EmPower: Women for Climate-Resilient Societies Programme Brief

The impacts of climate change, environmental degradation and disasters are unequally felt across Asia and the Pacific region. Women and marginalized groups have less access to information, resources, finance and technologies, leaving them with greater challenges in coping and rebuilding after a crisis.

From 2018 to 2022, UN Women and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) have worked together through the first phase of the EmPower: Women for Climate-Resilient Societies programme to accelerate gender-responsive and human rights-based climate actions across Asia and the Pacific.

With support from the Government of Sweden, UN Women, UNEP and partners have successfully engineered alternative climate-resilient livelihoods for vulnerable communities, reduced emissions through renewable energy and sparked commitments to ensure gender-responsive climate change adaptation and mitigation policies and actions in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Viet Nam and in the wider Asia-Pacific region.

Building on the first phase of EmPower, UNEP and UN Women are scaling up the work from 2023. Phase II will leverage a variety of tools, methodologies, and data to implement existing plans and policies for gender-responsive, human rights-based climate action. The project will expand the scope for women and other marginalized and gender-diverse groups to shape decisions and build resilience, including through new access to finance, technology and renewable energy as a driver of better livelihoods.