Our climate is changing fast, with devastating impact on species and ecosystems. In the past 13 years, 87 per cent of disasters have been climate related. When floods and drought come, they do not discriminate between men and women. But there’s a marked difference in how women and men experience the impact of climate change and climate disasters.
To the young people, it is worse; some miss out on going to school due to lack of fees because livelihoods are destroyed and accessibility issues. Given that everyone has different capabilities to survive and is impacted by the climate crisis differently, climate change especially affects children, young people and women disproportionately and hence decreases the chances for them to survive. Rural women are often more vulnerable to the impact of climate change as their livelihoods depend on agriculture and they typically receive less education than their city counterparts.
Climate change hits women and girls harder, with heightened challenges in resource access, infrastructure and livelihood stability. Recognizing these uneven impacts is crucial for crafting inclusive climate solutions.
Today, there is growing recognition of the differential impacts of climate change on women but still lacking for the young people. Their critical role as leaders and agents of change in climate action and management of natural resources is often overlooked in climate negotiations, investments and policies. The young people are not only victims of climate injustice but also the hope towards a better tomorrow.
Therefore, at AIBIS, we believe that the first step towards tackling the challenges of climate change is empowering women and the young people to safeguard the environment.
Our intervention
In view of the above background, AIBIS implements a climate programme in response to SDGs 13 which calls for urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts and SDG 7, Ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. The program aims at largely strengthening mainly youth and women’s efforts, voices and actions to become more resilient and responsive to climate change.
Specifically, we aim at:
- To strengthen the capacity of young people to advocate for climate, food and water justice, and build their skills in developing clean alternative energy sources suitable for the rural communities.
- To support communities to adopt to agro-ecological practices with the youth at the centre stage.
- To promote community-based women-led and youth-led natural resources management and climate change actions/solutions, through awareness creation, research, advocacy, Alliance/movement building and capacity building.
- To build the youth’s capacity to engage in national and local governments to integrate youth focused climate change measures into policies, strategies and plans.