 Good morning and thank you for joining the U.S. Institute of Peace today for a conversation with two of this year's winners of the Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award. My name is Camisa Camara and I'm a senior visiting expert for the Sahel at the U.S. Institute of Peace. The Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award recognizes women from around the world who have demonstrated exceptional courage, strength, and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equity and equality, and the empowerment of women and girls in all their diversity and more, often at great personal risk and sacrifice. We would like to express our great appreciation to our partner and co-host for this event, the State Department's Office of Global Women's Issues. Thank you for all you do to elevate the voices and work of women around the globe. Today we will hear from two of the awardees at the intersection of human rights and environmental peacekeeping. Josefina Clinger-Sunia is a human rights and environmental defender from Troco, Colombia who founded Mano-Cambida to provide sustainable incomes and advance the rights of her community by training leaders and environmental resource management. Rizwana Husan is a lawyer from Bangladesh who has fought environmental and human exploitation through the courts using a people-centered focus on environmental justice. We are delighted and honored to have both of you with us today and invite our audience members to learn about our panelists by accessing their biographies on USIP's event website. I will begin our conversation by asking a few questions about your work and then I will turn to the audience for Q&A. Please share your questions or comments for our panelists using the Q&A feature on the webpage. Josefina, I'll start by turning to you. How are women uniquely positioned to lead efforts to address climate change within their communities and what has your work as the founder of Mano-Cambida taught you about the importance of including women? Well, I am going to turn off my camera because my signal is not unstable. Thank you very much. Here there's a big contradiction. We live in a territory that is between the Pacific Ocean, 12 rivers, and the jungle. There are indigenous and black communities and we are very far away from the middle of the country and that's a constant and because of that lack of inclusion has generated a whole collective imagination in the country that we are constantly at a disadvantage. Women here have a very difficult time because in that segregation, that exclusion, there's a vulnerable segment of population which is women and not only do we give life but we weave a different history here. We plant values and principles but when you are worried, when you are concerned about surviving and you're concerned about being accepted and included because we all want to be accepted and included. Everybody wants to have a value that reinforces our life but if I am scared at 17 years of age when I had my first son with a very complicated background. I have been working since I was six years old. I felt that I didn't deserve anything and the state is reinforcing that the logistics around me, the territory, the way that it's being used here is reinforcing that and that is in contrast with the vision that I have. So it was very difficult for me to raise my children and I had a distorted vision so that in this vicious cycle, it's this game that follows me and so our participation is not determined by logic so it has to be determined by our value. We need to write a new story. It is very complex. It is much more complex to face climate change because there are great opportunities for the experience in Mano Cambiada and everything that we have done in Nuki. We got rid of fear. We got away from the logics that we had been transmitted and we started to use our own resources. In the beginning it was only to survive and then it was to have a vision to do a new model and finally we realized that what we were doing in order to configure a new story is what humanity needed the most. They needed woke people in exceptional territories to be able to take advantage of natural resources. We are very proud today. Yes. We started out of fear because we needed to survive but finally we were able to make a very smart and white decision and today we are an example of a small population that is led by women, women giving our feminine energy that allows for creativity and I don't know if that answers your question. I got very, very emotional about all of this. This certainly answers my question and I would like to thank you for sharing this very humbling experience that you've had your entire life. You've mentioned survival, vision and values as part of your compass and the importance of telling a new story for women that live in the areas where you're currently are and thank you very much for sharing this experience with us. Rizwana, I am now turning to you. From your perspective, what are the distinct contributions that women being as leaders addressing climate change within their communities and how has your work as a lawyer addressing environmental justice and climate change in Bangladesh taught you about the importance of including women? Thank you very much. To understand the role of women in climate change, one has to understand or appreciate the role of women that they play traditionally in our part of the world. Women here have distinct roles to play in agriculture, in water management, in family health care, in disaster management. More than 50% women of Bangladesh are employed as agricultural labor force. When I say employed, I mean informally employed, which means 10 million people are involved in food production in Bangladesh alone. Traditionally, they are the ones who save the seeds. They are the ones who harvest the crops. They are the ones who store the ills and save some for the disaster time. They are taken as primary food suppliers and nutrition managers for the families. They know which vegetable to grow, which plant to grow for protecting your houses from disasters. They are the ones who take care of the poultry and dairies. They are the ones who go to the public water bodies and get the fish for their family members. They fetch the