representation does not by itself always lead to meaningful policy changes. Even when formally included, women’s active participation in male-dominated institutions is often constrained by existing social and cultural norms, implicit biases and structural barriers.

Dr van Daalen added: “If we’re to meaningfully incorporate gender into climate policy and practice, we need to understand the risks and vulnerabilities that are gender-specific and look at how we can address them and their root causes at all phases of programme and policy development.

“But we also need to resist reducing women to a single, homogenous group, which risks deepening existing inequalities and overlooks opportunities to address the needs of all individuals. It is crucial to recognise the diversity of women and their embodiment of multiple, intersecting identities that shape their climate experiences as well as their mitigation and adaptation needs.”

̽��ֱ��team also highlights that gender-diverse people face unique health and climate-related risks due to their increased vulnerability, stigma, and discrimination. For example, during and after extreme events, transgender people in the United States report being threatened or prohibited access to shelters. Similarly, in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Samoa, gender-diverse individuals often face discrimination, mockery, and exclusion from evacuation centres or access to food. Yet, say the researchers, there are major gaps in knowledge about the health implications of climate change for such groups.

Find out how Cambridge's pioneering research in climate and nature is regenerating nature, rewiring energy, rethinking transport and redefining economics - forging a future for our planet.

Reference
Van Daalen, KR et al. Bridging the gender, climate, and health gap: the road to COP29. Lancet Planetary Health; 11 Nov 2024; DOI: 10.1016/S2542-5196(24)00270-5

Climate governance is dominated by men, yet the health impacts of the climate crisis often affect women, girls, and gender-diverse people disproportionately, argue researchers ahead of the upcoming 29th United Nations Climate Summit (COP29) in Azerbaijan.

Given how disproportionately climate change affects women, girls and gender minorities, we need to ensure that their voices are heard and meaningfully included in discussions of how we respond to this urgent climate crisis

Kim van Daalen

Hansel ohioma

Surviving the flood at Ahoada in Rivers state Nigeria

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Racial discrimination linked to increased risk of premature babies

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Aug 2022 08:16:17 +0000

̽��ֱ��findings add to growing evidence that racial discrimination is a risk factor for poor health outcomes, say the researchers.

For several decades, race has been recognised as a social determinant of health and a risk factor for numerous diseases. ̽��ֱ��evidence increasingly suggests that social, environmental, economic and political factors are fundamental drivers of health inequities, and that it is often racial discrimination or racism, rather than race, that is the root cause of racial disparities in health outcomes.

For example, maternal death rates among Black and Indigenous women in the USA are two to three times higher than those of white women. Similarly, in the UK, maternal death rates are two to four times higher among Black and Asian women compared to death rates among white women.

To explore the existing patterns of racial discrimination and adverse pregnancy outcomes, the researchers carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis, pooling and analysing data from the available evidence. This approach allowed them to bring together existing and sometimes contradictory or under-powered studies to provide more robust conclusions. Their results are published in the open access journal BMJ Global Health.

̽��ֱ��team searched eight electronic databases, looking for relevant studies on self-reported racial discrimination and premature birth (that is, before 37 weeks), low and very low birthweight, small-for-gestational age, and high blood pressure associated with pregnancy.

In all, the results of 24 studies were included in the final analysis. ̽��ֱ��majority of studies (20) were carried out in the USA. Study participants were of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, including Black or African American, Hispanic, non-Hispanic white, Mãori, Pacific, Asian, Aboriginal Australian, Romani, indigenous German and Turkish.

̽��ֱ��pooled analysis showed that the experience of racial discrimination was significantly associated with increased risk of premature birth. Women who experienced racial discrimination were 40% more likely to give birth prematurely. When low quality studies were excluded, the odds of a premature birth were reduced, but still 31% higher in those experiencing racial discrimination.

While not statistically significant, the results also suggest that the experience of racial discrimination may increase the chance of giving birth to a small-for-gestational age baby by 23%.

Co-first-author Jeenan Kaiser, who did her MPhil in Public Health at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and is currently a medical student at the ̽��ֱ�� of Alberta, said: “Racial discrimination impacts the health of racialised communities not only in direct and intentional ways, but also in how it shapes an individual’s experiences, opportunities, and quality of life. These are fundamentally driven by structural and social determinants of health.

