Gender, Leadership and Social Sustainability

GLASS International Conference, Prato, Italy, September 2011

Monash University’s Gender Leadership and Social Sustainability (GLASS) Research Unit, led by Professor Margaret Alston OAM, convened an international conference at the Monash Prato Centre in Italy on 15 and 16th September 2011.  The conference brought together researchers, policy makers and community advocates from across the globe to discuss the latest research findings in the area of gender and climate change and to develop strategies to address differential gendered impacts. This information will provide input for forthcoming significant international fora including Conference of Parties (COP) 17, Commission on Status of Women (CSW) and Earth Summit 2012.

Delegates from 24 countries and from every continent discussed, debated and analysed how climate change differentially impacts women and men. Delegates also discussed the way research can inform policy makers and encourage action that recognises and addresses these gendered impacts and opportunities of climate change. To make the conference as constructive and progressive as possible there was a strong focus on developing shared priorities and platforms for further research, policy and advocacy work.

To enable widespread global input, GLASS received significant support from AusAid (ISS program) and from the US Department of State (Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues) to sponsor delegates from the Asia-Pacific region, African nations and South America. A global representation was critical to facilitating a global discussion and reinforced that despite diversity, there are common experiences and similar ideas and priorities.

The conference program balanced research and practice presentations with discussion and planning workshops. Four internationally renowned speakers including Elaine Enarson, Lorena Agulilar, Lena Dominelli and Gotelind Alber presented at the conference. In addition to giving a keynote address they also provided input into the workshops and expert commentary on the formation of priorities.

The conference included 57 paper presentations across 3 themes:

• Gendered impacts of climate change
• Law, policy frameworks
• Advocacy and Innovation

These presentations can be accessed here (230 MB zip file).

The final afternoon of the conference was devoted to collaborative workshops to determine key priorities for research and action. A summary document containing the information presented back to delegates is available here (doc 52.5KB).