Gender mainstreaming strategy and action plan for the disposal of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) in Southern Africa

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Recognizing that women, men and children can be affected differently following exposure to PCBs and other POPs, this report emphasizes the importance of engaging women and men alike as part of the solutions that the Global Environment Facility (GEF) project “Disposal of PCB Oils Contained in Transformers and Disposal of Capacitors Containing PCBs in Southern Africa” is intended to implement.

This document consists of two parts, a gender mainstreaming which aims to enable women, men, youth, the elderly, other vulnerable social groups, and other population categories to achieve gender equality. The second part is a Gender Action Plan (GAP) developed for this project is to enable women, and those belonging to other population categories, to benefit from the project equally at project intervention sites in the 12 targeted countries: Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. A gender lens has been used to examine the underlying gender dynamics according to which people may be disproportionately affected by the interplay of sex, gender, and exposure to POPs, with a special focus on PCBs.