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All queries on rights and licenses should be addressed to World Bank Publications, The World Bank Group, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA; e-mail: pubrights@worldbank.org. 1 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change Background Note to the CCDR Egypt: Gender Equality and Climate Change Table of Contents 1. The Gender Dimension of Climate Adaptation and Low-Carbon Development ................................. 6 1.1 The Status of Gender Equality in Egypt .................................................................................. 8 1.2 Gender Inequalities in Climate-Affected Sectors ................................................................. 10 1.3 Gendered Impacts of Climate Change and Shifting Social Norms ...................................... 15 2. Unlocking Women’s Potential to Contribute to Climate Change Adaptation and Low-Carbon Development......................................................................................................................................... 17 2.1 Removing Societal and Legal Constraints ........................................................................... 17 2.2 Improving Skills and Networks ............................................................................................. 18 2.3 Easing Household Constraints.............................................................................................. 20 2.4 Addressing Institutional Constraints .................................................................................... 21 2.5 Improving Access to Capital and Markets............................................................................ 21 2.6 Improving Women’s Representation and Decision-Making ................................................ 24 3. The Way Forward .......................................................................................................................... 25 Annex. At-a-Glance: Interventions to Unlock Women’s Potential to Contribute to Climate Change Adaptation and Low-Carbon Development ............................................................................................ 28 2 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change 3 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change Acknowledgments This Background Note on Gender Equality and Climate Change, attached to the Egypt Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR,) is a collaborative effort of the Social Sustainability and Inclusion (SSI) of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and the SSI Global Unit at the World Bank. The report was prepared by a core team led by Monica Vidili (Senior Social Development Specialist), Amal Faltas Bastorous (Senior Social Development Specialist), Harika Masud (Senior Social Development Specialist), Niyati Shah (Senior Social Development Specialist), and Ursula Casabonne (Gender Consultant) with the contribution of Cathie Wissa (Social Development Specialist), Katharine Vincent (Consultant), Sara Al Rowais (Consultant), Agathe Marie Christien (Consultant), Elham Shirin Shabahat (Consultant), and Nehad Abolkomsan (Consultant). The Note benefited from the advice of Federica Ranghieri (Program Leader); Andrea Fitri Woodhouse (Senior Social Development Specialist); Tijan L Bah (Young Professional); Souraya El Assiouty (Senior Social Protection Specialist); and Jan von der Goltz (Senior Economist). The team acknowledges the technical comments provided by the National Council for Women (NCW). This study was partially funded by the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) through the Strategic Partnership for Egypt’s Inclusive Growth Trust Fund, which has been supporting key activities in the World Bank’s analytical and advisory program in Egypt since 2017. The team would like to express their gratitude for this important and timely contribution. 4 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change Acronyms and Abbreviations CAPMAS Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics CBE Central Bank of Egypt CCPI Climate Change Performance Index COC Code of Conduct COP27 Conference of Parties 27 CSO Civil society organizations DPF Development Policy Financing EFHS Egyptian Family Health Survey EGES Egyptian Gender Equity Seal ENCC Egyptian National Competitiveness Council EOCE Egyptian Organization for Consumers and Energy FGM Female genital mutilation GAP Gender action plan GBV Gender-based violence GEM Gender Equity Model GoE Government of Egypt ILO International Labour Organization IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature MSMEs Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises NCCS National Climate Change Strategy NCW National Council for Women NEET Not in employment, education, or training RE Renewable energy SMEs Small and Medium Enterprises STEM Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFPA United Nations Population Fund VAWG Violence against women and girls VSLAs Village Savings and Loans Associations 5 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change 1. The Gender Dimension of Climate Adaptation and Low- Carbon Development Egypt’s National Climate Change Strategy 2050, launched in May 2022 sets out an ambitious and comprehensive 324-billion-dollar plan to support a stronger, greener Egyptian economy. The Strategy integrates the climate change dimension into the general planning of all sectors in the country, especially in areas such as energy, transportation, agriculture, and water resources. In addition, the climate summit COP27 held in Egypt in November 2022 gave new impetus to Egypt’s path to green transformation when the Government announced a $500 million deal with Germany, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the U.S. to shrink its fossil gas consumption and expand renewable energy. COP27 also underscored the need for countries to secure prosperity and decent jobs while delivering on the goals of greening the economy through a ‘just transition.’ Egypt has committed to turning climate action into an economic and social development opportunity, for example, by reskilling and skilling workers in many new jobs in the green economy, enhancing resilience and adaptive capacity to climate change, and alleviating the associated negative impacts. COP27 called on parties to make gender equality, women’s empowerment, and women’s leadership central to climate action. It added new activities to the 5-year enhanced Lima work program on gender and its gender action plan (Decision 3/CP.25). The enhanced gender action plan (GAP) sets out objectives and activities under five priority areas that aim to advance knowledge and understanding of gender-responsive climate action and its coherent mainstreaming in the implementation of the UNFCCC and the work of Parties, the secretariat, United Nations entities and all stakeholders at all levels, as well as women’s full, equal, and meaningful participation in the UNFCCC process,1. This policy brief aims to contribute to the discussion on how gender equality can become an integral part of green economy strategies in Egypt and how equal access for women and men to decent green jobs can be enhanced. The brief also aims to discuss and move forward the agenda on delivering a gender transformative and inclusive Just Transition in climate-related issues. It provides an overview of the gendered impacts of climate change in selected vulnerable sectors in Egypt and highlights women’s role in climate resilience while identifying barriers and opportunities for gender-responsive climate action. Integrating gender considerations throughout climate change-related actions is crucial for their long-term sustainability and development effectiveness. Women are important decision-makers at the household and community levels. Evidence also shows that women have a different understanding of vulnerability than men, primarily due to their role in the household and the wider community. Addressing gender-based and women’s specific vulnerabilities can strengthen Egyptian society’s overall capacity, resilience, health, and development. Women play a vital role in climate change adaptation and low-carbon development, given their role as household managers and their participation in livelihood and income-generating activities. Women can be early adopters of new agricultural techniques, environmentally friendly conservation practices and important decision-makers at home regarding energy and waste. Because vulnerability links closely to 11UNFCCC. 2023.Gender Action Plan - Decision 3/CP.25 and amendments agreed in Decision 24/CP.27, 19 Apr 2023, Available here: https://unfccc.int/documents/627886 6 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change livelihoods and well-being, tapping that knowledge is critical to identifying the most suitable intervention to address risk. However, women and girls also tend to bear the primary responsibility for unpaid care work including in the household, caring for children and families, the sick, and the elderly. Women do not always have the same rights as men to land; women often have less access to financial services, technology, information, and early warning systems; and women, particularly rural women, are usually held back from fully participating in their community’s formal decision -making processes. Therefore, investing in women- focused climate adaptation measures that build women’s resilience to climate change and foster women’s leadership and participation in decision-making is imperative for improving climate resilience outcomes and advancing low-carbon development. Egypt has already taken many steps toward achieving climate adaptation. For example, the recent National Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change 20502 regards gender equality and women’s empowerment as cross-cutting issues to Egypt’s adaptation to climate change. It identifies gender-specific barriers that women face toward climate change and introduces several gender sensitive indicators for both adaptation and mitigation. It includes a percentage of national policies and work plans that need to integrate the gender dimension and women’s quotas for access to finance, credit, and training in climate adaptation and mitigation-related projects. It also indicates the need for both existing initiatives and future national plans to consider the gender dimension in climate action. These include for example, efforts to enhance villages’ access to different resources and services, of which women are the primary beneficiaries, and the enforcement of Law No. 152 (2020) for the Development of SMEs, targeting women in poor and marginalized areas. Vulnerability to climate change is contingent upon access to physical, social, human, natural, and financial capital. Women can be more vulnerable to climate change impacts due to existing gender gaps, including fewer formal sector employment opportunities than their male counterparts, higher illiteracy rates, restricted mobility, and limited access to resources and services. 