Feminist Participatory Action Research as a tool for climate justice

ABSTRACT

The Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) uses Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) to strengthen grassroots women’s movements to advocate for an alternative development model – the ‘Feminist Fossil Fuel Free Future’ (5Fs) – to ensure new, gender-just, economic, political, and social relationships in a world free from climate injustices. Grassroots women of the global South face the extreme impacts of climate change resulting in reinforced and exacerbated inequalities driven by a patriarchal capitalist economy. APWLD’s Climate Justice-FPAR 2017–2019 (CJ-FPAR) supported young women researchers across Asia to lead grassroots research to expose the disproportionate impacts of climate change on women to demand climate justice. The programme evaluation found that CJ-FPAR proved highly successful as a feminist political tool in enhancing grassroots women’s activism through capacity building, producing new knowledge, tools and resources, undertaking impactful advocacy, and strengthening the movements’ architecture. We argue that FPAR is a useful methodology for grassroots feminist climate justice activists to collectively document lived experiences of climate change and strengthen women’s movements to engage in strategic activism and advocacy for rights-based policy change.

Le Forum Asie-Pacifique sur les femmes, le droit et le développement (APWLD) emploie la Recherche-action participative féministe (RAPF) pour renforcer les mouvements de femmes au niveau de la base populaire et les aider à préconiser un modèle de développement alternatif — l’avenir féministe sans combustibles fossiles (Feminist Fossil Fuel Free Future — 5Fs) — pour garantir de nouvelles relations économiques, politiques et sociales équitables entre les sexes dans un monde libre d’injustices face au changement climatique. Les femmes de la base populaire de l’hémisphère Sud sont confrontées aux impacts extrêmes du changement climatique, ce qui entraîne des inégalités renforcées et exacerbées, impulsées par une économie capitaliste patriarcale. Le programme de l’APWLD Climate Justice-FPAR (CJ-FPAR) (Justice climat-RAPF) 2017-2019 a aidé des jeunes chercheuses des quatre coins de l’Asie à mener des recherches au niveau de la base populaire pour mettre en évidence les impacts disproportionnés du changement climatique sur les femmes afin d’exiger la justice en matière de climat. L’évaluation du programme a constaté que CJ-FPAR s’est révélé extrêmement efficace en tant qu’outil féministe pour renforcer l’activisme des femmes au niveau de la base populaire grâce au renforcement des capacités, à la production de nouveaux outils, connaissances et ressources, à la réalisation d’activités de plaidoyer à fort impact et au renforcement de l’architecture des mouvements. Nous soutenons que la RAPF est une méthodologie utile pour les activistes féministes de la base populaire qui luttent pour la justice en matière de climat leur permettant de documenter collectivement les expériences vécues du changement climatique et de renforcer les mouvements de femmes pour qu’ils puissent prendre part à un activisme et un plaidoyer stratégiques en vue de changements de politiques basés sur les droits.

El Foro de Asia y el Pacífico sobre la Mujer, el Derecho y el Desarrollo (APWLD) utiliza la Investigación de Acción Participativa Feminista (FPAR) para fortalecer movimientos de base de mujeres. Su objetivo es abogar por un modelo de desarrollo alternativo —el "Futuro Feminista Libre de Combustibles Fósiles" (5Fs en inglés)— que garantice nuevas relaciones económicas, políticas y sociales justas desde el punto de vista del género en un mundo libre de injusticias climáticas. Las mujeres de base del Sur Global enfrentan impactos extremos vinculados al cambio climático, lo que provoca el reforzamiento y exacerbación de las desigualdades impulsadas por una economía capitalista patriarcal. El programa de justicia climática del APWLD (CJ-FPAR) 2017-2019 apoyó a jóvenes investigadoras de toda Asia para que dirigieran estudios de base orientadas a exhibir los efectos desproporcionados que el cambio climático tiene en las mujeres, y que ello permitiera exigir justicia climática. Al evaluarse el programa, se determinó que CJ-FPAR fue muy exitoso como instrumento político feminista, pues potencia el activismo de las mujeres a nivel de base fomentando sus capacidades, la producción de nuevos conocimientos, instrumentos y recursos, así como la realización de actividades de incidencia eficaces y el fortalecimiento de la estructura de los movimientos. Sostenemos que el FPAR es una metodología útil para que las activistas feministas de base en pro de la justicia climática documenten colectivamente sus vivencias relacionadas con el cambio climático y fortalezcan los movimientos de mujeres a fin de que participen en el activismo estratégico y la incidencia a favor de un cambio de políticas basado en los derechos.

