The Effects of Climate Mobility on Women and Girls in the MENA Region

The countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are facing severe and accelerated impacts of climate change, and extreme weather events and environmental degradation have already pushed people to migrate internally.

This Policy Brief presents an overview of women’s experiences of climate migration in the MENA region. It argues that women’s needs and experiences should be placed at the forefront of any response to climate mobility, as:
 

• Women and girls face specific and often disproportionate risks resulting from climate change, environmental degradation and disasters. 
• Women’s vulnerability in relation to climate change and forced mobility in the context of climate change is not inevitable or innate. Rather, vulnerability is produced by economic, social, political, and cultural forces that influence how people of different genders and other intersecting social factors are able to adapt, make decisions, and protect themselves. Women’s vulnerability to the effects of climate change and the experience of forced mobility can – and should – be reduced as part of efforts to accelerate gender equality, women and girl’s empowerment and wider social equity.