Women climate activists launch advocacy tool
State Department of Gender Affairs Secretary Faith Kasiva. She has called on older women to transfer knowledge on adaption to climate change to the younger generation.
What you need to know:
- Women climate activists are pushing for inclusion of young and old women in local and international climate change dialogues.
- They have decried exclusion and biased climate financing, issues which they and their predecessors have persistently raised for 27 years now.
Women climate activists have launched an advocacy tool to push for inclusion of young and old women in local and international climate change dialogues.
The activists from across the world, converged in Nairobi on Tuesday in a hybrid meeting to unveil the Intersectional Feminist Climate Action Guide, which they seek to use to engage with government leaders and development actors in demanding for gendered climate change policies and interventions.
The climate advocates decried exclusion and biased climate financing, issues which they and their predecessors have persistently raised for 27 years now since the first UN Climate Change Conference was held in 1995 in Berlin, Germany.
These discussions anchored conversations at the last March 66th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW66) in New York.
It ended with a blueprint to promote women and girls’ participation in climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction initiatives.
Under the plan, world leaders are required to ensure their full and equal participation and leadership in designing and implementing relevant policies and programmes.
They are also called upon to make natural resource management more effective as this would reduce environmental degradation, which leaves women with a heightened burden of sourcing for land-based resources.
Feminist organisation
Akina Mama wa Afrika (AMwA) Executive Director Eunice Musiime, recounted her own experience of exclusion by the Ugandan government.
“The government rarely puts me on their list because they say I am from a feminist organisation. They put my name and then remove me. Why? Because they think I am going to talk about minoritised issues,” she said during the meeting convened by AMwA.
She, however, called for solidarity among civil society organisations including researchers in speaking against climate injustice as African governments would heed to a united voice.
Meanwhile, Gender Affairs Secretary at the Ministry of Public Service and Gender Faith Kasiva, called on older women to transfer knowledge on adaption to climate change to the younger generation.
“Women and girls are essential to the success and sustainability of climate change adaptation,” she noted.
She said the State Department of Gender has ensured gender is mainstreamed in all development sectors across the existing ministries.
She also said civil society organisations are welcome to offer recommendations on integration of gender and climate issues in development plans.
Kenya is in the process of developing its fourth medium-term plan, which provides a five-year chart towards realisation of Vision 2030.
