Adapting to climate change is about reducing vulnerability to current and projected climate risk while vulnerability to climate change is determined in large part by people’s adaptive capacity. Climate hazards do not affect all people within a community or even the same household equally because some people have greater capacity than others to manage the crisis. The inequitable distribution of rights, resources, power and norms constrains many people’s ability to take action on climate change. This is especially true for women and vulnerable groups. Therefore, gender is a critical factor in understanding vulnerability to climate change. The main focus of this paper is to provide views and experiences on strengthening gender consideration in adaptation planning and implementation in the least developed countries (LDCs). It draws on the experiences gained from the national adaptation programmes of action (NAPAs), and other initiatives, with a view to informing future adaptation efforts by LDCs and collaborating partners in the formulation and implementation of national adaptation plans (NAPs). The paper discusses gender in the context of adaptation to climate change, presents sample tools in integrating gender into adaptation planning and implementation, provides experiences in the integration of gender into adaptation planning and implementation and addresses the integration of gender considerations in the process to formulate and implement NAPs.
