 I'm Ann Marie Slaughter, the CEO of New America, and I'm delighted to welcome all of you to today's event, which New America is holding in partnership with the US Agency for International Development on a really critical question. What is the role of women as leaders in the fight against climate change? We are holding this event to celebrate women's history month, but also because last month the IPCC released its sixth assessment report and the contents were genuinely frightening. The report warns in no uncertain terms that humanity, and I quote, has a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all. But the report also makes a critical point. The authors write that the participation of women in decision making processes, all decision making processes, can contribute to a more equitable and socially just adaptation to climate change. Currently at the local level, women can be agents of change to enable both increased gender equity and climate resilience, and I want to emphasize that, that gender equity, increased gender equity and increased climate resilience go hand in hand. So at present, we know that climate change creates significant and unique challenges for women and girls in the developing world, and that it threatens global progress on gender equality. You just have to think about the role of women as farmers in so much of the developing world, the role of women having to get firewood or other ways for cooking and heating, and how climate change, drought, floods affects those activities. It disproportionately impacts women. It limits their educational and economic opportunities, harms their health and well-being, and it increases the risk of violence against them. At the same time, investing in women gives us an opportunity. It's women who are spearheading efforts with households and their communities to prepare for and adapt to climate shocks. And women leaders are stepping up to address climate change at the local, national, and international level. Studies show that when women are engaged as decision makers in climate change planning, and I would say in all planning, their communities do a better job of adapting and managing climate impacts. I'll just say that this panel is wonderful for me to be able to introduce and to host the fireside chat, because 10 years ago when I was the Director of Policy Planning at the State Department, we worked hard on cook stoves, on improved cook stoves that had a climate impact and an impact on increased security for women and increased health for women. This kind of work is just as central as any of the diplomacy that we do and frankly the defense that we do. It is also at the core of what New America is calling people and planet-centered politics that we need to be thinking about the impact of all of our actions on individuals and on the planet in everything that we do. So to celebrate and to recognize the 66th session of the Committee on the Status of Women, I'm joined by Gillian Caldwell, USAID's Chief Climate Officer and Jamila Bigeo, USAID's Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment. We are going to discuss the nexus of climate change and gender equality and how we move forward in centering women as leaders to fight against the impacts of climate change. We're going to chat for 30 minutes and then I'll give the floor to USAID's Carol Boudreau, who will then moderate a panel discussion on the many ways that women are leading solutions to critical land, natural resource, and climate change challenges globally. So Gillian and Jamila, welcome and thank you so much for joining. Pleasure to be here likewise. I want to start with a question to both of you to kind of establish a baseline. A crucial climate related goal for USAID is to enable and to empower women to lead on climate change, just as we've been discussing. Can you talk a little bit about why this is such a priority for USAID? Gillian, I'll start with you. Sure. Well, first, you know, my thanks to you, Ann Marie, and to New America for co-hosting this event with USAID and really forgiving us yet another chance to spotlight the importance of women's empowerment in the CSW. Our administrator, Samantha Power, has often said climate change is sexist, but our response shouldn't be. And by that, she means that we know that climate change has a disproportionate impact on women and girls, and yet women and girls are central to advancing action against climate change. So when it comes to our strategy, we have a central goal to ensure that we empower and enable women as climate leaders, because they best understand from firsthand experience what these impacts are and how to address them on the ground. We also recognize the importance of elevating women's voices in these processes because they are, of course, well positioned, not just to speak to the concerns of women, but we know more likely to hone in on the equitable and just dimensions of the climate crisis. I mentioned that climate change is sexist, and what I meant there was that women and girls are significantly more likely to be killed by natural disasters than men, and the stronger and more intense the climate event, the larger the gender gap between men and women's mortality. There's one example of a cyclone that hit Bangladesh in 2007, and deaths among women outnumbered men by five to one. Is that going to escape more? What causes that? Well, there's many dimensions. I mean, there are, of course, factors pertinent to strength, but women will also likely be in worse condition economically. They'll also be responsible for tending to the larger family, some cases, children in tow, which complicates escape. And so they find themselves on the front line in situations like this with many fewer resources to respond to the problem. That is, I mean, I love the line, climate change is sexist, but our response doesn't have to be it. And I don't love the condition it describes, but I think it does really capture exactly what we're talking about. So Jamila, let me turn to you. Great, thank you so much. As you heard from Gillian, our agency's response to climate action is recognizing that to be successful, we need to empower half and amplify the efforts already being led by half the population to advance solutions to the climate crisis. And that builds on work that we do across the gender quality women's empowerment space in any sector, because take your problem. If you tap the contributions and unlock the full potential of half the population, then we're going to see greater success and greater progress towards the goals that we've laid out together as a global community. And when you it's a theme we see right now on Ukraine, for example, that we want to be clear and support the role that women are playing on the front line. So as we're gathering today, certainly kind of reflecting on the importance as women are seeking refuge across borders, as they are organizing the resistance within the country, that women are on the front lines. They have been and we must continue to stand with them. And that's a theme that's a a position that we at USAID and the US government have taken across crises, that we must stand with women and girls everywhere, striving to create a better world and we must do more to support them. So that's something that as we again look across our commitments to gender quality and women's empowerment, we see the climate crisis as one of the paramount crises that we must together support mobilizing and amplifying the work of women and girls around the world. That's something that the US government's first ever national strategy for gender equity and equality has has has identified as one of our anchor priorities. Climate is explicitly one of the areas that we as a government are focused on when we look at the intersection of gender equity and equality and what we want to see happen in the world today. And that's building on what Gillian shared. We know that women are already leading climate change solutions in their communities, even if they don't always have formal recognition or formal power to do so. We know that as we look at how important adaptation and mitigation are to help secure economic growth for the future. We know that we have to consider half the population in that. What are women's contributions to understanding, adapting and designing climate solutions that actually meet the needs of their communities that respond to the roles that women have in gathering water and firewood and farming and all of the ways in which they are already supporting their communities. They have ideas about how to adapt those those efforts to actually address climate change