By Zainab Sanni

The summit which was led by Kenya’s President William Ruto, the African Union had as its theme “Driving Green Growth and Finance Solutions for Africa and the World ”. The summit explored economic possibilities, financial frameworks, and a call for the world’s richest nations to be held accountable for their contribution to pollution, ending with commitments of up to $23 billion for Africa’s green growth.

Why Women Inclusion Matters?

Climate change is not experienced equally. Across the African continent, women are more vulnerable to the shocks of climate disaster. The UN estimates that 80% of people displaced by the climate crisis are women. A 2023 report by the Peace and Security Council, PSC explains that “the double burden of climate change and gender inequality renders women more vulnerable because they are less likely to have access to financial and social assets.”

Also, 60% of all employed women in Sub-Saharan Africa work in agriculture but lack equal access, a situation driven by discriminating laws, customs and policies that put women at a disadvantage.

Vice-President of Republic of Liberia, Jewel Taylor had in 2022 lamented the minimal contribution of women to addressing the climate challenges. “In spite of their vulnerabilities and the many challenges, it is clear to see that the critical role women can play as powerful change agents to address climate at an alarming skill is minimized,” she said.

The African Climate Summit made history for a continent long marginalized and often misrepresented on the global scene. But in addressing the climate concerns of the continent, did the summit prioritize all stakeholders, especially women?

Experts Disagree

Founder of Eco cycle and Climate Negotiator , Lauritta Boniface says the summit was inclusive, particularly in ensuring that even indigenous women were well represented.

She said “One thing I noticed in the African climate week was the presence of indigenous women, because it hasn’t always been easy. Some of us have had to fight our way to have access to some of these public participation and decision making policy forums, but then the real people who are affected by climate change are women in local communities.

“Though it may seem like they don’t understand what climate change is, they live with the impacts and can describe these impacts. Sadly, they don’t have access to public participation, they don’t have access to making decisions, they don’t have access to to be involved in the policy and anything done without you is not for you, that is you can’t shave a man’s head in his absence. So without them, how do you come up with policies that will really be effective to them?

“So for the African Climate Summit/Week, I will applaud the women constituency. I saw them, bringing in indigenous women to conversations, taking out their opinions, making their voices heard. And I had conversations with some of these indigenous women”.

Speaking further, she noted that a part of the declaration developed from the summit acknowledged the presence and contributions of women with the words “women are here”.

“I think we were asked to develop a statement and a woman was saying, ‘we want our voices to be heard’. You listen and you can hear them speaking from a place of people that are really affected, by those people that are on the frontline of this crisis. I mean, can we go ahead and say we’re providing solutions addressing climate action, especially in Africa, without involving Indigenous women, without involving local communities that are really impacted?

“I think there’s a place in the declaration where they say they cannot just go to fill in a quota anymore. They will say we need 20% of women on the table and the women will be brought in to fill the quota but at the meeting, they are not asked for their opinion, they are not asked for what they want, they are just there to fill in the blank. You know, that’s what happens. So I like the fact that African women are coming out now to change the narrative.

“We can’t just go and sit in high level meetings without even understanding what women and those in local communities are going through. So bringing them to the African Climate Summit was a good one,” Lauritta added.

Climate Tracker’s African Journalism Manager, Vivian Chime however disagrees. She acknowledged the participation of women at the summit but notes that it could have been more inclusive.

“I didn’t think it was inclusive enough. I wouldn’t want to say at all, because of course there were women involved. The Kenyan Minister of Environment is a woman, so she was involved and she was involved in the planning and you know some of the press conferences that I attended, she organized and she was interfacing with journalists and all. But the conference didn’t necessarily do justice, especially the declaration. In a declaration of about 15 pages with up to 60 demands. I think women were only mentioned three times. And one of those three times was like a mention in the preamble.

“So let’s just say in the demands, within the declaration, women were only mentioned twice. And the first time was just about clean cooking initiatives for African women, energy transition and all. And then the second one was a combination of women, youth and children. And this is some of the things we were also talking about. Women, youth and children are not one group and issues affecting them should be addressed independently. But of course, all these people need to be included.

“Even at the end of the summit, when Priscilla Achappa was speaking on behalf of women, she mentioned the fact that the conference was not inclusive enough. You know, women had expected more, but it is what it is. So basically, if you ask me, I’ll say women were not necessarily included,” she said.

Vivian also noted that the output of discussions held during side events hosted for the women representatives on equitable and just energy transition, clean cooking for women, and other recommendations for African women did not make it to the final declaration.

“So African women are suffering. We are going through a lot. When flooding comes, it hits them and most of the farming activities are done by women, you know. When an adverse weather event comes, it hits their children. But then you come to a summit where we’re talking about Africa and its climate disasters. And the people who are most vulnerable to climate change are not very much included in the conversations and in the discussions that lead up to the declaration. Even if you look through the declaration yourself, you can come up with your own conclusion that this declaration does not prioritize the demands of women and how climate change is affecting women and all of that,” she added.

Lauritta agrees that there is a need for more women participation in climate conversations, noting that a 50-50 gender balance is the goal. She also expressed concerns about the inclusion of local communities and indigenous women.

“Because these are the people driving the agricultural economy in Africa and even the world right now so if we must fight climate action, we must learn to understand the needs of the key players in the sector. Women are at the forefront of agriculture in Nigeria, so we must recognise them before making policies because you can’t just pick up policies and expect them to align with it.

“ There is also the fact that these policies are in English so we must do better in communicating them. Most of these women will not understand what climate change is, but then describe climate change and ask them what you are talking about, they will tell you what climate change is in their indigenous language because it is their reality. So we need to do better in breaking down conversations around climate solutions and policies to indigenous languages,” she noted.