Rural women are the guardians of Land, Life, Seeds and Love. Climate justice and building climate resilience is a core pillar of our work, which is underpinned by a feminist approach. The United Nations 26th Climate Change Conference (COP26) meetings, starting on 31 October through to 12 November in Glasgow, Scotland; is cited as the most unequal meeting due to COVID-19 implications which include travel restrictions. Pre-COVID, we will resource travel to the COP meetings and have parallel actions as a movement to amplify unrepresented voices like that of rural women. This year, with travel restrictions and the high cost of travel, we foresee a COP26 without representation of women and girls, especially rural women and girls. This is, unfortunately, perpetuating a pattern we have noticed and spoken to in the last few years of the COP meetings and other such international meetings, where decisions about things that impact our lives are made.
Our actions this year is geared towards ART and how our members of rural women small-scale farmers, fishers, backyard producers and the like, will use this as the way we connect to our struggle with Climate Injustice. On Saturday 6 November, for Global Day of Action 2021, we will be creating art through posters, poetry, songs, awareness and statements about our needs and demands in this fight for Climate Justice from the Southern African region, which will be broadcast Live on our Facebook Page. We will also share our outputs on the Global Virtual Protest Page which will show the works of rural women on the streets of Glasgow, where the COP26 meetings will take place. We will also be co-hosting with Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) and The People’s Dialogue a conference on South Africa’s transition from Extractivism and Climate Crisis to a Just Transition.
Our demands are simple, nothing about us, without us. Africa is the lowest contributor to the Climate Crisis and increase emissions, but will be the continent greatly impacted by it.
- We want the big polluting countries to pay their historical, ecological and climate debts to the Global countries and we want our debts to be written off.
- We want the impacts of the energy transition on the global South countries to be carefully thought out and considered in a holistic manner so that this transition is not made to the detriment of such countries.
- We want a human rights-based approach to climate change
- We call for a stop to emitting greenhouse gases.
- We demand that governments listen to the solutions of impacted and marginalized people.
- We must be guided by the stewards of the people and the planet, women and indigenous peoples.
- We call for the promotion of feminist economic and ecological alternatives revaluing indigenous knowledge systems is an existential priority.
- Recognize peasant agroecology and other truly sustainable models of food production and distribution as alternatives to the industrialized food system. as alternatives to the industrialized food system
- We want solar and wind-powered energy!
- We want indigenous practices to be financed to fast forward climate alternatives that respect nature/ commons …to achieve a just transition
