International Centre for Environmental Health and Development (ICEHD) has urged media, government and civil organisations to project women’s voices on climate justice.
Programme Manager, Mercy Joshua spoke in Lagos at the National Civil Society Consultative Dialogue on Climate Justice and Economic Resilience for Rural Women Farmers.
She said they should advocate gender equality to advance women’s rights, noting climate change, evidenced in temperature increase, variable rainfall, flooding, drought and desertification, as well as land degradation disproportionately affect women and widen gender inequalities.
“As this hits Nigeria, small women farmers count losses because they play vital roles in agriculture and food security.
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“They are 70 per cent of agricultural workers and 80 per cent of food producers, but suffer negative impacts of climate change.”
Joshua said ICEHD, with support from African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), embarked on a two-year project on “climate justice and economic resilience for women farmers in Nigeria (2022-2023).”
She said the NGO had centres in Abuja, Lagos, and Akwa Ibom.
A director in Lagos State Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA), Mrs. Funmi Raji, said the ministry was organising programmes to sensitise the public on ways to curb gender-based form of violence among women.