OECS Commission Launches Toolkit on ‘Building Resilience with Nature and Gender’ to Mark World Environment Day 2020

OECS Media Release

Each year since 1974, the international community has observed June 5 as World Environment Day (WED). This year, WED is being observed under the theme, “Time for Nature”, with the focus being placed on nature’s role in supporting life on Earth and human development.

To mark WED 2020, the OECS Commission is pleased to announce the release of a publication entitled: "Building Resilience with Nature and Gender in the Eastern Caribbean: A Toolkit to Mainstream Ecosystem-Based Adaptation, Gender Equality & Social Inclusion."

This Toolkit was developed under an Adapt’Action-funded project and is intended to support climate change practitioners and decision-makers in mainstreaming Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) and gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) considerations into climate change adaptation-related policies, plans, and on-the-ground activities. It provides detailed guidance on how the GESI aspects should be taken into account as part of the process of mainstreaming EbA and formulating concept notes for funding.

The ultimate purpose of the Toolkit is not to create new tools, as many of these have already been developed, but, rather, to gather, select and /or adapt available methods and resources that are most relevant for design and implementation of EbA-GESI-responsive adaptation actions in the Caribbean context. 

Director General of the OECS, Dr. Didacus Jules, stated:

"This Toolkit arrives at a time when the Islands of the Eastern Caribbean are placing increasing focus on the concept of resilience. The fact that it promotes the integration of ecosystem-based approaches, gender equality and social inclusion makes it highly relevant, not just for climate change, but also for resilience-building in the broader socioeconomic context."

Crispin d’Auvergne, Programme Director for Climate and Disaster Resilience Management at the OECS Commission, added:

“Over the years, we have seen many environmental and natural resource problems addressed in ways that have paid scant attention to nature itself or to GESI considerations. We are of the firm view that climate change adaptation can only be sustainable in the long term if we address this imbalance. The OECS views this Toolkit as a means for helping to do so.

Given the theme for WED 2020, we consider it fitting to launch the Toolkit in observance thereof. It is our sincere hope that policy-makers and practitioners in the field will come to regard this Toolkit as an indispensable resource."

Access the Toolkit here!  

Toolkit: Building Resilience with Nature and Gender in the Eastern Caribbean

PDF - 5.7 Mb

Joan John-Norville

Biodiversity and Ecosystems Management Coordinator, Environmental Sustainability Cluster, Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States

Climate and Disaster Resilience Unit

Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States

OECS Communications Unit

Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States

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About The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States

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The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) is an International Organisation dedicated to economic harmonisation and integration, protection of human and legal rights, and the encouragement of good governance among independent and non-independent countries in the Eastern Caribbean. The OECS came into being on June 18th 1981, when seven Eastern Caribbean countries signed a treaty agreeing to cooperate with each other while promoting unity and solidarity among its Members. The Treaty became known as the Treaty of Basseterre, so named in honour of the capital city of St. Kitts and Nevis where it was signed. The OECS today, currently has eleven members, spread across the Eastern Caribbean comprising Antigua and Barbuda, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and The Grenadines, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Martinique and Guadeloupe. 

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