Women launch a platform to amplify their voices in climate change

The African Women Gender Constituency, during a pre-session event ahead of the Africa Climate Summit. [Jayne Rose Gacheri, Standard] In a pre-session Africa Climate Summit, Women delegates from across the continent, congregated at a Nairobi hotel, Sunday 3rd September ahead of the official opening of the summit to set the women's agenda ahead of the climate. During the daylong deliberations, the women held rich discussions that primarily centred on their role in the "Big Issue" of climate change. At the end of the day, the women launched the Africa Women Gender Constituency, which according to Chief Guest, Aisha Jumwa, CS, Ministry of Public Service, Gender and Affirmative Action "will be a powerful force for change, amplifying the voices of African women, and gender-focussed organisations in climate action". The CS told the gathering that the theme "claiming our narratives of African women's leadership in the context of climate change" touched the core of the existence of humanity - the nexus between gender and climate change with a particular focus on the women folk. She said that of particular importance was the fact that agriculture, which was a critical sector across Africa, employing a number of populations, and serving as a primary source of livelihood for many, was adversely affected by climate change. This, she said posed serious challenges, including increased temperatures, erratic rainfall patterns, and more frequent droughts, which directly affected productivity. "According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), women comprise about 50% of the agricultural labour force in Sub-Saharan Africa, nevertheless women often have limited access to resources like land, credit, and modern farming techniques, making them particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change," said the CS. The pre-session event was all inclusive with the youth, the challenged, and the male champion sharing their thoughts. The message was that climate change was a reality, and its severity was a crisis. "We are here to share the stories of how it is affecting African women, our societies, our livelihoods, well-being, economies cultures, heritage, and traditions," said Mehjabeen Alarakhia, UN. The session heard that the struggles of women in communities, women in small-scale farmers, women residing in urban poor communities, women living with disabilities, and others were grappling with unpredictable weather patterns, in the face of climate emergencies. "These women are stark testimonies of the impacts, losses, and damages experienced today, on this continent. The voices of these communities must be at the centre of the climate summit agenda," said Memory Kachambwa, FEMNET. The Continent's women heard that women had a critical role to play and should not be treated as mere helpless victims waiting to be rescued, but were ready to assert their own our complex realities. Women were among the most affected by the climate crisis, and yet, they are the creators of real, sustainable, and gender-just climate solutions. The women declared that henceforth they would amplify the solutions, tapping from their knowledge of maintaining seed systems, biodiversity, and soil nutrients for regenerative urban farming to women-led renewable energy enterprises. The participants heard that African girls were employing modern technologies to raise awareness about the climate crisis and promote recycling while offering well-crafted, evidence-based analyses, framing the state of the climate crisis in Africa, accompanied by practical and ambitious policy solutions designed to address the climate crisis and its intersecting challenges. Speakers included esteemed women such as Grace Machel, Chancellor, African Leadership University, Fluer Newman, UNFCCC Gender Team, Mehjabeen Alarakhia, UN, Anne-Marie Abaagu, Memory Kachambwa, Government officials, development partners and representatives of CSO and women rights organisations. At the end of the one-day event the women in a powerful voice declared their presence in matters of climate change through a communique that highlighted the following: We stand together in our diverse identities, representing women from the hills and mountains to those from the savannah and islands, women from farming to pastoral communities, from government to civil society, and academics, encompassing the young, the old, and those with differing abilities. African women and girls are the custodians of the land, nurturers of life, keepers of communities, and guardians of knowledge, hence they had the right to assert collective and resolute commitment to safeguard the continent and the planets. In declaring their support for Pan-Africanism, the women raised their concern about the destruction of forests and stood in solidarity with the appalling state of women and children in camps where they were faced with extreme weather in many parts of the continent - Congo, Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya, and Nigeria among others. The continent's women invoked their Ubuntu philosophy and demanded that leaders that the climate crisis and its interconnected crises demand unity and solidarity. The women recognised that patriarchal social structures, exploitative economic models, and existing political structures, with their colonial legacies, disproportionately affect them, underscoring the urgent need for every voice to be heard and every struggle to be acknowledged and amplified. To African governments, the African Union, and their allied institutions, the women had a resounding message: African women's voices should NEVER be an afterthought. We refuse to be tokenized, brought in to adorn panels, or utilized to fulfill inclusivity quotas.

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