KEYWORDS:

• climate justice
• Feminist Participatory Action Research
• women’s human rights
• Asia
• feminist activism
• social movements

Acknowledgements

The evaluation of the CJ-FPAR programme 2017–2019 was conducted in collaboration with CJ-FPAR young women researchers and mentors. The evaluation findings and report are collective owned. We acknowledge and honour the contributions of the following women and organisations: Krajai Chowdhury, Cho Khan, Uchacha-A Chak, and Prantik Dewan, Maleya Foundation, Bangladesh; Mong Vichet, Sotheara, Yem Channy, and Ek Yothin, Highlanders Association (HA), Cambodia; Banamallika Choudhury and Jollymoni Saikia, North East Affected Area Development Society (NEADS), India; Flora Bawi Nei Mawi, Rose Par Bawi Zi, Pansy Dwe and Zar Zar Tun, Mawi Sung Biak, and Vang Fam, Chin Committee for Emergency Response and Rehabilitation (CCERR), Myanmar; Tara Khanal, Ranjana Giri, Buddha Kumari Rai, and Aruna Chaudhari, Chetana Mahila Samuha, Nepal; Rabia Waseem, Shaheen Mahar, and Samina Parveen, Roshni Tarqiyati Tanzeem (Roshni), Pakistan; Geetha Lakmini Fernando, Sandunika Hansindu, and Sathyavel Sathyabama, Prabuddhika, We Women Lanka, Sri Lanka; Kanlaya Chularattakorn and Noraeri Thungmueangthong, Indigenous Women’s Network of Thailand (IWNT), Thailand; Nguyen Thi Thao and Ha Thi Hoa, Agriculture and Forestry Research & Development Center for Mountainous Region (ADC), Vietnam.

Notes on contributors

Naomi Joy Godden is Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow at Edith Cowan University and Adjunct Research Fellow at Monash University in Australia. Postal address: PO Box 1712, Bunbury, Australia, 6230. Email: [email protected]

Pam Macnish is a Bachelor of Social Work student, Edith Cowan University, Australia. Email: [email protected]

Trimita Chakma is an independent feminist participatory action researcher and Master of Arts student at the Asian Center for Women’s Studies, Ewha Womans University, South Korea. Email: [email protected]

Kavita Naidu is Climate Justice Program Officer, Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development, Thailand. Email: [email protected]

Notes

1 The 5Fs call for a just and equitable transition that challenges the gendered division of labour; promotes energy democracy and agroecological farming practices; debunks ‘growth and profit’ to promote investments in the commons; provides a social wage; demands the dismantling of all trade rules within and outside the World Trade Organization that prevent climate action; establishes a Global Tax Body that ends tax competition and evasion; secures innovative sources of public finance to redistribute wealth; and ensures gender equitable participatory democracy.

2 Development Justice is a transformative framework that aims to reduce inequalities in national, regional, and global development agendas.

3 YWRs are under the age of 35 and work closely with the communities. They are selected by mentors, women representatives of the FPAR partner organisations in-country. The YWR and mentors engage, participate, and support communities on their FPAR journey.

4 For some relevant literature regarding feminist participatory action research and social movements, see Chakma (2016), Godden (2018a, 2018b), Hayhurst et al. (2018), Lykes (2010), Ponic et al. (2010), Sewell and Harris (2016), and Tolhurst et al. (2012).

5 The nine partner organisations are: Maleya Foundation, Bangladesh; Highlanders Association (HA), Cambodia; North East Affected Area Development Society (NEADS), India; Chin Committee for Emergency Response and Rehabilitation (CCERR), Myanmar; Chetana Mahila Samuha (CMS), Nepal; Roshni Tarqiyati Tanzeem (Roshni), Pakistan; We Women Lanka (WWL), Sri Lanka; Indigenous Women’s Network of Thailand (IWNT), Thailand; and Agriculture and Forestry Research & Development Center for Mountainous Region (ADC), Vietnam.

6 Due to travel difficulties and changes for some organisations, not all partners participated in all components of the evaluation.

7 Six out of nine partners were able to attend the Final CJ-FPAR Reflection Meeting (two days) where the endline interviews were conducted.

8 Only two advocacy initiatives were completed at the time of preparing the evaluation report.

9 The CJ-FPAR evaluation report is unpublished; however, the CJ-FPAR Regional Report can be found at https://apwld.org/our-programmes/climate-justice/ (last checked 20 October 2020).