Round Table on Women Affected by Climate

News Desk: An initiative to increase climate resilience through the empowerment of women was taken by Amal Foundation as a roundtable meeting organized on 20th December 2022 at The Daily Star Head Office.

The key objective of the discussion was to emphasize the significance of women in the fight against climate change with the agreement that empowerment should remain a vital priority for initiatives which promote climate resilience. Representative from Government, different national and international organizations and journalists from different media platform where present at the event alongside Amal team members.

Climate change is a threat multiplier which means that it amplifies social, political, and economic pressures in vulnerable and conflict-affected areas. Women and girls are extremely vulnerable to all sorts of gender-based violence as a result of climate change, including child marriage, domestic violence, gender discriminations and other forms of abuse.

Amal Foundation trains women on entrepreneurship, leadership, communication, climate change adaptation and mitigation, sewing/stitching, climate smart agriculture / animal husbandry, and financial literacy in order for them to manage their businesses or income-generating activities.

According to Esrat Karim, Director of Amal Bangladesh, “The organizations of Bangladesh must put more emphasis on supporting women’s engagement and leadership in resilience programs, strengthening the capacity of the health sector to prepare for and effectively manage climate induced health risks, fulfilling the sexual and reproductive health care needs of women, and investing in women’s education and skill development”.

The general conversation had some impactful key point including “Women and Climate Change is a very important topic in recent times for which global communities are coming together to work”: “When talk about gender, let’s not only talk about women but also talk about men and other genders who are existing in our country”; “In order to make women empowered, they need to have economic stability”; “There is a communication gap, information gap and limited data to support vulnerable women in Bangladesh which need to be highlighted”; “Private organizations collaborations is much needed to make vulnerable community climate resilient”.