Best practices in climate change mitigation
Achieving gender equality in climate change mitigation involves providing support to women in the form of information, technical advice, materials and equipment. Such support provided to women must:
- be relevant to the decisions of small-scale producers,
- be timely and accessible to women in remote rural communities with marginal infrastructure,
- ensure that women participate in the design and delivery of the assistance,
- be accessible to women and other socially and economically marginalised groups, and
- must not increase women’s time burdens (see Loboguerrero et al., 2019, for more information).
Climate change mitigation for small farmers
In agriculture, soils, plants and livestock play a major role in regulating greenhouse gases, which are one of the causes of climate change. Proper management of farms and forests is one method of mitigating climate change, but it can be difficult for women-operated farms to invest in technologies that would make the farms more efficient.
Relatively low-cost management practices that bring economic benefits and improved resilience for agricultural producers are therefore more appropriate for women. Low-cost mitigation practices are significant ways of empowering women because women tend to be among the small-scale and resource-poor producers.
Best practices in agriculture for small farmers include no-till agriculture, conservation agriculture — for example, multiple cropping or crop rotation — organic farming, biomass production, irrigation, re-afforestation and reducing soil erosion.
Women-led best practices
Watch the video It’s Not Too Late: Climate Action for Women by Women by UN Women. It shows examples of climate change action by women and for women. Try to identify what actions each of the women in the video was engaged in. (You will need to pause the video relatively often.)
Here are some examples of other women-led initiatives that empower members of the community and address climate impacts.
In Malawi, the Green Girls Platform was established in 2018 to promote gender and the rights of women and girls. This non-governmental organisation (NGO) advocates for increasing the participation of women and girls in climate change initiatives and for financing to support women-led interventions.
Green Girls Platform has clubs in many communities. For example, there is a club in Karonga, an urban centre by the shore of Lake Malawi in the North Rukuru River floodplain. Karonga often experiences droughts and limited access to safe drinking water and poor-quality sanitation, and it experiences all the health risks associated with these situations. The Green Girls Platform Community Club in Karonga educates women on climate change and potential measures to address it (see International Centre for Climate Change and Development, 2023, for more information).
In January 2023, floods and strong winds destroyed most of the communities around Karonga. Villagers were forced to flee their homes and seek shelter at a school, which quickly became overcrowded. A lack of water and proper sanitation caused one family to find shelter by the side of a road. And a single, widowed mother received assistance from the Green Girls Platform and a space for sharing experiences with other women negatively affected by climate change. Members of the club learned about community-based early warning systems and how to cope with the adverse impacts of loss and damage. The club has been able to train 35 young women and girls on climate change, leadership, tree nursery establishment, and general management as well as briquette making for an alternative energy source. The members sell tree seedlings as part of a programme to prevent erosion and have planted 10,000 seedlings in schools in their communities (see Logoguerrero et al., 2019, for more information.)
In Pakistan, Humera Iqbal, a graduate of the Agriculture University Faisalabad in Pakistan, leads a volunteer organisation called She Leads Agriculture. The group’s projects promote climate-smart agriculture among women involved in crop and livestock farming (see International Union for Conservation on Nature, 2023, for more information).
Reading
International Centre for Climate Change and Development. (2023). Women are leading the charge in addressing climate impacts in Karonga Malawi. https://www.icccad.net/voices-from-frontline-p3/women-are-leading-the-charge-in-addressing-climate-impacts-in-karonga-malawi/
International Union for Conservation of Nature. (2023, 8 March). Empowering women and girls to lead climate action: Gender and climate award announced in Pakistan. News & Events. https://www.iucn.org/story/202303/empowering-women-and-girls-lead-climate-action-gender-and-climate-award-announced
Loboguerrero, A. M., Campbell, B. M., Cooper, P. J. M., Hansen, J. W., Rosenstock, T., & Wollenberg. (2019). Priorities for climate change adaptation and mitigation for agriculture and food systems. Sustainability, 11(5), 1372. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su11051372
Other community projects to mitigate the impacts of climate change
Other methods of promoting climate change mitigation within low-income communities include:
- Using improved cookstoves. This has a positive impact on the health of the users (mainly women), reduces how much firewood is needed for open fires, and reduces the release of GHGs into the atmosphere.
- Setting up early warning systems and training people in their maintenance.
- Disseminating information about climate-related events or situations via appropriate communication channels, including radio and mobile phones, to all members of the community.
In Mozambique, a project for empowering coastal communities, funded by the Swedish Embassy, assisted women in acting to alleviate the decline in the quantity of fish. The participants were given boats and fishing and agricultural conservation materials and equipment. In one district, 58 per cent of women participated in the programme (see International Union for Conservation of Nature, 2020, for more information).
In a flood-prone district in Bangladesh, a women-led organisation called Badabon Sangho trained 32 youth volunteers (18 of whom were girls) to use mobile devices to collect digital mapping data. The data will be used to develop community climate resilience plans (see Cities Alliance, 2021, for more information).
In Sri Lanka’s Dry Zone, a number of organisations collaborated on a programme to improve community irrigation systems, drinking water systems and early flood warning systems (see UNDP, 2023, for more information).
The video Bangladesh: A Women’s Organization Taking Action for Climate Change in Informal Settlements by Cities Alliance shows the work of Cities Alliance, which trains community members (particularly women and youth) in collecting data as part of a digital mapping project that is used for climate change planning. The crucial factor here is the involvement of community members in community meetings. What does the video say about the importance of community meetings?
Reading
Cities Alliance. (2021, 23 February). Bangladesh: Using digital maps for climate resilient city planning. UNOPOS News. https://www.citiesalliance.org/newsroom/news/results/bangladesh-using-digital-maps-climate-resilient-city-planning
International Union for Conservation of Nature. (2020, 9 March). Women in Mozambique engage in climate change action. IUCN Newsletter. https://www.iucn.org/news/eastern-and-southern-africa/202003/women-mozambique-engage-climate-change-action
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. (2023, 17 June). Her land her rights: Combating environmental challenges and empowering women in Sri Lanka. Prevention Web. https://www.preventionweb.net/news/her-land-her-rights-combating-environmental-challenges-and-empowering-women-sri-lankas-dry