successfully. Thank you. Please. I was as I've watched as we've all watched the events in Ukraine. It's really been an interesting measure in some ways of of increased gender equity. In other ways, it's more traditional roles and exactly women as refugees who are more at risk. But watching women join the civil militia in various cities. And I find myself asking, would I have the courage to do that? I hope so. I've certainly fought for the ability for the armed services to be open equally to all. But at the same time, you see women on the front lines feeding. Feeding is just as important as fighting. In fact, the Russian supply lines are broken, which means they can't fight. And so you see women in all roles, both with a gun and cooking and organizing, as you say. I also just want to point out from what you said that I often wonder, what would it be like if we never mentioned women? But we just said half the population. Every time we were talking about these issues, you just sort of wonder how people would take that. But Gillian, let me come back to you. You're the lead on climate change more broadly. And I'd like to ask you to set the stage for the audience on what USAID is doing as part of the larger US government strategy to re-engage with climate change. Everybody knows we've rejoined the Paris Agreement, right? John Kerry has been visible and his climate diplomacy at the COP has been visible. But there's a lot of stuff that is not so visible. So let me ask you to describe that broader context, and we'll then come back to women. Yeah, so it's a new day in the US government when it comes to action on climate. And USAID is taking really an unprecedented whole of agency response to the problem. And that's because we see that climate can either imperil or fast track any of the goals that we hold dear when it comes to our role as the International Development Agency for the US government. Another quote I like to reference from administrator power is that we are a climate agency by which she means not that we will do nothing but respond to the climate crisis, but that if we look at every single objective we have, whether it's health or education or economic empowerment or biodiversity, we know the climate crisis has got to be front and center in terms of how we consider and advance our response. So we've set our most ambitious goals ever, including reducing carbon emissions by 6 billion tons. By 2030, that's the equivalent of all US emissions in an entire year, protecting 100 million hectares because we know nature-based solutions will be critical, catalyzing $150 billion in public and private finance because the IPCC says we need $5 trillion a year by 2030. So this is a very ambitious set of goals we've established for ourselves by 2030. And as I mentioned earlier, women are going to be central to our ability to deliver and thus are central to our strategy in responding to the climate crisis. We have a number of relevant programs. One is actually in partnership with the IUCN, who we'll be hearing more from today, the agent program, advancing gender in the environment. And the goal there is to increase gender equality in climate and the environment sectors. So this is tailored support to countries to develop climate change gender action plans connected to their national climate strategies to assist them in designing and implementing gender responsive climate action. We've also we're funding RISE, which is resilient, inclusive and sustainable environments grants challenge to address gender-based violence in natural resource management sectors because we know that gender-based violence increases in the context of climate threats. There's another mechanism. And by the way, if there's any donors on the line, we always welcome collaboration with respect to these initiatives, GRIP, the Green Recovery Investment Program. So USAID is looking to invest 250 million over five years to attract 10X in private sector investment, 2.5 billion for climate adaptation and mitigation with women again as leaders in the effort. So very exciting times and we should be launching our final climate strategy that'll take us through 2030 next month. That is remarkable. I also, I'm smiling only because anyone who goes to Washington, the first thing they have to do is master the acronyms and you've got some good funds. And I will also highlight your point about partnering with IUCN, somebody who I spend a lot of time arguing for a broader paradigm of global politics that includes governments and all global actors. Whether they're civic or corporate and I know USAID is doing a lot of that, we have to marshal our resources in every direction to be able to do this. And again, there's so many women in the civic sector in the global south and around the world. So thank you. I'm gonna ask Jamila the same question but with respect to gender because it's also a new day in the US government with regard to gender. And indeed the president's budget requests includes the largest amount ever for gender equity for 2.6 billion, which really is real money. So what does that mean for the way USAID projects actually scale impacts for women and girls? And for again, for USAID's work in the climate gender context. Great, thanks so much. So yes, on March 8th, International Women's Day we announced that the forthcoming budget for the next fiscal year will include 2.6 billion to advance gender equity and equality around the world. It is the largest ever. It's double the amount we requested in the previous year. So it very much reinforces that we are truly putting the resources behind our values here. We are committing investments to actually advance gender equity and equality to finance the national gender strategy that I referenced before and to truly take this work forward. So these resources, USAID will be taking forward the vast majority of these resources and they will be dedicated to advancing women's leadership addressing gender-based violence, ensuring that half the population can fully contribute to all of the sustainable development goals that we have around the world, including climate change. So as Gillian noted, as the administrator thinks of our agency as the climate agency, then a key element to that is ensuring that we are investing in unlocking how women can contribute and are contributing to climate solutions. So that will certainly be an area that where these resources will be dedicated either through standalone programming that's focused on the role that women are playing in climate solutions or looking across all of our adaptation, mitigation work, our broader responses to the climate crisis and recognizing that within each of those areas, what are the roles, what are the experiences, what are the barriers that women and girls are facing with all of their intersecting identities? So women and girls in indigenous communities around the world, women and girls in communities of LGBTQI plus or communities of disabled communities looking broadly across all of these intersecting identities youth. Certainly as we talk about advancing climate solutions, it's critical that we are supporting the amazing leadership of youth leaders around the world, including adolescent girls and young women. Another area that we're really focused on in this space is a just transition and looking at the green economy. And there it's really critical that we are looking at how are women participating in that green economy? How are we supporting and ensuring that they have access to quality green jobs that they are supported as entrepreneurs in climate smart natural resource management? So again, these resources, we are developing our plans now of how we'll take them forward but it will include attention to women's leadership in advancing solutions to climate change. And that's such a positive vision. I mean, work on climate has to balance between the really terrifying prospects that the IPCC outlines for us. But we also know that fear is not a great motivator when you feel so helpless so this vision of women as entrepreneurs in the green economy that women can leapfrog to a new generation of energy and products of all different kinds and not just be leaders in adapting and mitigating climate change, but economic leaders as well. I find that a wonderful vision. Gillian, you mentioned gender-based violence and this is again, one of the darker sides here but also often a hidden side to the problems we face. And you've spoken really eloquently about gender-based violence and also particularly the gender-based violence that land and environmental defenders face. Exactly these women who are organizing to defend their land, to