3 Twenty-three percent of adult women in Egypt are estimated to be illiterate,4 which significantly limits their opportunities for employment, access to information related to climate change, and participation in climate decision-making and disaster response. Women and girls also experience an increased burden of unpaid care work, recently exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Increased care responsibilities, particularly among the urban and rural poor and families living in slums, may affect women’s and girls’ capacity to prepare for or respond to climate risks and shocks, including natural disasters.5 Climate vulnerability is also compounded by other intersectional forms of vulnerability, such as age, marital status, socioeconomic status,6 and geographical location. For example, in Egypt, 13 percent of households 2 The Strategy was passed in 2022. 3 Aguilar, L., Rogers, F., Haddad, F., Kostus, N. (2011). National Strategy for Mainstreaming Gender in Climate Change in Egypt. International Union for Conservation of Nature. 4 In 2017, the illiteracy rate for women stood at 30.8 percent compared to 21.2 percent for men. Sources: Ministry of Planning of the Republic of Egypt and UNDP (2020). The National Council for Women’s Fact Sheet of Women’s Empowerment in Egypt (2021) reports that the illiteracy rate among women decreased from 33.1% in 2014 to 22.6% in 2020. 5 All over the world, women and girls are overwhelmingly tasked, personally and professionally, with caring for children, the e lderly, and people with disabilities. So, simple life-saving decisions, such as discerning whether to evacuate a disaster area, can become a difficult choice. Poverty and gender norms shape basic survival capabilities as well. For example, according to an Oxfam survey, four times as many women than men were killed in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India during the 2004 tsunami, because men were taught how to swim and climb trees at young ages, while women were not. See MacDonald, R. (2005). How women were affected by the tsunami: A perspective from Oxfam. PLoS Med 2(6): e178 6 Disasters hit the poorest the hardest. Poor people are not only more vulnerable to climate-related shocks, but they also have fewer resources to prevent, cope with, and adapt to disasters. The poor tend to receive less support from family, community and financial systems, and even have less access to social safety net. See World Bank, 2016, Shock Waves. 7 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change are headed by women.7 Women -headed families are especially vulnerable to climate change because of their family status and their potential exposure to a risk of exploitation. Hence, assessing and supporting family structure can play a crucial role in enhancing women ’s resilience and safeguarding them from the risks and impacts of climate change. Egypt has recently boosted its capabilities and practical policy measures to address the effects of climate risks, as reflected in the progress of Egypt’s ranking on the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI). Out of 57 countries that produce 90% of the world’s emissions, Egypt’s ranking increased from 30 to 22 between 2016 and 2021. Egypt’s ranking improved due to improving its air quality, fresh water, and sewage management, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, expanding renewable energy, and improving energy efficiency8. Women’s and girls’ leadership, participation, and inclusion are therefore critical in ensuring the effective and sustainable implementation of climate change adaptation in climate-affected sectors, such as agriculture, water, energy, and transport. Furthermore, enabling a Just Transition toward a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy will require actions to support an increased role of women as consumers of clean energy products and as employees and entrepreneurs in clean energy sectors. 1.1 The Status of Gender Equality in Egypt Egypt has made strong progress on gender equality. In recent years, women’s political representation has been notably strengthened. Women’s seats in national parliaments increased from 1.97 percent to 27.4 percent between 2012 and 20209, exceeding the constitutionally mandated minimum targets (25 and 10 percent, respectively) 10. At the executive level, the proportion of women in ministerial-level positions rose from 10.3 percent to 24.2 percent between 2012 and 202011. The 2021 Women on Boards Indicator is 16.7%, marking a positive increase rate of 28.5% compared to 13% in 202012. In 2020, the number of female beneficiaries of microfinance was nearly twice that of male beneficiaries, albeit with a slightly smaller share of funding balances13. In addition, the maternal mortality rate decreased from 54 to 44 (per 100,000 live births) between 2010 and 2018 —a decrease of about 20 percent14. The illiteracy rate among women dropped from 33.1% in 2014 to 22.6% in 2020. The enrollment rates’ gender gap disappeared between the academic years 2010/2011 and 2019/202015. Despite this significant progress, several challenges remain. Egypt has low levels of female labor force participation and unemployment rates among women.16 Official statistics indicate that women’s labor force participation is 15 percent—less than one-quarter of the total workforce, compared with 67 percent for men (Table 1). Women’s unemployment rate is 24 percent, compared with 6 percent for men. In addition, more than 4 out of 10 young women aged 15–24 (44 percent) is not in employment, education, or training (NEET), compared with just 17 percent of young men. The 2022 CAPMAS labor survey and the 2014 Survey of Young People in Egypt (SYPE) point to the persistently low female labor participation rates due to multiple 7 Female-headed households (% of households with a female head), World Bank Gender Stats, latest data available is for 2014. 8 Ministry of Planning of the Republic of Egypt and UNDP, Overview Egypt Human Development Report (2021) 9 World Bank, World Development Indicators 10 Ministry of Planning of the Republic of Egypt and UNDP (2020), Egypt Human Development Report. Cairo. 11 World Bank, World Development Indicators 12 Fact Sheet Women’s Empowerment in Egypt, 2014 - 2022, National Council for Women 13 Ministry of Planning of the Republic of Egypt and UNDP (2020), Egypt Human Development Report. Cairo. 14 Ibid 15 Fact Sheet Women’s Empowerment in Egypt, 2014 - 2022, National Council for Women 16 World Economic Forum. (2021). Global Gender Gap Report. 8 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change factors, including social norms and values, the burdens of marital responsibilities, the need for more childcare facilities and more accommodating transportation for women, sexual harassment, and a mismatch between labor market demand and the outputs of the education system. Women also make up a disproportionate share of those working in the informal sector, which, as everywhere, has the most severe decent work deficits. In the non-agriculture sector, in 2018, over 62 percent of Egyptian women were reported to be working in unprotected informal work (compared with 38 percent of men). Furthermore, the share of female business owners is low compared with men (15 percent in 2020) and has been declining steadily over the past six years.17 An ILO survey conducted in 2020 about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic found that 79 percent of surveyed women leading MSMEs s said the impact of the coronavirus crisis on their businesses was negative, of which 52 percent mentioned they had to shutdown of business and saw a decline in revenues/sales18. Of the 2 percent of female entrepreneurs who reported the impact was positive, the majority mentioned launching some activities/services/programs. In Egypt, women and girls are at particular risk of gender-based violence/violence against women and girls (GBV/VAWG), including domestic violence, sexual violence, early/forced marriage, female genital mutilation, and sexual harassment (Table 1)19. Experiencing violence precludes women from contributing to and benefiting from development initiatives by limiting their agency, that is, their choices and ability to act. Almost 7.9 million Egyptian women suffer from violence each year in their homes, with 2.49 million women harassed on the street and 1.72 million women harassed on public transportation.20 According to the Egyptian Family and Health Survey (EFHS) 2021, the proportion of women between the ages of 15–49 that were subjected to physical and/or sexual violence by a partner in the last 12 months was 17 percent (Table 1). Female genital mutilation (FGM) is widely practiced in Egypt, where 86 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 49 have undergone FGM (EFHS 2021). However, there are encouraging signs that support for FGM is diminishing. The percentage of mothers who intend to circumcise their daughters in the future has declined to 13 percent (EFHS 2021) from 35 percent (DHS 2014). In addition, the House of Representatives approved in March 2021 measures for toughening the penalties imposed on medics who carry out FGM. Penalties now range from five to seven years in prison for those who practice FGM, with sentences of up to 15 years if the procedure results in permanent disability or death.21 Despite legal prohibitions, early marriage persists in Egypt, with significant rates reported in both urban and rural areas. According to Egypt’s 2017 census, one in every 10 girls (11 percent) between the ages of 15 and 19 is either currently or previously married.22 In rural areas, the rate increases to 16 percent. Furthermore, around 11 percent of women between the ages of 18 and 64 reported that 11 percent had been forced to marry their current or most recent husbands.23 17 World Bank’s Entrepreneurship Database. 18 ILO (2020) Survey of Women Leading Micro, Small and Medium Businesses About the Main Challenges They Face as a Result of the Coronavirus Crisis 19 According to the Economic Cost of Gender-Based Violence Survey conducted in 2015 by UNFPA, the National Council for Women (NCW), and the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), around 7.8 million women suffer from all forms of vio lence yearly, whether perpetrated by a spouse/fiancé or individuals in her close circles or from strangers in public places. Other data available for domestic violence incidences are the 2014 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey in which more than one-third (36%) of ever-married women between the age (15-49) have experienced physical violence since the age of 15. 20 UNFPA. (2015). The Economic Cost of Gender Based Violence Survey Egypt 2015. UNFPA CAPMAS and NCW. UNFPA CAPMAS and NCW 21 Ministry of Planning of the Republic of Egypt and UNDP (2020), Egypt Human Development Report. Cairo 22 CAPMAS (2017) Egypt Census of Population, Housing and Establishments, Egypt. Referenced in UNICEF (2018) Policy Brief 8: Curb ing Child Marriage in Egypt. 