Blogs & Opinions

Ghana: Climate Change Impact Hinges On Three Areas

Sep 30, 2022 | Benjamin Arcton-Tettey

The call to address the gender gap with regard to climate change and its impact on women, peace and security is hinged on three areas.The…

Gender Inequality, Armed Conflict and Climate Change: Why Militaries Can and Should Map Compounded Risk

Sep 29, 2022 | Jody M. Prescott, Robin Lovell, Emma Miner, Emily Smith, Cyrus Oswald, and Cameron Chambers

In areas marked by gender inequality, women and girls are particularly at risk of the compounding effects of armed conflict and climate change. Militaries should…

Fishing for Equity and Inclusion: Women’s Socioeconomic Factors in Kenyan Fisheries

Aug 29, 2022 | Margaret Gatonye

Seeing Loreta sort and dry her Omena sardines at the shores of Lake Victoria in Western Kenya, one may dismiss this small, middle-aged woman as…

Conflict, Climate Change and COVID Combine to Create a Breeding Ground for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

Aug 26, 2022 | Helen Clark, Michelle Bachelet, and José M. Albares

Rape is being used in conflict as a deliberate military strategy, and is feared most by women and girls as soon as the shooting starts.

They…

South Sudanese Women Are Going Beyond Gender Norms to Cope With Multiple Crises

Aug 23, 2022 | Marisa O. Ensor

The links between gender, mass violence, climate change, and human mobility are complex and interrelated. In South Sudan, where four in five people endure extreme…

‘Afghan Women’ Aren’t Who You Think They Are

Aug 16, 2022 | Lima Halima Ahmad

On May 7, the Taliban issued a statement making their version of the hijab mandatory for all women of Afghanistan, even though this full-body covering, sometimes called…

We Must Recognise Women’s Work on Climate Action: Bushfire Survivor Jo Dodds

Aug 11, 2022 | Brianna Boecker

Jo Dodds watched a bushfire burn through her south coast NSW township and impact her own home on March 18, 2018. It was an event…

Indigenous Women at the Forefront of Transformational Change

Aug 9, 2022 | Jamison Ervin

The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, commemorated annually on August 9, is a day to celebrate the many contributions of the 476 million…

Closing the Gender Gap to Build Forward Better

Aug 3, 2022

Drinkable, usable water is very rare in cyclone-affected areas. One has to walk long distances to reach just a little bit of potted water. Otherwise…

Women Entrepreneurs in Africa Face More Climate Risks Than Their Male Peers

Jul 28, 2022 | Kate Gannon

The world’s climate is changing. All of us will ultimately be affected by climatic shifts – but some will be hit harder than others.

On the African…

We Can’t Fight Climate Change Without Fighting for Gender Equity

Jul 26, 2022 | Jamie L. Gloor, Eugenia Bajet Mestre, Corinne Post, and Winfried Ruigrok

As the climate crisis becomes increasingly urgent, organizations around the world have begun investing in a wide array of environmental sustainability initiatives. Some of these…

Why Climate Change Disproportionally Impacts Women

Jul 25, 2022 | Demetria Dickinson

A number of recent studies show that the negative effects of climate change fall disproportionately on women, caused by and compounding long-standing effects of sexism…

How Climate Change Could Drive an Increase in Gender-Based Violence

Jul 14, 2022 | Meghie Rodrigues

As extreme weather events occur more frequently — something that climate scientists say is inevitable — so, too, will violence towards women and people from…

Women Should Be Leading Conservation Efforts in Africa

Jul 13, 2022 | Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Women make up the backbone of society. Nowhere is this truer than in rural Africa, where the so-called “lesser sex” takes on the bulk of…

Climate Change Exacerbates Violence Against Women and Girls

Jul 12, 2022

It is estimated that 80 per cent of people displaced by climate change are women, according to UN Environment.

When women are displaced, they are at…

Empowering Women Aids Climate Resilience

Jun 30, 2022 | Nina Jeffs, Zainab Yunusa

The overturning of constitutional rights to abortion by the United States Supreme Court is the latest blow in a worldwide rollback of protections for gender…

Her Land, Her Power: How Geospatial Tech Secures Women’s Land Rights

Jun 29, 2022 | Amy Coughenour Betancourt

It is estimated that 70 percent of land in the developing world is undocumented. This makes one billion people vulnerable to eviction and, more specifically,…

From Where I Stand: “We Need Women’s Voices for a Sustainable Marine Life and Fisheries Sector.”

Jun 16, 2022 | Huriye Göncüoğlu Bodur

“I grew up in a house with a sea view. As a child, I loved watching and being in the sea. I always wanted to…

To Really Lead on Global Gender Equality, the United States Needs Dedicated, Sustained Leadership

Jun 16, 2022 | Megan O'Donnell

It’s been 512 days since President Biden took office, and 216 days since he announced the nomination of Geeta Rao Gupta to be the US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s…

If Women Don’t Lead, We’ll Lose the Battle Against Climate Crisis

Jun 8, 2022 | Sally Abi Khalil

We are in the midst of so many crises across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region: the most unequal, water scarce, least democratic…

Gender Equality for Resilience and Peacebuilding

May 24, 2022 | Vongai Murugani

In the past 50 years, gender equality and women’s empowerment have come a long way in many parts of the world, benefiting each area’s economic development and strengthening…

How the Taliban’s New Burqa Order Threatens Economic and Workplace Progress for Afghanistan’s Women

May 17, 2022 | Olivia Peluso

Afghanistan’s Taliban government has ordered women to cover their faces in public in a return to a signature policy of their past rule and an escalation…

The Risks of Gender-Blind Climate Action

May 10, 2022 | Marisa O. Ensor

Climate change is widely recognized as one the greatest threats to peace and security in the 21st century. The causal pathways that link deteriorating environmental conditions, insecurity, and conflict, while…

Reimagining the Aftermath of War, Now

May 10, 2022 | Aida A. Hozić and Juliana Restrepo Sanín

Feminist scholars stress two aspects of wars. First, they emphasise continuums and circuits of violence, challenging the usual dichotomies of war and peace, public and private, domestic and…

#BringBackOurGirls: Ecofeminism, Climate, and Conflict

Apr 14, 2022 | Adenike Oladosu

On the night of April 14, 2014, a group of militants attacked the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Nigeria. They kidnapped 276 female students,…

Climate Policies Must Allow Women to Control their Bodies and their Fates

Apr 14, 2022 | Zainab Yunusa

Links between women’s sexual and reproductive health and the impacts of climate change are made clear in the recent Working Group II report from the UN Intergovernmental…

Converging Risks: Demographic Trends, Gender Inequity, and Security Challenges in the Sahel

Apr 4, 2022

Security conditions in the Sahel are rapidly deteriorating. Since 2016, the region has witnessed a 16-fold increase in terrorist attacks. In Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania,…

The Key to Climate Action and Sustainable Peace? Women’s Full and Equal Participation

Mar 31, 2022

Climate change is not gender neutral, and for activist Fatima Muriel, this fact is all too real for thousands of women in her home country, Colombia. 

In…

A Closer Look at the Intersection of Gender and Security

Mar 31, 2022 | Deseri Tsepetis

While there has been progress in advancing civil rights and visibility for women and transgender folks, there is a long way to go to build…

Is the World Making Enough Progress on Addressing Gender Equality Within Climate Action?

Mar 23, 2022 | Verania Chao

We can only transition to zero-carbon and climate resilient development to the extent that we transform our societies. One of the areas in which this…