defend natural resources. So I wondered if you'd talk to us a little more about that. So the organization I used to lead called Global Witness has been documenting the killing of earth and land rights defenders for many years and between 2002 when they first started documenting those killings in 22 there were over 2000 documented killings of earth and land rights defenders. And of course there have been many, many more but those killings need to be visibly attributable to their work defending the land that they live on or the environment that they care for. Many of those people killed are women. A disproportionate number are indigenous people. You may recall the killing of Berta Caceras in 2016, a remarkable leader, Lenka, indigenous leader in Honduras. And what many people don't know is that Berta faced multiple death threats. I think she had received more than 17 death threats by the time she was assassinated in broad daylight. And she continued to fight for the land and the way of life that she was seeking to preserve. Many of these women, these brave women are standing up against powerful companies that are threatening the survival of the planet and their culture as they know it. And in many cases these companies are working in close coordination with the governments. The paramilitaries may be mobilized to intimidate and to abuse people that are standing in their way and women really experience the lion's share of the verbal abuse, the threats, the media campaigns, many times being challenged for breaking gender norms or even for being out of their homes. So it's just incredibly important that we recognize that climate change is not just an environmental problem. It's the largest humanitarian and human rights crisis we've ever faced. And if we don't look at these issues in a comprehensive way, including the mining of green minerals over 21 of which incidentally are now being mined to power our solar panels, we will be reiterating a lot of the problems of the fossil fuel age. It's interesting, women are socialized to be rule takers, good girls, rule takers and men are socialized to be rule makers. But what is extraordinary is how many women then become rule breakers, that they are the ones who are willing to simply challenge the system and with extraordinary courage and even in the, again, in the face of tremendous violence. And you see that in the United States as well when women lead investigative journalism against big corporations, but of course they're even more vulnerable around the world. So Jamila last question, I could talk to you for both of you for an hour, but I wonder if you'll tell us just in closing, talk to us about the perspectives that women have on local resources and food security and household and community needs. There's a lot of us are talking about the lived experience of the people at the center of our policies and New America focuses on people-centered policy. There's a wisdom there that is often not tapped. And I wonder if you'd leave us with some of the insights that you've seen. Yes, happy to. It is, so here's some of the things that we are focused on. First, as you look at reducing the risk of disasters, look at early warning systems or other ways to anticipate climate disasters. That's an area where we see women and girls having distinct perspectives from the roles that they are playing as they collect, as they collect water and firewood, as they collect, as they farm, et cetera, they can provide different signals of potential risk that we need to be tracking. We also are looking at in urban areas that as these are vulnerable to flooding and other climate risks, that women have perspectives on what they need in terms of affordable housing, in terms of infrastructure and services to actually help make these urban areas more resilient. We also know with economic opportunities that as we look at where the entrepreneurship opportunities are, what's happening in industries as they adapt, that women have distinct perspectives on where the jobs are, what the opportunities are and where they can contribute to the green economy. They also are identifying where there are specific risks that women and girls are facing. So we are partnering, for example, with Utsche, an Indigenous-led organization in Guatemala where they are recognizing where gender-based violence and gender norms that are limiting the roles that women can play, how that's affecting how Indigenous women in their community are fully participating in advancing climate solutions. So they are laying out solutions to that and identifying how can with our support they help create more space for women to engage on the front lines in their Indigenous communities to address the climate crisis. We also see that in Congo, we support a women-led local Congolese organization called ASEFA that is focused on artisanal mining in Eastern DRC and they are looking at this intersection of gender-based violence and environmental degradation. But across the chain, what we see is that women leaders are advancing these solutions and they are calling for our support. And that's something that we are trying to do more of at USAID, whether it's in around land rights, it's around REDD+, around sustainable farming, conservation, artisanal mining, truly across all of these spheres, if we are recognizing in all of these areas there are women-led organizations and women leaders on the ground already advancing solutions to these that just need our support to help amplify their work. Thank you, thank you. And indeed, I was just talking to a graduate student in history who was looking at the history of mining in England back in the 17th and 18th centuries and women were miners, right? We often think about mining as the ultimate male occupation requiring strength and all sorts of things that we associate with traditional male roles. But in fact, that is not historically true and women can reinvent the ways we do those things. So Jamila B. Joe and Gillian Caldwell, thank you. We've kicked off our morning, I think in style. I just wanna close by saying all of us are looking at the headlines and aching for what is happening in Ukraine. And what is happening in Ukraine is in many ways the classic paradigm of interstate politics. One state invades another. It's a classic example of great power competition and conflict. And so people think, well, that's the State Department and the Defense Department. But what we are also seeing are the role of people on the ground who are supported by places like USAID, but also by business around the world, by civic groups around the world, by citizens groups, Ukrainians and the diaspora, but also non-Ukrainians who want to help. And those are global actors and they have a huge impact on what happens in this war and also of course, what's going to happen afterwards. When we think about people in planet-centered politics, we of course think about the relations between states, but we increasingly think about what impacts people and what people can do, particularly where it's around saving the planet. And I'll end by saying, we'll know that we're there when USAID has equal weight with the State Department and the Defense Department. And so much of the work that you are doing is in the service of that goal. Here you are, Anne. So with that, I thank you both and I'm gonna turn the mic over to Carol Boudreau. I'd like to welcome everyone from wherever you are for joining us today. We're so glad to have you as we transition to the second half of our panel discussion. We are so grateful to Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO of New America, to Gillian Caldwell, USAID's Chief Climate Officer and to Jamila Vigio, our Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment for kicking off this important conversation. In the previous fireside chat, we've heard how USAID is already addressing the climate gender nexus through our programming. We also heard about how and why USAID is centering our climate work on gender equality and inclusion. And we heard a bit about our efforts to partner with women to lead on climate action. And now I'm really so pleased that we have the opportunity to hear from three women who are doing just that, leading their organizations and leading efforts on climate action. We'll be speaking for about 40 minutes and then after that, we'll have some time for questions and answers. And so I did wanna remind the audiences with us today. If you have questions, please send them in either through the Q&A or through the chat. After the Q&A, we'll close out very briefly. But without any further ado, let me turn the floor over now to our