Blogs & Opinions

How CIMMYT is Advancing Women-centered Agriculture in Africa

Mar 23, 2026 | Mariana Callejas
CIMMYT

Across Africa, women play a central role in producing food, managing farms, and sustaining household nutrition and incomes. Yet their contributions are still too often…

Emphasize Gender Equality in Water Management Elsewhere

Mar 23, 2026 | The Global New Light of Myanmar
The Global New Light of Myanmar

Only three per cent of the world’s water is freshwater. However, 2.5 per cent of all the world’s water is locked in glaciers, ice-capped polar…

Women-led Peacebuilding

Mar 16, 2026 | Carlito G. Galvez Jr.
Manila Bulletin

When President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. stood before the United Nations General Assembly in New York City last March 10, he carried with him a clear…

Why Women Are Central to Resilient Food Systems

Mar 9, 2026 | Mcallejas
CIMMYT

As climate change, economic instability, and biodiversity loss place increasing pressure on global food systems, building resilience has become an urgent priority. But resilience is…

Towards Safer Engagement with Women Peacebuilders

Mar 8, 2026 | Berghof Foundation
Berghof Foundation

This International Women’s Day, we highlight a vital but often overlooked connection: the link between women’s participation in peace processes and mental health and psychosocial…

Free Bodies, Free Territories: Reflections on the Right to Land, Water and Territories for Gender and Sexually Diverse People in Rural Contexts

Feb 27, 2026 | Sylvia Kay
La Via Campesina

How can land and agrarian reform create safe spaces for the LGBTQIA+ community? What does it mean to struggle for recognition and rights to land,…

Venezuela’s Democratic Transition Needs Women, Including Machado

Feb 11, 2026 | Caroline Hubbard
Council on Foreign Relations

Women have been on the frontlines fighting Maduro’s dictatorship, and other countries’ transitions show that women’s participation is vital for democracy to succeed. 

Why Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Belong in Climate Action

Jan 29, 2026 | Ipas & The Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Climate Justice Coalition
Ipas

A conversation with Ipas research expert Sally Dijkerman on why climate action must include sexual and reproductive health and rights, and what it will take…

Reimagining the UN’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda: Climate Resilience and Women’s Peacebuilding in Lake Chad

Jan 26, 2026 | Aïssatou Oumar Magra Avaramla
PRIF Blog

As Lake Chad’s waters shrink and droughts intensify, pastoralists and farmers clash over the remaining oases. Amid this crisis, rural women – farmers, water-keepers, and…

Seeing Women Behind Supply Chains: A Methodology to Strengthen Gender Equality and Social Inclusion in Agrifood Systems

Jan 21, 2026 | Fernanda Soto, Marlène Elias, and Jenny Wiegel
The Alliance of Bioversity International & CIAT

A new methodology helps agrifood companies meet their gender equality and inclusion commitments by better understanding diverse actors and experiences in their supply chains.

For many…

Liberia: COP30 - a Turning Point Missed - and a Line Drawn for Frontline Women Defenders

Jan 2, 2026 | Radiatu H. S. Kahnplaye Gai
allAfrica

Monrovia — COP30 has come and gone in Belém, Brazil--another global climate summit marked by lofty promises and limited political courage.

The declarations were bold, the…

Winter in Afghanistan: Women and Girls in the Front Line as Hunger Deepens

Dec 16, 2025 | Peyvand Khorsandi
World Food Programme

As winter sets in across Afghanistan, so does dread. “There’s usually a peak in child mortality in December and January, even in a good year,…

Cultivating Women’s Leadership for Resilient Agrifood Systems

Nov 26, 2025 | Sabrina Trautman
Alliance Biodiversity & CIAT

Women’s representation and leadership have long been recognized as drivers of more inclusive, equitable, and resilient food systems. Yet, too often, leadership is confused with…

How Climate and Gender Shape Peace and Security: From Mandates to Meaningful Change

Nov 25, 2025 | UN Climate Security Mechanism
UN Climate Security Mechanism

October 2025 marked twenty-five years since the landmark Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. Amid rising polarization, escalating conflicts, and the intensifying…

Gender is the Key to a Healthy Planet and People: Reflections from the Biodiversity-Health Press Conference at SBSTTA-27

