News

Short Course on Gender and Climate Change in Malawi

3 December 2021
Short Course on Gender and Climate Change in Malawi

Today, a short course on Gender and Climate Change was completed in Mchinji district in Malawi. The short course was developed through a collaboration of GRÓ-GEST and Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR). The objective of this course is to contribute to gender sensitive climate policies at a district level in Malawi through an increased awareness of the gender dimension of climate change. The course focuses on both mitigation measures and adaptation to climate change and will be conducted at the district level. The main target group is gender and climate change stakeholders at the district level in Malawi, including representatives from regional and local governments, academics, researchers, civil society, women’s organizations, relevant private actors, and the media.

This week, the participants in the short course discussed the science of climate change, climate impacts in Malawi and the links between climate change and gender, both generally and more specifically for Malawi. The participants also discussed how to create gender sensitive climate policy by using gender mainstreaming as a tool.

The participants in the short course in Mchinji were district officials in different sectors in Mchinji district. The short course facilitators are a team of experts from LUANAR University, led by Dr. Tasokwa Kakota, and during this first course, they were joined by a GRÓ GEST consultant, Dr. Auður Ingolfsdottir, who has taught in the Gender and Climate Change module in the GEST programme for many years.

In addition to lectures, exercises and discussions, the participants visited climate related initiatives and projects in the Mchinji district.

The course in Mchinji was a pilot course, hopefully marking the start of a fruitful partnership leading to the implementation of short courses on Gender and Climate Change across the diverse districts in Malawi.