panelists, really Joe Haney, Salon Bambiaki, Bajie and Tracy Farrell. I'll provide a very brief introduction to each and then we'll start this second section of questioning. So we're gonna be joined today by really Joe Haney. Really has worked for over 25 years to improve the management and financial sustainability of marine protected areas and to reduce the use of unsustainable fishing practices in Southeast Asia. She's co-founder and executive director of the Coral Triangle Center, a learning center of excellence on coastal and marine resources and resource management based in Bali. Really previously worked for the nature of conservancy and she holds a master's of science degree in tropical marine ecology from the University of Leiden and a master's of science and tropical coastal zone management from the University of Newcastle upon time. Also interestingly, really has extensive diving experience in the Netherlands, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and the Asia Pacific and in Asia Pacific. Next we'll be joined by Solange Bambiaki Bajie. Solange is the rights and resources initiative coordinator and she's president of the rights and resources group which serves as the rights and resources initiative or RRI's coordinating mechanism. Solange in this capacity supports a global coalition of over 150 rights holders organizations and their allies and they're dedicated to advancing the land, forest and resource rights and livelihoods of indigenous peoples, local communities and Afro-descendant peoples and particularly the women within those organizations. As the RRI president, Solange leads the staff in Washington DC and Montreal. She was previously senior director for Africa and women peace and security at Partners Global and she worked with the UNDP gender team in New York. Solange holds a PhD in women's and gender studies from Clark University and her master's degree in environmental sciences and philosophy from Sheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal. And finally, we're so pleased today to have Tracy Farrell joining us. Tracy is regional director at IUCN. She has 20 years of experience developing, leading and overseeing global conservation and sustainable development initiatives and programs. For the last 16 years, Tracy has been working for Conservation International where she designed and oversaw CI's first global freshwater and ecosystem services program and she led the Greater Mekong Program from CI's regional office, which is based in Cambodia and designed and implemented Conservation International's Asia Pacific Conservation and Fundraising Strategy. Most recently, she's created and been leading a team that's working to enhance project design and quality across a whole portfolio of projects that are valued at over $500 million. Tracy's PhD is from Virginia Tech in Forestry and she has technical and policy experience in freshwater and ecosystem services, protected areas, biodiversity conservation and conservation finance. So I think you can see we have quite an illustrious panel with us today. So welcome to all of you. As we just heard from our previous panelists, there are many ways women can lead solutions to climate action. So I'm going to ask you briefly, can you please tell us what solutions you and your organizations are focusing on and why? And I'm going to start with really, so really tell us about the solutions you are focusing on and why? For the Coral Triangle Center, CTC, we very much focus on building the capacity of local communities to care for the oceans. And when I started about 30 years ago in this field, it was an extra challenge because a lot of the focus and attention in countries like Indonesia was on the forest, but not so on the oceans. Despite the fact that more than 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by the ocean and Indonesia as the largest archipelago in the world, there was not much attention for marine and coastal marine issues. And as a young woman at the time, there were not many women working in this field of marine conservation, let alone diving across the country to look at highly diverse areas and see whether they were appropriate for marine protected areas. So over time I see, I learned a lot myself about engaging communities in this plight for the oceans and particularly also women. More recently, there has been much more focus on women engagement in multinational initiatives like the Coral Triangle Initiative between six countries that harbor the most diverse coral reefs in the world, including Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. And it became very clear that engagement of stakeholders particularly women and youth in this initiative will be pivotal for its success. So a few years ago, we support from USAID, we developed, facilitated a women leaders forum, a very informal network with representatives of women across the six countries that worked very well in terms of engaging women at the national level, but also at the community level. And the key lessons learned that we found is that besides technical training we focused on in the earlier years, it was pivotal to actually combine it with the leadership training, as we also heard from the previous panelists that building self-confidence among the women, but also building trust, effective communications were key ingredients for women to engage in decision-making processes, as well as getting more economic empowerment opportunities at the same time. So they could actually get respect in the village, but also engage therefore in decision-making processes at that level. So in combination of leadership skills and economic empowerment was for us a key way moving forward in engaging women, particularly in the marine sector, as 150% are actually involved in fish processing activities and are pivotal for achieving sustainable fisheries, but also other issues like climate change will be very important to have women involved as well. Thank you. Really thank you so much. That's so interesting to hear about and thanks for calling our attention to the role that oceans are playing in addressing climate change. Solange, let me turn to you and ask you the same question. What are the solutions that you and RRI are focusing on now with regard to climate and why are you focusing on these solutions? Over to you, please. Thank you, Carol, and very glad to be part of this timely conversation. I would like to share some lessons learned from the RRI coalition. And as you mentioned in the introduction, we work with indigenous communities, Afro-descendant community and women within those communities. And we do have like great networks of indigenous and community women who are doing many and diverse, playing many and diverse role into like the fights against climate change. And as a result of the multiple roles they fulfill, they play unique and vital roles in the maintenance of biodiversity and the reduction of carbon emission. And speaking from a conservation perspective, we know that indigenous and rural women's active role in forest-based labor, they're involved in agriculture. And also they depend on biomass energy. And all of that make them key stakeholders in effective environmental management related to climate change mitigation. Another aspect is that as managers of community forests, indigenous and community women often bear the primary responsibility for gathering timber and non-timber forest products, and such as food, fuel, traditional medicine, food for livestock, material to make clothing, and other cultural item. And even during the devastating pandemic, we have seen women stepped up to lead and protect their land and forests from degradation and harm. And here I would like to share like a case study from the Nualpu district in Nepal. And we have one of our RRI's partner, Fekofen, who are doing very great work women over there in Nepal. So in that district in Nepal, the Nualpu district, indigenous women work together throughout the 2021 monsoon season, planting lime trees on over 25 hectares of government and privately owned farmland, and also restoring degraded land through agriculture. And throughout the lockdown, these women cultivated and cared for mature lime trees to ensure a productive harvesting season. Their traditional knowledge of land has drawn the government's attention in form of grants and financial subsidies to scale up their lime and legal production. So what can we learn from that example is that when we support initiatives that are conceived and implemented by women themselves, we allow them to lead instead of just being bystanders in climate solution. I think it's very important