Collaborative Action on Climate Change and Empowerment of Women in Africa: How sustainable is SDGs 13?

Abstract

Taking collective and swift action on climate change is a critical component of women empowerment. This is because, majority of women, especially  those in rural villages and into food production, suffer more from climate change in Africa. In Africa, women contribute 40% of the food production  and as such could be easily susceptible to various negative consequences of climate change affecting food production. In addition to poverty and  discriminations against women in job opportunities, access to education, participation in public offices, harsh climatic conditions such as flooding,  erosion, fire outbreaks, and increased sea level, have further contributed to gender inequality in Africa. Given this, many other goals of the SDGs,  especially, gender equality could hardly be achieved, if action is not taken to combat climate change. The drive for this paper arises from the need to  advance knowledge on how collaborative action on climate change could be instrumental to gender equality in general and the empowerment of  women in particular in Africa. The paper adopts secondary sources of data collection and finds that complex interdependence approach in  combating climate change and its negative impacts is critical to gender equality and women empowerment in Africa. It concludes that the women  empowerment in Africa could also be enhanced by urgent action on the climate.