23 UNFPA. (2015). The Economic Cost of Gender Based Violence Survey Egypt 2015. UNFPA CA PMAS and NCW. UNFPA CAPMAS and NCW. 9 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change Sexual harassment is also a severe problem in Egypt. According to the 2015 Egypt Economic Cost of Gender Based Violence Survey - ECGBVS 10 percent of women between ages 18 and 64 were sexually harassed in the streets, 7 percent while using public transportation24. The same study reported that more than 1.7 million women experienced various forms of sexual harassment in public transport, around 2.5 million experienced it in streets within twelve months, and approximately 16,000 women aged 18 or more were exposed to sexual harassment at educational institutions within twelve months, costing the Egyptian state 571 million Egyptian pounds per annum. The GoE has recently tightened penalties for sexual harassment, in addition to expanding the scope of crimes related to rape and sexual assault 25. While all forms of GBV remain significantly globally underreported due to a host of overlapping factors (for example, stigma, social and gender norms, lack of knowledge and/or access to services), there are positive shifts occurring as noted above. Table 1. Status of Gender Equality in Egypt (Latest Data Reported) Domain Indicator Women Men Education Literacy rate, adult female (% of females ages 15 and above) (2017) 65.5 76.5 School enrolment, tertiary (% gross) 39.8 38.0 Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates (2016) 36.9 63.1 Labor Force Labor force participation rate (% of female/male population ages 15+) (2021) 15.4 67.1 Participation Unemployment rate (modeled ILO estimate) (2021) 24.3 5.9 Share of youth not in education, employment or training, (% of female youth 44.0 17.2 population), (2020) Proportion of informal employment in total non-agricultural (%) 62.4 38.2 Proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work (% of 24-hour day), 22.4 2.4 (2015) Entrepreneurship & Firms with female majority ownership (% of firms) (2020) 5.2 Access to Productive Firms with female top managers (% of firms) (2020) 6.3 Assets Account ownership at a financial institution or with a mobile-money-service 27.0 38.7 provider, female/male (% of population ages 15+) (2017) Women’s Voice and Proportion of women subjected to physical and/or sexual violence in the last 12 17.1 Agency months (% of ever-partnered women ages 15–49) (2021) Prevalence of early marriage (married before the age of 18, of girls ages 15 to 19) 11.0 (2017) Adolescent fertility rate (births per 1,000 women ages 15-19) (2020) 51.62 Female genital mutilation prevalence (%) (2021) 85.6 Proportion of women in ministerial level positions (%) (2020) 24.2 Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments (%) (2020) 27.4 Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators. 1.2 Gender Inequalities in Climate-Affected Sectors Climate change poses significant risks to rural livelihoods in Egypt, notably because of the threat of water scarcity. While climate change is a global challenge, it affects some sectors and social groups - and their ability to respond - differently. In Egypt, the rural sector is particularly vulnerable to climate change risks due to the impact of climate change-induced water scarcity and the level of dependency of rural livelihoods 24 United Nations Population Fund, National Council for Women, Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (2015) The Egypt Economic Cost of Gender-Based Violence Survey, ECGBVS 2015 25 Ministry of Planning of the Republic of Egypt and UNDP (2020), Egypt Human Development Report. Cairo 10 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change on agriculture. Agriculture and agribusiness products play an important role, both in terms of employment and food security. These sectors account for 21% of exports, and the agri-food sector provides jobs to a third of Egyptians26. Women in rural areas face heightened vulnerability to climate shocks for several reasons. Firstly, the agri- food employment sector is highly feminized27. Secondly, women working in agriculture and fisheries are often relegated to low-quality and informal employment opportunities. This gendered disparity extends to agency, where women encounter obstacles in accessing natural resources and quality jobs, as well as in participating in decision-making processes. Consequently, their adaptive capabilities are unequal, rendering the gender-food-agriculture nexus exceptionally susceptible to the impacts of climate change. For example, in 2021, heat waves hit the mango crop in Ismailia and the olive crop in the coastal city of Marsa, Matrouhand the New Valley in the Western desert, resulting in farmers losing nearly 80% of their annual harvest. Farmers in those governorates, lost almost 80% of their yearly harvest. However, the adverse effects were disproportionately higher for women farmers due to pre-existing inequalities28. As a result of these gender gaps, women appear less resilient compared to men and urban women, and less equipped to cope with shock or natural disasters. Agriculture and Livestock In Egypt, women are vital drivers of climate resilience in agriculture and water management at the household and community levels because of their farming activities and role as household managers29. In the agriculture sector, women account for 58 percent of workers30 but are rarely formally recognized as decision-makers. They are responsible for sowing seeds, weeding, cultivating, harvesting crops, selling the surpluses, and tending the gardens. Yet, compared with men, despite women’s critical role and impact in agriculture, there is still a large disparity in recognition of the crucial role they play (and in the support they receive), mainly due to gender bias31. Women’s work in agriculture is often precarious. Over 71 percent of Egyptian women in rural areas are reported to be working in unprotected informal jobs (most of them working without pay in family businesses). Even when considering only formal employment in agriculture, men are mainly employed as full-time workers. In contrast, women are commonly employed as part-time or seasonal workers - 38 percent of whom work only part of the year, compared to only 5 percent of women in non-agricultural occupations32 33. 26 The World Bank, 2022, Egypt CCDR, p.7. 27 In all age categories, more women are engaged in farming than males. For instance, in 2016/17, women were about twice as likely as men to be engaged in farming among youth (15 –24) and young adults (25 –34). World Bank, Systematic Country Diagnostics Update, 2021. 28 L. Ahmed and Y. Shaheen, 2022 The Climate-Gender Nexus: A Deep Dive into the Egyptian Women’s Agricultural Sector, The AUC Policy Brief-Climate Change, Issue 19 29 As primary homemakers, women are also key agents in nutrition, food processing and waste disposal at household level, with deep implications on food security, natural resources management and the consequent ecological footprint. Women spend on average 22.4 hours on domestic work compared to 2.4 for men. See Table 1. 30 ILOSTAT: Employment by sex and economic activity (thousands), 2020. 31 Many Egyptian women believe that as men are the main breadwinners, priority should be given to them in the labor market, acco rding to the results of two rounds of the Survey of Young People in Egypt (SYPE) conducted in 2010 and 2014. Cited in World Bank, Systematic Country Diagnostic Update, 2021, p.39. 32 The Climate-Gender Nexus: A Deep Dive into the Egyptian Women’s Agricultural Sector, The AUC Policy Brief -Climate Change, Issue 19 33 FAO (2022). Country Gender Assessment of the Agriculture and Rural Sector: Egypt – Brief. Country gender assessment series – Near East and North Africa. Cairo. 11 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change Egypt’s agriculture sector is gender -segmented in terms of seasonality and work quality, with more women employed in low-paying, part-time, and seasonal work, subsistence farming, and unpaid family helpers compared to other sectors34. The agricultural sector is particularly unequal in terms of women’s working conditions even compared to other sectors, with higher rates of women in vulnerable employment in rural areas – 71 percent compared with 13 percent in urban areas.35 Employment vulnerability is reflected along the entire agro-food value-chain. A recent ILO study on Egypt’s agribusiness sector reveals it to be one of the six lowest-paying sectors for women: they are employed at lower wages and in the less lucrative nodes of agri-food value chains.36 According to a recent World Bank report, women are also rarely registered as underwriters of sharecropping or financial contracts37 , even though women produce about 60 percent of the food for household consumption and sale in the local market.38 Despite legislative efforts like Law No. 219 of 2017, amending the Inheritance Law (No. 77 of 1943) to impose stricter penalties for inheritance withholding from any rightful heir, including women, significant gender disparities persist in terms of land ownership and entrepreneurship.39 Only 5 percent of the total agricultural land in Egypt is owned by women40, while the average in the Arab region is around 7 percent. Gender gaps in land ownership persist due to social norms despite the Government of Egypt’s effort s41. Evidence indicates that owning land or property enhances women’s participation in employment and entrepreneurship in Egypt42 43. In addition, women’s access to agricultural extension services is very limited, and if provided, services are minimally tailored to rural women’s specific needs. According to the FAO44, these limitations stem from stereotypes of women’s role in agricultural production and the domination of men in the extension services sector45. In contrast to land ownership, livestock stands out as an asset that women frequently report owning independently or sharing joint control with their husbands in Egypt.46 Customarily, women often receive livestock as gifts when they get married or after giving birth. Women’s preferences for livestock and poultry are considered a product of social norms, as women are often responsible for the household’s food security. It also shows a choice for assets that can be quickly and easily converted into cash, similar to jewelry and 34 UN Women (2018). Profile of Rural Women in Egypt. 35 Ibid. 36 ILO(2020). Sector Selection and Rapi d Market Assessment in Egypt’s Agribusiness Sector: Focus on Dairy and Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAP). 37 Despite the statutory rights obtained with the agrarian reforms in the 1950s in Egypt, Algeria and Syria, women rarely sign sharecropping contracts or financial agreements due to low literacy, and low access to land. Corsi, A, and Harris, S. 2023. Land Matters: Can Better Governance and Management of Scarcity Prevent a Looming Crisis in the Middle East and North Africa? Washington, DC : World Bank, p. 53. 38 World Bank (2022). Project Appraisal Document: Emergency Food Security and Resilience Support Project 39 FAO, 2022, Country Gender Assessment of The Agriculture and Rural Sector: Egypt. 40 In Egypt, it is estimated that nearly 60 percent of women are denied their inheritance shares, with the practice of takharruj particularly prevalent throughout Upper Egypt. Corsi, A, and Harris S. 2023. Land Matters: Can Better Governance and Management of Scarcity Prevent a Looming Crisis in the Middle East and North Africa? Washington, DC: World Bank, p. 57. 41 Despite attempts at reform in numerous Arab countries, such as Egypt, Jordan and the State of Palestine, women’s ownership of land and property remains meagre due to social expectations that they relinquish their rights in favor of male heirs. Ibid. 42 Limited evidence exists to suggest that owning property enhances women’s bargaining power within the household or reduces inc idents of gender-based violence. UNESCWA, 2023 Women’s Entrepreneurship in the Arab Region: Assessing the Impacts of Land and Property Ownership, p.4 43 Ibid. 44 FAO, 2022; Gender, Water, and Agriculture –Assessing the Nexus in Egypt. 