to recognize those kind of different roles that they play. Anush, thank you. That's a really excellent example from Nepal and I appreciate you pointing out that when we let women lead and bring their voices and their knowledge to the table, we see solutions that can be more sustainable. So thank you so much for that. All right, Tracy, let's turn over to you and ask the same question briefly. Can you tell us what are the solutions that IUCN is focusing on now with regard to the women climate nexus and why those solutions, please. Thank you very much, Carol. And thank you very much to the organizers of this event, New America and USAID. It's an honor to be here and I'm thrilled to represent IUCN and share with you some of our work today. So a bit of history perhaps of who IUCN is in case folks don't know. It's a rather interesting organization, a union that includes members, it includes commissions, it includes a council and really it's the oldest and largest environmental organization that at its core for many years, around 15 years, has really focused on gender and we have a human rights-based approach and the overall objective is really to ensure diverse women and men's unique priorities and needs are understood and addressed. And we're looking to gender responsive strategies and plans and this is how we aim to shape climate action and also engaging women at the core of the solutions as we all know that women are undervalued, unseen when sadly they really are at the core as has been mentioned of many of the solutions that need to be pursued for climate resilience. So the way IUCN approaches this is through a series of field projects that work in more than 63 countries and also through a very exciting partnership that I wanted to highlight with USAID that Gillian mentioned, the agent project. So this is the advancing gender and the environment project and it's a 15 year partnership that we're very thrilled to be pursuing together and we're aiming to work globally to build knowledge, tools, provide technical advice and the assumption is really that these tools are critical for integrating gender into our work to address climate change and tackle environmental crises because we recognize that we can't leave behind anyone in particular, half the population. I love how Anne Marie said that we might look at this differently if we said 50% of the planet was left behind rather than talking about women. So agent focuses on three areas. There's the idea of knowledge products and really trying to address key sectors and topics, fisheries, energy, sustainable landscapes. And we've had a large amount of access of these knowledge products over 130,000 times. Then the second area is focused on influencing policy and programming. So we're making the case that gender matters and there's been more than 200 requests from governments and GOs, multilateral institutions and academia. And the idea is really to try and get access to what are the best ways of integrating women and women's needs into policy and programming. Then lastly, the partnership is looking at tailored tools. So these are trainings and tools that are developed for USAID, IUCN stakeholders as well as our own staff. And these are really helping to change the way that gender is understood and integrated into environmental policies, programs, governments and practice. And thus far we've developed more than 26,000 of these kinds of various packages of trainings and tools for a variety of our stakeholders. And then lastly, I'll just mention that and Gillian mentioned this as well, the Resilient Inclusive Sustainable Environment Initiative which is really trying to incorporate specific needs related to addressing gender-based violence. Thank you. Tracy, thank you so much. It's great to hear from all three of you how you and your organizations are standing with and empowering women. And this is so important because we know women are disproportionately impacted by climate change. For example, we know that the UN estimates that 80% of those people who've been displaced by climate change are women. So I wanna come back to you with a question which is what can we do to make women more resilient to the impacts of climate change and how can we ensure that they aren't disproportionately affected? So Longa, I'm gonna turn this question to you first. Thanks, Carol. Maybe just to raise two, there are many things that we can do, but I would like here to raise two like important issues. One is to say that to harness community's climate change mitigation potential, we must ensure that the tenure rights of indigenous and rural women are secure. But the tenure security is very key because without secure tenure, women will not be able to play their role that they're playing in climate change, mitigation and adaptation. And without their tenure security, they are also more vulnerable to the climate change shocks. And the second, I think given the necessity of securing women's tenure rights at a global scale to advance the climate agenda, we need tools to measure the extent to which women's tenure rights are recognized in national laws. And as you all likely know, the SDG indicator 5A.2 is on the proportion of countries where the legal framework, including customary law, guarantees women's equal rights to land ownership and control. And just to mention that at RRI, we developed an analytical framework and related database that can be used to measure such progress in women's respect to women's rights to community forests. And I think those database with small adjustment, it could be applied to all community land more broadly. So just to mention that, yes, there are actions that we need to do, but we need to start really measuring, documenting and showcasing them. Elanj, thank you so much. Point very well taken, and land is near and dear to my heart. So I appreciate you shining a light on that issue. Really, I know a whole lot less about oceans. So I'm gonna turn the question to you and maybe you can help us to understand what can we do to make women more resilient to the impacts of climate change with regard to engagement around ocean-oriented conservation? And how can we ensure that women aren't disproportionately affected by changes that we're seeing in the oceans, for example? Really, I'm gonna have you come off mute again. Sorry. Yeah, I think it's a thank you for this challenging questions, especially for the oceans. Women are very much involved in fisheries activities, we also engage them more and more in helping to set up and enforce marine protected areas in Indonesia and the Asia-Pacific region. But what we see, and what is pivotal is to really build the capacity of the women to actually be able to participate in decision-making processes, but also in implementation of any activities related to issues like climate change, plastic pollution, fisheries, everything is exacerbated in a way at this stage on the side. So they need much more information, but also more confidence. And what we have recently done is also to actually bring the women to the field. And for the first time, they could actually snorkel and swim among the coral reefs. They often process the fish, but they actually never seen a coral reef in their life, although they actually live nearby coral reef areas, mangrove areas and so forth. So just to introduce them to the coastal marine ecosystem and explaining the benefits and the need to protect those critical ecosystems for our own livelihoods, for food security, for the protection of the coastline and so forth. And we see that it inspires the women and really give them the motivation to actually do something about it. And in combination with, again, economic empowerment, it's a very powerful formula. For example, in one of our sites, we engage the women in seaweed cultivation and they make special snacks from seaweed that we can sell in the domestic markets, but giving them access to markets and to the skills that they need to do this, they can actually improve their own livelihoods, build their own confidence and really engage much more in village processes and decision making. But it's the combination, again, of providing them the technical background and visualizing the marine ecosystems for them in combination with economic empowerment that is really showing a great impact on the ground and they influence their families and whole villages with their commitment to marine conservation. And with the women in the coral triangle, we also recognize the women on the ground for their work and just that recognition and providing them small incentives to carry on with that work gives a lot of impact on the