Leading Change: Women at the Forefront of Sustainable Solutions in Northeast Africa
By Erika Pietrzak, March 11, 2024
Women have been leading a charge to end these environmental conflicts as they often spend all day together cultivating lands, farming, and taking care of their families, providing a uniquely united front rare in an area of conflict.
Northeast Africa is a historically prosperous region of agricultural growth. Today, it is pretty commonly known that Sudan, South Sudan, and Somalia are experiencing a water crisis of significant magnitude, but the impacts are felt in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Kenya. With long droughts and rare access to clean water, people are walking miles to get drinking water, and kids are dropping out of school to manage their families’ needs. Strenuous population growth, political instability, conflict, and economic sanctions have put extreme stress on the countries. Climate change has caused droughts and floods to become more frequent while rainfall has become more erratic. Women in particular are impacted by water scarcity and environmental conflict as they are caught in gender-based violence, attacks on walks to get clean water, and dropping out of school at higher rates than boys so that they can collect clean water.
Women in Sudan “are largely responsible for household food security and child-rearing,” but do not have enough political and economic power to be properly involved in decision-making. The United Nations Environmental Programme has launched a joint project with Sudan’s Higher Council for Environment and Natural Resources to help over 40 communities build climate resilience, focusing on women’s role in the solution. From this project, over 1,000 women have learned new techniques of how to grow vegetables in tough climate conditions. Similar projects in the region have proven women’s role in peacebuilding and combating environmental challenges, making women’s involvement crucial to finding solutions for the current water crisis. Women in Sudan and South Sudan are learning new techniques to adapt to new climates and are taking active roles in community projects.
In other projects, like initiatives from The Water Project, women are taking an active role in empowering themselves and their community’s resilience. Women in these communities are working hard to collect materials for wells and work diligently to maintain safe conditions for their new clean water. United Southern Sudanese women in the Lokojo community have been instrumental in the success of the well and hand pump’s construction and maintenance. Women are also uniquely able to cross community boundaries, as proven in Somalia, thus creating their own communities of action while working in the informal sector to avoid institutions of sexism. These formed communities are also strong strides towards peacebuilding through overcoming historic grievances.
Due to the scarcity of land and water resources, environmental conflict has become rampant in the region, with warring factions placing entire communities in danger. Women have been leading a charge to end these environmental conflicts as they often spend all day together cultivating lands, farming, and taking care of their families, providing a uniquely united front rare in an area of conflict. The Mothers of Sudan group aims to end natural resource conflicts while learning how to find resiliency in the current circumstances. In Djibouti, the Association of Women Engaged for the Protection of the Environment of Tadjourah and similar organizations have been working tirelessly to clean beaches, manage pollution, and educate communities. Through education and advocacy workshops, women in Djibouti are becoming more knowledgeable and more involved in their climate issues.
In some villages, men have almost entirely fled to find new economic opportunities or communities have been largely widowed, leaving women in the places of power men used to hold, giving them greater agency. Still, these women are not allowed or not listened to in spaces of decision-making. Consequently, Women, Natural Resources, and Peace have taken an active role in empowering women in these communities and giving them the power to create change.
In the past, women have been punished for their role in the environmental movement in the region. Women-led organizations and unions have staged protests, called on foreign aid, and criticized their governments, and nothing will stop these persistent communities. Today, Egypt is exploring how to enhance women’s roles in the green sector along with Egypt's African Women's Climate Adaptive Capacities Initiative. This initiative, in particular, emphasizes the social changes that need to be made for environmental changes to be successful. Through education, technology, access to leadership positions, and research, Egypt is working to bring women to the forefront of the environmental movement.
Want to make a difference? Donate or share to help a community in Northern Kenya get reliable access to clean water here!
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