everyday water. So we can say that women here in our part of the world are naturally managers of natural resources. And this role of the woman gets amplified with climate changes. So women knowing nature and natural resources very well, women knowing the skills and having the knowledge about how natural nature and natural resources have to be managed for the benefit of their families, they become very naturally the leaders of climate adaptation. When climate change hits, when you get drought, when you get salinity, when you get flooding, the responsibility of women actually increase manyfold. When your water gets salinated, you have to walk miles to get water for the family. So you have to really learn about how to store the water in your own house in case there is salinity and you have to provide your family with water. If water gets contaminated, women can't anymore get fish for their children. She has to think of alternatives. If water gets salinated and there's no other alternative than you reproducing all of its impactors. So you have to know how to protect yourself. So the conventional role of women as food and water supplier, which is already faced with many challenges, get even more challenging. For a rural woman, when you are hit with a natural disaster and your male counterparts leave the area to go elsewhere for earning, you are faced with some sort of social insecurity, particularly with the minor girls. If there is natural disaster poverty increases, then there is this risk of getting them married when they're underage. So when you talk about leadership, it's important to bear in mind that it's not a pleasant role that you're taking up. You're forced to take it and you're taking it with very limited or with no resources at all. So when I see women as in the role of force leader in the case of climate adaptation, and they can do it because they have been adopting with nature and natural resources for centuries. So it's important to include women in the planning process. Women may not know what climate changes, but they surely know, particularly rural women, that their water is getting salinated, that the mode of development is polluting their only water source. It's important if you want to adapt better that you include women, not because they are 50% of your community, but because they have better knowledge about resource management and they know how to supply the food for the families. And women are, since they're consume less, they're waste less. So that, I think, is a very important lesson the whole society can learn from a woman in our part of the world. And women, I have seen them discarding false solution and they're very much engaged in producing safe food for their families. So I think these are the traditional roles of women that can be taken very seriously by the policymakers in designing smart climate adaptation for them. Thank you for very eloquently describing the role of women in climate change. From what you've mentioned, you've said that women have become the managers of natural resources by default, but that this leadership role that they've taken is a role that are forced on them without necessarily any resources that go with it and that we have to include them in efforts to adapt climate change in order for them to make it work for themselves basically. So thank you so much for sharing that with us. Josefina, hearing about what Rizwana just mentioned, what is it in your specific situation and context that we can learn from your combat for against the exploitation of the environment? How can we best amplify the voice of marginalized communities when it comes to the exploitation of the environment? Gracias, Camisa. Thank you, Camisa. I would like to say that we do not have time to wait to be included. We have to include ourselves. We have to take this determination and you need to be very brave to do it. These women who are here today and who have been recognized by you, I think we all have this as a constant because we are always putting our own interests at risk, our safety at risk as well. Climate change is the consequence of that vision that resources are not common and that they are only determined the use of them because humanity has always faced wars. And for me, wars are not political, they're territorial because people want to fight and win the resources in a certain area. And that happens because it's almost in people's DNA that good is not a common thing, that well-being and happiness belong in the same proportion as your economic capacity. So what that means is that when you don't have a constant in life, when money is not a constant in life, like in our case, we had traditional practices such as minga and barter. Minga is when we all get together to solve a problem because there were no institutions, for example, for schooling and bartering is when you exchange products and mano cambiada is just a way to live in a territory that was not money-centered, but it was centered on solidarity and community vision, a shared vision for common good. And when that is broken and money takes over, these communities who were not used or familiarized with money were left on a more vulnerable situation. And so climate change is a consequence of that lack of vision. And I'm talking from my experience from my country, another serious problem is that the end justifies the means. If I need to open up this space, it doesn't matter if I'm compromising values such as ethics to do that or who you're putting in a bad situation and who is hurt the most of people who have the least power of acquisition to be able to participate in that dynamic when things are being determined by money. From the time I was little, I always heard that human beings were going to realize that they were not going to be able to eat money. And I think now we are realizing that money and bills cannot be eaten in a salad. What you need, you need the earth, you need to be able to plant vegetables. There are things that money cannot buy and that's just not a box phrase. Literally, this is what we're seeing today. And so what is the great challenge that humanity faces? From the academic point of view, you can teach us because you have the great advantage of being able to investigate. But something that is happening is