COP26, the upcoming climate conference being held in Glasgow between 31st October and 12th November, provides an interesting opportunity to examine the role that women are playing in Africa's current fight on climate change.
In my previous blog post, I looked at Oladosu Adenike's Guardian article entitled "It makes economic sense for women to lead the fight against the climate crisis", in which she stated that women in sub-Saharan Africa specifically are 'bearing the brunt of a crisis they did nothing to cause' which is the quote I would like to open this second blog post with (2021).
Urmilla Bob and Agnes Babugura, both South African academics, wrote an interesting overview of the relationship between gender and climate change in Africa in their paper entitled "Contextualising and conceptualising gender and climate change in Africa" (2014). They highlight the fact that it was at COP13 in Bali, 2007, where the Global Gender and Climate Alliance (GGCA) was launched (Bob and Babugura, 2014), which, given that issues of climate change had been raised going back as early as 1949 when the UN first addressed 'the depletion of resources and their use', seems rather late in the game (Jackson, n/a).
Bob and Babugura spotlight the impact of climate change on water resources, and state the 2007 IPCC prediction that 'by 2020 climate change will result in 75 to 250 million people in Africa facing water stress' (2014). The UN defines water-stress as when a region 'withdraws 25% or more of its renewable freshwater resources' (UN Water, 2021) and the data for 2018 has been illustrated in this graph:
Figure 1: "Level of water stress by countries: freshwater withdrawal as a proportion of available freshwater resources in 2018 (%)" (Summary Progress Update 2021: SDG 6 - water and sanitation for all, 2021)
As is demonstrated in the graph, North Africa had reached "critical stress", and areas of South Africa were already at "medium stress" by 2018. This demonstrates the extent of the impact of climate change on the continent of Africa which, as Bob and Babugura state, is 'the continent deemed to be the most vulnerable to climate change impacts' (2014).
Whilst Africa is the continent expected to be affected the most by climate change, women in Africa are expected to be affected to a greater extent than men. Bob and Babugura report that 'compared to men, women and children are 14 times more likely to die during disasters' and that it is 'women in lower-income neighbourhoods who are most exposed to danger during extreme weather events' (2014). Considering these statistics, and the extent of the gender inequality when it comes to facing the effects of climate change, it was disappointing to see that in an article published in the UN's Africa Renewal e-magazine entitled "COP26 on climate: Top priorities for Africa" by Tanguy Gahouma-Bekale, gender is not mentioned at all.
Looking to a more hopeful future, as mentioned in the previous blog post, 'basing national policy and action in gender analysis, the collection and analysis of sex-disaggregated data, and monitoring of gender results will help countries achieve their development goals in the context of current global challenges of climate change and sustainable development' (Ampaire, Acosta and Huyer et al., 2020). It is imperative that countries across the globe, and in Africa specifically, begin to empower women to 'exercise leadership within their communities' so as to 'contribute to climate resilience' (Bob and Babugura, 2014). Maybe at COP27 we will finally see the proportion of women in the leadership team represent global gender equality, so that we can take steps towards a more inclusive and sustainable future.
I would like to finish this blog by drawing attention to an article that was published in the news section of UN Women entitled "Ten African Women leaders we admire". The article makes the poignant point that 'at the current rate of progress, it will take 130 years to reach gender equality in the highest position of power' (2021). However, someone I would like to draw particular attention to is Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who was the first female President to be democratically elected in Africa, and served as President of Liberia from 2006-2018. I would like to end this blog post with a quote by President Johnson Sirleaf:
Increasingly there is recognition that full gender equality will ensure a stronger economy, a more developed nation, a more peaceful nation. And that is why we must continue to work
Is gender and water inequality also an issue of economic inequality? Could this be having an impliaciton on the mismatch representation of womwn at high level negotiations. Well presented post on the geneder inequality that underscore COP negotiation meetings. Some references are left unembeded.
ReplyDeleteHi Clement, I think that issues of economic inequality are certainly linked to gender inequality. The lack of women in high-power positions is indicative of the fact that at the moment, women are still being excluded from career positions that are the most financially rewarding. It is crucial that in order for women to be represented at these high level negotiations such as COP26, positions need to be available for women at all levels of the career ladder. This issue is also linked to education, and the need for girls to be included not only in primary education, but secondary and further education as well. I think that the link between financial inequality and water and gender inequalities is deserving of its own blogpost, so thank you for bringing it to my attention!
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