Gender and climate change ‘through other eyes’: Grassroots women’s responses to changing environments in southern Africa

abstract

In this article we draw on the first-hand experience and close walk that the first author (Dorah Marema) has had implementing various projects over a 10-year period with GenderCC Southern Africa – Women for Climate Justice (GenderCCSA), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) working on the intersection between climate change and gender in South Africa. In particular, we examine how issues of vulnerability, agency and gender are used/misused and understood in the contexts of the period of the first author’s work with GenderCCSA. We first trace the shifts in the climate change narratives and discourse, examining how terms such as gender and vulnerability are used or misused, before presenting some of the initial assessments of how ‘transformational’ and ‘empowering’ the projects that were implemented have or have not been for the participants who were engaged in the projects. The article draws from three cases, illuminating the diverse roles, many of them related to leadership and agency, and actions that women are taking when faced with current and past climate risks. We interrogate the ‘northern gaze’ of climate issues and pay particular attention to what a ‘southern view’ may offer – is this different to ours, similar and why and what can we learn and gain from the perspectives and views on enhanced agency in the face of climate stresses and challenges? The role of funders in shaping the work that GenderCCSA has been involved in over the years and how has this support either enhanced or weakened women’s agency in climate change, is also interrogated. By illuminating the valuable experiences derived from the three climate action projects over a decade of effort and actions viewed through a gendered lens, we hope to enhance and add to the critical work that points to the need for a more nuanced appreciation of grassroots women’s experience and learnings in the Southern climate change experience.

keywords:

• gender and climate justice
• gender mainstreaming
• Southern climate action
• GenderCC Southern Africa – Women for Climate Justice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 GenderCC- Southern Africa - Women for Climate Justice (2021) “Who we are”’ www.gendercc.org.za (accessed 02 June 2021).

2 The project scoring has been adapted from Bunce and Ford (2015).

3 Adapted from Bunce and Ford (2015).

4 Field work, that extends this work in the City, will be undertaken in research under way.

5 Climate Action Plan EISD, City of Johannesburg.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dorah Marema

DORAH MAREMA is the Portfolio Head for Municipal Sustainability at the South African Local Government Association (SALGA). She is also a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity. Dorah Marema has worked with a wide range of NGOs and in different sectors both rural and urban settings since 1997. She has been involved in issues of sustainability since 2000 and she worked with a wide range of multi-stakeholder participatory initiatives involving communities, NGOs, and government She founded GenderCC Southern Africa − Women for Climate Justice in 2008 where she worked with women and gender civil society organisations, activists, and gender experts from the Southern African region on issues of women’s rights, gender and climate justice. She co-founded the Green Business college in 2017, which is a social enterprise based in Johannesburg, dedicated to building ‘green’ entrepreneurs by uniting green skills with business know-how. Email: [email protected]

Coleen Vogel

COLEEN VOGEL is a Distinguished Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. She is a climatologist by training but has increasingly worked in the social dimensions of climate change, focusing particularly on climate change adaptation. She currently serves on various local and international boards. She has, for example, chaired and been the vice chair of international global environmental change scientific committees (e.g. IHDP and LUCC and involved in the Earth System Science Programme), groups that preceded the current Future Earth developments. She was also one of the lead contributors to the preparation of the Disaster Management Act in South Africa. She has also received the Burtoni Award for international excellence in adaptation research and received the University of the Witwatersrand Vice Chancellor’s award for excellence in teaching. Email: [email protected]