45 L. Ahmed and Y. Shaheen, 2022 The Climate-Gender Nexus: A Deep Dive into the Egyptian Women’s Agricultural Sector, The AUC Policy Brief-Climate Change, Issue 19. 46 Dina Najjar, Bipasha Baruah & Aman El Garhi (2020). Gender and Asset Ownership in the Old and New Lands of Egypt, Feminist Economics. 12 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change gold. Therefore, investments in livestock production for women can be a promising avenue for climate resilience and livelihood diversification because it constitutes an easy entry point to rural entrepreneurship and livelihood diversification. Livestock ownership could also be used as collateral for enhancing financial resilience. Water Management Women’s participation in water management is often underestimated. Women in Egypt are central to collecting and safeguarding water. According to a study carried out in 2019, irrigation officials in Kafr Sheikh (Old Lands) estimated that about 30 percent of farmers and irrigators in the area were women, and 87 percent of survey respondents reported that women participate in irrigation activities on their families’ lands. In the New Lands, 69 percent of respondents said women participated in farm irrigation activities. 47 Furthermore, recent research suggests that women participate more actively in irrigation than previously thought, perhaps due to the introduction of drip and sprinkler technology.48 However, women had also been irrigating their land long before such technologies. Nonetheless, poor land ownership, the continuing association of irrigation techniques with male farmers’ responsibilities, and societal perceptions of women as mainly relegated to the domestic sphere are impediments that contribute to women’s invisibility in irrigation. As a result, women are not adequately participating in the water and land management decision- making processes. Fisheries Women in Egypt are essential, yet often invisible, players in the fisheries value chain49 and in formal and informal fresh fish retailing.50 Women are rarely involved directly in catching fish, and very few women participate in aquaculture and the wholesale trade of farmed fish51. However, evidence52 shows that women play a central role in value chain activities before and post-fish capture, such as mending nets, collecting bait, or even preparing food for fishers. Women are also present in fish retail activities. For example, a study conducted in the Northern Lakes in Egypt shows that women are primarily involved in fish- selling and trade and responsible for generating income53. With the exception of female-headed households in coastal areas, some of which derive their livelihoods from fishing out of necessity, women tend to be engaged as informal assistants of male relatives, fathers, or husbands. They are often unpaid and have no authority in decision-making or control over earnings, and their work contribution is considered as marginal. The diminished fish catch due to pollution, reduced water flow, and rising temperatures pose a challenge, and fisheries communities struggle to make ends meet. 47 Dina Najjar, Bipasha Baruah, Aman El Garhi, (2019). Women, irrigation and social norms in Egypt: ‘The more things change, the more they stay the same?’. Water Policy 21 (2): 291–309. 48 Ibid. 49Ghada Barsoum, (2021). “From Fisher wives to fish vendors: Gendered livelihood transitions in a fishing village in Egypt”. Journal of Rural Studies Volume 88, December 2021, pages 117 –125 50Kantor, P. & Kruijssen, F. (2014). Informal fish retailing in rural Egypt: opportunities to enhance income and work condition s for women and men. WorldFish Center. 51 El-Ganainy, A. (2007). Enhancement of Women’s Role in Artisanal Fishing Communities – Egypt, UNDP. 52Ghada Barsoum, (2021). “From Fisher wives to fish vendors: Gendered livelihood transitions in a fishing village in Egypt”. Jo urnal of Rural Studies Volume 88, December 2021, Pages 117 –125. 53Halal Yousry (2011). Sensitizing and Building the Capacity of Women Towards Climate Change Consequences in Northern Lakes of Egypt. African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS). 13 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change Box 1. Women In Islands and Coastal Areas In most of the Nile islands, the primary occupations of the families are agriculture and fishing. Risks of flooding due to the seasonal Nile increase are particularly applicable to those communities. Crises related to house flooding and crop loss are common in these islands. A consulted fisherwoman1 indicated that Nile pollution also affects fishing activities, “Fishermen catch more plastic than fish”. The decline of productivity in fishing combined with the impacts imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic has led to men’s role as critical breadwinners being challenged. Men also spend more time at home, contributing to rising domestic violence. 1 Concerning women’s role in the fishing value chain, women do not work in catching fish. A lack of organization characterizes their roles. They primarily assist their fathers or husbands on shore or sell fish. Their work is unpaid in most cases, and they have no authority in decision-making or control over money. A male child earns more while assisting the fishermen. In the meantime, fishing and aquaculture sometimes become the primary source of income for female-headed households, while married women’s work in these two fields is often temporary because they are expected to fulfil the household tasks once they get married or their employment in those sectors may signal their husbands’ inability to provide for the family. Therefore, women working in aquaculture are either unmarried or have lost their husbands. Source: The VeryNile Program—an initiative to develop sustainable means to clean the Nile — seeks to address many challenges women encounter in the fishery sector, including lack of mobility, poverty, and lack of control in decision-making and finances. The VeryNile Program also works on women’s empowerment and improving dialogue between men and women, while ensuring financial stability. Women are credible partners in climate change adaptation: they tend to be more responsive than men in awareness programs related to climate issues. 14 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change 1.3 Gendered Impacts of Climate Change and Shifting Social Norms Existing gender inequalities—access to and control over resources, access to education and information, and equal rights and decision-making processes—define what women and men can and cannot do to become more resilient in the context of climate change. For example, the environmental vulnerability of the Nile Basin is projected to accelerate through periods of prolonged droughts, flash floods, and severe windstorms. As a result, climate change is likely to affect prime agricultural land due to coastal flooding from rising sea levels. Consequently, it will directly impact the livelihood and well-being of communities in these regions, especially among women, who make up most of the people working in agriculture and fisheries. Women also have limited access to resources and information and low participation levels in local governance institutions, such as water bodies associations. As climate change destroys existing livelihoods and leads to increased male out-migration in governorates within the Nile Delta, particularly Beheira, Kafr El Sheikh, and Gharbia, the role of women in vulnerable communities becomes crucial.54 Women’s workload has intensified as they undertake traditionally male farming tasks:55 in addition to their traditional farming chores of sowing seeds, weeding, cultivating, harvesting crops, and selling surplus, women now also engage in irrigation, planting, land preparation, fertilizing, insecticide spraying, plowing, and farming activities associated with male farmers. Research undertaken in the fisher village of Shakshouk in Fayoum, for example, shows that most women are now more engaged in economic activities, such as selling fish and shrimp shells and raising poultry for sale. Most of them never did so in the past.56 Although the shift in gender roles has enhanced women’s autonomy and empowerment, it can sometimes increase the risks of violence against women and girls. The stresses of climate change, such as poor harvests, livestock loss, lower earnings, and food insecurity, may pressure men’s perceived role as providers for the family, exacerbating the risk of VAWG. For example, research in the Nile Valley and the Nile Delta suggests that decreased or loss of livelihoods due to climate-related shocks has been perceived as a threat to men’s traditional role as the primary income earners for the family and the community.57 In addition, due to male out-migration58 and depletion of assets and resources, women’s search for off-farm day labor outside their house or the village has sometimes generated intra-household conflict over women’s income.59 A comprehensive review by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) found direct linkages between environmental vulnerability, climate change, and VAWG worldwide.60 At the global level, research points to the fact that resource scarcity, restricted access to natural resources, food insecurity, household 54 Ibid. 55 FAO. (2021). Country gender assessment of the agriculture and rural sector – Egypt. Country Gender Assessment Series. Rome. 56Tewfik, N., Latif, M. & Salheen, M. (2019). The Circular Relationship Between Poverty, Environment, and Economic Development: The Case of Shakshouk Village, Fayoum. Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. CST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering. Springer Nature Switzerland AG. 57 Daoud, M. (2021). Is vulnerability to climate change gendered? And how? Insights from Egypt. Regional Environmental Change 21 :52. 58 In many countries, male migration – especially temporary or seasonal migration to urban centers - is considered and adaptive strategy to climate risks and other shocks. Regrettably we do not dispose of accurate data on remittances for Egypt beyond formal remi ttances. 59 Ibid. 60Castaneda Camey, I. Sabater, L. Owren, C. Boyer, A. Wen, J. (2020). Gender-based violence and environment linkages, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2020-002-En.pdf 15 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change stress, and inter-communal conflict due to climate change can lead to increased domestic violence, child marriage, coerced transactional sex and abduction, and rape.61 This is especially true for women from disadvantaged groups living in income-insecure households, such as female-headed households. However, more research is needed to better understand the linkages of climate change, natural resource scarcity (such as water), and VAWG in the context of Egypt. In the context of shifting gender roles and the transition to low-carbon development, there are nonetheless opportunities to create pathways for women’s inclusion in the green economy, including their participation in the development of renewable energy (RE). This transition will create new green jobs requiring the development of less-polluting technologies and retrofitting existing sectors, such as manufacturing, construction, transportation, energy production, water, and waste management. Therefore, there is an opportunity to adopt policies and interventions to incentivize women’s employment in formal jobs in t hese sectors and as clean energy entrepreneurs and adapt education curricula, especially in tertiary education, to the green economy. For example, women can be engaged as product designers, manufacturers, and sales agents, contributing to their income, business networks, technical knowledge and skills, economic opportunities, and self-confidence. It will also enable energy companies to produce products and services that are better targeted to female customers and help sell to them in hard-to-reach locations. Currently, in Egypt, women62 have low levels of participation in key sectors with the potential for boosting the green economy, such as manufacturing (8 percent), construction (13 percent), electricity, gas (7 percent), professional scientific and technical activities (11 percent), and water supply (1 percent). 