Africa Women decry being left out of the climate summit declaration

The inaugural Africa Climate Summit took place in Nairobi on 4th to 6th of this month. It was hosted by the Kenyan Government together with the African Union.
Several heads of states and governments from Africa, key representatives from the United Nations, global institutions and foreign countries converged to chart a way forward for the continent in matters climate change.
There were series of plenary and side events which were used by all stakeholders to deliberate and discuss different topics on climate change. Special interest groups, including women, youth, indigenous people and persons with disabilities also held their sessions as part of the Summit.
In the end a declaration dubbed The Nairobi Declaration was presented as a way forward for the continent to be used in the upcoming COP28. This will take place in the UAE, in November.
However, women climate activists have come out to poke holes on the final document, terming it as unresponsive to most local needs especially for special groups.
They’ve notably pointed out the agreements on just energy transition and carbon credits that were projected as key in green growth for the continent. The women social leaders said that, carbon credits seems to be a license for big polluters to go on while they (women) toil to plant trees- on land they don’t even own!
Women make up nearly half of the agricultural labour force in Africa, yet, they own only less than 10% of all arable land.
On the part of just energy transition, the women activists noted that, about 1.2 billion African women still use biomass. Therefore, they view the push towards achieving a net-zero future as being next to impossible for African women. They termed the solutions being fronted as out of reach and unaffordable for them as most are already without any means of making a living.
In their view, women were relegated to mere delegates or tokenized with panel presence resulting in a declaration that totally left out their true situations. The activists also termed most of the presented points as lacking in home-grown solutions which should have arisen from a reflection of reality at the ground.
According to the UN, about 80% of people displaced by climate crisis in Africa are women.
They have therefore called on African countries to domesticate climate adaptation solutions to not only reflect the reality but also respond duly to the needs especially of marginalized groups. Additionally, they noted that African governments should not expect women to borrow loans for the clean energy transition but should afford them grants and interest-free financing if the goals are to be attained.
At the Summit, women delegates launched the African Women and Gender Constituency Chapter to be used as a force for change, and to amplify the voiced of African women and gender-focused organizations in climate action.