As a rights-based organisation, CARE's climate change strategy is geared towards the empowerment of poor and marginalised people. CARE is deeply concerned about constraints that the inequitable distribution of rights, resources and power – as well as repressive cultural rules and norms – place on people's ability to take action on climate change. We believe that a wide range of development goals are achievable only if decision makers at all levels recognise the unique risks faced by poor and marginalised people and their essential roles in planning, implementing and evaluating action on climate change.

The majority of the world's poorest people today are women and girls. Climate change is making it even more difficult for them to realise their basic rights, and it is exacerbating inequalities since they are more vulnerable to its impacts than men.

Moreover, many women are denied access to new information about climate change and participation in important decision-making processes despite having unique skills and knowledge – about low risk farming, sustainable water management, family health and community mobilisation, for example – vital to effective adaptation.

For all these reasons, and because women are central to the food and livelihood security of their families, we place a special emphasis on gender equality and women's empowerment.

CARE and its partners work closely with women to find solutions tailored to their situations. For example:

In Bangladesh, with CARE's support, women decided how best to adapt to more frequent and severe floods. When given a choice of options to diversify their incomes, many women chose to rear ducks. Importantly, they rear ducks near their homes, which is more acceptable in terms of social norms restricting the movement of women. The start-up costs were low, the activity did not create a heavy workload in terms of time or labor, and the ducks produced eggs and meat for food and cash. And unlike chickens, the ducks could swim, so they could survive floods. Read about the Duck Rearing Project.

In Ethiopia, pastoral women are dealing with more frequent droughts by participating in women's savings and loans groups. Through these groups and CARE's assistance, women are accessing credit to invest in more resilient livestock-raising models. Watch No Time to Recover video.

In Ghana, CARE brought communities and their local governments together to identify who is especially vulnerable to floods, droughts and erratic rainfall, and why. Communities and government are now working together to integrate adaptation into local development plans and to ensure that women receive the training, mentoring and opportunities they need to take on leadership roles. Open: Ghana Case Study.

In Tajikistan, CARE has helped women build simple greenhouses that effectively extend their growing season. This is crucial to household food security because climate change has brought an increase in snow pack, shifts in the length and timing of winter and increasingly erratic rainfall to communities throughout the central mountains. Go to: Tajikistan Case Study