Climate justice is nothing without gender justice

Nonguta Lesingiran scoops water from a shallow well on a riverbed in Longopito B village, Oldonyiro, Isiolo county. [File, Standard]

The 16 Days of Action Against Gender Based Violence begin on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, coming three days after the end of the global climate talks, the Conference of the Parties (COP29), in Baku, Azerbaijan, which put the gender agenda at the tail end of the programme.

By this time, a lot of participants in COP29 will have left for home and the remaining likely outworn after two weeks away. It almost feels like the last Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam candidates to sit those technical epapers after so many others have left for home. This last week has been interesting, with one eye in Baku, and the other in the Northern part of Kenya, where I shared a room with real victims of gender violence, some who are lucky to be alive after escaping forced early marriages duly arranged by their family members.

A tour of Isiolo and Marsabit counties, where girls badly need the Sexual and Reproductive Health Services (SRHS), where factors have joined forces to boost harmful practices, left me more aware, but sad at what I got to see.

In one of the counties, a health expert from the Ministry of Health said they handled 30 cases of teenage pregnancy affecting girls aged between 10 and 14, and who sought antenatal care between January and March. By October, the numbers had shot to 271.

In these counties, a lot of girls and women did not know if or when they are abused. For instance, some women believe their husbands do not love them if they are never slapped. Abused men also either take too long to report the matter and get treated, or never open up at all.

I walked with knowledgeable people from Faith to Action in the project named Sharp. I was the only guest in Jerusalem whenever victims and activists shared their stories. This happened even before we could deliberate on the salt that climate change rubs on abuse wounds.

Earlier, as we drove to Marsabit town from Isiolo, we met a lot of young men guiding livestock towards Samburu, where it had rained. These boys do not go to school. With the sustained campaigns to keep girls in school, it emerged that many boys missed out on learning if their families’ livestock were safe. When I asked who were likely to marry the girls who stopped at Class 8, I was told the same boys who are most likely to have quit school in early primary in search of greener pastures.

Back in Baku, every story I follow feels like an abuse to the Global South. Africa has been asking for the same things since I attended my first COP in Madrid, in 2019. They include the push for Loss and Damage fund, the honouring of the pledge to mobilise $100 billion dollars annually (now pushed to $1.3 trillion), the need to consider Africa a continent with special needs and stop pushing it to expensive loans but give it grants to deal with the climate crisis instead, just transition to renewable energy, still dominate the talks.

Just like the gender agenda, the Global South is at the mercy of the biggest polluters every COP. The Global North is violently abusing the Global South. The North seems to go to the negotiations, not to negotiate but to coerce. Africa must not be quick to accept aid from the countries that avoid passing relevant funds through the designated climate funding mechanisms.

But why isn’t the gender agenda a priority at COP29 when some victims of abuse are also prone to disasters. The women we met in rural Marsabit and Isiolo are from marginalised communities and struggle with water scarcity, food insecurity, and displacement, all enabled by climate change. Prioritising the gender agenda will boost the protection of human rights and resilience of the downtrodden.

- The writer champions climate action