that that investigation that you are doing, that academia part, is disconnected with social knowledge. And women are especially privy to this because women are very creative. We have that feminine energy. And what that does is it creates, it gives birth to ideas, it gives birth to children, it gives birth to life. So we are natural producers. And so we need to work on that. We need to work on that so that that can have validity. I am a woman who I am not academically formed. In my country, I will never be a minister. I can tell you that I have the full capability to do it because I have the vision. I have respect for values. But this is not validated by academia. And so we need to resolve that issue. And within that gap, when you don't have that access, you see women being affected by this when they're in rural areas. I once understood that the urban cities are collapsing. The way that they did things doesn't need to be done just with academia. We need to go back to reading and connecting with nature. So to me, the transformation is deeper. And that is where I come into place. My role comes into place. My purpose is to create a little bit of a revolution, not to believe that I don't have value if I don't have academia. There's a lot of women in my country who couldn't go to school. But even though we're not included, we have started to be leaders. And that's what I did with Mano Cambiada. This is such a profound issue that it starts by using the heart, the heart that whispers, but does not scream. But rather it's the mind that screams through the ego. And this, we have seen such profound fear that it has given permission to shortage, to separation, to poverty. In nature, there's no poverty. In nature, everything is generous. And this feeling that there isn't going to be enough and I have to get more for my family and not leave any for others. So this is what takes place as a result of ego. And we have to, as women, have a deeper leadership because there are many women in academia and in politics, but there are women leaders who are acting in the rural areas. And another issue that's very important to me is how in informal situations, because I am a teacher as well in informal alternative areas, we can work specifically with children and young people because they are the next generation. We have to have an economic model for men and women to be economically viable. I've always said that leadership is not decreed. I am a leader because I'm a woman. Being a woman adds value to my leadership and I'm a leader through unconditional love. And I made a decision to use my cultural resources to show the world a new alternative, another alternative where we can care for life and where others can be touched in their souls and also to work with the government, not with a language of victimization but as a language of peers as equals. And we have created that equality for ourselves. Thank you so much. Well, this was obviously beautiful but very profound as well. And one of the highlights of what you just mentioned is that social knowledge and realities are extremely important when looking at environmental solutions, especially in rural areas. Thank you very much. Rizwana, have you witnessed the environmental justice impact communities, especially the women and those that are marginalized? Yes, I've seen a lot. See the fact that one has to understand is the perpetrators are very rich and they're powerful. On the other hand, the victims are poor and they are not connected to the mainstream political or economic system. They are unaware of their legal entitlements. They're weak, the weaker section of the community. There are different environmental issues that impact communities differently at different scale and within that different scale, women are also impacted differently. Talk about land grabbing. That's a very major issue in Bangladesh where few powerful land developers forcibly put sand on the lands of poor farmers and start grabbing the lands. And the tamper with the land records, given our record of corruption, the land officials very happily tamper the records and transfer the ownership in favor of the land grabbers. So when I asked one victim that why don't you all come together and protest? I mean, you come to my office for legal assistance or why don't you protest? And they replied that ours is martial land. So when in monsoon, the people of the land grabbers come to our places with engine boats and we have young girls at home, we lose all our courage to fight back because there can be attacks on the young woman. When there is corporate and all these realtors, the so-called developers are very well connected with the political system and very politically blessed. Think about the corporatization of our traditional agriculture. This means that the cost of your input increases and at the same time, if you have to always go for hybrids, you have to be using the chemicals that the company is prescribed. That has specific health impact on women. At the same time, think about the market capture by the agriculture corporations. Because of market capture by them, the farmers do not get the genuine price for the crop that they produce. That means less income for the family, which means less nutrition for the poor families. Think about commercial plantation in natural forests. We did a research in a particular forest area. 78% of the tribal communities living in the forest area would still depend on that degraded forest for their primary treatment. They get the medicinal plants from the forest. With that being replaced with commercial plantation, their source of medicine gets lost. Think about commercial shrimp cultivation. Thousands and thousands of acres of land are brought under saline water shrimp cultivation. This is totally export oriented. If you visit that area, a woman would come to you and complain, that because of the saline water, I can't have cows because I can't give them water. I can't have chicken, I can't have duck. Where will I get egg for my poor granddaughter or my poor grandson? Think about the breaking of old vessels. I mean, women do not work there, but their male family members who work there remain the only earning family member. And doing that very risky job and that give them the exposure