UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

Project Background:

The Asia and the Pacific region is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change impacts in the world. According to the World Risk Report, 10 out of the 15 most at risk countries to climate change and disasters are in Asia and the Pacific. The region combines high exposure to frequent and damaging natural hazards with a low capacity to manage the resulting risks. Climate change and climate-induced disasters remain the largest threat to the achievement of global sustainable development today. When disasters hit, often women and girls face secondary negative impacts such as gender based violence, forced marriage and human trafficking. Lack of or inadequate and unequal women’s access to essential resources such as land, water, finance, information, technology, and energy makes women extremely vulnerable to climate change and undermines their capacity to adapt.  The capacities, skills, and resources that women and girls and other diverse groups possess in effectively addressing climate change often go untapped due to stereotypes that devalue their knowledge and result in their exclusion from decision-making at household and community level. Therefore, enabling women’s and diverse groups’ voices, agency, and leadership are a pre-requisite for resilience building and sustainable development.

UN Women is currently implementing a project on Strengthening Gender Equality and Human Rights in Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Actions that addresses the above issues. The project is implemented in partnership with the UN Environment. UN Women’s project team needs to recruit an able intern to support the implementation activities of the project.