Post-COP 27: ABANTU for Development Women urged to be agents of change in the quest for climate justice

ABANTU For Development, with the support from Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) has urged women to be critical agents of change in the quest for climate justice.

ABANTU For Development is a none governmental organisation that has been working on gender and climate change, a key thematic area in mobilising and building capacities of women and other stakeholders to acknowledge the diversities of the impact of climate change.

The Head of Programmes for ABANTU For Development, Grace Ampomaa Afrifa in her welcome address at a press conference in Accra on the theme: "Post-COP 27 – Women as Agents of Change in the Quest for Climate Justice" said ABANTU for Development over the years has made significant contributions through the implementation of programmes that essentially bring gender issues to the fore in addressing issues of climate change.

She stated that, since September this year, following the celebration of the Africa Climate Week in Gabon, PACJA has spearheaded several advocacy interventions aimed at mobilising Africa's perspective towards COP 27 which was held in Egypt in November 2022.

She added that these advocacy interventions have been geared towards increasing the sensitization on climate change, its impact, mitigation and adaptation measures for Africa.

The National Coordinator of 350 Ghana Reducing Our Carbon and member of GACCES Portia Adu-Mensah said they want to deepen their understanding of the gendered nature of climate change and how it impacts different socio-economic groups at different levels of society among women in order to contribute to the development of concrete policy responses at all levels.

Portia Adu-Mensah, who was present at COP27, said the week-long saw the launch of The Gender Thematic Day which aimed at bringing the promotion of gender-responsive climate policies, strategies and actions to the forefront.

She urged women to participate effectively in the climate change discussions and programmes to be able to access funds allocated for loss and damages in developing countries.

On his part, Kassim Hussein, Executive Director of the Center for Climate and Sustainability Empowerment (CCSE) called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to visit the grassroots level to look at some of these projects the women are into and try as much as possible to help them access this fund.

According to him, women who are part of vulnerable groups are embarking on some interesting initiatives in the rural areas that can be scaled up in order to access these funds.

"One major outcome of this COP 27 is that a fund is been established to support loss and damages. Loss and damages we know very well, women are a key factor when it comes to loss and damages because they are very vulnerable. But then we keep saying that we need funding, and the funding mechanism has been established at COP 27 but then how do women position themselves in such a way that they will be able to take advantage of this funding mechanism? There is a reorientation of the mindset, and there is a number of initiatives or project women are embarking on at the grassroots level.

"Some of these initiatives can be skilled up to able to access some of this fund. What we need major in is to understand what is climate change, what is the project they are doing at the community level how they can be skilled up to be able to", he explained.