63 Investment in closing the digital divide between men and women – along with gaps in accessing education, information, and skills – would, for example, facilitate women’s participation in the labor economy and a more equal access to risk-informed knowledge, communications, early warning systems for climate risk forecasting and preparedness, potentially increasing women’s participation in green sectors while de- risking their businesses. Access to information through digital infrastructure is also key64. While mobile ownership is almost equal for women in Egypt compared to men’s – 81 percent and 83 percent, respectively65 –the digital divide appears more strikingly in mobile adoption and usage, where Egyptian women report lower access to information through the internet – 57 percent vs. 65 percent, respectively. Beyond the supply side, it is also important to compare how women and men use mobile internet and whether Internet usage is meeting their life needs to the same extent66. More granular data are missing for Egypt, and a better knowledge of women’s preferences in terms of access to information and early warning systems is important to build resilience and ensure they can actively participate in green sectors. 61 Ibid. 62 There are 52.67 million males and 51.59 million females in Egypt. The percentage of female population is 49.48% compared with 50.52% in the male population. 63 ILO. (2018). Skills for Green Jobs in Egypt. 64 UN WOMEN, Gender Equality and a Sustainable Planet - We cannot achieve one without the other . 65 Egypt in this respect is an outlier among developing countries, along with Mexico. GSMA, 2023, The Mobile Gender Gap Report. 66 Ibid. 16 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change 2. Unlocking Women’s Potential to Contribute to Climate Change Adaptation and Low-Carbon Development Unlocking women’s potential to contribute to climate change adaptation and low -carbon development requires addressing the binding constraints that hinder their full participation in the economic sphere. These constraints are related to the contexts in which women operate, their endowments, voice and agency, household-related factors, and access to control of productive resources and markets. As a result, women can gain optimal traction from climate-smart agriculture, water management, and clean energy initiatives when policies targeting women are in place. Critical areas of interventions targeting women include adopting policies and interventions to remove societal and legal constraints, ease household constraints, improve skills and networks, address institutional constraints to access jobs, and improve capital and markets for female entrepreneurs in agriculture and clean energy. 2.1 Removing Societal and Legal Constraints The most cited constraints to women’s empowerment are social norms and cultural beliefs related to ascribed gender roles in society and the workplace (U.N. Women 2020; CID 2021). Women are expected to be the caregivers, and men are the household’s breadwinners and final decision-makers. In addition, social norms play a critical role in women’s mobility, the socially acceptable means of transportation, working hours, type and sector of employment, and working environment. In 2017, the ILO and Gallup conducted a survey in which 30 percent of female and 55 percent of male respondents said that, in between work, taking care of their family and home, or doing both, women should exclusively take care of their family and home.67 At the societal and policy levels, national initiatives need to be expanded to confront the deeply held attitudes and expectations regarding women’s appropriate role in the economy and the family. For example, recent nationwide communication campaigns (Taa Marbouta) conducted by the National Council for Women have highlighted the importance of women’s participation in the workforce68. These types of campaigns can be used to communicate national priorities on the value of women working across various sectors of the economy, particularly in areas where there is demand for skills in the green economy and the area of adaptation to climate change. Importantly, these public service announcements should be targeted at men, such as “Because I am a man,” an awareness campaign led by the National Council for Women. The engagement of men is essential to improving women’s employment prospects, changing social and gender norms, and supporting gender equality. 67ILO and Gallup. (2017). Towards a better future for women and work: Voices of women and men. Geneva: Internation al Labor Organization 68 For example, in 2016, the nation-wide campaign entitled “Taa Marbouta. The secret for your power” highlighted the importance of women's participation and inclusion in all economic, political and social areas while highlighting the struggles that they face in different fields just for being women. The campaign was developed under the Social, Economic and Legal Empowerment of Egyptian Women Joint Programme, UN Women Egypt Country Office joined forces with The National Council for Women, UNFPA, UNDP and the Swedish Government. Overall, till October 2016, the campaign has reached over 5 million views on social media and 8 million views on television. UN Women (2017) Ta’a Marbouta: The Secret of Your Power”: A National Campaign on Women’s Empowerment, Available at: https://egypt.unwomen.org/en/news-and-events/stories/2017/09/taa-marbouta. In the environment field, a communication campaign was launched in November 2022 ““It’s simple but will make a difference” Se e: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVGMJiUvvhY . The campaign is a cooperation between the National Council for Women (NCW), and UN Women in line with COP27 and showcases women as agents of change in preserving the environment. 17 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change At the policy level, tackling legal impediments to women’s economic empowerment is a powerful tool to incentivize women to pursue equal opportunities and change mindsets regarding the role of women. For example, in 2021, the World Bank supported the Government of Egypt (GoE) through a Development Policy Financing (DPF) instrument in removing regulatory barriers hindering female labor force participation, preventing and addressing VAWG, and enhancing access to finance. In one area, the GoE took steps through legislative reform to remove job restrictions on female labor force participation in many previously prohibited sectors and to allow women to work at night. In other areas, the DPF has also supported the adoption of a national Code of Conduct (COC) by the Ministry of Transport for safe public transport. Through the issuance of a Prime Minister’s decree, the GoE has also established a one-stop center for survivors of VAW in the Greater Cairo region, committed to expanding its rollout to all 27 Governorates of Egypt. 2.2 Improving Skills and Networks Young women are strongly represented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields in Egypt, but better training is needed to help graduates succeed in green economy jobs. Globally, women represent only 30 percent of all students enrolled in STEM-related fields in higher education. The situation in Egypt provides a more encouraging picture. Available data suggest that 47 percent of students in all STEM subjects are women, and the figure for natural sciences, mathematics, and statistics is 64 percent.69 Nonetheless, the transition from school to work seems problematic due to multiple reasons, ranging from skill mismatch to mobility constraints, lack of social capital and networks, to fear of sexual harassment in public spaces70. The sustainable energy and urban transport sectors offer numerous career options and entrepreneurial opportunities (Table 2), for which Egyptian women are still an untapped and overlooked talent pool. Skills in STEM are globally in higher demand due to the evolving need to find a qualified workforce in e-mobility, digital technology, smart infrastructure, transport systems, big data and AI (artificial intelligence), etc. 71 This will require enhancing the quality of academic and vocational education and training (TVET) to ensure that programs meet the growing demand for skilled workers, especially for the continuously evolving renewable energy and e-mobility sectors. In parallel to preparing people for new careers in green sectors and the reskilling and upskilling measures, policy changes are needed to help women in STEM transition more successfully from school to work. Public-private partnerships between the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Labor, and different industry and private sector organizations need to be enhanced to identify skill development needs, determine skills and competency standards, and standardize qualifications and certifications. These efforts need to go hand-in-hand with interventions targeting women to incentivize engagement in clean energy sectors through: 69 World Bank, (2016). World Development Indicators: Female share of graduates by field of study. 70 The high levels of concern about harassment reduces women’s willingness to be involved in public activity or participate in the labor market. Better-off households may prevent their female members from working in order to protect them from harassment. World Bank, Systematic Country Diagnostic Update, 2021, p.39 71 Ivey, Stephanie (2019). "Inspiring the Next Generation Mobility Workforce Through Innovative Industry –Academia Partnerships." In Empowering the New Mobility Workforce, by Tyler Reeb, 317 –348. Elsevier. 