A/HRC/31/51 76. In all adaptation projects women should be granted access to the same level of technology and financing as men. This will help women change agricultural practices as well as preserve livelihoods during times of drought. Addressing issues of resource management and land ownership will also improve women’s chances against climate change. Ultimately, communities must take a “bottom-up” approach in order to accurately understand local customs and to incorporate local knowledge; applying a model that relies upon opinions from international institutions or outside groups will not be as effective. 6. Agro-ecology 77. Agro-ecology is a reaction against the agricultural policies promoted by the Green Revolution that have replaced traditional farming with GMO seeds, extreme use of fertilization, and intensive resource use. 79 It offers an important means through which women farmers can adapt to climate change, recognizes women as legitimate actors, and opens spaces for women to become more autonomous and empowered at productive, reproductive, and community levels. 80 At the same time, agro-ecology is a proven alternative farming method to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 78. With the increased commercialization of agriculture and highly technological improvements, farming systems are overly dependent on external inputs such as agrochemicals. Poor rural women and men farmers often spread risk by growing a wide variety of locally-adapted crops, some of which will be resistant to drought or pests, and livestock breeds that have adapted to the local agro ecological zone. Diversification, an important coping strategy adopted by poor rural households, also protects women against climate change, desertification, and other environmental stresses. B. How to ensure gender sensitive climate change policies? 1. Participation into decision making in an effective manner 79. In order for adaptation and mitigation strategies to effectively take gender into account, they must provide women with the opportunity to be active members of the planning and implementation of such policies. Helping women participate fully in the process of adaptation will require concerted effort by decision-makers to overcome the multiple barriers of control over resources, lack of access to information, and socio-cultural constraints. Local adaptation policies need to be designed by both women and men in order to build upon existing knowledge and grant women access to the rights, resources and opportunities necessary to surviving climate change in the years to come. 2. Integrating gender-disaggregated data and gender perspective to research 80. Not enough agricultural research and development efforts have focused on options that meet women's specific needs and situations related to childcare, food preparation, and the collection of domestic water and energy resources. New research based on genderdisaggregated data shed light on gender differences in perceptions on climate change and the ability to adopt practices and technologies needed to increase resilience. 81 These data 79 80 81 18 See Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food to the General Assembly, July 2014, A/70/Slot 36200 A. Lopes and E Jomalinis Feminist Perspectives Towards Transforming Economic Power: Agroecology, , The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) , (.2011) , http://www.observatoriodegenero.gov.br/menu/noticias/2fpttec-agroecology-eng1.pdf CAFS; IFPRI; ILRI , “Gender Household Survey”, , 2013.http://hdl.handle.net/1902.1/22584, Harvard Dataverse, V4