Gender and Climate Justice
The Climate Crisis is presenting new challenges among vulnerable and marginalized women and girls in Chimanimani and Reigate districts who already have to contend with patriarchy, a cultural system that relegates them to the periphery of society, limits their access to land, productive assets, social protection and technology, which are central to production. Using participatory, collaborative, and locally-led systems, we are building women’s resilience to the Climate Crisis through promoting regenerative and sustainable agriculture. In 2019, cyclone Idai hit Zimbabwe, and Chimanimani is one of the districts that was heavily affected. Overall, nearly 3 million people were affected, over 1,000 people were killed (around half of them child. (UNICEF 2020). Homes, crop fields, livestock and roads were heavily destroyed. Following Cyclone Idai, other cyclones like Freddy (2023), Guambe (2022), Ana (2022), Guambe (2021), Eloise (2021) and Chalane (2020) confirm that climate change is now a crisis in Zimbabwe and urgent measures need to be put in place to build women’s resilience.
Anticipated outcomes: Improved food security and climate change resilience of women and girls in Zimbabwe, who are at the frontline of the climate crisis through the diversification of food production; Restored and preserved natural landscapes damaged by human activities and extreme weather conditions; Amplified voices of resource poor women and girls on the climate crisis; meaningful involvement of women in climate crisis response and communities forging an enabling environment for gender equality in climate crisis responses.