18 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change • Facilitating early exposure to clean energy careers for young women during secondary school and TVET through career talks and outreach campaigns • Improving access to career information and addressing information asymmetries • Connecting female secondary students with female role models and mentors working clean energy jobs • Providing scholarships for young women in STEM curricula related to clean energy. • Establishing job placement programs, such as internships, apprenticeships, and on-the-job skills training to facilitate the school-to-work transition; and • Fostering mentorship programs and peer-to-peer networking (through virtual and physical hubs). Table 2. Examples of Green Jobs in Energy and Urban Transport Skill Level Energy Utilities Urban Transport Marketing and • Business and administration associate professionals • Marketing/communications professionals admin • Sales workers • Business and administration associate professionals High-skill level • Engineers and system designers (overlap with • R&D occupations related to design of greener (experts) manufacturing) transport systems. • Production and specialized services managers • Engineers • Smart-grid system designers • Systems analysts • Urban and transport planners / analysts • Bicycle and pedestrian program planners Medium-skill • Solar photovoltaic/wind turbine/biomass systems: • Occupations related to use, conversion (greening), level installers, technicians, plant managers, quality and maintenance of existing vehicles. engineers • Sustainability analysts • Electrical and electronic trades workers, stationary • Environmental professionals. plant and machine operators • Pedestrian/transportation mobility coordinators • Urban planning assistants Other workers • Wiremen • Transit bus drivers and technicians • Electricians • Construction laborers • Construction laborers • Electricians Entrepreneurial Renewable energy: E-mobility: opportunities • Upcycling batteries • Provision of e-vehicles (sales, marketing • Solar lanterns, solar home systems, Mini grids, and manufacturing) energy centers • Maintenance services for e-vehicles • Energy trading platforms for households to sell their • Ridesharing and rental businesses excess electricity back into a microgrid network. • E-motorcycle drivers, • Micro-hydropower • E.V. charging stations • Wind turbines • Solar kiosks, solar lanterns Providing women farmers with enhanced access to extension training and services in food production, climate-resilient agriculture, and forest management is also essential. For example, climate-smart agriculture demands complex management skills and depends on farmers’ knowledge regard ing selecting and properly using herbicides and pesticides. However, women often lack connections outside their village and are seldom accepted as members of cooperatives72. This restriction, in turn, affects women’s ability to 72FAO. (2021). Country gender assessment of the agriculture and rural sector – Egypt. Country Gender Assessment Series. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb8060en 19 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change adopt climate-smart agriculture and access improved seeds. The fact that most extension agents are men is also likely to affect women’s access to extension services, as married women in some cultures are prevented from communicating with men without the presence of their husbands. Agricultural development organizations can adopt several practices to bolster women’s participation in extension services, such as laying more focus on crops that are predominantly grown by women, designing outreach activities that primarily target female social networks, engaging female agents to deliver and facilitate extension services (men currently run most services and certain cultural norms may preclude women’s participation), and regularly sensitizing agents to make extension delivery more gender-responsive.73 2.3 Easing Household Constraints The lack of basic services, such as childcare, significantly erodes the time women can spend on productive and remunerative activities that could reduce their vulnerability and build their resilience to climate change. Women in Egypt perform most of the unpaid care work, which consumes a significant proportion of their time allocated to paid work, education, leisure, self-care activities, or other pursuits. Specifically, women spend 11 times the time their male counterparts spend on unpaid care work (Table 1). This disparity is larger than in any other country in the region.74 Therefore, improving affordable and quality childcare availability is a key policy intervention to address women’s care burden. Childcare services enable women to spend less time on unpaid work and to participate more effectively in the labor market. However, without safe, reliable, accessible, and affordable care services, women may reduce their working hours or opt out of the labor market altogether, reducing earnings and income. In Egypt, only 29 percent of children are enrolled in pre-primary education. In addition, childcare services are expensive, and wages might not sufficiently cover those costs to make working a worthwhile endeavor from a personal cost-benefit standpoint.75 Although a law mandates that companies must provide childcare for every 100 employees, whether in the office or in coordination with other workplaces, the law is often not implemented, with employers stopping at hiring beyond that ceiling.76 Childcare solutions can take many forms, including on- and off-site daycare and subsidized childcare services. In Latin America, publicly provided or subsidized daycare has contributed to an increase in both formal employment and the number of hours worked by women. For example, in Brazil, childcare provided by the public sector increased maternal employment by ten percentage points. In Argentina, an extensive public preschool program increased the likelihood of female work by up to 14 percentage points.77 In terms of quality, monitoring, and governance, a robust regulatory framework can play an essential role in reducing unpaid care work and creating an enabling environment for the private sector to invest in high-quality childcare services. In April 2021, the Minister of Social Solidarity announced that the Government of Egypt was ramping up efforts to enhance the childcare service sector, including through i) the rehabilitation and 73World Bank, FAO, IFAD (2015). Gender in Climate-Smart Agriculture Module 18 for the Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook. Washington, DC. 74 UN Women. (2019). Progress of the World’s Women 2019–2020: Families in a Changing World. New York: United Nations. 75Constant, Louay, Ifeanyi Edochie, Peter Glick, Jeffrey Martini, Chandra Garber (2020). Barriers to Employment that Women Face in Egypt. RAND Corporation. Constant,Samantha M.; Ali Ahmad. (2022). Toward More and Better Jobs for Women in Energy - An assessment 76 Maier,Elisabeth; undertaken to guide the new Regional Network in Energy for Women —RENEW. World Bank, Washington, DC. 77Haddock, Sarah Elizabeth, Amna Raza, and Giacomo Palmisano (2019). “Addressing Childcare in the World Bank Portfolio: Approaches, Experiences, and Lessons Learned.” World Bank, Washington, DC. 20 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change licensing of 25,000 nurseries, ii) the establishment of new nurseries in different regions, and iii) the training of 1,000 nursery workers to improve service quality.78 2.4 Addressing Institutional Constraints Women also face systemic institutional issues within male-dominated organizations and STEM-related fields that prevent them from being hired, retained, and advancing in their careers. For example, there are gender biases in the hiring process, especially in male-dominated and STEM-related fields, with male applicants favored over female candidates across the board. An inclusive hiring process can lead to more female candidates applying for jobs. Hiring practices can involve adding a commitment to equality between women and men in job advertisements, ensuring a balance between men and women on hiring committees, or offering incentives to employers to hire more women. The Egyptian Gender Equity Seal (EGES), promoted by the National Council for Women in cooperation with the World Bank, is a step in the right direction. This initiative promotes gender equity in the private sector by building a series of good practices in the areas of (i) recruitment, (ii) career development, (iii) family-work balance, and (iv) sexual harassment policies. It is guided by the World Bank’s Gender Equity Model (GEM), which identifie s the focus areas and maps out the actions needed to accomplish the model’s objectives in each area. 2.5 Improving Access to Capital and Markets Women farmers and entrepreneurs are constrained in terms of access to financial services. For example, according to Global Findex 2021, female account ownership is at 24 percent, a low share compared with the female average in lower-middle-income countries, which stands at 46 percent. Both women’s and men’s financial inclusion are at 53.3 percent in Egypt, below the global average (63 percent)79. Nonetheless, the COVID-19 pandemic has fast-tracked important Financial Technology (fintech) reforms in Egypt through the introduction of e-wallets for social safety net transfers. Recent reforms have been making gradual steps towards financial inclusion: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has also issued new and comprehensive rules to facilitate and organize payment services, as well as digital lending and savings services, through mobile phones in order to improve access for all members of society. These reforms are gradually helping Egypt transition away from a predominantly cash-based society80. Women face particularly steep barriers given that agricultural and commercial banks do not always recognize women as active economic agents. Most agricultural credit schemes rely on land or property as collateral in the loan contract.81 In addition, information about the existence and use of these financial services is not readily available to women. It is worth noting that access to finance is also limited for male workers, with a level of account ownership of only 31 percent. Consequently, it will not be enough to close 78 The latest national count carried out by CAPMAS and MoSS in 2018/2019 shows that the total capacity of all nurseries in Egypt does not exceed 1.3 million children, while the population of the 0 to 4 age group that need childcare services reached 12.5 million, representing a huge gap between supply and demand. Source: MOSS, UNICEF, ILO (2022). Study Report Business Case for Employer Supported Childcare In Egypt: Childcare Models For Scaling Up. http://wcmstraining2.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---africa/---ro-abidjan/---sro- cairo/documents/publication/wcms_859015.pdf 79 Based on data received from the CBE, the proportion of the eligible population (i.e., 16 years old and above) who have a bank account, a post account, active wallet, or pre-paid card has been increasing over the past years and was last registered at 53.3 percent as of June 2021. World Bank, Egypt Economic Monitor, 2022. 80 World Bank, Egypt Economic Monitor, 2022. 81 FAO (2021). Country gender assessment of the agriculture and rural sector – Egypt. Country Gender Assessment Series. 