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Technology and innovation were central to CCA projects in the West Indian state of Gujarat. For example, one social entrepreneur in our study informed us that as laws in this region of rural India (along the border of Pakistan) prevented women from owning land, her NGO helped circumvent these laws to ensure that women gained exclusive rights to the irrigation technology needed to farm the land. Prior to this innovation, the monsoon crop was becoming increasingly unpredictable because of climate changes, which in turn severely decreased food security in the area unless water was purchased from a private water supplier at very high, unaffordable rates. As a result, farmers with little land struggled to make a profit and pay their debts. The social entrepreneur in India, who helped establish a domestic NGO in 1998, discussed at length how the technology, referred to as Bhungroo technology, enabled women to overcome the male-based land laws existing in the area and improve water shortage issues simultaneously:

We have been working as an NGO for 18 years in the village and we [recently] wondered why not give the rights to the Bhungroo technology to women only? Women will never have land rights but the unique feature of the Bhungroo technology is that the women get the rights to the technology. So, our NGO explained to the farmers that they will be able to use the Bhungroo technology on the condition that women hold the Bhungroo rights.

In this instance, circumventing women’s lack of land rights was a key strategy in overcoming gender inequity in this area. Moreover, the training women received as a result of their new rights to this technology enabled them to bring what they had learned to other women. In addition, after women learned these skills, the NGO program focused on helping them increase their social position in their respective communities. The social entrepreneur describes the process of engaging women with the technology as follows:

Thus the roles of the women are [to]: a) identify the poorest poor women members in the village who needs Bhungroo, b) assess their land’s technical conformity for Bhungroo erection, c) get them [to] agree to abide [by] standard operating protocols as well as socially acceptable norms for Bhungroo implementation, d) assess the water injected in each Bhungroo in each season. Based upon that assessment and water quantity they are also taking care of sharing the water to the members. Monitoring of each Bhungroo ownership group’s performance gradually creates a collective bargain on gender-centric program implementation.

Therefore, women teach other women how to use the technology and the skills that come with it. According to the social entrepreneur quoted above, women found ways to leverage the technology to increase their political participation. Because only women control the technology, and the technology makes the land more productive, women are able to use these skills to increase their ability to make economic decisions in the household and take an active role in local government. The social entrepreneur spoke of how the technology enabled them to take seats in their local government or panchayat, which were already reserved for them. According to the social entrepreneur we interviewed, prior to the technology, “Inactive women members (generally family members of powerful male leaders) were put into the election process as the dummy candidates […]” In short, these women were getting pushed out, and male leaders, primarily, were running the local government. However, the introduction of the Bhungroo irrigation technology altered this situation.

[As] all the beneficiaries are women, they were empowered to take the decisions at the household level. Gradually they created cohesive process[es] and thought why not also make decisions at the village level? […] These women took the lead not only in Bhungroo but also put efforts in negotiating with local government machinery to find and implement appropriate government program within the village viz, the government programs focus on pond-digging work but the villagers know that that is not the right solution. So lots of money has been wasted. The women have seen this and now say that if they are in the panchayat, they can stop these kinds of things and work on what is needed.

The success of the Bhungroo technology, which was started by a local NGO and supported by intergovernmental organizations, led to its implementation in other countries in Africa and Southeast Asia. With nearly 18,000 women benefiting from this technology in India, this work presumably increases the political participation and social position of women even if patriarchal land rights remain.

Although the media does report these projects, which can be a vehicle to establish more TAN linkages, these reports are not common. For example, one environmental journalist provided a nuanced view of journalistic accounts of climate change in the wider context of India (i.e., outside of Gujarat):

The media does report this from time to time. But honestly, climate communication in general is in its infancy in India, so I think journalists are still struggling to understand what is really going on. Water, however, is an exception. The NGOs working on this do a lot of media outreach and so the media does report this issue a lot. Both The Third Pole (a part of Internews) and India Water Portal are doing excellent water reporting. But again, none of them have a significant focus on women.

Although CCA projects in India are widespread, engage women in climate change issues, and help raise women’s political participation, the public media outreach domestically is limited, and may need to be expanded to create more TAN linkages. A similar situation was observed in Indonesia.

