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Sunday, April 19, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Women & Climate Change
ZIMBABWE: Farmers Tackle Water Problems Fuelled by Climate Change
Beauty Moyo’s desire for access to water has finally been met. The rains that fell in the past week after a long dry patch have awakened this small-holder farmer deep in rural Plumtree, Zimbabwe on the border with Botswana to the reality of sparse rainfall, climate change and how she and her fellow villagers can respond.
KENYA: Microloans, Greenhouses Help Women Cope with Climate Change
At Gakoromone Market in Meru, in Kenya’s Eastern Province, Ruth Muriuki arrives in a pickup full of tomatoes and cabbages despite the scarcity of rainfall in the area, thanks to the greenhouse technology she uses on her farm – and microcredit.
PERU: Time to Adapt to Climate Change Impact on Women’s Lives
This year’s unusually rainy season in Peru is having a negative effect on the wellbeing and health of women in rural areas who are forced, for example, to spend three times as much time walking to collect firewood and water. But the authorities continue to turn a blind eye to the problems they face.
Q&A: Climate Funding Needs Gender Equity
Gender considerations remain largely disregarded in existing climate funds, even though women are some of the hardest hit by the impacts of climate change on livelihoods and agriculture.
Rural Women Are Leading the Way – Will the World Follow? – Part 2
The United Nations’ 56th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) begins today in New York, with the empowerment of rural women high on a list of priorities for this year.
Rural Women Are Leading the Way – Will the World Follow? – Part 1
Agriculture currently provides a livelihood for roughly 1.3 billion smallholder farmers and landless workers, of which nearly half – close to 560 million – are women.
Women and gender recognised by UNFCCC
Days before the start of COP17 in Durban, the UNFCCC has formally recognised the Women and Gender Constituency, giving them full constituency status when the talks start in Durban at the end of November. Tinus de Jager reports that there will be a strong push for a gender-specific focus at the climate-change talks in South Africa
Climate Change – A silent killer in coastal Bangladesh
Bangladesh, a deltaic country that drains major Asian rivers like the Ganges and the Brahamputra, is highly vulnerable to climate change and the effects are already being felt in the coastal regions in the shape of salinity, frequent floods and land erosion. Farmers and fisherman are already turning into climate refugees and, in a buiness as usual scenario, the next decades could see millions of people displaced according to projections by the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change. EL SALVADOR: Women Demand to Be Included in Climate Solutions
Some 100 rural women in El Salvador demanded that the government halt mining and hydroelectric projects that are harming their communities and establish specific programmes with a gender perspective for combating climate change.
Moving Towards a Food-Secure Ghana
In Dundo village in Nyankpala district, Northern Ghana, 10 women are busy weeding a rice field on a piece of land donated to them by the village chief.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Waiting for the “Heavens to Weep”
Duduzile Sibanda takes a break from preparing her long stretch of land for her maize crop in rural Mberengwa, in Zimbabwe’s Midlands province. She wipes her brow under the scorching sun and looks upwards. The sparse clouds are a cause of concern as she studies the sky and wonders aloud when the "heavens will weep."
NIGERIA: Fearing the Floods – Sleeping with One Eye Open
The women of Makoko, a low-lying slum close to the Lagos Lagoon along Nigeria’s Atlantic coast, always sleep with one eye open. Many live in fear that when they go to sleep at night they will wake to flooded homes and business.
CLIMATE CHANGE: City Apartheid Built Turns Green
Something unusual is happening in Atlantis. Created in the 1970s to fulfill the apartheid government's agenda to evict "coloured" South Africans from Cape Town, Atlantis has always been best known as the city that apartheid built.
Civil Society organisations are sticking to their guns: Women will be hardest hit by the climate change.
Civil Society organisations are sticking to their guns: Women will be hardest hit by the climate change. Zuki Zimela reports from COP 17 in Durban.
SOUTH AFRICA: Climate Change Affecting Fisherwomen’s Livelihoods
Having observed changes in the sea and the life cycles of the rock lobsters that their livelihoods depend on, a group of fisherwomen from the Western Cape, South Africa are calling on government to adjust fishing seasons to adapt to what they claim are climate change-related alterations.
ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Women Turn Waste Into Wealth
Standing on the shimmering white beach and gazing out at the turquoise blue waters of the Arabian sea, it is hard to believe that a decade ago this international tourist destination was under siege by mounting heaps of garbage.
UGANDA: Deforestation Robbing Communities of their Income
From a distance, Bugala Island in Lake Victoria is a patchwork of green and brown. The pattern is a result of dense forest retreating in the wake of recently planted palm tree plantations.
Mountain magic turning tragic
A mountainous country that boasts of eight of the 14 highest peaks in the world, including Mt Everest, Nepal is threatened by both deluge and drought with climate change shrinking its glaciers by 21 percent in 30 years. As rising temperature disturbs the balance of snow, ice and water in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region where it is located, millions of mountain people and 1.3 billion people living downstream in Asia's major river basins face the loss of livelihood, homes and lives due to flash floods and droughts.
Climate Change Killing Womens’ Livelihoods
Talata Nsor, a 54-year-old woman from Bolgatanga community in Northern Ghana, has been weaving the cultural Bolga baskets, which are named after her community, her entire life.
West African farmers see climate changing
Women in West Africa have over the years relied on fishing and farming as their traditional source of income. But as Sam Olukoya reports from Lagos, changing weather patterns caused by climate change have put their livelihood under threat.
Q&A: Climate Talks Must Ensure That “Words Become Reality”
Involving women in decision-making and resource management is a basic necessity for any effective plan to address the multi- layered and life-threatening consequences of climate change, says the head of UN Women.« Previous Page — Next Page »
For rural women in developing countries — the majority of the world’s farmers — global warming means harder work and diminishing returns. Drought, heat, floods, storms and forced migration disrupt harvest cycles and deny women and their families secure livelihoods. By improvising, organising and innovating, women are providing effective responses to the challenges imposed by climate change. They are at the forefront of sustainable farming, water harvesting, forest protection and the development of new skills and sources of income. Yet women from developing countries still play a minor role in the climate change debate. Why aren't their ideas, initiatives and experiences shaping national and international policy? This series of independent articles contributes to this discussion.
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Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