21 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change the gender gap in access to finance; instead, policy interventions must ensure that overall access to finance expands and that women are able to participate fully. On the other hand, there are encouraging signs of increased women’s access to microcredit. In 2020, the Financial Supervisory Authority reported that women comprise 63.74 percent of microfinance customers compared to 36.26 percent of men82. However, more efforts are needed to include women in formal credit and finance. NCW’s National Strategy for the Empowerment of Egyptian Women 2030 sets out the development mechanisms to expand financial inclusion and women’s access to various financ ial services. In the past few years, the CBE has promoted women’s financial inclusion through several measures, such as raising savings rates, building financial know-how among young women, and promoting digital savings and lending programs based on electronic wallets83. Efforts to enhance women’s financial inclusion are ongoing and should be sustained and strengthened, with specific attention to women working in the agriculture sector. The Central Bank of Egypt and the National Council for Women have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote women’s financial inclusion regarding accessing credit opportunities. The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has also prioritized a financial inclusion system for women as part of its development policy agenda to address the specific demand and supply-side barriers faced by women. In addition, diverse efforts have also been exerted by the National Council for Women in partnership with national and international stakeholders to increase financial inclusion for women, such as Tahwisha, targeting women in rural areas and aiming at digitalizing group savings and lending within targeted villages. There are possible entry points to overcome the financial challenges that women entrepreneurs face. For example, financial institutions can simplify bank requirements, develop specific interest rates, and encourage female entrepreneurs to network and cooperate to leverage their financial resources. In addition, other forms of finance for women-led clean energy ventures could also be provided, such as in- kind and cash grants for green growth-oriented firms selected through a business plan competition. Finally, enabling access to secure savings mechanisms, including mobile savings, can help women set aside money for their businesses while keeping it separate from other household demands. For example, the NCW-led National Digital Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) program is expanding rural women’s access to digitized VSLAs and Meeza national e-payment cards84. Efforts are also underway to build incubation and innovation centers across Egypt, with the explicit goal of ensuring every Egyptian with an innovative idea has the resources to pursue it. Further, the CBE launched the “Accelerate’ha’ Initiative – Unleashing Female FinTech and Entrepreneurial Potential” with the aspiration of endorsing Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in Egypt, creating a FinTech talent pipeline for female entrepreneurs85. In the clean energy sector, access to government procurement represents a significant potential market for women-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across the supply chain. However, female entrepreneurs who bid for public tenders face serious barriers. These barriers include the high minimum capital required to register as a vendor, inadequate access to credit, high financing costs, fewer networking opportunities, inadequate technical and managerial skills, gender bias, limited information about upcoming tenders, and time constraints to prepare bids. Nevertheless, the GoE can be encouraged to apply several specific measures to help reduce challenges for female-owned firms in accessing public contracts, similar 82 Citedin Ministry of Planning of the Republic of Egypt and UNDP (2020), Egypt Human Development Report. Cairo. 83 Ministry of Planning of the Republic of Egypt and UNDP (2020), Egypt Human Development Report. Cairo. 84 UN Women. (2022). Expanding banking services, savings and loans for rural women https://egypt.unwomen.org/en/what-we- do/economic-empowerment/banking-services-savings-loans-for-rural-women 85 World Bank, Egypt Economic Monitor, 2022, p.27. 22 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change to those aiming to facilitate smaller firms’ access to public procurement processes. These initiatives include streamlining tender documents and procurement processes, pre-qualifying female-owned firms, avoiding contract bundling, allowing time for tender preparation, providing feedback to potential suppliers, and enforcing rules requiring the prompt payment of suppliers.86 The National Council for Women has partnered with Bloom Bank Egypt to support the “Economic Empowerment of Rural Women through Environmentally Friendly Projects” initiative. This protocol aims to empower Egyptian women in rural areas through entrepreneurship training, financial education, and access to specialized financial services. The funded programs encompass diverse sectors, including poultry farming, agricultural waste recycling, medicinal plants, honeybee products, and solar energy. Another possible intervention is eProcurement, which can help reduce transaction costs and increase SME participation, including by female-owned firms. In addition, some countries have introduced more proactive policies to include female-owned firms (or other disadvantaged groups), such as establishing mandatory goals or targets, requiring firms awarded contracts above a certain threshold to include female-owned firms as subcontractors, providing preferences for female-owned firms; and setting aside contracts for female-owned firms. Several interventions can help women engaged in crop cultivation, fishing, and animal husbandry to access markets and paid job opportunities.87 Development organizations can help women develop new markets for women’s products through, for example, sustainability certification initi atives that incorporate gender principles and criteria. Organizations can also promote opportunities for women in different agricultural and fishing value chain segments. In addition, interventions can ensure that female farmers are paid directly by developing alternative payment mechanisms, such as providing women with mobile bank accounts and establishing direct payment systems. Lastly, there is a need to focus on narrowing the digital gender gap. This is especially important among women with minimal education and poor literacy, those living in rural areas, and those with weak Internet connectivity, who could be potential entrepreneurs but cannot enter the market. Providing women with the digital knowledge and tools to establish clean energy marketplaces can also help them access markets and connect them to renewable energy. In this regard, several recent initiatives by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology are worth mentioning, such as their work in Haya Karima Program (Decent Life), in which the ministry aims to ensure rural communities have internet access to integrate them into the digital economy88. To stimulate demand for digital skills, Egypt is starting to establish technology parks throughout the country, especially in underprivileged regions. Egypt has undertaken steps to raise the quality and relevance of basic education, Technical and Vocational Training (TVET), including strengthening foundational skills, in particular, basic literacy and numeracy. And schools are increasingly also being connected to high-speed internet for improved learning methods89. 86International Trade Centre (2014). “Empowering Women through Public Procurement.”; World Bank. 2020. Stepping Up Women's STEM Careers in Infrastructure: Case Studies. World Bank, Washington, DC. 87IFC (2021). Investing in Women along Agribusiness Value Chains. Washington DC; Chan, MK and S. Barrientos (2010). Improving Opportunities for Women in Smallholder-based Supply Chains Business case and practical guidance for international food companies, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 88 Wilson Center. 2021. Egypt’s Digital Future: A Conversation with the Egyptian Minister of Co mmunication and Information Technology, Available at: https://5g.wilsoncenter.org/event/egypts-digital-future-conversation-egyptian-minister-communication-and-information- technology 89 World Bank, Egypt Economic Monitor, 2022, p. 27. 23 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change 2.6 Improving Women’s Representation and Decision-Making Women’s representation within farmer organizations and natural resource governance, such as water users’ associations, should be further promoted. Farmer organizations help farmers gain skills, access inputs, form enterprises, and process and market their products to generate higher incomes. Members of farmer organizations usually have greater bargaining power and can negotiate better prices and terms than nonmembers. Without women’s participation, programs to replace traditional crops with those better suited to the changing environment might focus only on the needs of men’s fields and crops, neglecting women’s crops and household gardens. Water users’ associations are community-based organizations with a common interest in well-performing irrigation systems. However, women often feel excluded from governance bodies due to competing household priorities, lack of information, and social norms. 90 Despite quotas for women in water users’ committees, women tend to drop out because of male-dominated conversations and a lack of women-friendly policies and meeting arrangements.91 Several practices can be adopted to strengthen women’s representation and decision-making power in land use management, agricultural production, and water users’ associations. These include quotas for female membership and leadership positions, basing membership on ownership or control of crops, training female members, and educating agriculture producers and water users’ associations about the potential benefits of increasing women’s representation and participation. For example, successful adaptation strategies in South Asia, such as India and Nepal, have achieved great strides in climate adaptation and women’s empowerment. In Nepal, a project led by the National Indigenous Women Forum has supported marginalized women and communities affected by the 2016 earthquake in rebuilding their livelihoods through climate-resilient farming practices. As a result, women’s groups in Thami and Bankaria indigenous communities were trained in soil testing, selecting and preserving seeds, maintaining plant nurseries, preparing organic fertilizer, using integrated pest management, and selling vegetables in markets. Women farmers’ group savings were also established to support them in withholding shocks and plan for investments.92 90 Aguilar, L., Rogers, F., Haddad, F., Kostus, N. (2011). National Strategy for Mainstreaming Gender in Climate Change in Egypt . International Union for Conservation of Nature. 91El Kady M., Tawfik M., El Ghorab I. (2004). Women's role in water management in the Egyptian society. In : Hamdy A. (ed.), Sagardoy J.A. (ed.), Quagliariello R. (ed.), Trisorio-Liuzzi G. (ed.). Integration of Gender Dimension in water management in the Mediterranean region: INGEDI Project. Bari : CIHEAM, 2004. p. 67-76 (Options Méditerranéennes : Série A. Séminaires Méditerranéens ; n. 62. 