Our work with these advisors opens up new opportunities for us that we hadn’t expected at the outset. The impact goes well beyond the framework that was initially defined.
First of all, the availability of these advisors allows the gender experts at the Ministry of the Environment to take ownership of climate change issues and address the linkages between gender and climate with much more ease and efficiency.
Second, because the advisors support us in everything we do, we now look systematically at the gender component, whether for financing, research, or the hiring of consultants.
Third, the collaboration between the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Women is continuously growing stronger. For example, we are currently working with the Ministry of Women to update the national gender policy, namely by taking into account the relationship between gender and climate change, and by institutionalizing all of the gender units that exist within the sectoral ministries. The Ministry of Women now views us as a key partner. This is a significant change since 2018. But we need to go beyond that. We are now aiming to ensure a continuous process of collaboration between the two ministries in terms of data and information exchange, fundraising, and monitoring and evaluation.
Finally, our team is now approached by a variety of stakeholders to help them take into account the linkages between gender and climate change. These actors come to us because they trust us. This is a major step forward for the mainstreaming of gender considerations into climate change action in Côte d’Ivoire at all levels.