African women and girls
Stand and be counted
Rise to the occasion
Claim your rightful space
Don’t be silenced
Manifest courage
Be the voice
The poem above was collectively developed by participants at the African Feminist Regional Convening which took place from the 16th – 18th of August in Accra. I was very honored to be part of this event facilitated by WeDo in their capacity as co-conveners of the UNFCCC’s Women and Gender Constituency.
In the 2 days of the event, we successfully created a space for intergenerational learning where we were able to learn from female African climate negotiators, communications specialists and from each other on best practices for gender and climate work on the continent. The three key objectives of the convening were to:
- Strengthen the relationships and trust between members of the Women and Gender Constituency, African feminists, and the African Group of Negotiators;
- Deepen understanding of key issues for the continent on the agenda at COP27, such as the gender action plan, finance and loss and damage;
- Share the key priorities of African feminists and identify areas for collaboration and support towards strong outcomes at COP27.
Personally, I learnt so much about Gender and Climate Change processes, gaps and ways forward from my African mothers and sisters. We were trained on narrative building, Gender and Climate Change at COP, Gender financing, and “Loss and Damage”. A major highlight for me was learning more about Loss and Damage from Sylvia Dorbor, a climate negotiator from Liberia. It was very easy to connect the dots on the mental health impacts of climate change on developing countries and vulnerable communities. Loss and Damage as used in UN Climate negotiations refer to “the consequences of climate change that go beyond what people can adapt to, or when options exist but a community does not have the resources to access them” (WRI, 2022).
“Loss and damage is different from efforts towards climate change mitigation and adaptation”
I personally intend to engage more with this concept of Loss and Damage through our work at TEAP. I am grateful for the opportunity to have attended this event. It was (weirdly) my first time in Accra and I will definitely be visiting again!