CLIMATE EMPOWER: COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT AND INNOVATION FOR GENDER-TRANSFORMATIVE CLIMATE ACTION
Emerging evidence shows the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on women and girls and their sexual and reproductive health and rights. Climate challenges are fueled by persistent and deeply rooted discriminatory sociocultural norms that justify or tolerate violence against women and girls and limit their autonomy in many areas of life (i.e., education, healthcare, economic empowerment), especially women and girls in rural areas.
- Pregnant women and children disproportionately experience the impact of climate change on nutrition and health impacts.
- Women and girls’ access to food, water, shelter and livelihoods is disrupted or limited.
- Services that would normally ensure women, girls and other left behind populations’ safety, protection and healing from violence are disrupted.
- By 2025, climate change will cause at least 12.5 million girls in 30 low- and lower-middle income countries (22 of them African countries) each year to abruptly stop attending school.
- Climate change-related events exacerbate the drivers of child marriage, and increased temperatures may impact the intimate partner violence experienced by women and girls.
Women and girls’ roles need to be leveraged as leaders in promoting climate change resilient community actions, as these are the individuals from vulnerable communities who experience the most challenging impacts of climate change. Their active involvement, therefore, in finding solutions is crucial to more gender transformative, lasting change. By integrating their perspectives, solutions are better tailored to protect all community members, specifically addressing the intersection of climate stressors and GBV.
How Zonta Helps
For the next two years, Zonta International has committed US$1,000,000 to the UNFPA program: Climate Empower: Community Empowerment and Innovation for Gender-Transformative Climate Action to prevent climate-induced gender-based violence (GBV) and other harmful practices through interwoven innovative approaches and community-driven in Madagascar, Mozambique and South Sudan, some of the countries most vulnerable to climate change globally.
This program will foster gender-transformative community empowerment and capacity building for women and girls in the context of climate shocks and crises to reduce GBV and harmful practices and strengthen women and girls’ role as agents of change for climate resilience. It will also promote women and girl-led innovative solutions to build resilience and protect against GBV with an emphasis on addressing discriminatory social norms.
Expected Outcomes
- Women and girls are equipped with knowledge of the impacts of climate change and crises on GBV and harmful practices and tools to advocate and mobilize for social norms change to address these impacts.
- Women and youth are trained to identify and initiate solutions to build resilience against climate-induced GBV through community-led and technology enabled innovative solutions.
- Climate change and GBV are included in women and youth-led entrepreneurial initiatives aimed at empowerment of vulnerable and left behind populations.
- The role of innovation as a catalyst in preventing climate induced GBV and harmful practices is demonstrated through storytelling.
Women and girls’ roles need to be leveraged as leaders in promoting climate change resilient community actions, as these are the individuals who experience the most challenging consequences of climate change. Their active involvement, therefore, in finding solutions is crucial to more gender transformative, lasting change. By integrating these perspectives, solutions are better tailored to protect all community members.
Read a detailed project description to find out more about
this exciting partnership between Zonta International and UNFPA.