ground. So we love to get women more connected across the region and support each other and share lessons learned, which is also a great way to accelerate and scaling up the best practices in this field for marine conservation. Thank you. Really, thank you. That was, that's so interesting. And I think the idea of overcoming some barriers to bring women actually into the space in the coral reefs is such an interesting way to engage them. So really, really interested to hear that approach. Tracy, let me ask you what, from your perspective, what do you think we can do to make women more resilient to the impacts of climate change and what's IUCN doing on this front? Thank you. Yes, I think as has been said, we really need to get at some of the core issues of what limits women's participation in solutions. So part of this is shifting gender norms and really we have to address this at all levels. So this is something that the way IUCN works, we work with communities at the ground level, we work with local governments, national governments all the way to international policymaking. And some interesting trends have sort of emerged through the agent project. We've learned that quite a few of the nationally determined contributions, so the way that countries determine how they want to address and mitigate climate change, many more of those revised plans are starting to include gender considerations. So that's quite exciting. We found recently that almost 80% of the revised plans are starting to include gender in some way. So these are some really good examples where at the policy level, you can start to see some of these issues addressed in tackling climate change that ideally then filter down and trickle to local and community levels. Then I think we also really need to, we can't forget about adaptation as well and make sure that adaptation plans and strategies are heavily inclusive of the diverse need of women and girls. And in particular, they're often at the forefront. And as was mentioned, sadly, often the most impacted, greater death rates. So making sure that they are factored into adaptation decisions is also critical. Then lastly, I'll also mention, as Solange mentioned, the idea of land rights. So land ownership and access to land is often a barrier. So if you don't own land, you might be precluded from accessing finance or other kinds of resources to help implement climate change solutions. So really being able to make sure that this is not a barrier, but rather there are other options made available to women so that they can engage in things like climate smart agriculture and bring differentiated needs to the table and expertise so that they're able to employ those solutions equally. Solange, earlier you mentioned the role that secure land rights can play in addressing climate change action. I wanna ask you to focus in a little bit on the unique role that Indigenous women can play in this fight. I know that RI does a tremendous amount of work with your partners and your network organizations that are supporting and representing Indigenous people. So can you tell us a little bit about the unique role that Indigenous women are playing in this fight? Yes, thanks, Carol. I think maybe I may raise two example. One is the role that women play in influencing policies, lawmaking and decision-making processes at the country level when there are new laws and policies that are being drafted. And as we all know, I mean women legally own less than 20% of the world agricultural land. And when it comes to Africa, for example, 50% of land and forest legal framework do not contain community level provision specific to women. So in the DRC, in the Democratic River Congo, RRI have been active there for more than a decade. And we have been working with one of our collaborator organizations called CIFLED. CIFLED is a national coalition of women and promoting gender justice and women's empowerment in the DRC. And what they do is they lead that coalition investing in creating spaces and of political dialogues between women and government officials, customary chief and the men in their communities. These dialogue generate data and knowledge that women can use to influence legal land use and community forestry policies that affect them. And CIFLED's effort to let the creation of gender-sensitive laws and policies that recognize local and indigenous women in the DRC. The Democratic Republic of Congo just adopted its land policy and it has good provisions of regarding women's land rights. So which is really key, but it happened based on the advocacy that women's organization do on the ground. They organize themselves, right? They strategize and they also know how to engage with key stakeholders to make sure that women's land rights are taken into account within new laws and policy. Another example that I would like to share is from Peru. And in Peru, one of our partner organization is Onamiap, which is the Peru's national organization of indigenous and then an Amazon women. So it's an organization campaigning for the right of Peru indigenous women. In Peru, 43% of men take part in community rulemaking activities compared to just 22% of women. And that's where Onamiap comes in. So they work directly with community leaders to raise their awareness of gender inequality and women's contribution to land and resource governance. They also conduct support person training to build leadership capabilities of indigenous women. They equip them to occupy governance position within their communities and to advocate for their right more broadly. So they also participate in national and international climate change discussions where they raise awareness of gender justice issues among policy makers. So just here to show how women are engaged not only at the local level within community structures because also that's where changes can be made. At the national level where decision makers, policy makers come up with new load and policy. But also the international level because we want it or not, the international level is still very elite women dominated. How can we make sure that indigenous women, community women can participate in those climate change debate at the international level? How can we elevate their voice at the international level? And I think those are the type of actions that right now we're seeing how indigenous and community women's organization are really becoming very powerful and also strategizing and engaging at different levels and at different like, you know, with different stakeholders. Alonge, thank you so much. I think we had a lot of interest in your response and the particular grassroots examples that you were able to bring to us today. But you also, at the end of your comments pointed to the role that national level and international level actors and fora can play to support and raise women's voices. So Tracy, I want to turn back to you and note that in your role at IUCN you're coordinating relationships with the US government and with multilateral agencies and other environmental institutions. So I want to ask you what can the US government and larger environmental organizations do to center and empower women, particularly women in developing countries to lead climate action? Over to you please, Tracy. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes, we're seeing that there is a huge number of opportunities. And I mentioned before some of the work with agent where we've been really trying to dig into the nationally determined contributions and how those are being done. But we're also really trying to figure out kind of how the differentiated knowledge can be included and what that looks like in other policies. So there, we've been doing this work called Climate Change Gender Action Plans. And these are really proving to be quite effective ways of trying to include gender from the get-go. So at the very beginning, how nationally can countries look at mitigation and adaptation and really try and include this in a comprehensive way so that the appropriate indicators are developed, the policies are in place. And again, these also link to the international commitments that are made as part of the NDCs, but also really scaling down into local communities. And there's also a role in this for indigenous traditional knowledge as well. So being able to make sure that that land and other natural resources are being appropriately factored in and managed and taking advantage of that specialized knowledge, which as we know, often gets forgotten. And interestingly, we've seen some things also through the agent project where we found that female parliamentarians, so if you