Climate change and forced displacement: gendered impact on the lives of women and children

 

Close to 80 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced because of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations, economic hardship, climate change and prolonged instances of political instability. Of the world’s forcibly displaced people, 80% are hosted in countries in the Global South, with 30% living in sub-Saharan Africa and 35% in the Middle East and North Africa. Women and children bear the brunt of forced displacement. However, almost all research that influences policy and practice originates from researchers based in the Global North. Because of this disparity, local knowledge about forced displacement is underused.

To address this gap, in 2022, IDRC funded the establishment of 11 research chairs on forced displacement based at academic institutions throughout the Global South. This project provides support to an existing UNHCR Sergio Vieira de Mello research chair at the Instituto Tecnologico de Santo Domingo, a private university in the Dominican Republic, that will focus on the thematic entry point of forced displacement and climate change. More specifically, the project will examine the gendered impacts of climate change on forced displacement in the Caribbean region in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Puerto Rico. It will collaborate with other research chairs in the region to generate locally led, context-informed and multi-disciplinary knowledge on this issue and build the capacity of local institutions, social organizations and communities in developing practical solutions for prevention, mitigation and resilience.

It aims to inform policy processes at national, regional and global levels and to promote policy dialogues and public debates that amplify Southern voices from the Caribbean region, including those affected by climatic phenomena generating forced displacement. The research will analyze the response of the Dominican State and other regional governments to people in situations of forced displacement due to climate change and will develop policy recommendations towards ensuring a gendered approach to preventing and responding to the effects of climate change in the context of forced displacement.