We are proud to present to you the three new winning projects of the Gender Just Climate Solutions Awards 2022! Read about the inspiring projects in Togo, Pakistan and India. 

Women revolutionizing the sheabutter sector

Winner: Delali Adjeje
Category: Technical Solutions Winner
Project: Women revolutionizing the sheabutter sector
Organisation: YOKOUMI
Country: Togo

This project revolutionizes the shea butter sector and strengthens women’s economic autonomy at the same time.

Yokoumi supported the producers of shea butter in the Kelizio village of Togo to form a woman-led cooperative for their high quality and natural shea butter.

Let’s look at the climate impacts! 50 shea butter producers, will instal a photovoltaic, or PV for short, solar plant to power their mill.

Not only does the PV plant keep the mill running, it will also provide electricity to the 1600 inhabitants of this isolated and underserved rural area.

Besides this PV solar plant, shea butter producers have also invested in individual improved stoves, further reducing their dependence on fossil fuels and biomass.

They are decarbonizing their product processing, and strengthening the sustainability of the sector – all with a gender-just and community-led approach!

Advancing the labour rights of women cotton pickers in Pakistan

Winner: Mr. Javed Hussain
Category: Non-Technical Solutions Winner
Project: Advancing the labour rights of women cotton pickers in Pakistan
Organisation: SINDH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
Country: Pakistan

Women cotton pickers work in open fields exposed to the scorching sun, without shade. A situation that is becoming worse with climate change. As you know, Pakistan has recently been hit by deadly floods caused by climate change. With rising global temperatures, extreme droughts and extreme floods are on the rise, the situation of women and girls, specifically those working in agriculture, will worsen.

The Sindh Community Foundation applies the “Feminist Participatory Action Research” approach to gather the priorities, needs and demands of women agriculture workers and how to jointly improve working conditions and health services in response to rising temperatures and extreme events.

Goals are to strengthen climate adaptation measures, establish a training program for 100 women agricultural workers on climate awareness, climate justice and labour rights protection, and ultimately to push policymakers to implement the Sindh Agriculture Women’s Protection Act of 2020.

Women Barefoot Ecologists bridge ancestral knowledge with modern science to protect their ecosystems

Winner: Ms. Bhavya George
Category: Transformational Solutions Winner
Project: Women Barefoot Ecologists bridge ancestral knowledge with modern science to protect their ecosystems
Organisation: Keystone Foundation
Country: India

This project brings together two tools which are crucial in fighting climate change, but sometimes seem to speak another language. By bridging the gap between ancestral knowledge and modern science, this gender just climate solution enables local women to protect their ecosystems.

Through this excellent project, 20 indigenous women from Tamil Nādu and Kerala, named Women Barefoot Ecologists, have strengthened their capacities to link Traditional Ecological Knowledge, with modern scientific methods. By combining these tools, they are able to observe and monitor climate impacts on their forests, rivers, and farms.

Village elders lead the practical observations of the state of their environment. By collecting this data and analyzing it, local women groups are able to lead climate and conservation actions in their communities.

These actions include the launch of forest nurseries, community kitchen gardens, water source protection initiatives, and soon to come: a seed keeping social enterprise.

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During the Press conference tomorrow at 12:00, the winners will be able to present themselves and share their experiences of how this award will impact their work.

Want to have an interview with one of the winners, please contact Rebecca.Heuvelmans@wecf.org

About The Women and Gender Constituency

The Women and Gender Constituency (WGC) is one of the nine stakeholder groups of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Established in 2009, the WGC now consists of 27 women’s and environmental civil society organizations, who are working to ensure that women’s voices and their rights are embedded in all processes and results of the UNFCCC framework, for a sustainable and just future, so that gender equality and women’s human rights are central to the ongoing discussions.