have women decision makers that are policy makers, they tend to make policies that are more inclusive of the environment. So this is data. This is information and facts that really shows us that if you do include women at the core of Climate Change and other environment decision-making, those decisions are more inclusive, but also are better for the environment. Then I'll also mention one other study of almost 300 forest groups in Bolivia, Kenya, Mexico and Uganda. And similarly found that women who dominated those groups, they were more inclusive. They didn't exclude uses of other natural resources, things like fuel wood collection. And they actually tended to focus more of those less damaging practices like fuel wood versus timber harvesting. So these are some of many examples. And we hope that through work like with the agent project, improving some of these things through data and then working directly with policy makers to try and ensure that environment and climate change solutions are gender-inclusive. So this is kind of the approach that we try to use. I'm gonna actually stay with you, Tracy, because you raised an issue earlier that I think is important for us to just flag. And that's, can you share with us what you think are the most important barriers to women's leadership on climate action? And what should we be doing to overcome these barriers? Thank you. Yes, so we know that gender-based violence is a massive barrier. And I haven't mentioned that probably enough in my comments this morning, but really if we don't address this, we're going to sadly probably fail in our other efforts. And climate change, as we know as a serious aggravator of gender-based violence. So we've seen this sadly, we've seen this demonstrated through research and COVID certainly also has added to this. But one example of something we've seen is child marriage has been increasing. And so this is a direct stressor related to the fact that resources are scarce. Climate change is worsening this phenomena. And so this is one of a few indicators that we can see that's really pointing to a worsening situation. And then I think other barriers are legal, customary and sort of sadly typical gender norms that onto themselves act as barriers and really limit women's ability to participate equally in decisions around land and resource management and also climate change, mitigation and adaptation. Then we're also seeing issues around kind of gender norms and reproductive and care responsibilities. So this is also limiting women's capacity to engage in climate action. So I'm mentioning a lot of these barriers and challenges, but I think again the solutions are gonna have to come from this combined on the ground community action empowerment level, but also making sure that this information and this thinking is included in the national policy making and again linking back to international priorities and change. Thanks Tracy, so very much taking a systems approach to solving the problems and addressing the barriers. Thank you. Really, I'm gonna ask you to come off mute. I know that you have been engaged in activism around marine conservation since you were about 10 years old. So since you were a younger girl, do you have anything you'd like to add to this question about what are the key barriers and how that women face in becoming leaders of climate action like you have? And what do you think we can and should be doing in addition to the good ideas that you shared with us about CPC? So let me turn the floor over to you really. Thank you Carol. Yeah, if I look back on my own experiences since I was young until now, I think it's, you know, the barriers we encountered especially when we were younger and also in a sector that wasn't so well known like marine conservation at the time, I think it's very important to really invest in your own leadership skills. And I think having mentors along the way that can help you build those leadership skills and confidence are quite critical in moving on in your career and getting on with the work. And so we translated that for example in CTC and also for the Coral Triangle Initiative into a mentor program, particularly also between sort of an intergenerational approach to link senior women leaders with young upcoming leaders to really help the young leaders in this space. And we've seen that this was a very workable model for the Coral Triangle Initiative. And we developed a training module that is now adopted and replicated across the six countries and having a special policy in place, gender equality, social inclusion policy for the six countries. It will also help set up structures and budget allocations to support women programs, for example, and particularly in relation to climate change, we're looking at particularly co-restoration, mangrove rehabilitation programs where women can play leadership role. And right now Timor-Leste and the Coral Triangle Center are co-chairs for the women leaders forum. So in the next few years, we really hope to build out those systems and scale up the women leadership program and the women leaders forum for those six countries. But it's very much based on my own experience to really invest in the women leadership policy so they can actually become great champions in their own rights wherever they are in their community, in their institution or at the international level. So, yeah, I would love to give that message in this forum. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that message really, very much appreciated. Ladies are coming towards the end of our time for discussion, so I'm gonna ask one last question and ask you to briefly share with us. As you look around the world and as you look around your communities, who are the women that are inspiring you? And very briefly, what gives you hope that we can achieve the needed climate action? So really, let's just stick with you. So who's inspiring you and what's giving you hope today? Well, I was very much inspired by Sylvia Earle, who's a well-known researcher and scientist from the US and was early on very much a champion for deep sea research and having her as a role model at that level was great for us aspiring marine biologists at the time. And yeah, I think also the community women leaders on the ground with very little resources they can achieve so much. And every time we meet those women, train them and learn from them as well. It's a great inspiration for us on a daily basis. Thank you. Thank you so much, really. Tracy, why don't I turn to you? Who's inspiring you and what's giving you hope? Thank you. I think all of the indigenous women leaders who are putting themselves on the forefront and the environmental defenders and Gillian was mentioning some very, very trying examples that we know of women who've sacrificed their lives for conservation and trying to be on the front lines of protecting their families and making sure that they can survive and thrive under a changing climate. And I'm reflecting also on a story of women that I used to work with in Cambodia who agreed to set aside a certain amount of their savings in the interest of really trying to better their lives but doing it in a way that also taught financial management. So all of the different strategies and the funding was used for only four efforts that could be shown to really help improve fishing, help improve maintenance of households to produce better fish products. So it was this nice link between generating income, understanding financial management and also making their lives better and then learning how to deal with climate resilience on the side. So there's so many, I'm inspired and hopeful because there's so many projects and efforts like that that are underway. And we might not hear many of these stories but they're out there. And I think if we could just scale those up and do more of them, then ultimately we can get there. That's great, thank you, Tracy. All right, Solange, last word on this part of the conversation for you, who is inspiring you and what's giving you hope? Well, as part of my work every day I'm inspired by indigenous and community women around the world, mainly from the Global South, just knowing their struggle and how they contribute to climate change, mitigation and adaptation. But I would like as part of this inspiration to make a call to action and just to say that to forge women's empowerment worldwide, government and donors must urgently make funding available and accessible to indigenous, Afro-descendant and local community women's organization in countries in the Global South who have been historically under supported and underfunded. And just