Delving into Gender Narratives in the International Migration and Climate Change Literature and Policy: The Case of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Slow-Onset Events

This paper provides a scoping and policy review of the relationship among gender, international migration and slow onset events in Small Islands Developing States (SIDS). The vulnerability of these places’ stems from their unique geographical and socioeconomic profiles as well as their limited capacity to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change, which is expected to have disproportionate effects on the most vulnerable groups of the society. The work particularly focuses on women and gender minorities experiences by avoiding generalisations or deterministic conclusions, while mapping the main relevant themes associated to the analysis of the topic from a vulnerability perspective. The results show large literature gaps in embedding multiple gender approaches into the analysis of migration patterns in the context of climate change and into ensuring inclusive and participatory gender-responsive solutions. Topics such as food security, unemployment and gender-based violence are central in the discussions of the literature and they also stress the multiple implications with adaptation and disaster risk management policies. The lack of a comprehensive and extensive literature on the topic highlights the importance to investigate these phenomena both from academic and policy perspectives. We implemented a machine learning approach on a large corpus of policy documents with the aim to map, monitor, and analyse to what extent human mobility (migration, displacement, and planned relocation) and gender related implications are integrated into national policies, strategies and legal frameworks in SIDS. This exercise was aimed to find potential synergies and discords among the topics discussed by the scientific community as well as to detect some potential gaps, needs and implications for the policy community.