Webinar on Women-Led Climate Actions in Nepal

A webinar on ‘Women-Led Climate Actions in Nepal” was organized on 24 December, 2020. The webinar was an attempt to share some of the exemplary women-led practices at community level aimed at adaptation to adverse impacts of climate change. The successful cases piloted in Manthali municipality (Ramechhap district) and Illam municipality (Illam district)were shared in the webinar so that other women’s groups get encouraged to undertake similar practices in their communities. Details of the lead presentation and two cases shared in the webinar are as follows:
Lead Presentation: Women-Led Climate Action in Nepal, Dr. Anita Shrestha, HIMAWANTI Nepal
Case Story 1: Managing Irrigation to Fight with Drought, Ms. Padam Kumari Shrestha, Karambot Agriculture Group, Ramechhap
Case Story 2: Working on the Management of Watershed, Ms. Hem Kumari Siwa, Sahayatra Nepal, Illam

Synthesis of Discussion:
 Women are in the frontline of the impacts of climate. Climate-induced disasters such as floods, landslides, windstorm and drought had disproportionately impacted women and put their life and livelihoods at risk.
 Women are not inherently vulnerable to impacts of climate change. The level of poverty, social norms, illiteracy, dependency on natural resources, imbalanced power relations in the community, discriminatory utilization of resources and socio-economic status make them more vulnerable to impacts of climate change.
 In Nepal, women at community level are undertaking different adaptation practices. Some of the important adaptation practices include drip irrigation, organic farming, rain water harvesting, solar water pump for irrigation, artificial plastic pond, afforestation, river embankment, community seed bank etc.
 Women can play pivotal role in building household and community resilience capacity to manage climatic disasters. It is important to ensure equal participation of women in the decision-making and implementation of adaptation practices at the community level.
 Women’s groups need to engage with the municipal authorities, influence the municipal level policies and plan to make them gender and climate responsive, and also demand opportunity to jointly implement climate change actions.