“While our study focused on its impact on pregnancy outcomes, it is becoming increasingly evident that it negatively impacts a myriad of health outcomes. Efforts to counter racial discrimination and promote health must focus on systemic policy changes to create sustainable change.”

Co-first author Kim van Daalen, a Gates Cambridge and PhD candidate at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “Dismantling structures and policies that enable institutional and interpersonal racial discrimination, underlying racial and ethnic disparities in health and intersecting social inequalities, is essential to improve overall health in societies. Partnerships of health care professionals with community-based reproductive justice and women’s health organisations who work in this area can improve health for racialised women in a community-centred way.”

̽��ֱ��researchers point out that racial discrimination impacts what health services and resources are available, such as referral to specialist care, access to health insurance and access to public health services.

Co-author Dr Samuel Kebede, who did his MPhil in Epidemiology at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar and is currently at Montefiore Health System/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City said: “Historically there have been countless examples of where medicine and public health have been furthered by the subjugation and experimentation of Black and indigenous people. But the influence of structural racism is still present within the healthcare system today. From segregated healthcare for uninsured and under-insured people of colour in the United States, to the global disparity in COVID-19 vaccinations, structures continue to perpetuate inequities. Health professionals can play a vital role in dismantling these systems.”

Many of the studies were of limited quality and included few marginalised racial or ethnic groups other than African Americans; as such, their applicability to other ethnic groups and cultural settings may be limited. However, the researchers argue that when pooled, the data clearly demonstrate the negative impact of racial discrimination on pregnancy outcomes.

Reference
van Daalen, KR, & Kaiser, J et al. Racial discrimination and adverse pregnancy outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ Global Health; 3 Aug 2022; DOI: 10.1136/bmjgh-2022-009227

Women who experience racial discrimination on the basis of their ethnicity, race or nationality are at increased risk of giving birth prematurely, according to a team led by researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

Racial discrimination impacts the health of racialised communities not only in direct and intentional ways, but also in how it shapes an individual’s experiences, opportunities, and quality of life

Jeenan Kaiser

Ariel Skelley (Getty Images)

Black woman holding newborn baby in hospital bed

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Extreme weather and climate events likely to drive increase in gender-based violence

cjb250 — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 22:30:22 +0000

In a study published in ̽��ֱ��Lancet Planetary Health, a team led by a researcher at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge analysed current scientific literature and found that the evidence paints a bleak picture for the future as extreme events drive economic instability, food insecurity, and mental stress, and disrupt infrastructure and exacerbate gender inequality.

Between 2000 and 2019, floods, droughts, and storms alone affected nearly 4 billion people worldwide, costing over 300,000 lives. ̽��ֱ��occurrences of these extreme events represent a drastic change, with the frequency of floods increasing by 134%, storms by 40%, and droughts by 29% over the past two decades. These figures are expected to rise further as climate change progresses.

Extreme weather and climate events have been seen to increase gender-based violence, due to socioeconomic instability, structural power inequalities, health-care inaccessibility, resource scarcity and breakdowns in safety and law enforcement, among other reasons. This violence can lead to long-term consequences including physical injury, unwanted pregnancy, exposure to HIV or other sexually transmitted infections, fertility problems, internalised stigma, mental health conditions, and ramifications for children.

To better understand the relationship between extreme events and gender-based violence, researchers carried out a systematic review of existing literature in this area. This approach allows them to bring together existing – and sometimes contradictory or under-powered – studies to provide more robust conclusions.

̽��ֱ��team identified 41 studies that explored several types of extreme events, such as storms, floods, droughts, heatwaves, and wildfires, alongside gender-based violence, such as sexual violence and harassment, physical violence, ‘witch’ killing, early or forced marriage, and emotional violence. ̽��ֱ��studies covered countries on all six of the major continents and all but one focused on cisgender women and girls.

̽��ֱ��researchers found evidence that gender-based violence appears to be exacerbated by extreme weather and climate events, driven by factors such as economic shock, social instability, enabling environments, and stress.

