CEDAW/C/GC/37 relation to the ownership, access, use, disposal, control, governance and inheritance of property, land and natural resources, as well as barriers that impede the exercise by women of their full legal capacity and autonomy in areas such as freedom of movement and equal access to economic, social and cultural rights, including to food, health, work and social protection. Women and g irls should be empowered through specific policies, programmes and strategies so that they are able to exercise their right to seek, receive and impart information relating to climate change and disaster risk reduction; (b) To create effective mechanisms to guarantee that the rights of women and girls are a primary consideration in devising measures relating to disaster risk reduction and climate change at the local, national, regional and international levels. Measures must be taken to ensure that high-quality infrastructure and critical services are available, accessible and culturally acceptable for all women and girls on a basis of equality. B. Participation and empowerment 32. The participation of diverse groups of women and girls, and the develop ment of their leadership capacity, at various levels of government and within local communities is essential to ensuring that the prevention of and response to disasters and the adverse effects of climate change are effective and incorporate perspectives from all sectors of society. Promoting the participation of girls and young women in the creation, development, implementation and monitoring of policies and plans relating to climate change and disaster risk reduction is essential, because those groups are often overlooked, even though they will experience the impacts of those phenomena throughout their lifetimes. 33. Women make significant contributions to household, local, national, regional and international economies and to environmental management, disaster risk reduction and climate change resilience at various levels. At the local level, the traditional knowledge held by women in agricultural regions is particularly important in that respect, because those women are well positioned to observe changes in the environment and respond to them through adaptive practices in crop selection, planting, harvesting, land conservation techniques and careful management of water resources. 34. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has noted that most local communities develop adaptation practices that could and should be identified and followed, in order to tailor effective adaptation and response strategies relating to disaster risk reduction and climate change. 16 In the Paris Agreement, the Conference of the Parties acknowledged that climate change adaptation should be guided by the best available science and, as appropriate, by traditional, indigenous and local knowledge systems, a view that aligns with the many provisions in the Convention, including articles 7, 8 and 14, that provide that States parties should ensure that all women are provided with meaningful opportunities to participate in political decision-making and development planning. 35. Articles 7 and 8 of the Convention provide that women should have equality in political and public life at the local, national and international levels, and article 14 reiterates that rural women have the right to participate in development planning and agricultural reform activities. That guarantee of political equ ality encompasses __________________ 16 18-03824 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report– Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Geneva, 2007). 9/24