Results

Patience Damptey, Ghana

Patience Damptey has been in public service for almost all of her life. With a back-ground in chemistry, environmental science, and gender policy planning, Patience began her career in 1973 as a high school teacher. Thirty-eight years and multiple government and ministry positions later, Patience is technically retired, but can still be seen walking the halls of the UNFCCC as one of the top negotiators for Ghana and the Africa Group. Back home, she works tirelessly for the coalition she co-founded, Gender Action on Climate Change for Equality and Sustainability (GAACES); a coalition of individuals and organizations from all regions of Ghana who are com-mitted to the promotion of women’s rights and gender equality in climate change responses.

Climate change has put a stress on livelihood activities in Ghana. In rural areas, ex-treme weather events and erratic rainfall patterns have left little crop certainty, forcing people to take on other livelihood activities to support themselves and their families. Women and children often must travel long distances to collect food and water, precious time that interferes with their education.

Patience has long understood the disastrous effects of climate change on livelihoods in her country. Through her work with the Ministry of Environment, Patience has been involved in climate change negotiations for the past thirteen years- attending her first meeting at COP4 in 1998. She was always very focused on the human face of climate impacts, and par-ticularly, the impact on women. When the Women Delegates Fund was launched in 2009, then retired Patience was one of the first to be recommended to receive support. Since then, the WDF has supported Patience to attend over 10 meet-ings at the UNFCCC. Her consistent participation and strong leadership resulted in her being named the coordinator on adaptation for the entire Africa Group at COP15 and just this year, being named to the Consultative Group of Experts (CGE) to the UNFCCC. For Patience, the WDF has been instrumental in helping her achieve her goals. “The WDF has really given me confidence. Through the support of the GGCA and my fellow delegates, I am able to better articulate the inputs that I want see within adaptation and the rest of the negotiating text.”

Ulamila Wragg, Cook Islands

The Pacific Islands confront climate change in a way most of us can’t begin to imag-ine. Sea level rise threatens not only Pacific Islands’ resources as saltwater intrusion threatens freshwater and fertile soils for food production but also threatens these countries’ very existence with the loss of several hectares of land each year. As a Women Delegate and Cook Island-native Ulamila says, “Climate change cuts across every aspect of our society. The impacts are not indirect; they are directly affecting the livelihoods of our people, from education to government spending to our daily living.”

A journalist, Ulamila has covered climate change and its impacts on the environ-ment, economy, and livelihoods of the people of the Pacific at length for many years. It was in this capacity that she attended her first UNFCCC meeting- COP14 in Poznan; one of five Pacific journalists chosen to cover the important event. While there, she participated in a joint side event of the Global Gender and Climate Alliance- one of the first events at the UNFCCC to high-light the linkages between gender and climate change. With a history of work on women’s rights, Ulamila’s experience at COP14 helped to fuse her passion for work on women and the environment and ultimately changed the course of her per-sonal and professional life. Inspired by the event and overcome with urgency to raise awareness on gender and climate change in the Pacific, Ulamila used her media background to write articles on the issue and helped found the Pacific Gen-der Climate Coalition (PGCC). “These days,” says Ulamila, “I spend ninety-five percent of my time working voluntarily on gender and climate change issues in the Pacific, and spend the other five-percent on media work, which puts food on the table.”

Since 2009, Ulamila has also been a member of the Cook Islands National Delega-tion at the UNFCCC, funded by the Women Delegates Fund, and serving as their Media Officer. The WDF has provided Ulamila a crucial entry-point to speak up on issues of gender and climate change in the lesser-known Pacific Islands. “Through the WDF” she says, “I’ve been able to bring in the specific scenarios of the Pacific to the UNFCCC. I’ve been on speaking tours and worked on other ar-eas of public awareness raising but the WDF gave the Pacific women and the Pa-cific people another voice [on gender issues], a consistent voice in the negotiations.”

The WDF has also provided Ulamila with an international network of women who have come to feel like family. “we *the women delegates+ can sit as negotiators and know nothing about the other people there. But, with the WDF, it’s like a family, a family where we share; I’m sitting and discussing with my colleagues from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Caribbean,” says Ulamila. ‘It’s like sitting with my sisters and discussing our children going to school and how we can help each other. It’s given me a better understanding of the outside world.”

A mother of three, Ulamila regrets that, in a world altered by climate change, her children are unable to experience the biodiversity of the Islands the way that she and previous generations of family did while they were young. Despite the current struggles and challenges ahead, Ulamila is confident in the perseverance of the Pacific. “We’ve been living here for years; our culture is so rich and our women are so knowledgeable. How can anyone undervalue us?”

Meena Khanal, Nepal

A rare entity - a woman in the predominantly male Nepalese government – Meena Khanal of Katmandu, Nepal always dreamed that she would work for her country, traveling the world and serving those in need of aid. Passionate about protecting the natural environment and helping the people of Nepal, Meena’s career took her from working on eco-tourism in the Ministry of Tourism to to-day, the Joint Secretary, of the Ministry of Environment and their Gender Focal Point. “My husband always worries about me because I work so much,” says Meena, “But work is the most important part of my life; improving the lives of people in my country is what drives me.”

Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world, with more than eighty-percent of its total area falling in the rural sector. Women’s daily activities in rural areas – like water, food, and fuel collection – depend on natural resources that are at risk due to changes in precipitation and temperature patterns, variations which cause flood, drought, and ecosystem degradation. Women lack access to the opportunities and resources that are available to men: they have less access to an education, less social and political status, and make less pay for the same work. All of these factors make Nepalese women particularly vulnerable to climate change.

