Last week, former Gender Just Climate Solutions (GJCS) awardees Hira Amjad and Ayesha Amin came to visit the WECF office in Netherlands as part of their COP29 preparations. Both lead grassroots organisations in Pakistan and have been longstanding advocates for gender & social justice.  

Upon their arrival, the WECF team learned more about the impactful work the Pakistani organisations are currently doing. Hira shared updates on her work with Dastak foundation, showcasing their newest project through visual storytelling cards that illustrate the range of emotions women and girls experience in the aftermath of climate disasters. 

On Wednesday night, October 30, both Hira and Ayesha were invited to speak at the Feminist Climate Academy finale event: “Moment of Truth for Climate Finance”, organised by ActionAid at Pakhuis de Zwijger. With COP29 in BAKU ahead, the speakers, joined by Ansherina Grace Talavera from CARE Philippines, shared their feminist perspectives on climate finance. Ayesha highlighted the funding challenges they face at Baithak:

“Women-groups? Underfunded. Youth-led? Underfunded. Grassroots? Underfunded. Now imagine being all three.”

Hira continued:

“We need accountability from governments, and funding that is flexible, feminist and long-term.”  

After the panel, Feminist Climate Academy participants shared the actions they planned to take in preparation for COP29 to amplify the panellists’ messages. 

On Thursday, CARE and WECF co-hosted the “Gender / Climate / Crisis” event at the Humanity Hub in The Hague, as part of the Beijing+30 campaign. Each panellist presented a question to prompt discussion, with Hira asking, “Why is community care not funded?” 

From this week on, WECF will be at COP29 in Baku and advocate, together with Hira and Ayesha: We need flexible and feminist funding, NOW! 

Read our priorities for COP29 here.  

Check out the events we will be organising here.