One domestic NGO, Kopernik, dedicates large numbers of its staff to programs in East and West Indonesia. This includes Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and the West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) islands in the eastern region of Indonesia, specifically Lombok, Flores, and West Timor; and Banda Aceh, Langsa, and Pekanbaru in the west. Kopernik’s field officers work for extended periods of time introducing local women to new energy-saving technologies, including water filters, biomass cook stoves, and solar lamps, and providing technical training. In addition, Kopernik’s field officers help Indonesian women develop civic and technological skills to address the effects of climate change and improve their day-to-day lives. According to one strategic planner:

We work on distributing clean energy technologies and we focus on a few that change people’s lives in the remote communities through social-micro-entrepreneurs […]. These women are from the community. They live in the community and they would like to gain something from Kopernik's program––economic empowerment, extra income, or social empowerment [...]. The women got recruited and Kopernik provides training such as financial training, public speaking training, technology maintenance, and other types of training that then enable women to go out there and be confident to start their businesses.

Thus far, over 500 women have benefited from this training and new technologies. However, most of the women who are trained with the technology already are local leaders within their communities. These projects help them become more involved and take on a greater role in political participation and in their home lives.

Kopernik collects statistics and details their impact on local women and their communities. One such finding is that women find the technologies helpful for daily use; some women have been able to work for Kopernik to develop sustainable energy away from home. For example, one woman comments, “As a normal housewife in a rural community, I never thought I’d be able to travel outside of Indonesia and represent such a great organization” (Kopernik, 2014, para. 1). In this area, climate change technologies presumably enable women to go beyond the household and take a greater role in their community and local organizations.

Like in India, it is unclear whether media outlets fully document women’s accomplishments in Indonesia. On the one hand, Indonesia seems to have captured the attention of the international community. For example, researchers outside of Indonesia have studied and documented the lives of rural women.⁴ On the other hand, a journalist who covers environmental issues and is conducting doctoral work at the University of Indonesia notes that local media usually are not concerned about gender issues. It is possible that media coverage will increase if women involved in NGO programs gain seats in local elections. One indication that this is a viable outcome of women’s involvement in NGO-based CCA programs is the case of Aleta Baun, an Indonesian woman who received the international Goldman Environmental Prize in 2013 for organizing hundreds of local villagers to peacefully occupy marble-mining sites and stop the destruction of sacred forestland. Subsequently, Baun was elected to represent her district in the Indonesian Parliament.

Unlike in India and Indonesia, NGO involvement in northeastern Thailand is strained by different understandings of gender. According to one program manager who focuses on on-the-ground interventions, introducing gender-mainstreaming initiatives in Thailand can be difficult to implement because they face resistance from the government. According to a report published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (2015), one Thai woman effectively challenged the status quo:

Women have taken a stand in challenging traditional investment patterns and increasing generation through use of RETs [renewable energy technologies]. One such pioneer is Ms. Wandee Khunchornyakon, founder and chief executive officer of Solar Power Company Group, which is the first company to develop a solar farm for commercial purposes in Thailand. Ms. Khunchornyakon began her investment plans in 2008, when the Thai Government announced its policy for energy production. Ms. Khunchornyakon was so determined to invest in clean technologies that after encountering the refusal of traditional banks, which considered the investment too risky particularly if led by a woman, decided to risk her own house and land to secure part of the initial investment capital. Ms. Khunchornyakon received support from multilateral banks to proceed with her investment and in 2010 she began with a small solar farm [...]. By 2014, Ms. Khunchornyakon’s company owned 19 solar farms in Thailand […] generating 20,000 new permanent and local jobs (Aguilar et al., 2015, pp. 236-237).

Perhaps challenging the status quo and the development of gender-sensitive training together will encourage the participation of women; however, state institutions may not be in line with INGO ideals and working within these may prove difficult. On the other hand, the journalists we interviewed reported that local women are vocal and active in climate change initiatives in expressing their political rights. For example, although a prominent anchorperson for Thai TV (which has a large viewership in Thailand and particularly in Bangkok) did not know of specific media reports on women in climate change programs, when interviewed she described the groundbreaking work of Ms. Khunchornyakon, “I once had a chance to interview her at a seminar when I was a moderator. I admire how Ms. Khunchornyakon is a pioneer in solar energy and tries to help the local women as well.”