Meena’s journey has been revelatory with regards to gender, both in the personal barriers she faces and the lens through which she views her work. “At COP13, it seemed that the prevailing belief was that in terms of climate change- gender didn’t matter,” says Meena. Having received a graduate diploma in Women’s Studies, Meena set out to research the linkages between gender and climate change, particularly in the context of Nepal.

Meena felt compelled to be part of the UNFCCC process and ensure there was a women representative on the delegation. In 2009, this was made possible through the support of the Women Delegates Fund. However, getting to the meetings was only the first step. Meena still found it challenging to find her place in the negotiations and meaningfully engage in the process; “At the be-ginning, it was often difficult to have a voice in the outcomes.” Feeling like she had a support network and access to capacity building was integral to Meena’s success at the meetings. Says Menna,“Having the support of other women dele-gates as well as the capacity building I gained in the WDF program has en-hanced my confidence to be able to participate fully in the UNFCCC process.”

In 2010, Meena’s new-found drive led her to propose and advocate for gender considerations in the subsidiary bod-ies negotiations, which were accepted into the final text, and helped her contribute effectively to a recent discussion on climate-financing in Nepal. After giving a presentation on the Nepal Strategic Program for Climate Resilience in Capetown, Meena was appointed the National Project Director of the larger-bodied Pilot Program for Climate Resil-ience. “I feel empowered and satisfied that I’m being heard. If it were not for the support of the WDF, I don’t believe I would have this opportunity.”
With a dream to one day work on gender and climate change for the United Nations, Meena continues to plug away at the environmental issues plaguing the women of Nepal. She feels that climate change issues and international af-fairs are still male-dominated fields –microcosms of a male-dominated world – and she hopes that women will con-tinue flourish through the WDF.

Does she work too hard? “Sometimes; I still find time for my family, to cook and do needlepoint, and work on my art; but there is just always more work to be done, for women and my country.”

Judie Roy, Haiti

For Haiti, the impacts of climate change are not a prospect in some distant future, but an everyday reality which has resulted in the devastating loss of life, environmental degra-dation, and political instability. Extreme weather events, tropical storms, and hurricanes have caused severe flooding year after year, uprooting the lives of millions. The effects of these storms are compounded by environmental degradation. In 2004, only 1.4% of Haiti's forests remained; when tropical storms Jeanne and Gordon hit, this total lack of tree cover contributed to devastating floods that killed thousands.—the majority of whom were women and children.

Like many Haitians, Joe Marie ‘Judie’ Roy knows better than most the challenges faced in a country devastated by natural disaster. The catastrophic 2010 earthquake took the lives of thousands of individuals and uprooted the everyday lives of millions more. The physi-cal and mental shock of such an event shook the small country to its core and, as Judie says, “almost broke my spirit completely.”“We lost so much,” says Judie, “our people, our infrastructure, and some of our strongest advocates.” Judie is referring particularly to the leading women’s rights activists who were lost to the earthquake: Myriam Merlet, Ma-galie Marcelin, and Anne Marie Coriolan, who founded three of the country’s most signifi-cant women’s advocacy organizations. In the face of such loss, Judie’s conviction to serve her country and its people has embold-ened. “Since the earthquake my goals have become more urgent. I am determined to keep working to raise awareness of the im-pacts of climate change on all human beings, especially women.”

Judie’s life has spanned across two countries; born in Haiti, at the age of six she moved with her father and stepmother to Paris, France, where she would spend the next twenty-five years of her life. Growing up, Judie became accustomed to French culture and background, seeing herself as French in most ways. However, her Haitian roots were always with her through the stories her fa-ther told. She started feeling a strong urge to connect to the country where she was born, and in 1995, she decided to move back for good.

Throughout this time, Judie was very focused on politics and current affairs. She wanted to understand the political and economic situation of Haiti and the kind of development model which could work for her country. With a PhD in Political Economy and a passion for improving people’s livelihoods, Judie worked with grassroots organizations and community leaders to understand their needs and challenges. She was particularly focused on empowering women and promoting their leadership.

Her work and ideas gained recognition and led her towards a life in politics. In 2006, she became one of the first women to run for President of Haiti. “I knew I could not win because I didn’t have enough resources for the campaign,” says Judie, “but I felt I had to run.” Although she lost the election, Judie began working for the Ministry of Environment. Her primary mandate was to main-stream gender into their policy and programs.

It was this work which led Judie to the UNFCCC process. She presented to her Government that it was essential that there be a woman on the Haitian delegation and that women’s voices be represented. However, she was told there was not enough funding. In 2009, the launch of the Women Delegates Fund provided Judie with the opportunity she had been looking for. She was sup-ported to attend the COP15 in Copenhagen and has attended several meetings since then to speak on behalf of her country. In 2011, she was named to the Technology Executive Committee as the representative of Least Developed Countries (LDCs); she is one of only two women on the committee.

For Judie, feeling part of a network of women delegates has been essential to her work at the UNFCCC. “In the WDF, the women delegates feel like they are working together regardless of what country they live in. It can be challenging to feel that we have made success in these negotiations- especially when you go home to women and families who have lost everything to natural disasters. But this network of women delegates supports my work and has influenced my effectiveness here.”

Being part of this process has supported her voice and the voice of others to be heard. “People in my country now look to me to provide solutions in times of need.” She is committed to working at the UNFCCC to make sure that least developed countries like Haiti gain a stronger voice in the negotiations. At home, Judie aspires to run for President in 2015. “I want to make good decisions for my country and help improve the livelihoods of my people.”

Climate Change and Gender Action Plans in Central America, Costa Rica, Liberia, Jordan, Egypt, Haiti, Tanzania, Nepal, Panama and counting!  See how IUCN is making a difference >>

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