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technologywill only perform if the social, economic and environmental prerequi- sites are in place over time. 2.8 Gender,Equity and Inclusiveness The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development,10 adopted at the Earth Summit in 1992, introduced principles (10, 20, 21, 22) on participation and importanceof specificgroups (civil society,women,youthand indigenousgroups) for sustainable development. The Sustainable Development Goals recognize that society and the economy need to ensure an equitable distribution of wealth, attention for gender perspectives and ensure inclusiveness of both civil society andtheprivatesector,aswellasgovernment.Achievingthiswillensuresustainable development in thesocialandeconomicdomains.Without thisbalance, thebalance of social andeconomicneedswith the environmental domainwill bemeaningless. Climatechange impactsaffectmenandwomen,with thepoorestbeing themost vulnerable. Seventy percent of the world’s poor are women,11 making them extremely affected. On the other hand, they also play a large and important role in tackling climate change.As impacts of climate change increase,work predom- inantly undertaken by women (i.e. food production, supplying household water, ensuring fuel for heating and cooking) is becoming increasingly more difficult. Coping strategies and their resilience give them a practical understanding of innovationand skills to adapt to changing realities, aswell as contribute tofinding solutions. The GEF has recognized gender as highly important to achieve behavioural change that will lead to broader adoption of sustainable solutions to global envi- ronmental problems. In 2010, OPS4 highlighted that ‘social and gender issues in GEF strategies and projects are not addressed systematically, and theGEFcannot rely completelyon the social andgenderpoliciesof itsAgencies.’ (GEF/EO2010, p. 30).As a response, theGEFdeveloped its policy ongendermainstreaming and adopted it in May 2011. There has also been an increase in the proportion of projects that aim tomainstreamgender. These improvementsmaybe attributed to adoption of gender mainstreaming by several GEF agencies, of which the best international practices come from IFAD,UNDPand theWorldBank.Despite the adoption and review of a gender policy and designation of a focal point OPS5 provides evaluative evidence that attention for gender in projects is often lacking. No less than 43 projects evaluated qualified themselves as “gender not relevant”, 10UnitedNationsEnvironmentProgramme (2003).RioDeclarationonEnvironment andDevelop- ment. http://www.unep.org/documents.multilingual/default.asp?documentid¼78& articleid¼1163. Accessed12May2016. 11UnitedNationsFrameworkConventiononClimateChange(2014)GenderandClimateChange. http://unfccc.int/gender_and_climate_change/items/7516.php.Accessed19April 2016. 2 ActiononClimateChange:WhatDoes ItMean andWhereDoes ItLeadTo? 29