Browse by Theme: Women's Voice

The UK Government has a crucial opportunity to ensure women and girls are put at the heart of climate action as it hosts COP26 next year, the annual global climate change summit. But their recent decision to appoint an all-male hosting team for their Presidency puts their credibility into question. We are outlining four steps the UK government needs to take to ensure gender justice is central to their COP Presidency, and to drive implementation of bold climate action.

On 17 March 2020, the Jordanian government introduced measures to tackle the spread of COVID-19 in Jordan. Under such measures, Jordanians were only able to leave their homes between 8.00am and 6.00pm. Every day at 6.00pm, a curfew siren would be sounded, after which point no one was permitted to leave their property. The punishments for breaking such measures were severe as the Jordanian government imposed one of the strictest nationwide lockdowns in the world, with lawbreakers facing arrest and up to a year in prison.

Growing up in Uganda I saw directly the effects of climate change. Temperatures have risen and extreme weather events such as heatwaves, floods and droughts have increased in intensity and frequency.

Governments, NGOs, and society at large must work towards the end of child marriage, but it is also critical to recognise the power of girls to lead the way to end this practice in their own communities. UNFPA estimates that 13 million more child marriages could take place by 2030 than would have prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, programmes that work to end child marriage are unable to operate due to shelter-in-place directives. However, girl activists, within their own communities, are able to subversively challenge the norms and attitudes that put them at risk for child marriage.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to sweep the world, with widespread global impact at unprecedented scale. There are more than 5.7 million reported COVID-19 cases world-wide, and it has been attributed to over 357,000 deaths, as of May 28, 2020. It is widely recognised that these numbers are both underreported and the impact of COVID-19 on households and communities reaches far beyond these figures. As economies crumble and healthcare systems across many parts of the world face unprecedented strain, caregivers, food producers and providers, and health workers (the majority of whom are women) have emerged as the first responders sustaining life and building pathways toward recovery. CARE is working to understand the gender implications of the crisis as it evolves.

I have been part of rapid response teams deploying to typhoons, cyclones and floods in Asia and droughts in East and Southern Africa and worked on emergency responses for 15 years. Each time, I’ve seen first-hand how around the world, women and girls are all too often on the frontlines of the climate emergency.