“Including the ‘Invisible’ in Mauritius: Climate Finance Decisions Should Embed Gender”

By Neekhil Bhowoniah

World Bank Financial Sector Expert for Mauritius & Seychelles 

• “Only 4 percent of respondents believe that Mauritius has well-established strategies and sufficient practices that take gender mainstreaming seriously in climate finance”

Recent initiatives have targeted reform of the global finance and development system but have fallen short on considering gender inequalities. This year, questions relating to gender considerations in climate financing have grown louder as global projections suggest that the situation is getting far worse.   

As per the UN Women ‘Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals’ report, it is expected that climate change will push over 158 million more women and girls into extreme poverty by 2050. Out of 64 countries, only 25 (equivalent to 39 percent) have established national coordination mechanisms in terms of task forces and working groups to integrate gender equality into climate policymaking across sectors. Even more, between 2022 and 2023, less than 1 percent of bilateral allocable overseas development assistance provided by Development Assistance Committee members for climate and gender objectives was committed to women’s rights organizations. These figures reveal only part of the ongoing crisis.

In Mauritius, what is the general perception amongst climate experts?

The national Climate Finance Governance report (November 2025) conducted by Transparency Mauritius – under Transparency International’s Climate Governance and Integrity Programme, revealed that the majority of respondents surveyed (60 percent) feel that climate finance policies in Mauritius fail to adequately respond to the distinct needs of different genders – women and marginalized groups such as the youth, disabled persons and low-income communities. Although the idea of gender-responsive climate financing is gaining traction in Mauritius, climate experts caution that there are no adapted and suitable processes/mechanisms at the level of the entity to address the challenges faced and prioritize the meaningful participation of women, girls and marginalized communities.

Only 4 percent of respondents believe that Mauritius has well-established strategies and sufficient practices that take gender mainstreaming seriously in climate finance. In their view, the outside perception of this multi-faceted concept is indeed changing at a much slower rate than the reality itself. Arguably, internal changes are likely to remain “invisible” to the public, which eventually triggers (and continues to widen) the perception gap. So, in their view, the focus should not be substantive integration or increased ambition of gender perspectives, but rather on how to correct the ongoing mismatch by striking a balance between the rapid evolution and the lagging public perception. Gender data gaps, inevitably, are the fulcrum. Missing data further weaken accountability mechanisms (the other missing rail), making it harder to track progress. And without comparable metrics, progress in this area will remain patchy – with diverging conclusions.

“Missing data further weaken accountability mechanisms, making it harder to track progress.”

The year 2026 is expected to see a surge in international action aimed at achieving the Global Goals, so how is the role of gender in climate finance evolving? 

It’s not all bad news. The 30th session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 30) marks a pivotal moment for advancing gender equality in climate finance and action. Parties adopted the Belém Gender Action Plan for 2025-2034 (FCCC/CP/2025/L.16). The 3 critical takeaways from COP30 are: (i) The Belém Action Mechanism (BAM), (ii) The Gender-Responsive Indicators for the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), and (iii) The Belém Health Action Plan (BHAP). 

1.  BAM – ensuring a just transition to a low-carbon economy, addressing intersectional factors such as age, disability and income level to make climate actions more equitable and inclusive, and improving data and knowledge via gender-disaggregated data and education.

1.  GGA – the adoption of 59 indicators to provide a structured basis for assessing climate adaptation progress including gender-responsive adaptation plans, policy instruments, undertaking gender assessment (cause and effect analysis).

1.  BHAP – elevating health within climate governance through improved health surveillance and monitoring systems to effectively respond to climate-related threats, implementing proven solutions, evidence-based policies, and capacity building. The plan received 80 endorsements (30 countries and 50 partners among civil society and intergovernmental organizations), and an initial USD 300 million funding commitment from a coalition of major global philanthropies.

Calls from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and Global Environment Facility (GEF) emphasize building institutional gender policies in climate finance. The GCF is the first multilateral climate fund to integrate a strong gender mainstreaming mandate from the outset. Key objectives of Mauritius should be to:

1. Support climate change interventions and innovations through a comprehensive gender approach, applied both within the institution and by its network of partners, including accredited entities (AEs), national designated authorities (NDAs) and focal points, and delivery partners for activities under the GCF Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme (for example);
2. Promote climate investments that advance gender equality through climate change mitigation and adaptation actions, and minimize social, gender-related and climate-related risks in all climate change actions; and

iii. Contribute to reducing the gender gap of climate change-exacerbated social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities and exclusions through GCF climate investments that mainstream gender equality issues.

From Policy to Practice

The Gender Policy in climate finance should make explicit commitments to (i) gender balance, (ii) gender-responsive, and (iii) gender-transformative approaches, in a bid to address current gaps at both organizational and project levels.

1. Organizational Level: to cover the overall organizational policy environment, the entity’s programmatic landscape, and reinforce technical capacity at multiple levels to ensure that gender is mainstreamed across different key actors,

1. Project-Level Requirements: integrate gender considerations across the various stages of the project cycle – from country engagement, project identification, development in terms of design and implementation, board approval, monitoring and compliance, reporting, adaptive management, through to evaluation and closure.

Gender balanced representation remains key to achieving parity in financing and decision-making bodies of climate mechanisms and funds. Guaranteeing women’s equal representation in these bodies may lead to more gender-responsive selection and financing of projects. A way to achieve gender-sensitive policies is to foster gender balance in decision-making.

Gender-responsiveness involves assessing how well climate projects or policies address gender-specific interests, needs and responsibilities (of women and men). This ensures that the quality of climate finance delivers on equity by unlocking the untapped potential of women-led solutions in initiatives, all while ensuring the equitable participation and representation in decision-making at all levels.

Gender-transformative approaches focus on the intersection of women’s empowerment and climate adaptation to provide support at project-level interventions, government and institutional capacity-building, and for national evidence-building and knowledge-sharing. As a matter of fact, only 0.01 percent of global finance supports projects addressing both climate change and women’s empowerment (UNFCCC, 2024).

These guiding principles remain crucial to acknowledge that climate change initiatives are more sustainable, equitable and more likely to achieve their objectives when gender equality and women’s empowerment considerations are integrated into the design and implementation of projects.