A/HRC/23/44 8. Strengthening the links between gender and age-sensitive approaches, and other elements of diversity 51. Despite attempts to mainstream attention to gender, age and other elements of diversity, room remains for stronger links between gender and generation-sensitive analyses and interventions in support of IDPs. This is especially the case for adolescent girls, young and older IDW. The ageing of the global population points towards the need to integrate gender and generation-sensitive approaches to internal displacement more systematically, given the growing proportion of elderly displaced women, including widows,58 with particular capacities and protection and assistance concerns. 59 These concerns may be particularly pronounced when older IDW take on the role of caregivers to children whose parents have died or moved elsewhere.60 Similarly, displaced girls are burdened with heavy household responsibilities, including domestic chores, such as fetching water and firewood and caring for younger siblings. This often results in young girls missing out on schooling and exposes them to increased protection risks.61 There is also a need for more concerted attention to the particular risks and challenges faced by IDW and girls with disabilities, including ensuring full access to and inclusion in humanitarian programmes and recognizing their skills and capacities. 9. Gender dimensions of displacement linked to natural disasters and climate change 52. In recent years, increased attention has been devoted to rising rates of displacement linked to the effects of climate change62 and the particularly adverse effects of climate change on potentially vulnerable groups, including women. It is now widely acknowledged that climate change impacts on men and women differently at all stages from preparedness to reconstruction. As recognized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), inequitable gender roles may exacerbate women’s exposure to harm, while at the same time women may make “very significant, active contributions … [to] coping with and adapting to extremes”.63 Women often experience higher rates of mortality than men in natural disasters64 and may experience particularly deleterious effects on health, 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 18 For example, the JIPS profiling exercise in Burundi highlighted the large number of older widows in IDP settlements. Elizabeth Ferris and Daniel Petz, “The Old are the Future: impacts of an aging world population on the future of disaster response”, in Elizabeth Ferris and Daniel Petz, The Year that Shook the Rich: A Review of Natural Disasters in 2011 (Washington, D.C., Brookings-LSE Project, 2010). HelpAge and IDMC, The neglected generation, p. 6. WRC, In Search of Safety and Solutions: Somali Refugee Adolescent Girls at Sheder and Aw Barre Camps, Ethiopia (2010) and The Path to Hope: Congolese Refugee Adolescent Girls in Nyarugusu Refugee Camp, Tanzania (2012). See also Coalition for Adolescent Girls, Missing the Emergency: Shifting the Paradigm for Relief to Adolescent Girls (2012). Report of the Special Rapporteur on the protection of and assistance to internally displaced persons, A/66/285, para. 34; report of the OHCHR on the relationship between climate change and human rights, A/HRC/10/61, paras. 42–60; background report submitted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, A/HRC/SF/2010/2 and Corr.1. IPCC, Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation: Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2012), sect. 2.5.2.1.2. See also WHO, Gender, Climate Change and Health (2011); UN Women Watch, “Fact Sheet: Women, Gender Equality and Climate Change” (2009); UNDP, Training Manual on Gender and Climate Change (2008); report of the fifty-second session of the Commission on the Status of Women, E/CN.6/2008/11-E/CN.6/2008/11, para. 21 (jj); United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Conference of the Parties decision 1/CP.16, para. 7. Eric Neumayer and Thomas Plümper, “The Gendered Nature of Natural Disasters: The Impact of Catastrophic Events on the Gender Gap in Life Expectancy, 1981–2002”, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 97, No. 3 (2007).