to asbestos, their male counterparts die, they get asbestosis and eventually they leave this world. And think about the woman who is just 28 years old, have got three children to take care of. You don't see women being employed there, but see the impact of it on poor women. Unavailability of water, we just had an incident of two farmers committing suicide because due to increased impact of climate change, there is one part in Bangladesh where you have water scarcity. So the government has a special rationing system for the farmers. And because they do not belong to any political party, they're not connected to the local political level, they were denied access to the water that the government would give. And eventually the two farmers died. I was just thinking not about the farmers, but their young widowers, how are they going to spend the rest of their life? So yes, I do see a lot, a lot. I mean, and unfortunately in most cases, we start the legal battle, but we can't, we get judgments, but getting judgments and getting justice are not essentially the same thing. So I see more and more number of people suffering without any effective state level redressal mechanism. Very clear. So I am going to ask both of you a question and I'm going to give you one minute to respond before we go to Q&A. You've mentioned this in passing, but both of you face threats and risks in your work. But what is something that gives you hope and courage to continue? A short answer. Josefina, maybe we can start with you and then we respond. What really gives me hope is to know that we have planted something. And for us, even though we're a very small town in Colombia and in the world, I believe in small revolutions. And my great hope is knowing that when you plant something from your heart, from your vision of the collective good, the universe will expand it. The universe has the great power of empowering that. And what makes me believe in this is that my elders always said that when it's most dark is because the sun is going to rise. And often we feel afraid, but what inspires me is to go inside and to take all of my hope and be surrounded by nature. Thank you. Generous, amazing nature that generates more hope and with children, children who dream that we adults will be capable of creating a better world. Wonderful. Rizwana, what gives you hope and courage? I know the people I fight for and I know their problems very well. I still have the confidence that with legal mechanism I can try to solve it. Law can still be used for the benefit of the people. And I am convinced that protecting nature is a powerful tool to promote peace. Oligarchy is no solution, it destroys peace. Very, very clear. Thank you to both of you. We have our first question from our audience. The question is for both panelists. How do you recommend we can help create the pipeline of future climate leaders and encourage our girls and young women today to become the leaders of tomorrow? How do we help create the pipeline of future climate leaders? And how do we make sure that we encourage girls and young women to become the leaders of tomorrow when it comes to climate change? Who wants to start? I can attempt. Okay, go ahead. That's my totally failed. You see, I think it's important. I mean, the next generation will actually fill the brunt of climate change. We have started to fill it, but it is the next generation who will fill the most part of it. Life for them will be no easy. So I think it's important that we teach them to question the current model of development and to tell them that there has to be a serious paradigm shift in the mode of development. And they, being the worst victim, the first lot to be facing the consequences of climate change should think differently. And these are the reasons why, is if they don't think differently, they may have pocketfuls of dollars, but they may not have the right air to breathe. They may not have safe water to drink and they may not have any natural food at all. So it falls on them to protect the natural capital. I should not be saying this as an environmentalist, should not be using the term capitalism, but the natural resources that you cannot create, you must not be destroying it in the name of development. Any development that destroys it should be questioned by the next generation, by the woman and the children. Thank you, Josefina. Well, I think that now when we're talking about climate change, it's a shared responsibility to find the solutions, but it was not a shared responsibility of creating it. And if we do not heal the anger against the people and the countries that generated this and that is causing this suffering for people who did not create the problem, we won't be able to make change. So for me, there are models like ours that are working. And we did not use economic resources as the basis, but rather a focus on the common good and unconditional love for ourselves and for others. So we really have to take these models and use them as a reference because climate change is going to mean that we're going to have to change our models. The way that national and international governments are using resources in territories like mine, they continue to do this on a discriminatory basis because the impact is measured in numbers and not in reality, not in transformation. So I think that there has to be a change and I would urge governments of the world to not continue to treat us as poor and as incapable because our model is scalable. It's based on wisdom and it can be repeated. And also we must generate those spaces of relief of new generations. We have a festival that honors the arrival of whales and turtles to our area. And we do it on the basis of this environmental phenomenon and connecting it to culture. And this is for children and young people and we can show them, we can see how the vision of rural children is being transformed and they're acquiring selfish team and pride in their territory. So there are young people in New Key have been participating in this for 15 years and they are defending new models. For example, that a new port is not compatible with sustainable division, sustainable development and the nature is an ecosystem that must be protected. The resources of an individual person who has