Women Leading Change: From Gender Justice to Climate Justice

The Commission on the Status of Women’s 69th session (CSW69), an influential global gathering on women’s rights took place in New York between the 10th and 21st of March. This year’s focus at the global gathering is the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which is considered as one of the most progressive blueprints for women’s rights advancement. Leading up to this important event, New Women Connectors held a webinar titled “We, Displaced Women: Leading the Transformation to Shape Peaceful Green Futures from Gender Justice to Climate Justice” in partnership with WO=MEN, as an effort to gather knowledge on the intersection of gender justice, climate change and displacement. NWC will now share some pertinent takeaways from this insightful webinar that was held on the 24th of February.

The webinar featured three speakers with expertise across a range of topics, such as climate change, displacement and women-led grassroots solutions. Leilane Reis is a professor of Public International Law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and a researcher at RESAMA, while Lipi Rahman is the Executive Director of Badabon Sangho Bangladesh, a prominent women’s rights organization. NWC’s Founder and Managing Director, Anila Noor also shared her insights regarding the European context for refugee-led organisations. 

NWC has been working on the intersecting issues of gender justice, climate change and displacement, through the CoFe Tables initiative, which aimed to gather feminist leaders from displacement settings to provide insights for COP. The program was based on the acknowledgement that women and girls around the world face disproportionate burdens as the primary carers of the household, yet their views are often underrepresented and not taken into account in high-level decisions. The themes of rising challenges and the multiple responsibilities on women and girls were reflected in the webinar, as the three speakers discussed three main topics: firstly, the intersections between climate change, migration and gender justice, secondly, how women continuously lead solutions to these challenges, and lastly, what feminist recommendations women’s organisations can bring to CSW69. 

Leilane Reis emphasized the difficulties both women and climate-change movements face in Latin-American countries, a highly vulnerable region that is also rich in biodiversity. This means that the region, including Brazil where she is based, continues to face a lot of inequalities, including colonial exploitation leading to societal discrepancies. She denoted that Brazil is already affected by climate change, with the most severe effects on women and girls, especially indigenous women and girls. Climate change is interconnected to racial justice, which makes it even more difficult for them to access basic rights, and exacerbates sexual and gender-based violence. 

“Women bear the primary responsibility for care in the households, with no institutional support. Their roles are essential, also on the frontline of climate-change resilience, yet they are underrepresented and not recognised for the leaders they are.”

Despite the multifaceted challenges women face in Latin-America, they are powerful agents of change, who drive resistance and transformation. They are key players in adaptation, lead initiatives and defend indigenous territories. Even though there are reasons to be fearful, women keep working to preserve water and work on conservation. Given that they are still responsible for food in many communities, they are in a unique position to enact meaningful change. 

As the next COP is taking place in Brazil, Leilane’s insights are more timely and crucial than ever. She emphasized that indigenous people have always been talking about climate change: perhaps by using different terms, but these communities have always been advocating for the protection of their livelihoods and the Earth’s preservation. Therefore, it is essential that they are being listened to and have their experiences centered in global agendas. High-level events, policies and leaders should focus on prioritizing adaptation, ensuring local participation and they should do everything in their power to avoid forced migration. 

Across the globe, in Bangladesh, Lipi Rahman stressed the already tangible effects of climate change on women, especially focusing on rural areas, where most of her work takes place. Whenever food production is pushed back, it means that people lose their livelihoods and jobs, and need to resort to migrating to the city. This also means that women, who stay behind to take care of their families, have to be engaged in informal jobs and sectors, as oftentimes they are not eligible for government services. With the lack of opportunities and increased precarity, human trafficking and intimate partner violence is also increasing. 

“Women bear the burden of the crises, as they take on multiple responsibilities and are in a progressively challenging situation.”

Lipi also shared her experience about the grassroot groups she is working with. In her area of work women have formed groups to build leadership and advocate for themselves, in which they learn about how to grow their food in alternative ways, how to preserve water, and how to collaborate with other NGOs. It is of the utmost importance that these women’s voices are heard, because even though the issues were not caused by them, they bear the suffering. She also voiced concerns and disappointment that these same issues have been talked about for years, and yet not much has changed on the ground. While there might be policies in place, real change can feel slow. In the face of the upcoming CSW69, it is clear that the global community of feminist advocacy needs more honesty and reflection, and to hold space for feminist and climate-resilient activists to voice their dissatisfaction. 

Based in the Netherlands, NWC’s Founder Anila Noor likewise called attention to the situation civil society organisations, especially those working on women’s rights and migration are facing. Instead of improvements, the conditions are becoming harder. Women are always on the forefront in advocating for change, but sometimes these groups lack the power to shift robust dynamics, as well as struggling with being understaffed and underfunded, often resulting in these organisations remaining on the sidelines of discussion. A significant, highly problematic pattern is that while the knowledge and experience of these women and their communities are used, high-level policy-making spaces often remain exclusive, without meaningful inclusion.

“It is 2025 and we are still talking about how we can bring gender equality. The systems are not built for us, but rather they are benefitting already privileged audiences.”

In light of the upcoming CSW69, Anila also highlighted that temporary fixes and bandaids, that are too often used to remedy situations, are unable to address root causes of inequality. Every region and country has their own ways of resilience and deep knowledge, and we all need to feed into each other's expertise and experiences. 

Throughout this insightful webinar, the  speakers highlighted recurring themes for feminist and climate-change activist groups and organisations. Even though the panelists work in three geographically distant areas (Brazil, Bangladesh and the Netherlands), they all voiced deep concerns regarding the intersectional challenges women face, which are aggravated by climate change. While women continue to advocate and lead, they remain sidelined both due to the lack of institutional support and the current systems in place which remain inaccessible for most women.

However, even if hope can feel distant at times, it is essential that we keep raising our voices and raise awareness around the issues that disproportionately affect women and girls. Solidarity, collaboration and knowledge-sharing with each other is one of our most powerful tools, alongside holding governments and institutions accountable for the promises they made regarding women’s rights and climate change pledges. The webinar itself was a great example of unity, partnership, supporting each other’s work and engaging in meaningful dialogue about issues that concern all of us. 

You can watch the whole recording on our YouTube channel. 

This event was part of the Beijing+30 ‘Reflect, Engage and Act Together for Gender Justice’ campaign, leading up to @ UN Women’s Commission on the Status of Women’s 69th session.