last point and the reason why it's very important to provide that funding directly to indigenous and local women. As most of us don't know, indigenous women's organization receive only 0.7% of all recorded human rights funding between 2010 and 2013. And despite the role they're playing in managing, conserving community territories and they comprise over 50% of the world's land and forest. So here, these are facts from report that have been made. So I think it's very important at this point as we're talking about women's leadership role which is great, we all know it. But how can we strengthen that leadership role is to provide them with funding and make sure that they can do the work that they do every day to preserve the environment and to conserve biodiversity. Alonge, thank you so much and appreciate getting the information in the chat so that folks who are watching and interested can take a look at the materials. So we have just over 10 minutes left. We're gonna turn to Q&A now and I'm gonna start with a question that's focused on challenges in Brazil. So we'll go across the panelists. If anyone would like to address this, you are more than welcome and the question is, can the panelists speak to the intensifying deforestation of the Amazon and the intersectional harm of President Bolsonaro's land grabbing, anti-indigenous and pro-deforestation legislation that is pending before Brazil's parliament? What are your organizations doing to address this issue? Not to respond directly to that question but to mention and raise the fact that indigenous women in the Amazon are playing a key role into conserving the forest, into preserving biodiversity. And like I said, they are the stewards of what is really like, you know, what needs to be done to preserve the environment. But I think Tracy mentioned during her presentation that at the same time they're being killed because of the work that they're doing. How can we make sure that also we provide the needed support to those women human right defenders or women that are land right defenders who are risking their life to protect the Amazon? So I think that these are really like they require multiple type of actions but again, we need to support women within their struggle and within their role. I think that's what I need to say. And of course, political will is very important. And without that, also it's very hard to implement the climate change and Paris agreement. And just maybe to say that, you know, for the realization of the Paris Accord goal, the SDGs and the 30 by 30 goal and all the development objectives, it will not be achieved if indigenous and rural women do not have secure right to control, manage and access community forest land and resources. And I think that applies also to the Amazon. In the marine sector, we try to empower communities that have traditional mean tenure systems in Indonesia, for example, and building on those systems, we can actually quite effectively manage coral reef areas, for example. They have already centuries old systems to close off certain areas, to help replenish the coral reefs around the islands. And so I think, you know, especially in remote areas in the ocean for remote islands, that type of approach is quite pivotal and critical in countries like Indonesia as well, just as a comparison for Brazil. Really, thank you. I think that was a really nice comparison point. And the next question I think builds really well, very nicely builds well from the previous question. That is, how do you support women who are leading solutions to climate action in places where there is limited political will or where the enabling environment is weak and not likely to support women's engagement? Really, maybe I'll stay with you and ask you to consider that. Do you have experience working in places where there's limited political will and what steps did you take to help encourage women to become involved in conservation activities in those kinds of environments? Please. Thank you, Carol. Yeah, we do have those situations, particularly, again, in remote islands. And what we do is invest in women groups that have a certain organization. We provide training and we provide them also small grants to actually, you know, carry out specific activities. For example, in this case, coral restoration, reef rehabilitation and, you know, these small grants go a long way and they often find a way to continue those activities in different ways. So investing directly in women groups on the ground in remote islands, we found that a very successful formula. Thank you. Thank you, really. So, Lange, let me come back to you investing directly in organizations that are doing grassroots work was something that you had called out just a moment ago and you also noted how challenging it can be to operate in places with limited political will. Is there, are there any additional thoughts you'd like to share about how you can support organizations working under those conditions? Just to second what really I was saying, the need to make sure that the funding goes directly to the women's organizations on the ground. I mean, we always play an intermediary role and I think they are at the point right now where they can have access to funding and they can do work on the ground. How can we support them in that? But also I think another important aspect is the need to change the narrative because we always see indigenous women, community women or local women as victims. Of course, they are victim of climate change. We all know and we are always doing our work to make sure that, you know, they are less vulnerable to climate change. But at the same time, they are leaders. They're playing a leadership role into managing the forest. They're playing a leadership role in climate change adaptation and mitigation. How can we focus on that leadership role and make sure that they are seen as the leaders, then they are the one who could do the work? We always talk about capacity building, but I think they do have the capacity. It's just how can we support them better to reinforce what they're doing on the ground? So I think that also the change of narrative is really key. And another aspect, the last one is how can we make sure that the policies in place, the progressive one are implemented? We do now have a critical mass of national laws and policies that recognize women's rights to land resources, but implementation is still lacking. How can we support women organization? How can we work with government officials to make sure that those new laws and policies are implemented and reflected on the ground? Alansh, thank you so much. I think you've given us a call to action towards the end of our time together. Let's change the narrative call to action, which I appreciate and I agree with. So we are just about out of time, and I wanted to take a few moments and just sum up where we stand at the end, where we are at the end of this conversation. To me, it seems like the key takeaways from our conversation are that we can stand up. We have three women leaders with us. We've been standing up in their careers to build up to support and to empower women, yes, for sure, but also local communities around the world to address challenges associated with a changing climate, the really harmful disparate impacts that come from a changing climate for these particular communities. So as Alansh nicely put it, or encouraged us to think, let's change the narrative and let's recognize that these women around the world at the grassroots level, at the national parliamentarian level, at the international level, can all be working together along with men and boys to drive climate action. I'd like to take a moment now to thank our co-host today, New America, for joining USAID to support this conversation. I would, of course, like to thank the panelists who've been here with us today, Solange Bhandi Akibaji from RRI and RRG, really Johani from the Coral Triangle Center and as well, Tracy Farrell from IUCN. What a pleasure it's been to be able to spend time with you today and to hear what you're doing in your organizations to address these important challenges. I'd also like to thank those of you who joined us today in the audience for taking a part of your time, taking time out of your day to be here with us, to share this conversation and to weigh in with your questions. I'm sorry we didn't get to all the questions, but we're really pleased to have had your time and attention today. So with that, let me thank everyone for being here and thanks to panelists, thanks to participants and wishing you a good morning, afternoon, or evening. Thank you so much.