money and doesn't know where to invest it can connect with these experience such as women who need an economic opportunity and we can make those alliances. Thank you Josefina. So a follow up to what you've just been mentioned and another question that ties very well with what you just said. In societies where resistance to inclusion of women is present how do we shift values to support a change in this regard? Josefina, this is for you. Yes. I'm sorry, could you repeat the question please? Yes. In societies where there is a resistance to include women in discussions about policy, about how do we implement climate change activities, for example, how do we shift values to support a change in this regard? Meaning that how do we make sure that women are included? You've mentioned earlier that we do not have time and we have to include ourselves but how do we make sure that policymakers and governments do include women? Well, the first thing that we have as humanity is the ability to learn and to reflect intelligently as we have done things up to now clearly something is not working and we have to transform it. So we cannot try to change a situation that is not providing good results in the same way that we created it. So what is most difficult is to unlearn things for adults and particularly if they are excited about power. I think what we have to do first as women to really connect with our interior strength and use my equality, it doesn't matter what others think. Equality comes from God. From the moment I was given permission to be here and we have to use that equality and accept the consequences of using that equality because when others don't see you as an equal and they don't have the emotional intelligence to understand, well, I might not be pleasing to you because I'm black, because I'm a campesina, because you might not think that I deserve anything. You might think all of these things but from the strength of my daily work I am going to use my equality. So we have to heal the inside child that is wounded to be able to transform ourselves based on the logic of the heart and not the mind. I'm always going to keep saying this. How do you create leadership if you don't have enough money to buy food? How do you create leadership when there is conflict among armed groups on a daily basis? It can't be based on that logic. You have to go into the deepest part of yourself and get that strength from your soul because that injustice and segregation, discrimination will never be able to take that from you. And this applies outside as well so we can create leadership with awareness and we can generate a new model of new leaders. I work so that other leaders can work on the basis of these same ethics. Some leaders have been condemned to 20 years, for example, and we have to work with global communications and this model of well-being that supports the material is not the most important thing. We have to be able to communicate what we are doing and what you're doing with this award is not going to change lives perhaps, but it will raise our voices so that others in any area of the world will see this and understand this and understand that we do not see ourselves as poor people but rather as people of action and we have to surround these women and support these women who are in positions of power and we have to ask them to connect with these rural women who are transforming our situations and they have to listen to our voices and our recommendations. I think that really it's not easy work because the ego does not allow us to have emotional intelligence. I have seen how I have been punished every time because someone doesn't like it that I am using my equality. So the way of punishing me is to not provide resources to my community for human transformation projects that I started 30 years ago. Thank you, Hosefina. Rizwan, a question from the audience. What types of actions or claims do indigenous communities have with respect to environmental rights? Okay. But I'm just a bit provoked to say something about the last question. See, there is a society that does not have resistance to inclusion of women. Some societies are more open, others are less, but I feel that in the global order in which we operate, we see many societies, they don't really brave to vote for a woman presidency. You may think that they are very progressive, they are very open, but on the other hand, you see third world realities, there are women who are being elected as prime ministers and leading the nation. So it's probably not correct to say that some societies do not have resistance while others have. In all societies, you do have resistance. You enact laws that promote women's participation. You scrap laws that bar their participation. You recognize women, there is this convention, UN convention to eliminate discrimination against women. We have to all work together to promote this. Coming to the question that's targeted to me about the kind of demands that the indigenous people have seen in Bangladesh, the government very recently has prohibited calling the tribals the indigenous people. The government has its own reasoning, which not necessarily is endorsed by others, but the government has given us in writing this decision of the government that we should be calling them tribals and not indigenous people. Most of our tribal communities live in forested areas. So they have traditional claims over the forest land. They have claims over land. They have claims of way. They have claims over pasture land. They have claims to cultivate their crops in the forest land. They have claims over the water bodies and they have claims over forest, small forest products as we said them. So we were ruled by the British for 200 years and it is still the 1927 forest law that was enacted by the British who came here to do business and not to protect our forests. It is still the same law that our government, successive governments have been following to protect the law. And under that particular forest act, the government can declare a patch of forest as reserve forest in which all are the rights of the tribal peoples, the forest bearing peoples can be cut and only government authorities established. So the corrupt forest department often declares patches of