In the bid to promote women's voices and leadership in climate change programming in the Karamoja region, Oxfam Consults in partnership with Grassroots Alliance for Rural Development (GARD) and Oxfam in Uganda in July conducted training for grassroot women, clan elders and local NGOs in Karamoja region – funded by Global Affairs Canada through Climate Action Africa in a consortium of Alinea International, Econoler and WSP in Canada.

The training aimed at bridging the gaps and building grassroot women's capacity to raise their voices to ensure that they are heard and understood in climate change mitigation and response.

The training focused on the concepts of gender and climate change, understanding the big challenge of climate change in the Karamoja context, the international climate change treaties and their applicability in the Karamoja context, the role of women in climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts and the different ways of sourcing for climate change information among others.

At the start of each training, the participants identified the problems of climate change in their communities, how it affects women and the role of women's participation in mitigating climate change. 

During the engagements with the elders, they appreciated the key roles played by women in the communities in conserving the environment and local ways of sourcing climate change information.

''It is crucial to negotiate with the elders for their involvement is important to enable them to appreciate the relevance of women’s voices, leadership and women’s spaces as far as climate change is concerned,'' Dr Mary Ssonko, a Gender and Development Trainer from Oxfam Consults.

What needs to be done

Some of the solutions to negative cultural norms that were raised by women to elders to promote women’s climate leadership include encouraging girl child education, sensitisation and mindset change, fair sharing of property, allowing women to make decisions in their families and access community shrines. This is what the women are saying. 

– Scholar Naoi from Kotido: The elders should start to support girls to go to school. When girls are educated, they make informed decisions but also easily participate in leadership. They should fight against early and forced marriages. Once the man has exchanged the cows for the girl, the girls are taken as commodities and the man no longer cares about them and they are left to suffer alone.

– Teko Magdalene from Napak district: Since the elders already have the elder’s council, we request them to advocate for the involvement of women in terms of planning, decision making and property ownership especially land. We also requested the clan elders to always involve elderly women to be part of their elder’s  meetings.  Whenever the women gather, we will have to consult and involve the elders and the same for the elders and this will fight bad cultural norms and improve decision making and planning so that together we can develop Karamoja through the connection of women and elders

– Rev Milly Awili  from Abim District– when we raised the issues to the elders, they supported us that most of issues we raised were about the negative mindset. They agreed to mobilise their fellow elders to take about this issues to change their mind set on the issues that were discussed concerning the underestimated role of women in their homes  and communities

– Esther Itebo from Karenga District: I believe that the communities have power to transform themselves when they are empowered. As a councillor, I will present the action points I learnt from this training to our committee. I will work with the chair to select a committee to sensitise communities on the issues that address climate change impacts.

– Mary Nakiru from Napak district: I will always encourage women to participate in vying for leadership positions in any group. I will also encourage women to do water harvesting for watering their gardens and household use. 

– Benetton Lokalany from Kangolo, Karenga District: We should engage opinion leaders such as elders, cultural leaders and traditional healers on how to engage, appreciate and promote voices of women because they are the key players in Karamoja community

– Harriet Achau Kotido: We will work with men and husband to sensitise them on the importances of engaging and working with their wives, showing them the benefits of working together in farming, planning to develop than when each one is working independently to prevent other cases like malnutrition in children, GBV and educating children

– Harriet Achau from Kotido district: Involving rural women in decision-making spaces is very key because they carry the biggest burden in household chores in Karamoja. They do all the care work, and household chores, and most times they are the ones faced with the realities of climate change. There should be deliberate efforts and actions to engage women in the spaces and in designing policies and projects to allow their voices to be catered.

– Ngorok Perpetua from Napak district: We need to sensitise communities about the dangers and long-term effects of the activities that degrade the environment. Most of the activities are ignorantly done by farmers to meet their daily needs. When they are sensitised about the negative effects and provide alternatives, they will adjust to positive practices 

Harriet Aujo -31- Abim District: Women also need to sensitise women on better farming methods since they are always engaged in agriculture especially in clearing land, instead of burning bushes that leave leaving the plants to recompose to generate manure, they burn the bush leaving the ground bare, leading to soil erosion and low yields.

What are some of the elders saying!

Having listened from the CSOs and women, It was crucial to have the clan elders to understand their perspectives on women climate leadership. Different elders were drawn from different districts including Moroto, Napak and Kotido districts to engage with the women and lay their requests.

– Lochan Mateo – an Elder from Gie Tribe, Kotido: We request to have manuals that will guide us to train, raise and explain the issues to the fellow elders in the community shrines and meetings. We will start inviting the women in our meeting with elders to defend and raise the issues themselves. 

– Angello Jackson Adome from Rupa, Moroto District: Every woman whether in the villages or in rural places should all come out from LC1 to the women representatives, so that they can bring out their husbands and sons so that we are all agents in addressing climate change