Welcome to our project website on gender and chemicals
Gender is relevant to chemicals and waste management in many ways – but this does not receive enough attention. Hence, inequalities can be worsened, and policy-making and implementation are not as good and effective as they could be. MSP Institute has been advocating for the integration of gender in (inter)national chemicals management since 2017.
Why Gender and Chemicals?
Our information video explains this in 2 minutes:
- Women’s and men’s bodies are affected differently by certain chemicals – exposure, risk, and impacts can be different between the sexes.
- Gender, as a social category, is linked to gender-specific norms of behaviour, roles in society as well as the development of ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ identities, which in turn influence people’s behaviour, including their impact on the environment, their affectedness by environmental degradation, and their access to and power over resources.
- Gender analysis allows to ask questions that help us understand and unpack root causes of unsustainable behaviour and societies, and hence have a transformational potential. We need to tap into this potential in order to bring about sustainable development, justice and peace.
(You can find more information and references in our overview paper here.)
Our current projects on gender and chemicals:
Project “Know-How for European Chemicals Focal Points”
Project duration: 15/02/2025-30/04/2027
Project volume: 279.662,39 EUR
The project aims to minimise the negative environmental and health impacts of hazardous chemicals by better integrating the needs and expertise of all relevant stakeholders into chemicals management in Europe and promoting their equal cooperation. To this end, the expertise of National Focal Points of the Global Framework on Chemicals and the Science-Policy Panel on Chemicals, Waste and Pollution is to be strengthened through training on multi-stakeholder processes with a human rights focus. In addition to promoting skills for stakeholder participation and cooperation, the project also aims to raise awareness of gender-specific risks and teach skills for taking gender aspects into account in chemicals management. The project focuses on online training and a final workshop and offers the focal points networking and exchange opportunities and supports implementation at national level. Learning successes, implementation experiences and best-practice examples are recorded and made available to all relevant stakeholders in chemicals management for long-term use.
The MSP Institute is supported by the Gender & Chemicals Partnership (G&CP), and in particular the G&CP Working Group on ‘Education & Training’, in the various activities to achieve the project outputs.
The project is financially supported by the European Environmental Initiative (EURENI) of the German Federal Ministry the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection.
Project “Gender Action Plan for the Global Framework on Chemicals“
Since September 2024, MSP Institute, in collaboration with the G&CP, is cooperating with the GFC Secretariat (at UNEP) to develop the draft of a Gender Action Plan for the Global Framework on Chemicals, with the objective of mainstreaming a gender perspective in the implementation of the GFC.
Seeking your input and advice: We are consulting with colleagues from women’s organisations, governments, UN and other stakeholders as well as individual experts on the project activities and goals. If you’re interested in discussing gender and chemicals issues, relevant processes, research and literature with us, please do let us know!
Contact us via info(at)msp-institute.org.
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