forest as reserve that keeps on threatening the tribal people. That is our land and we will evict you any moment. So all the six set of rights that I just mentioned have never been officially recognized. Although that same bad colonial law requires you to settle these rights first before declaring them as reserve forest that has never been done. So largely their conflict is over forest but then there are some areas where we have plain lands where tribal people are living. There the demand is only over ownership of land. Thank you. Thank you to both of you. I am going to use my moderator privilege to still ask you that last question that we received from the audience that I think is very, very important and is for both of you, Josefina and Rizwana. Someone said, your courage is tangible across the screen and I personally agree. Congratulations on your esteemed award. Question, have you had a mentor influence your work and are you mentoring other advocates in your field? One minute each, please. Josefina, have you had a mentor and are you mentoring other advocates in your field? Yes, I have had mentors because they have been present in different moments in my life. I recognize Jenny de la Torres who is my spiritual comadre who is a very special person who made me take my leadership more beyond this human being which is something that is in passing and also my adults, children and nature definitely. Thank you, Rizwana. The founder of my organization, Bella who passed away was my mentor and now all the communities with whom I work, they are my mentors. I believe my colleagues who are working with me are convinced that what we are doing should be done but I'm not sure if I am mentor of others. I am sure that you are. I am certainly a certain of that. To everyone, this unfortunately concludes the time that we have for the question and answer part of this panel today. On behalf of the US Institute of Peace I want to congratulate our inspiring panelists again and thank them for sharing their valuable insights on how the world can better protect the environment and the brave advocates like yourselves who fight for it. We will now turn to Dr. Tegan Blaine director of climate, environment and conflict at the US Institute of Peace to offer a few takeaways for us to consider. Dr. Tegan Blaine, you have the floor. Thank you so much, Kamisa. I really appreciate it. And thank you enormously to both of our speakers today both to Rizwana and Josefina for such a powerful discussion. As Kamisa said, this has been so inspirational to hear your stories and to hear the discussion both about women as leaders in and of itself and women as leaders on climate change and environmental issues. And so thank you for being willing to share your stories with us. I want to share a few things that I really took away from this discussion. One of the most powerful parts of the discussion for me was about how women weave a different life, a different history and a different vision. Women come with different experiences and values and knowledge and being a woman can add value to leadership rather than being a detractor. It brings an ability to show the world another alternative and it's so important for women to be able to work with other leaders as peers. And then lastly in this leadership vein sometimes women need to start leading from personal strength rather than waiting for people to come to them which is a really important message for how we as women stand up in our own lives and act on the things that are important to us. I also heard a clarion call for a new vision of the future where we address the global anger about the injustices around who causes and who is feeling the impacts of climate change in order to allow societies to move forward. And I also heard a vision that we need to alter our understanding of what sustainable development means that we need to think more about orienting towards the common good about how we preserve the natural world and also how we consider the necessity of inclusion of all people to respect the different kinds of histories and backgrounds and knowledge that people bring to the table as we craft our future and ensure that those are integrated into the solution. And then lastly, I thought that the discussion about how we grow the next generation was so powerful and thinking about how we inspire a different vision of our relationship to nature our views of our own power and how we apply those to working on a different type of vision of our future. All of these were incredible messages and thank you very much to our awardees for sharing your thoughts and experiences and reflections with us. As many of you may know, USIP has recently launched a new climate environment and conflict program. We're moving in this direction because we realize that climate change environmental degradation and competition over natural resources are increasingly a factor in conflicts around the world including in the geographies that are important to us now and are likely in other geographies that will grow in importance over time unluckily. Climate change is clearly jeopardizing human security in so many ways and we also recognize the importance of natural resources to human security and how important it is to develop and maintain peaceful ways of resolving differences around the use of those resources especially under a changing climate and when demand patterns are shifting whether it's the strains that an increasing population is putting on water resources or the demand for new minerals to support a global transition to a green economy. We're confident that working on environmental issues can be a powerful entry point to peace not just about resolving differences around resource management but as an on-trade of building trust and cooperation that can help create a vision for the future and also lend itself to addressing other thorny issues. As an institution in order to do that we need to deepen our understanding of the issues and the opportunities to integrate them into our peace building work and that includes thinking about how gender intersects with environmental issues and how to support women leader to be outspoken and active in this space. This is why these types of events are so critical. We really appreciate your