African Women Meet for Climate Justice, Development Alternatives

The second edition of the Women's Climate Assembly (WCA), to be held in Lagos, Nigeria from September 24 to 28, 2023, will bring together women from fourteen countries across Central and West Africa, under the theme, ‘African Women Unite for Climate Justice, Reparations and Development Alternatives.’ According to a statement made available to our correspondent by Fabian Nsemeke, of Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre, and Connie Nagiah (WoMin African Alliance), “The WCA is a collective effort led by a steering group of women’s movements, grassroots networks, and a few non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in solidarity with women in resistance. Grassroots women from communities in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea-Conakry, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone, will gather to build solidarity and counter power against the corporations and governments that are threatening all life on Mother Earth.” The climate crisis, they said, is growing in sub-Saharan Africa, “which is heating faster than elsewhere in the world, and is on the brink of breaching the elusive 1.5 degrees of climate warming scientists have long warned against. The signs of the growing climate crisis are here – severe droughts in the Horn of Africa and southern Africa; sea level rises which have engulfed whole villages across West Africa; cyclones affecting southern Africa; and rapidly contracting water bodies which are fueling conflict and war. Food insecurity levels are rising, and African lives and livelihoods are in grave danger because 60% of our population, primarily peasant women food producers, rely on agriculture and local food systems to exist. Given their ties to nature and their ‘traditional’ caregiving roles, it is African women who bear the heaviest brunt of the climate crisis. “As the world burns, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Conference of Parties (COPs) has been hijacked by corporate interests and stymied by the interests of wealthy countries who undermine solutions that address the underlying causes of climate change,” they said. The Women's Climate Assembly coincides with the third African People’s Counter COP from 18 to 29 September which aims to center and strengthen African voices and movements at the frontline of the climate crisis. Read more: https://phmundial.com/african-women-meet-for-climate-justice-development-alternatives/