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Climate Crisis in the MENA – the Region that RAWSA Alliance Operates
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region where RAWSA Alliance MENA operates, is naturally prone to being hot and dry, in stark contrast with the rest of the world. As stated in a report by Greenpeace Research Laboratory, the region is getting warmer day by day, nearly two times more than the worldwide average. It is also now clear that the region is warming fast under a climate-changing world, with an accelerated rate of 0.4 °C per decade since the 1980s. In other words, the region’s arid climate is the primary contributor to its perennial state of water scarcity and food security. When coupled with the region’s limited natural resources, fossil fuel dependency, and a growing population virtually all MENA countries are facing elevated levels of resource stress and severe heat. The amplifying effects of climate change threaten to increase the gap between resources and nations’ demands in the region by exacerbating drought conditions. Climate change and related extreme weather events—such as extreme temperatures, droughts, and floods—have preoccupied MENA populations for millennia, as have the related perils of human-caused environmental devastation and ravenous resource extraction. The region is one of the world’s most vulnerable areas before climate change and its impacts: enduring ever-higher temperatures, rising seas, droughts, floods, intense water scarcity, food insecurity, energy insecurity, and polluted air.
Women are one of the most impacted population groups by climate change due to the deeply rooted gender inequality and patriarchal practices in the region. As a consequence, the MENA region has a high rank of gender inequality. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2023, the region is the furthest away from equality with a 62.6% parity score, suggesting it would take 152 years to fully attain parity at the current rate of progress.
The climate crisis is underpinned by grave injustices, with those who contributed the least to the climate crisis suffering first and worst from its consequences, and with limited access to the resources needed to adapt. This includes the ability to maintain good health and safeguard human rights. Within countries and communities, risks from climate change are greater for “people who are socially, economically, culturally, politically, institutionally or otherwise marginalized”
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How does the Climate Crisis Affect SRHRs in MENA?
Within this gender-unequal context, it should be deduced that climate change, gender equality, and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are inextricably linked. SRHR must be considered a key component of climate adaptation resilience action and climate justice.
The climate crisis severely restrains access to SRHR, especially for women and LGBTQIA+ communities in rural areas. The climate crisis is worsening maternal health outcomes, jeopardizing progress on sexual rights, challenging treatments for STIs and HIV/AIDS, and exacerbating inequalities. The prioritization of SRHR is crucial for strengthening resilience and improving the adaptive capacity of marginalized people and communities who are already experiencing the disproportionate impacts of climate change.
The above-mentioned struggle proves that the climate crisis affects the enjoyment of a wide range of human rights, including also the rights to health, food, water, and sanitation, a healthy environment, self-determination, development, and the advancement of gender equality. Structural discrimination means that women and girls and LGBTQIA+ communities, in all their intersecting diversities, are at a higher risk of experiencing the harmful effects of the climate crisis. People who experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, such as on account of their ethnicity, disability, migrant status, or sexual orientation see their vulnerability heightened even more. Many of these adverse impacts relate to their SRHR.
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What RAWSA is doing to address these intersections and negative impacts?
RAWSA is working on several pillars to create a paradigm shift in the way women, men, and LGBTQIA+ communities in the region approach climate change by advocating for climate justice and a better role of women in deciding on the mitigation and adaptation strategies and having their demands reflected in the climate change response agenda, as well as the loss and damage funding policies.
RAWSA has been working on several projects focusing on youth and women as main beneficiaries and stakeholders in order to advocate for feminist climate justice. It adopts a climate justice-based approach to mainstream the moral and ethical principle that seeks to address the disproportionate impact of climate change on vulnerable women groups and future generations. The climate justice approach recognizes that the consequences of climate are not distributed equally, with marginalized and disadvantaged populations often bearing the brunt of these effects. Climate justice advocates for equitable solutions that prioritize the needs of those who are most affected by climate change, strive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ensure that the burdens and benefits of climate action are distributed fairly, taking into account historical and systemic inequalities. Ultimately, climate justice calls for a more inclusive and sustainable approach to addressing the global climate crisis.
At RAWSA WOMEN MENA ALLIANCE, and its Feminist Climate Justice Network affiliate uses a women-driven combination of education and activism to reduce regional climate injustice, an aspect of SDG 5(gender equality) and SDG 13(climate action) under the UN Agenda 2030. The projects of RAWSA aim to make changes in areas most impacted by climate change and environmental degradation through socio-political activism.
The organization supports climate justice feminists in the region and strengthens the climate justice feminist movements to advocate for the equitable distribution of natural resources. At the same time, the organization put consistent efforts to have all women in the region present at the major meetings and conferences related to environment and climate justice, such as COPs and SBs that are held by the UNFCCC.
It also works with several experts to issue knowledge products, such as the African Feminist Demands publication ahead of the COP27 in co-operation with the UN Women Major Group, since RAWSA is the MENA region-organizing partner in this coalition and the Climate Justice and SRHR Coalition.
As a recent effort, the organization is working on providing evidence-based data to highlight the intersectionality between climate change and women’s health, so it embarks on a study that identifies the mental health implications of climate change on women in rural areas in Upper Egypt, the research that is supported by the organization partner Doria Feminist Fund.
