CSW66 in Europe and Central Asia: Integrating gender equality into climate action

UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECA RO) supported partners in the region by convening a series of subregional consultations to examine achievements, challenges, and gaps as well as actions to integrate gender equality into climate change policies both at the local and regional level. This year the sixty-sixth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW66) will take up the theme “Achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes”.

For this purpose, UN Women ECA RO partnered with the Government of Turkemnistan in organizing virtual sub-regional consultations for Central Asia and with the Government of Serbia, for the subregional consultations for the Western Balkan countries and Turkey in February 2022. ECA RO also supported partners in Eastern European countries in reviewing and updating their joint posiiton on issues to be discussed at CSW66, based on findings of consultations for Beijing+25 review, Generation Equality Forum preparations, among others. National Gender Youth Activists (NGYA) in Turkey also held a virtual consultation to discuss and voice the demands of youth from Turkey on issues of climate justice and gender equality as part of preparations to the CSW66.

The general purpose of the consultations was to support partners to prepare for the CSW66 consultations and jointly agree on key joint messages to form the sub-regional vision, its perspectives, experiences, and recommendations on the game-changing actions in the climate change, environment, and disaster risk reduction arena.

As a result of the subregional consultations, the UN Women ECA RO developed a summary of the key messages and recommendations from Central Asian, Western Balkan countries and Turkey. The recommendations will feed into the CSW66 and inform membership contributions to the Agreed Conclusions.