Our health and wellbeing is heavily influenced by the environment which surrounds us. Tens of thousands of years of First Nations wisdom and living culture informs the idea that the health of the Country that sustains us is intricately tied to the health of its peoples.
Gender too, will impact our experiences of climate change and health – the United Nations has reported that women are more deeply impacted in a myriad of ways by climate change, due to interacting factors like gendered socioeconomic disparities, the damaging ripple effects of gender-based violence and a higher prevalence of care and domestic responsibilities placed on women.
In regional and rural areas, climate-based disasters can have a devastating effect on the social, economic and mental wellbeing of women and their communities. WHGNE has been undertaking work in this space for over a decade and the research is clear – without effective preventative measures in place, gender equality takes a backseat after disaster, particularly in terms of heightened rates of gender-based violence.
This work led us to co-develop the collaborative research project Care through Disaster with Australia reMADE. We focused on asking community what would need to be in place for them to care and be cared for before, during and after disaster – the findings form the basis of our suite of resources under the Care through Disaster umbrella, which includes the initial research report, the Care through Disaster in Practice toolkit and a quarterly Community of Practice aimed to build capacity to apply the lens of care to climate policy.
A roundtable in March 2025 led by Women’s Environmental Leadership Australia and GenVic in Melbourne was attended by a diverse array of women in the climate and gender equity space, highlighting the central role women play across the sector. WHGNE had the pleasure of presenting our Care through Disaster work and collaboratively exploring the full potential of what we could achieve if we centred care through a gender lens within future climate policy.
Recently, the Victorian Government called for contributions to inform Victoria’s Climate Change Strategy 2026-2030.
WHGNE contributed a submission, which called for actions like:
- Address underlying socioeconomic vulnerabilities within communities to better equip people and place-based government-funded organisations to contribute meaningfully and cohesively to climate adaptation activities, and to better prepare for the impacts of climate-based disasters.
- Build trust, cohesion and agency in supporting communities through climate adaptation, policy shifts and associated economic anxieties. Enable more autonomy for the community by investing in long-term relationships that build trust.
We also suggested strengthening the following activities:
- Working with traditional custodians to embed care for country and traditional knowledge in Victoria’s climate adaptation strategies.
- Strengthening local food systems, housing and economic security and community cohesion in adapting to climate change and responding to disasters.
- Harnessing women’s community and environmental leadership to apply a gender lens and contribute innovative solutions to climate change action.
- Embedding a ‘care lens’, to infrastructure, essential services, land management and economic policy.
- Strengthening and supporting localised approaches to community development in rural and regional areas, for example the creation of circular economies and incentives for place-based, sustainable businesses.
- Create greater bi-partisan cooperation to address climate change through building relationships at a local and organisational level through collaboration with local government/organisations holding place-based community knowledge, to foster opportunities for meaningful community participation.
- Adapting the idea of a Future Generations Commissioner (currently before Federal Parliament) to the state context, ensuring Government policy considers the wellbeing of future generations across all areas.