Morgan MooneEditor’s Note: The following post is republished with permission by the Global Forest Coalition in an effort to raise awareness of women’s rights, climate justice and climate resilience. The original publishing may be found here.
Governments gathered today, July 12th, 2019, at the High-level Political Forum at United Nations Headquarters in New York are discussing Sustainable Development Goal 13, on climate action. But whilst these discussions take place on what will clearly be another set of missed international goals, rural and Indigenous women in communities far removed from New York skyscrapers are self-organising at the local level. They are clear that their own climate action and resilience can only be achieved through securing their land rights and sustainable livelihoods, where indigenous women have control over the land they grow food on, their local economies and the decisions that affect them. They also recognise that without women’s rights, leadership and participation in decision-making there can be no meaningful progress in achieving sustainable development.
This photo essay showcases the initiatives of indigenous women’s groups in Marsabit, West Pokot and Narok Counties in Kenya and their efforts to protect their community’s land and livelihoods from the challenges they face. Empowering themselves through training and skill-sharing, these women show us how they successfully build the power of their collective voices from the ground up.
