A month before the COP29, the AGNES in collaboration with the African Development Bank (AfDB), and Climate Investment Fund (CIF) renewed their commitments about empowering women to enhance their participation in various climate negotiation form. This successfully took place on 17th and 18th October 2024 in an Induction Workshop on the “Empowering Women’s Leadership in Climate Governance”. Women leaders from the five sub-regions of Africa were invited for the workshop. The participants benefited from rich peer-to-peer learning experiences and other experts in the field of climate research, policy and practice.
Learning Experiences from Experts:
Adaptation and climate finance
Women Climate Leaders were brought up to speed with the up-to-date matters of adaptation and climate finance. The discussions were centered around the incision of Global Goal on Adaptation first proposed by the Africa Group of Negotiators (AGN) with detail assessment of the whole process of the emergence of GGA indicators the criteria of indicators development, and its refinement.
The connection of adaptation needs, and climate finance gaps was revisited to emphasise the status of climate finance to support climate action in developing countries including the barriers. However, the current talk about New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG)aims at addressing the challenges of persistent gaps in climate finance by setting a new financial target with metrics that will help to facilitate adequate access, distribution and accountability.
Leadership and communication
It is important for women leaders in climate governance to understand various entry points through which their agenda can be launched in media for them to exert proper influence effectively. In this regard, a media expert, Yvonne Okwara, a top Kenyan Journalist mentioned that Africa’s voice in climate change is less featured in the mainstream media. This is a danger to the public because the public receives information from everywhere else but not from African mainstream media and African experts. Okwara emphasized to the women that understanding the current issues in their respective countries will help them identify top stories which can be related to climate change to help push their agenda using matters of actual public concern and people-centred storylines in framing their narratives. Lastly, it was emphasized that leaders in Climate Governance should be allies with the mainstream media to create opportunity for them in educating journalist on the current trends for improved and factual reporting.
Peer-to-Peer Learning Experiences:
Climate action from the gender lens
Kenya is among the first countries to include gender inclusion in its Climate Change Act. Gender inclusive national policies have also been incorporated into the County Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs). Anne Omwoyo provided a glimpse of the demography characteristics of Kenyan women as she confirmed that 70-80% of agricultural labour in Kenya is made of women even though only 1% of women own land titles. 80% of women in rural areas are responsible for collecting water, wood and charcoal for cooking experiencing highest-exposure to climate risks. Worst still, women and children are 14 times likely to die or get injured during from climate change related disasters. Therefore, it is necessary to embrace gender-responsive budgeting, inclusive decision-making, and capacity building and empowerment in planning climate adaptation interventions. (see video)
Strategic communication
“Communication is one of the key drivers of adaptation and mitigation changes in the world,” Dr Joyce Ogwezi, an expert in Communication for Development shared her experiences about strategic communication. She opined that strategic communication is a deliberate, systematic planning and execution of communication efforts to achieve specific goals. It focuses on creating the right message and communicating them through appropriate channels to the target audience and allowing feedback. Using strategic communication in pushing for specific agendas in the climate change can help influence public behaviour and societal change.
The power of environmental story telling
“I grew up in Ghana, West Africa. I saw pollution ravaging the planet and I realized the need for environmental storytelling” (Afia Ofosu, Environmental journalist). According to Ofosu, mastering the art of telling environmental stories will ensure that—the women in climate governance leadership —get inspired from the audience, encourage behavioural change, and influence policies. Telling climate change stories in a simplified manner helps in effectively reaching and empowering women in the general public.
Climate change impacts on agriculture and food security
Agriculture is a climate sensitive sector that has been hit hard by impacts of climate change consequently posing a risk to food security specifically in regions with high vulnerability index. In Africa alone, maize yields are expected to drop by 20-30% by 2050. By 2030, millions of people could be displaced by drought and will lack food, stated by Helene Uzayisenga. However, the situation can be managed through diverse climate-smart practices such as planting climate-resilient crops, practicing regenerative agriculture and use of renewable energy, among other adaptation and mitigation efforts. To save the agricultural industry and improve food security, sustainable faming and innovation should be embraced at local, national, regional and global levels.
Interconnection of gender and climate change in the Fisheries Sector
Beverly Mushili, a participant from Zambia used first hand data from Zambia to reinforce that the intersection between gender, climate change and fisheries is critical since communities depend on its socio-economically. The Zambian fisheries sector is heavily impacted by climate change which disproportionately affects women. Evidently, droughts and unreliable rainfall patterns influence water level changes which affect fish breeding grounds. Increase in workload for women has been observed as women must engage in multiple economic activities since fishing is no longer reliable to cater for economic obligations. Women, who are mainly caregivers bear the brunt of food insecurity as a result of declining fish availability. While there have been some adaptation efforts, women have limited access to climate adaptation resources which include improved fishing technologies. However, identified potential solutions to these issues include, inclusive resource management, capacity building and training, climate smart technology, and support networks.(see video)
Marine, oceans and climate change
The world’s largest part is covered by the ocean which produces approximately half of the oxygen that we use. Due to climate change, there is a high rate of ocean acidification, rising water levels, bleaching of coral reefs, changes in marine ecosystems, and zones that completely lack oxygen, (ocean dead zones). The situation has poses negative impact on the socio-economic activities of those specifically living around oceans
Nour Mansour, a Marine Biologist from Tunisia, shared her experience and the emerging solutions in the marine space with regards to climate change (see video). Tunisia has raised the awareness to evoke positive actions from the public. One of the solutions is through the involvement of the public in science, otherwise called—Citizen Science. (see video)
Citizen science is a participatory process that allows for public voluntary participation in the scientific process to address real-world problems. It witnessed a significant number of women and men participation in protecting the ocean and marine species. This mode of spreading awareness is cheaper as one only need a smartphone, website, or social media. It helps in disseminating information in a simplified manner. In Tunisia, Nour and team started a Facebook Group through which they shared information about the marine life, and it grew big, allowing citizens to share posts. However, posts from the public are reviewed by experts to make sure that they are not misinforming the audience.
Call to Action
Women are disproportionately affected by climate change impacts in Africa, because they are the most vulnerable group to climate change in the continent. However, women are very effective “agents of change” with potentials to influence a lot of behaviour changes. Therefore, it is necessary to have women as part of the leaders in climate negotiations to bring the needs of women better into the climate discourse and offer gender-responsive solutions.