Women's leadership must be at the centre of climate response

Speakers at a workshop on Sunday observed that women's leadership must be at the centre of Bangladesh's climate response to scale local-level solutions into national-level actions.
They said adequate knowledge and skills to adapt to climate change will equip women with confidence to survive and lead for climate-resilient societies.
Senior government officials, development partners, civil society organisations (CSOs), grassroots women climate champions, financial institutions, academia and UN agencies spoke at the daylong workshop titled "EmPower II: National Lessons Learned and Scale-Up Workshop" in the city on Sunday.
Participants reflected field-level learning and identified pathways to scale gender-responsive climate action during the workshop organised by UN Women Bangladesh and supported by the governments of Sweden, Switzerland, Germany and New Zealand.
EmPower: Women for Climate-Resilient Societies Phase II, a joint programme of UN Women and UNEP that promotes gender-responsive and human rights-based climate action across the Asia-Pacific region.
In Bangladesh, EmPower Phase II focuses on women's leadership, climate-resilient livelihoods, renewable energy and access to climate finance and locally-led adaptation under projects across five climate-vulnerable districts including Khulna, Satkhira, Jamalpur, Kurigram and Cox's Bazar, covering ten upazilas.
The programme reached 33,284 women with climate-resilient livelihoods and essential services and impacted approximately 1.6 million people. It has helped mobilise USD3 million to support 308 women-led renewable energy enterprises.
Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs (BCCP), Manusher Jonno Foundation and BRAC University
Minister for Women and Children Affairs and Social Welfare Abu Zafar Md. Zahid Hossain attended the inaugural session as chief guest.
Head of Cooperation, Embassy of Switzerland Diepak Elmer, Advisor, Development Cooperation, German Embassy Dhaka Redita Rokib, First Secretary and Deputy Head of Development Cooperation, Embassy of Sweden Nayoka Martinez-Bäckström, and Secretary, Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief Md Saidur Rahman Khan, Additional Secretary (Development Wing), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Dr Nurun Nahar attended the event as special guests and guest of honour.

smunima@yahoo.com