Organizers

Recording

Background 

As is increasingly evident through changing seasonal and weather patterns, climate change is one of the greatest environmental challenges of our time. It impacts everyone everywhere and has resulted in the loss of viable agricultural lands and biodiverse ecosystems. These changes directly affect the livelihoods of many rural people and communities in the Global South. We must address anthropogenic climate change: One way is to build a response – at the grassroots level as well as globally – by documenting women’s climate change adaptation stories.

This event was organized by the African Centre for Climate Actions and Rural Development (ACCARD) Initiative and the Institute for Globalization Studies (IGS) at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Through the PCCB Network, ACCARD and IGS provided an in-depth understanding of the processes behind storytelling, particularly as it results in empowering indigenous women, young people, and local communities who are on the front lines in adapting to weather-related disasters. 

Capturing the stories of women who are empowered because of newly acquired technical expertise has multiple benefits. First, the oral histories introduce new ways for men and women to work together. Second, they help the public learn more about how women become empowered to take on leadership roles. Third, they provide a baseline for the ways in which women’s climate change narratives change over time.

This virtual dialogue and storytelling event showcased rural women’s agency, sense of leadership, and empowerment across the globe.

Objectives

• Provide evidence of global innovative scientific solutions and details about how men and women together lead change by sharing experiences
• Build capacity for women’s empowerment in the climate change projects
• Understand how some project(s) uplift women in indigenous communities
• Present self-assessment of the results (or outcomes) of their project(s)

Structure and Speakers