Oxfam in Malawi has advised the Africa Group of Negotiators (AGN) to prioritize rural women’s issues during the negotiations at COP28. Oxfam said this during a two-day Pre-COP 28 held in Nairobi from November 14-15 2023 to establish a unified position African position.
Sylvia Chikalipo, Project Coordinator of the ACCF-Oxfam Malawi Gender Transformative Climate Change Resilience Project added that the advice to the AGN is informed by its engagement with rural women grassroot movements. She added, “our recent engagement with Malawi Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA) for instance informed our submission to the AGN because rural women said climate change disproportionally impacts women and girls more in their day to day lives compared to their male counterparts”. Recently, Oxfam also engaged RWA during the launch of their chapter in Zomba City, an impact area for the Gender Transformative Climate Change Resilience project.
“We create space where rural women can input into development agenda, including on climate change”, said Chikalipo.
Through the ACCF funded project, which is being implemented in Malawi and Mozambique, Oxfam Malawi is working with women grassroot movements - a move that will ensure that climate change related issues and interventions are gender sensitive and featured highly on development agenda at local, national, and global levels.
