Extractives, Emissions, and Inequality: A Gender-Responsive Climate Governance Analysis for South Sudan, the DRC, and Zambia (2021–2026)

This article examines the persistent neglect of gender within climate governance frameworks linked to the extractive industries in three African resource-rich states: South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zambia. It addresses the critical problem that national climate policies, particularly those governing extractive sector emissions, remain gender-blind, thereby exacerbating women’s socio-economic vulnerabilities. Employing a qualitative comparative case study methodology, the analysis conducts a qualitative content analysis of specific policy documents, including National Determined Contributions (NDCs), national climate change policies, and extractive sector reports from 2021–2023. The case selection is justified by their shared dependence on extractives yet varied governance contexts. Grounded in an African feminist political ecology framework, the analysis interrogates how power dynamics and gendered social relations are obscured within technical policy approaches. The key finding reveals a consistent governance gap: while each nation acknowledges climate challenges, their policy frameworks fail to integrate a substantive gender analysis into the management of extractive-related emissions and revenues. This omission ignores women’s disproportionate exposure to environmental degradation and their systematic exclusion from decision-making. The article concludes that without gender-responsive governance informed by such a framework, climate action in these contexts risks reinforcing the very inequalities it seeks to mitigate, undermining equitable and sustainable development.