According to the studies, perpetrators of violence ranged from partners and family members, through to religious leaders, relief workers and government officials. ̽��ֱ��relationship between extreme events and gender-based violence can be expected to vary across settings due to differences in social gender norms, tradition, vulnerability, exposure, adaptive capacity, available reporting mechanisms, and legal responses. However, the experience of gender-based violence during and after extreme events seems to be a shared experience in most contexts studied, suggesting that amplification of this type of violence is not constrained geographically.

“Extreme events don’t themselves cause gender-based violence, but rather they exacerbate the drivers of violence or create environments that enable this type of behaviour,” said Kim van Daalen, a Gates Cambridge Scholar at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

“At the root of this behaviour are systematic social and patriarchal structures that enable and normalise such violence. Existing social roles and norms, combined with inequalities leading to marginalisation, discrimination, and dispossession make women, girls, and sexual and gender minorities disproportionately vulnerable to the adverse impacts of extreme events.”

Experiencing gender-based violence can also further increase vulnerability. When faced with the likelihood of experiencing harassment or sexual violence in relief camps, for example, some women or sexual and gender minorities choose to stay home or return to their homes even before doing so is safe, placing them in additional danger from extreme events and furthering restrict their already limited access to relief resources.

Extreme events could both increase new violence and increase reporting, unmasking existing violence. Living through extreme events led some victims to feel they could no longer endure abuse or to feel less inhibited to report the abuse than before the event. However, the researchers also noted that reporting remains plagued by a number of factors including silencing of victims – particularly in countries where safeguarding a daughter’s and family’s honour and marriageability is important – as well as fears of coming forward, failures of law enforcement, unwillingness to believe victims, and the normalisation of violence.

Van Daalen added: “Disaster management needs to focus on preventing, mitigating, and adapting to drivers of gender-based violence. It’s crucial that it’s informed by the women, girls, and sexual and gender minority populations affected and takes into account local sexual and gender cultures and local norms, traditions, and social attitudes.”

Examples of such interventions include providing post-disaster shelters and relief services – including toilets and bath areas – designed to be exclusively accessed by women, girls, and sexual and gender minorities or providing emergency response teams specifically trained in prevention of gender-based violence.

Likewise, empowerment initiatives for women and sexual and gender minorities that challenge regressive gender norms to reduce vulnerability could bring opportunities to negotiate their circumstances and bring positive change. For example, women’s groups using participatory- learning-action cycles facilitated by local peers have been used to improve reproductive and maternal health by enabling women to identify and prioritise local challenges and solutions. Similar programmes could be adapted and applied in extreme event management to empower women as decision makers in local communities.

Reference
Van Daalen, KR. Extreme events and gender-based violence: a mixed-methods systematic review. Lancet Planetary Health; 14 June 2022; DOI: 10.1016/PIIS2542-5196(22)00088-2

As the climate crisis leads to more intense and more frequent extreme weather and climate-related events, this in turn risks increasing the amount of gender-based violence experienced by women, girls, and sexual and gender minorities, say researchers.

Extreme events don’t themselves cause gender-based violence, but rather they exacerbate the drivers of violence or create environments that enable this type of behaviour

Kim van Daalen

NOAA Images

Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

Case studies

Hurricane Katrina, violence and intimidation

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Gulf Coast of the USA in August 2005, gender-based violence increased, particularly interpersonal violence or intimate partner violence, and physical victimisation increased for women. Likewise, a study on internally-displaced people in Mississippi found that sexual violence and rates of intimate partner violence increased in the year following the disaster.

Furthermore, the New Orleans gay community was blamed for Hurricane Katrina, with the disaster being described as being ‘God’s punishment’. Same-sex couples were prevented from receiving relief from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, transgender people were threatened in shelters or prohibited access after a natural disaster, and LGBTQI people experienced physical harm and violence in post-disaster shelters.

Flooding and early marriage in Bangladesh

Studies suggest a link between flooding incidence and early marriage, with spikes in early marriages observed in Bangladesh coinciding with the 1998 and 2004 floods. Next to being viewed as a way to reduce family costs and safeguard marriageability and dignity, these marriages are often less expensive due to flood-induced impoverishment lowering expectations.

One study included an example of the head of a household explaining that the 2013 cyclone had destroyed most of his belongings, leaving him afraid that he would be unable to support his youngest unmarried daughter, who was under 18. Marrying off his daughters was a way of reducing the financial burden on the family.

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