Another journalist noted that between February 2014 and August 2015, the Bangkok Post’s arts and culture section published several human-interest stories on women and the environment. Most of the women were described as environmental activists who protested against government policies that threatened people’s livelihoods and quality of life. The women highlighted problems with coal-fired power stations, dam projects, wastewater plant projects, excessive logging, and goldmines that destroy the fishing industry. Some were identified as housewives who became activists; others were professional scientists, conservationists, or law enforcement officers in wildlife sanctuaries. In a country where government censorship of the media is common, it is significant that the Bangkok Post is allowed to publish critical assessments of government programs. (It is important to note that the Bangkok Post is published in English, and its readership targets the urban middle class.)

Similarly, another journalist reported on research publications detailing the work of NGOs, including those funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and Oxfam that advocated for women’s empowerment in Thailand’s efforts in CCA. Among the dozen publications, two were written in Thai, one was published in Prachatai, and the other was published in Thaipublica. The publications prompted online comments from Thai readers who were critical of international involvement.

In Vietnam, we found that international NGOs (INGOs) typically work with local women’s unions and government agencies in larger cities, such as Da Nang. Unfortunately, at the time of our research, detailed information on the storm-resistant house-building program that received the MfC innovation award was unavailable. Still, we were able to interview a program planner who described the structural relationship between INGOs and the Women’s Union in Vietnam. Working closely with INGOs to develop solar farm technologies, the program planner found this type of network and process of engagement to be highly successful. Accordingly, she spoke about how women benefited from these technologies.

I think that the trick was the technical aspect (alternatives to the wood-burning cook stoves or plants that yield growth in a short span of time for […] fuel.) Plus, the facilitators helped groom their presentation skills, negotiations skills, and leadership skills so that they could address the technical issues. I think you don’t get that until you determine that women are the ones that organize the campaigns and women do other things [so] that you get a sense of the silos. So we evaluated that whole intervention. One of the things that the leader of the Women’s Union told me is that women were always tasked with campaigns but they were never asked about the technical issues such as what type of cook stove is good for them. So with this evaluation, women became at the center of the technical intervention and they felt that this technical intervention was respected more than what they had been doing, [in addition to] the ability to negotiate and other skill enhancements that they got.

These programs allowed over 300 women to build the skills needed to engage with their environment and help find further solutions to their lack of resources. Our informant discussed how the skills helped local women build confidence and participate in local meetings:

Knowing about climate change and information about disasters actually helps them position themselves better within the technical meetings. Because of these activities, the women were seen as more knowledgeable and serious by the state-run agencies. Next time there was a forestry or climate change meeting, women were invited to participate not only to the gender-tagged meetings but also because of their technical knowledge. Third, they bridged the gap: Instead of being tasked to do only women-related activities as part of the Women’s Union, they provided legitimate input into the forestry decisions that were being made in their province. That was a big shift that they enjoyed the most. All of sudden they felt that they were important. You know like sometimes you may feel like what you know is marginalized. So when they bridged that gap, it was an acknowledgment of the skills that they had learned. It was more about legitimating that they know about these issues […] recognition that they should be involved.

Anchoring women in these programs has provided them with tools to engage in the larger national debate around climate change. Women are integrated into this larger discussion through their mastery of technological knowledge and insight. However, although women are seen globally and locally as key players in Vietnam, gender awareness does not seem to be an appropriate topic for local media outlets. One Vietnamese environmental journalist provided the following insight:

I know that the participation of women in CCA and DRR [disaster risk reduction] plays an important role. The government, NGOs, UN agencies, and state agencies consider women as key players. Most projects and programs are requested to involve women in their activities. I used to write some articles to highlight the role of women in CCA and DRR and I also read some reports about this topic in the media […]. Based on my personal observation, it is not a favorite topic [among readers] because gender awareness in Vietnam is still low even when the government has a lot of policies to support gender mainstreaming, Vietnam is still a patriarchal country with the strong influence [of] Confucianism and Buddhism, which do not value women’s contribution.

Given Vietnam’s patriarchal influences associated with religious traditions, TANs may develop pathways and channels that are unlike those of other countries. Furthermore, the case of Vietnam, like that of Thailand, seems to suggest that as NGO programs continue, the structural factors surrounding gender issues may change as women garner more political participation.