Nov 19, 2025 | Alejandra Duarte
Women4Biodiversity

Traditional health systems, rooted in centuries of empirical knowledge, reveal the interdependence between ecosystems and human health. However, women’s ecological and health-related knowledge has often…

Explainer: Why Gender Matters in Disaster Risk Reduction

Oct 13, 2025 | UN Women Europe and Central Asia
UN Women

Disasters are happening more often, costing more, and affecting more lives than ever before. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) is not just reacting when a crisis…

From Struggle to Strength: A Young Farmer’s Journey Toward Sustainable Prosperity

Aug 4, 2025 | Desalegne Tadesse
CIMMYT

At just 25 years of age, Tigist Adamo’s experience epitomized the daily realities of countless smallholder farmers in South Ethiopia. Confronted by declining crop yields, scarce resources, and…

Does Nature Love Us Back?

Jul 14, 2025 | Astrid Peraza
Think Landscape - Global Landscapes Forum

When you ask young environmentalists if they love nature, they usually raise their hands in agreement. 

But what if they are asked if nature loves them…

Gender, Climate and Conflict: Women Building Resilience in Bangladesh’s Fragile Zones

Jul 12, 2025 | Major Shajeda Akter Moni
Daily Sun

Following June 2024’s flash floods, when over 2.1 million Sylhet and Sunamganj inhabitants lost all, they had, Shaharima Sharna emerged. A LoGIC community mobiliser, she…

Building a Climate-Resilient Viet Nam: Strengthening Women’s Role in Agriculture and Leadership

Jun 20, 2025 | Caroline Nyamayemombe and ITO Naoki
UN Women

As one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world, Viet Nam is facing an escalating climate crisis. Rising sea levels and increasingly severe disasters…

Securing Women’s Land Rights: A Pathway to Food Security

Jun 5, 2025 | Sunaina Kumar
Observer Research Foundation

Despite playing a central role in food systems, women lack secure land rights in more than half of all countries, posing serious implications for food…

Why Gender-Responsive Action Must Anchor Africa’s Climate Summit 2025

May 29, 2025 | Salome Owuonda
Citizen Digital

As Africa prepares to convene in Addis Ababa for the second Africa Climate Summit (ACS) in September 2025, the continent stands at a critical intersection.

The…

Research: Women's Safety Around the World

Apr 29, 2025 | Melissa Haun
SafetyDetectives

Jump down to fill out our survey about women’s safety!

Personal safety is a basic human right that no one should have to live without.

Unfortunately, at least…

Bridging Policy and Practice: Key Insights from the Water, Peace and Climate Conference in Kenya

Apr 14, 2025 | Daisy Kosgei

Have you heard the tale of a hummingbird saving a huge forest from a fire? While all other animals fled in fear and panic, the…

In Praise of Matriarchal Environmental Wisdom

Mar 8, 2025 | Dr. Marisa O. Ensor
Georgetown University

Since 1911, March 8th has been International Women’s Day, observed around the world as a day to recognize women’s contributions to society and work towards…

Women’s Land Rights: The Missing Key to Climate Action

Mar 8, 2025 | Lily Maxwell-Lwin
Common Dreams

This year’s International Women’s Day theme, #AccelerateAction, calls on the world to address the structural barriers slowing progress. If we are serious about climate, we…

How Six Women are Helping their Communities Adapt to Climate Change

Mar 6, 2025 | UN Environment Program
UN Environment Program

As the planet warms, the fallout from climate change – from droughts, to floods, to superstorms – is getting worse. But not everyone has felt…

How the World Can Tackle the Yawning Gender Gap in the Sciences

Feb 10, 2025 | UNEP Nature Action
UNEP

With the planet facing a barrage of environmental concerns, there has never been a greater need for scientists capable of finding solutions to the triple…

Afghanistan’s Untapped Mineral Wealth: A Lost Opportunity or a Path to Stability?

Jan 29, 2025 | Amu TV

Under the Taliban’s current regime, Afghanistan faces an unprecedented erosion of civil freedoms, especially for women. Deprived of their fundamental rights to education, work, and…

Cooking Up Success

Jan 16, 2025 | Judite Toloko Da Silva and Heila Monteiro
UNDP

Access to energy remains a major challenge for rural communities in Angola. This energy gap limits agricultural productivity and economic development, especially for women who…