SHARM EL SHEIKH, November 23 (IPS) – Constance Okollet Achom, a Ugandan woman from Tororo, a rural village in Eastern Uganda, has helped dozens of peers affected by domestic violence The family solves the problem by equipping the victim with a skill set to produce. Environmentally friendly biofuel from agricultural and forestry waste.
“More and more women in my village are being abused by their husbands. But they always accept continued suffering because of their inability to deal with financial problems,” said Okollet, the organization’s president and founder. this. Osukuru United Women Network, told IPS.
With levels of domestic violence on the rise in rural Uganda, Okollet is now advocating for the use of climate change solutions to limit its occurrence in the East African country.
The latest estimates of The World Bank pointed out that 51% of African women said it was reasonable to be beaten by their husbands if they burned or refused to prepare food. However, acceptance is not uniform across countries. The report found that the phenomenon was ingrained in some societies, with an acceptance rate of 77% in Uganda.
Okollet’s organization now empowers and educates women on how climate change affects their village resources. Most importantly, it provides resources for entrepreneurship and counseling for women affected by domestic violence and advocates for their liberation by empowering them to be autonomous by becoming green entrepreneurs. .
With 2,000 members involved in various climate solutions, including carbon farming, clean energy and tree planting, the tradition of abuse has slowly begun to fade in rural Uganda as many women once depended on it. finance into her husband has taken bold steps in investing in green projects.
Okollet told IPS on the sidelines of the just-concluded meeting: “Traditionally, it is considered shameful for a male member of the family to go abroad to work and earn a living. global climate summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
To increase support for women in building climate resilience, the African Development Bank organized a session held during COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh with the theme “Climate Fair Financing Mechanisms” and gender sensitive”.
Panelists said the right facilities to support women, who are helping to build climate resilience, should be visible, simple and accessible.
During the session, the former Irish president and an influential figure in global climate diplomacy, Mary Robinson, pointed out that there is currently no suitable dedicated climate fund or permanent climate fund to support it. Businesswomen fighting climate change.
Robinson gave the example of several women-led projects in Uganda that could do ten times more if they had access to targeted climate resources. “They have no prospect of getting the money that might be available to their field – they don’t even know who will get the money or where it’s going,” she told delegates.
To date, the bank has funded ten climate and gender-focused capacity building projects through Africa Climate Change Fund.
According to Kevin Kariuki, the bank’s Vice President of Energy, Energy, Climate and Green Growth, the new funding mechanism has committed $100 million in loans to public and private sector projects to address the problem. address gender and climate issues across the continent.
In addition to the new funding scheme launched on the sidelines of COP27, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), African Development Bank Group (AfDB), and the French Development Agency (AFD) in partnership with the Egyptian government also launched Gender Equality in Accelerating Climate Action.
The accelerator program is expected to assist private sector companies in improving their gender responsiveness in their corporate environmental governance.
According to officials, the initiative will help African governments promote gender-sensitive climate policies, thereby accelerating their green transitions to meet Objectives of the Paris AgreementUNFCCC gender action plan and key Sustainable Development Goals.
At the same time, Okollet also said that, in collaboration with local authorities in her remote rural village in Uganda, she has trained hundreds of women on how to develop green projects so that they become independent. financially and confidently face any difficulties they may face. in life – including domestic violence.
According to her, most rural women in Uganda have to wait for their husbands to decide on land management and access, leaving many women underemployed and without any control over productive resources and services. export.
“These green initiatives income generating projects are helping the majority of these women develop self-sufficiency in their families and stand on their own two feet,” she said.
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© Inter Press Service (2022) — All rights reservedOrigin: Inter Press Service
