More finance is needed to enhance women’s resilience, as research has demonstrated that they are the group most impacted by climate change, Rwanda’s Minister of Environment, Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya, said during the ongoing 28th UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai.

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Speaking during the ministerial dialogue dubbed "Gender-Responsive Just Transitions and Climate Finance” she said: "Women are the biggest percentage of humanity. It means they hold two-thirds of humanity and they are the most affected by climate change. Even though Rwanda, like any other developing country, has been historically contributing low to global greenhouse gas emissions, our country has been suffering from serious climate change impacts such as floods and landslides.”

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As a result of climate change, she said, in May 2023, floods and landslides caused by heavy rains claimed the lives of 135 people in one night.

"More than 50 per cent of the victims were women and girls. The families had no one to take care of them. Because in our culture women are the ones who mostly take care of the sick. The moment the woman is among the victims, the whole family suffers,” she noted, adding that there is a need to build women and girls’ capacity for a resilient future.

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"Invest in vulnerable groups’ projects and programmes, especially women and girls, to fully participate in leadership and decision-making positions and of course, design gender-responsive budgeting, responsive financial mechanisms,” she said.

She said that the Ministry of Gender And Family Promotion and the Ministry of Environment are at the core of the planning and budgeting processes to make sure gender is mainstreamed in all sectors of the economy.

"Designing gender-responsive financial mechanisms should be in the DNA of each institution because we believe when a woman is empowered every family is empowered. If we take care of women amidst the climate change, include climate change in all our planning, we must make sure women are considered everywhere,” Mujawamariya added.

Razan Al Mubarak, the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP28, announced the launch of the COP28 Gender-Responsive Just Transitions and Climate Action Partnership to mainstream gender in the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

The partnership, endorsed by more than 60 countries, aims to support equal opportunities for decent work in emerging job markets, enable finance flows to women and girls in climate-impacted regions, and support the call for gender-disaggregated data collection.

Tales of affected women farmers

Jane Batamuliza, a farmer from Nyagatare District, remembers the extended drought and abnormal hailstorm caused by climate change that primarily impacted women farmers, particularly in Eastern Province, last year.

"Dry spells in some sectors lasted from May to October and somewhere in November last year. Most of the farms of maize, beans, and other crops that had no irrigation were affected. When dry spells ended, we faced unusually heavy rains. The hail, which I experienced for the first time, destroyed the crops that had survived drought. It was a double disaster,” she narrated.

For instance, farmers who were expecting about five tonnes of maize in produce ended up harvesting only three tonnes.

Batamuliza said the interventions to green Eastern Province should be scaled up to fight desert in this province.

Only 11 per cent of women-led households in agriculture are using irrigation which makes them vulnerable to climate shocks, Minister Mujawamariya said.

Lower adoption of smart climate practices exacerbates vulnerability to climate change effects in female-led households compared to those led by men. Statistics show that only 11.8 per cent of female-headed households in agriculture adopt irrigation compared to 78.3 of male-headed households.

Officials said there is a need for support and training on climate agriculture considering that 64 per cent of women farmers are still involved in subsistence agriculture.

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Women embrace solar-powered irrigation

Meanwhile, despite the ongoing impact of climate change on some women farmers, rural women in the Jarama sector of Ngoma District have managed to accumulate wealth exceeding Rwf200 million through earning, saving, and investing money, all thanks to the intervention of solar-powered irrigation.

"We started growing vegetables. However, we faced the challenge of lack of irrigation. We used to irrigate using watering cans manually. It was not effective. It was tiresome. We had to fetch water from the wetland using jerry cans and carry them on our heads up to the hillside. The partners then gave us irrigation facilities, and we are no longer recording the cases of malnutrition as food productivity increases,” Therese Kansayisa, the president of the cooperative comprising 163 members, of whom 144 are women, told The New Times ahead of COP28.

She said they started using diesel pumps, later replaced by solar-powered pumps to eliminate fossil fuel use.

"The diesel pumps could not irrigate a big part of the land on the hillside. The solar-powered irrigation is currently covering all the hectares we have. We also save money to ensure the facility’s maintenance,” she said.

The yields per hectare, she said, have increased from 30 to 70 per cent thanks to the interventions. The cooperative grows different types of vegetables, fruits, and maize and does rabbit rearing. It also has an affordable cold room made from locally available materials to store vegetables for up to seven days before they are supplied to the market.

This story was produced with assistance from MESHA and IDRC Eastern and Southern Africa Office for science journalists reporting on COP28.