sharing your experience with us and allowing us to learn from your work. Lastly, I would now like to introduce Miss Katrina Fotovat the senior official at the US Department of States Office of Global Women's Issues for closing thoughts. Kat and her team do exceptional work advancing gender equity equality and lifting up the voices of women like these panelists. Thank you so much for that kind introduction. I want to open by extending my sincerest thanks to the United States Institute for Peace for hosting this tremendous event and their continued great partnership with our office. As the senior official for the Secretary's Office of Global Women's Issues supporting the International Women of Courage Awards is always one of my greatest honors. The IWALK Award is just one of the many efforts taken to recognize and celebrate the achievements and contributions of women from around the world. IWALK shines a spotlight on women and girls who have demonstrated exceptional courage strength and leadership in advocating for peace justice, human rights gender equity and equality and the empowerment of women and girls in all their diversity often at great personal risk and unimaginable sacrifice. Since 2007 we have supported U.S. Secretaries of State in honoring more than 170 remarkable women including Rizwana and Josefina representing over 80 countries as international women of courage. Rizwana and Josefina like all of the 2022 IWALK awardees exemplify the characteristics of true women of courage and is always so inspiring to hear directly from them. Their stories empower us to continue pushing gender equity and equality forward and it is because of them and all the women and girls around the world that re-remain deeply dedicated to advancing the status of women. Today the world is facing significant challenges that disproportionately impact women and girls. These include the climate crisis the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and humanitarian emergencies and the conflict in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Yemen just to name a few. The United States recognizes that in order to adequately address these pressing challenges we must center the needs of women and girls in the development and implementation of policy and ensure they are empowered participants in all sectors of life. Promoting gender equity and equality is a long-standing cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy. This is a matter of human rights justice and fairness and a strategic imperative that reduces poverty and promotes economic growth increases access to education improves health outcomes advances political stability and fosters democracy. And it also plays a role ensuring the world is successful in tackling one of the greatest challenges of our time, the climate crisis. Bold action to the climate crisis is needed now, more urgently than ever we must harness everyone's potential as we work to overcome the challenges it brings. Women and girls are not only uniquely poised to play a critical role in addressing the climate crisis but they are disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change which include encountering gender-based violence and conflict related to natural resources loss of livelihoods food insecurity and poverty in other words not only are they more likely to experience poverty and food insecurity but they are also more likely to be responsible for obtaining increasingly scarce natural resources for their families or have livelihoods dependent on those natural resources. That is why it is critical to dismantle existing silos between gender equality and climate change policy by recognizing the critical role women and girls as leaders in mitigating adapting to climate change. By doing so our efforts to combat the climate crisis will be more effective for all of society. As Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield recently stated at the 66th UN Commission on the Status of Women the climate crisis is a gendered crisis and there is no climate solution without women and girls. Worldwide according to the United Nations women have limited control over environmental goods and services and participate in fewer decision making bodies including with respect to land, oceans and their outputs. Despite their exclusion from formal processes women like Rizwana and Josefina are often leaders of community and grassroots efforts to combat climate change and environmental degradation. We must continue to empower women and girls including those from marginalized communities to build resilience and deploy innovative climate solutions without facing the fear and threat of violence. President Biden reaffirmed the need to address the intersecting challenges facing women and girls including the impacts of climate crisis in his 2021 International Women's Day Executive Order establishing the White House Gender Policy Council which noted that advancing gender equity and equality is both a matter of gender equality and a national security imperative. The United States further formalized its commitment to addressing gender climate impacts and considerations to the first ever U.S. national strategy on gender equity and equality and will continue to do so in the forthcoming update to the U.S. strategy to prevent and respond to gender-based violence globally. To close I want to thank Rizwana and Josefina and each of the 2022 International Women's Day Executive Order Awards for their bravery, fearlessness and steadfast commitment to a future worth fighting for. The United States is so proud to be your partner and we look forward to watching the ever-growing positive impact you and your work has on your communities, countries and the world. I also want to thank the United States Institute for Peace and Dr. Blaine for your continued support of the IWAC Awards and empowered participants in peace-building and security efforts. Thank you so much. Thanks again to our panelists for the work, for the leadership and the work you do to find an equitable and sustainable solution to the climate crisis. I know that you impressed more than one people on this panel. And thank you to our audience for joining us today and we look forward to welcoming you back to the U.S. in the future. Thank you and goodbye.