From November 6 to 18 of this year, the world shall gather in the Egyptian city of Sharm El-Sheikh for the 27th session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, otherwise known as the United Nations Climate Change Conference. This year’s edition is very significant, not just because it is being hosted in Africa, but because climate change has particularly left a painful mark on the continent this year. Nigeria is still reeling under the debilitating blow of a nationwide flooding that has, so far, killed more than 600 citizens, while displacing about 1.3 million others.
Other African countries that have been so flooded in varying degrees are Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, The Gambia, and Uganda.
Interestingly, as if God had prepared them for such a time as this, in January 2022, a small group of African women, mostly advocates with long-lasting engagement with the women and gender constituency, had started the “African Feminists Taskforce for COP27” with the aim of mobilising African feminists ahead of COP27 to ensure African women’s voices and demands, aspirations, and vision are centered in COP27 processes and outcomes. In April 2022, a public call was made to expand representation and ensure inclusivity of the taskforce, thereby upgrading to 150 members in the taskforce.
Then on October 11, the body officially launched the African Women’s and Girls’ Demands for COP27, in an event that simultaneously held in hybrid format in Nigeria (Abuja), Burundi, Cameroon, Republic of Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Mozambique, Central African Republic, Senegal, Uganda and Sao Tome and Principe.
This is significant because, historically, women’s actions usually turn the tide. Africa has contributed negligibly to climate change but has been among the hardest hit by climate impacts. More so, these are trying times for the continent, when we are battling multiple crises: Climate change, economic crunch, fallout from COVID-19 pandemic and now the Russia-Ukraine war. Surely, it is time for the global community to prioritise the needs of the region.
The women’s 27 demands are presented under six categories. The first is on representation, leadership and participation; where they demand the inclusion of women and young people in the national and UNFCCC decision-making processes. Therein, they demand equal representation and meaningful engagement of women, girls, people with disabilities, Indigenous Peoples, and youth in their diversity, at all climate change processes at global and national levels; knowledge and skills development opportunities for women, girls, and young people related to the climate processes, to aid their engagement in national delegations and global policy processes; and the prioritisation of investment in implementation and monitoring of the UNFCCC Gender Action Plan, including support to National Gender Climate Change Focal Points.
The second category is the demand for a just and equitable transition from fossil fuels, for all. Here, they demand that developed countries commit to immediately halt all new investments in fossil fuels and nuclear energy, with a clear and urgent shift from a fossil fuel-based economy to a sustainable, just and feminist economy centering gender-responsive use of renewable energies. In addition, that developed countries, particularly the European Union, pull out of the Energy Charter Treaty and stop its expansion to other countries – as the ECT allows coal, oil and gas corporations to obstruct the transition to a clean energy system.
They also demand a targeted, multi-dimensional approach to supporting the poorest and most vulnerable countries through investments in safe and clean energy to cut greenhouse gas emissions, create jobs, and strengthen local economies; while ensuring that renewable, safe and clean energy projects that reduce the burden of unpaid care work, which women and girls spend up to 75 per cent of their time engaged in.
The third category is climate finance, wherein there is demand for the provision of adequate, accessible, affordable, flexible, and human-rights-centered climate finance as a matter of justice and equity; while calling for increased transparency and accountability for pledges made and public funds delivered by developed countries. Following it, they demand the creation of a dedicated, debt-free finance facility for “loss and damage” to urgently support developing countries currently dealing with multiple losses and damages caused by the climate crisis; the delivery in full of $100bn climate finance per year; and the scaling up of adaptation finance by prioritising grants as opposed to loans.
They also demand reassessment of funding modalities by financing institutions and mechanisms in order to ensure flexible funding to fit different contexts and funding needs of distinct groups—especially women, youth, and Indigenous Peoples; and meaningful engagement and inclusion of women, girls, and young people in the development of funding criteria and allocation for climate change initiatives, including adaptation, mitigation, technology transfer, and capacity strengthening at all levels. They request that governments and climate funding facilities make funding available to support the work of National Gender Climate Change Focal Points and gender-transformative climate change programmes; while strengthening government capacities for gender budgeting for climate change initiatives.
The fourth category is on agriculture and land rights, which demands expanded women’s access to and control over land, productive resources, and debt-free, flexible funding for ecological agricultural production and food sovereignty efforts; protection of the rights of women small-scale farmers and food producers, artisanal fisheries, pastoralists, and Indigenous Peoples from losses and damages caused by climate change, eviction, abuse, and violence; respect for communities’ rights to full control of their agriculture and indigenous seed and food systems, as well as traditional farmers’ rights as espoused in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
The fifth category is on technology, which demands an immediate halt to the practice of “biopiracy” (the unauthorised appropriation and commercial exploitation of knowledge and genetic resources from farming and Indigenous communities by individuals or institutions seeking exclusive monopoly control through patents or intellectual property); and that private sector investments in mitigation and technology are not used as replacements for public investments. They call on the world to defund false solutions and untested, unsustainable and imposed technological fixes that prove to be nothing more than to spur profit generation schemes for foreign private investment.
The sixth category is on intersectionality and linkages with other work programmes, and demands gender mainstreaming in national policies, programming, and budgets related to climate change and disaster risk reduction that address gender-based violence and strengthen the provision of sexual and reproductive health and rights services. It also calls for the development of national climate learning strategies that are gender-transformative and recognise the importance of youth leadership by prioritising civic engagement, green skills, life skills, policy processes, and activism, and meaningfully engage girls and young women in the development of these strategies; while centering human rights and enhancing the safety and security of women human rights and climate justice defenders, especially in conflict areas, by reducing the proliferation of firearms and denouncing militarism.
This also demands for the protection of water sources and watersheds such as natural forests to ensure water security for communities and the spin-off benefit of reducing the workload of women and girls; preservation of the oceans and coastal ecosystems by developing effective adaptation and mitigation measures to address harmful impacts of climate change and environmental pollution; strong coherence with other international policy frameworks; and a shift away from neoliberal capitalist economic models that excessively, unjustly, and unsustainably exploit natural resources and women’s bodies to fuel the greed of a few individuals and countries at the expense of sustainable development for many developing countries and the health of the planet.
