WOCAN with its joint venture private sector partner, EcoAnalytics and in association with Nexus Carbon for Development has won the bid for the ADB Regional Technical Assistance Project on ‘Harnessing Climate Change Mitigation Initiatives to Benefit Women’ for the duration of January 2013 to December 2015, to be implemented in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam. The project will build on existing ADB investments and NGO interventions by piloting a model to develop low carbon projects with gender-equality benefits and demonstrate how climate financing can provide benefits to women for their contributions to GHG reductions in addition to productive industries. The project will complement existing interventions by providing them with focused support to engage women’s groups as agents of change and access climate finance.
The projects involved are ADBs VIE (4237) Coastal Cities Urban Environment and Climate Change Project in Dong Hoi, Vietnam, and SNVs Improved Cook Stove National Program in Lao PDR. The third pilot project will be identified in Cambodia as part of the initial scoping exercises. This TA will go further than raising awareness about the need for climate responsive investments by building stronger implementation partners at the local level in women’s groups as well as supporting these groups to access climate financing.
The major outputs of the project are:
1. Gender concerns mainstreamed in national or sub-national climate change strategies, action plans, and mitigation plans.
2. Effective mechanism supporting stakeholder engagement process and gender equitable benefit distribution identified for replication.
3. Three pilot projects successfully implemented by National Women’s Groups to develop local tools and mechanisms to access climate financing