92Resurrección, Bee, Dankelman, Young Park, Haldar, and McMullen, 2019 Gender-transformative climate change adaptation: advancing social equity” Background paper to the 2019 report of the Global Commission on Adaptation. Rotterdam and Washington, DC. Available online at www.gca.org. 24 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change 3. The Way Forward The GoE has paved the way for women-friendly climate policies in its recent National Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change 2050. The Strategy recognizes the importance of empowering women as change agents in climate adaptation and sustainable development. Moreover, Egypt’s adoption of its first -ever comprehensive National Strategy for Women’s Empowerment in 2017 represented a qualitative shift in the country’s efforts to fully integrate women—and their issues/needs—and strengthen their political, economic, and social roles through legislation, policies, strategies, and executive measures. The National Strategy for Women 2030 is striding to achieve more in this regard. Enabling a Just Transition toward a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy will require actions to support a more significant role of women in environmental protection, as consumers of clean energy products and as employees and entrepreneurs in clean energy sectors. It is also essential to ensure that women and men of different generations are part of the solution for the low-carbon transition, to make informed decisions about resilient strategies, and to participate in mitigation efforts fully. Climate change affects women and men differently, including climate-induced disasters. In addition, they have different ecological footprints, perceptions, vulnerabilities, and coping mechanisms toward shocks. Therefore, women’s and men’s participation will improve the efficacy of climate change adaptation and mitigation programs. There is no silver bullet, either policy, intervention, or technology, that will alleviate the impact of climate change on women. The effect of any policy, intervention, or technology will vary depending on men’s and women’s access to assets or endowments and their ability and agency to engage in income-generating activities. Therefore, climate change policies must be built upon a foundational analysis and understanding of gender inequality and actions to address women’s needs. Specific steps that the GoE could consider implementing to increase the role of women and girls in climate resilience and adaptation include the following: 1. For climate policies to help achieve a just and equitable transition, they could generally look at their potential negative implications on vulnerable groups. This means specifically integrating gender equality dimensions more comprehensively, focusing on sex-disaggregated data-gathering and application, acknowledging intersectional vulnerability, adaptation, and women’s contributions to curbing the impacts of climate change, addressing gender not as an add-on but as a must-have at the core of climate change policies and climate finance mechanisms. 2. Given that the barriers to women in climate change adaptation and low-carbon development are multifaceted, targeted and gender-responsive policies must tackle multiple levels of engagement that address policy constraints at the macro-societal level, the institutional/business level, and the individual level. This requires the participation of various stakeholders at the national, sectoral, and industry levels. Thorough mapping for those various stakeholders should be established along with a strategy for engaging with stakeholders. Furthermore, in addition to addressing the policy constraints at the various levels, integrating gender considerations into climate change policies and programs will require earmarking budgets to finance targeted interventions and gender- mainstreaming activities. 3. Gender assessments can be used to screen green public investment projects for women and other inter-sectoral vulnerability factors (such as age, marital status, socioeconomic status, and geographical location). As part of project preparation, gender and social assessments can be 25 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change conducted to identify multiple causes of climate vulnerability, including inequality between men and women. Specifically, gender assessments help better understand the relationships and power dynamics between men and women, their access to resources and activities, and the constraints they face relative to each other. They can also help illuminate evidence-based solutions to address GBV in the context of climate vulnerability. In addition, these assessments can pinpoint actions targeting women that can be included in the project. Weaving women’s needs into projects, policies, and support mechanisms through mandatory gender analysis and sex-disaggregated data collection as part of the Social and Environmental Impact Assessment, for example, will improve the effectiveness and inclusiveness of climate change policies and investments. Equally, on climate mitigation, there are opportunities to transition to a low-carbon economy while closing gender gaps. New technologies and land use will lead to opportunities and new investments. 1. Facilitating business entry and longevity for women in the low-carbon economy by unlocking women’s potential and removing barriers to women’s investments, jobs, and decision -making. This will require, as discussed in the previous chapter, the removal of societal, regulatory, and institutional barriers to place women and girls on an equal footing as men and boys as consumers, investors, employees, and entrepreneurs of the new low-carbon economy. 2. Improve accountability and monitoring of the inclusiveness of the green economy. Spending targets and climate mitigation efforts also need to be considered to achieve development goals. Along with applying gender and climate ‘markers’ to track the allocation of resources, the low -carbon transition is an essential element for attaining a Just Transition, which manifests itself through procedural justice before/during/after the low-carbon transition. 3. Support inclusion of women’s voices at all levels of decision-making. Gender-informed climate policies and practices need to be strengthened in climate-funding instruments. As the CCDR has successfully highlighted, hosting a people-centered approach with a strong focus on stakeholder engagement is essential to navigating change. In this regard, Egypt National Climate Change Strategy (NCCS) 2050 places significant emphasis on women’s empowerment as both a cross- cutting principle and a pivotal factor within mitigation and adaptation endeavors. In alignment with the Strategy’s objectives, it is imperative for the GoE to continue to enhance and expand its capabilities to seamlessly incorporate women’s and girls’ related considerations into national adaptation and mitigation plans, Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), as well as sectoral plans and programs. A two-pronged approach could be launched to facilitate stakeholder engagement for gender-responsive solutions. The first prong involves establishing a collaborative working group/steering committee comprised of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to partner with local and governmental entities in climate change initiatives and monitoring efforts. The National Council for Women (NCW) has a forum of 52 prominent civil society organizations focusing on women’s empowerment, which could be leveraged. This platform can draw upon and reinvigorate existing collaborative civil society mechanisms, such as the Egyptian Organization for Consumers and Energy (EOCE),93 the Egyptian National Competitiveness Council over 25 NGOs, including a wide range of associations concerned with the environment, consumer protection, and cu ltural 93 Representing and awareness activities. 26 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change (ENCC), and the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association (HEPCA), the Ministry of Environment and the National Council for Climate Change. The second prong involves the establishment of an online portal/platform aimed at enhancing awareness, public education, and engagement concerning gender and climate change. Priority Area A of COP27’s amended gender action plan emphasizes capacity-building, knowledge management, and communication, incorporating activities that utilize social media, web resources, and innovative communication tools to integrate gender considerations into climate policy. This online platform will serve to maintain a sustained and coherent focus on various aspects of climate change, including its implications, national/sectoral commitments, progress on climate action, and avenues for public discourse and collaboration on mitigation and adaptation efforts. 27 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change Annex. At-a-Glance: Interventions to Unlock Women’s Potential to Contribute to Climate Change Adaptation and Low-Carbon Development Policy Area Sustainable Energy & Transport Agriculture, Water, Fisheries, Livestock I. Removing societal • National awareness-raising advocacy campaigns to highlight the importance of women’s work and legal constraints in the green economy, contribution to climate change adaptation, and outreach at the community level. • Enforce existing laws allowing women to own property, obtain formal documentation, traveling, or conduct other independent activities. II. Easing household • Expanding access to affordable and quality childcare. constraints • Gender-sensitization training among men encourages men to increase their share of housework. III. Improving skills and • Early exposure to green economy careers through outreach • Provide women networks programs to secondary schools and colleges and role models enhanced access • Scholarships in STEM fields that are related to the green to early warning economy. systems, extensions • Support school-to-work transition interventions through trainings and internships and apprentice programs. services in food production, climate resilient agriculture, and forest management • Business training combined with training addressing socio-emotional skills IV. Addressing • Modifications to the hiring process to stem implicit gender bias. institutional • Targets to increase gender diversity of employees. constraints • Flexible work arrangements, part-time work and job-sharing • Address sexual harassment in the workplace. • Create an inclusive work environment. • Adapt workplace facilities to address differential needs in occupational safety and health V. Improving access to • Cash grants for growth-oriented firms selected through a • Promote capital and markets business plan competition. opportunities for • Improve female entrepreneurs’ access to government women farmers to procurement. participate and move upward in the • Include female clean energy entrepreneurs in online sustainable value marketplaces chains. • Sustainability certification initiatives incorporate gender principles 0 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change Policy Area Sustainable Energy & Transport Agriculture, Water, Fisheries, Livestock • Expanding access to credit through alternative collateral and credit scoring technologies • Provide women with access to secure mechanisms for savings including mobile savings. • Address the gender gap in access and use of digital technologies and the internet VI. Improving women’s • Promote opportunities for leadership positions in renewable • Ensure women’s representation and energy and sustainable transport organizations participation in decision-making agricultural production associations, and water user associations 1 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change 2 Background Note to the Climate Change and Development Report – Egypt: Gender and Climate Change