Exploring the co-construction of gendered climate knowledges: Reflections on adopting a feminist, decolonial, and decentralised approach

Keywords: Climate, Disaster, Feminist, Gender, Decolonial
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract

Abstract

This paper will draw on experiences of the ‘Gender Responsive Resilience and Intersectionality in Policy and Practice’ (GRRIPP) project. GRRIPP is financed by the UK’s Research and Innovation fund. Implemented by a collective of universities in the UK and Global South, it is a 4-year global collaboration and knowledge-exchange project. Committed to adopting a feminist and decolonial approach, core to the project is a critical reassessment of power relationships, including within the GRRIPP grouping itself, in the construction of knowledge, policies, practices in the fields of gender-responsive disaster risk reduction, climate change action and development. The project proposal included $2million available for research. Adopting a decentralised approach, the UK-based universities are not directly engaged in research, nor are our partners in the universities that lead the three regional hubs – Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, South Asia. Instead calls for expressions of interest were developed specific to each region and publicised widely across social medias. This led to a diverse range of projects being financed, involving a diverse range of actors, from grass roots activists to think tank advocates, with a diverse range of knowledges emerging. This paper will focus on exploring the ‘complex and intersecting ways in which power is articulated and exercised within the governance and production of climate knowledge and services’ using GRRIPP as a micro case study with a focus on exploring the inequalities of power and tensions within and between the projects, countries, regions, and the GRRIPP grouping in the co-construction of climate knowledges.