Engage women on climate change, says French ambassador

By Pascal Kwesiga                            

The French ambassador to Uganda, Sophie Makame, has appealed to the Government to involve women in interventions seeking to mitigate effects of climate change because females are likely to be affected more by climate change than their male counterparts.

Makame said that women should be actively engaged in discourses on environment because they rely on natural resources to feed their families, and that they will be bear the brunt of environmental destruction. 

“They are more vulnerable. In Uganda the rainfall patterns are increasingly becoming highly unpredictable. Climate change will not affect us the same way; women will be affected more,” she added.

The ambassador was addressing Makerere University’s lecturers and students at the institution’s school of Women and Genders studies in Kampala on Monday after the screening of a documentary highlighting the effects of climate change some countries around the world are currently grabbling with.

French Ambassador to Uganda Sophie Makame (R) welcomes the UN Women Representative to Uganda, Hoddan Addou (L)at Makerere School of  Women and Gender Studies during Women's Day Celebration at Makerere on March 9, 2015.
Photo/PETER BUSOMOKE

Women, she explained, should be part of the solution to climate change, and that Governments ought to engage them in all interventions geared toward easing the impact of climate change.

Uganda, which currently chairs the UN General Assembly, she said should seize the opportunity to keep climate change issues on top of the global agenda and bring effects of climate change to the fore to galvanize global action.

The UN General Assembly president, who is also Uganda’s foreign affairs minister, Sam Kuteesa said during his recent visit to Uganda that women are more vulnerable to the consequences of climate change than men.

He added that women form the bulk of the world’s poor and are more dependent for their livelihood on natural resources that are under threat from climate change.

Earlier, Kuteesa expressed disappointment that Africa is at the receiving of climate change and global warming for the actions of the industrialized nations reluctant to take robust measures to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions from their industries.

The UN women representative for Uganda, Hodan Addou, observed that although the entire human race is at a grave risk from climate change, some categories of people are more exposed to the risks than others.

Women and girls, she argued, are more vulnerable to the consequences of climate change by virtue of the roles they play in society.

“Seventy percent of the world’s poor are women. They are predominantly responsible for food production, household water supply and energy for heating and cooking,” Addou said.

The shifts in the environment, she noted, will render traditional food sources highly unpredictable and scarce, and that risks of climate change to the survival of humanity will become increasingly complex.

“Women should be part of the solution because they have knowledge and coping strategies that give them practical understanding of innovations and skills to adapt to the changing environmental realities,” she added.

Dr. Florence Muhanguzi, a senior lecturer in the school of Women and Gender studies said Uganda has a good policy and legal framework to address climate change, but this legal environment ought to spell out the responsibilities of men and women to facilitate easy implementation.