“Take the word 'smallholder' woman farmer. She's not small because she's not alone. She's part of a whole network that is providing the infrastructure, the architecture of resilience in the communities. … Less than 1% of climate finance goes to women-led organizations at local level. And yet they are the architecture of resilience.”
sputnikintelligence.com
The hosts asked former Irish president Mary Robinson how to scale up finance for women affected by climate change. She says the bigger fix is changing the story about what women do at grassroots level so funding reaches them.
…They're basically glad to get the money and they work the money and then repay when the time comes. So it's a case of providing without collateral. And often it's done in a group way that women help each other by providing extra finance to some if they need it out of a pool that they've created.
And so how do you scale that up beyond what it is today? Because so many people, women in particular, are in need of it.
Well, that leads me to what I believe is the most important thing, which is to change the narrative about what women are doing at grassroots and local level. Change it completely. Take the word smallholder, woman farmer. She's not small because she's not alone. She's part of a whole network that is providing the infrastructure, the architecture of resilience in the communities, in the villages. More and more, those of us who are working on this believe in trying to get them to group more to become more visible so that they can get the funding. They don't get the climate finance. Less than 1% of climate finance, as you know, goes to what women are doing, women-led organizations at local level. And yet they are the architecture of resilience. And they are very inventive. As I said, I'm constantly learning the examples of the reality that they have begun to cope with with technology, with commitment, with collective solidarity, with empathy. It's incredible. This is so important. the social cohesion of society and needs to be recognised, needs to be spoken up and needs to be funded.
We're at the time of year of COP where all these different parts of society come together. Do you still think that's a forum that is working to progress the climate issue, particularly when it comes to the impacts on women?
I think that conferences on climate are really important because they are an enormous convening. All the countries except the United States, because President Trump took the United States out for the second time. No other country followed him. No other country has left the climate space and that's…
And is gender on the agenda at COP anymore? I mean, last year we had the gender action plan, didn't we? I mean, where are we today when it comes to gender?