Important discussions to be had at UN Africa Climate Week

The University’s Mary Robinson Centre for Climate Justice will be in Gabon as part of UNFCCC Africa Climate Week 2022.

The event will take place in Libreville and runs from August 29 to September 2. It will provide a platform for stakeholders to discuss regional climate-action solutions and forge regional partnerships. It is also an important step on the road to the UN Climate Change Conference COP27 in Egypt in November.

Professor Tahseen Jafry will lead GCU’s input, by exploring the Centre’s recently published research into the links between climate change, gender-based violence and mental health.

She said: “There is no doubt that women's health and wellbeing is being affected by climate change and extreme weather events. These impacts are compounded by existing structural socio-economic inequalities. There is currently little research that explores the inter-relationship between climate change, mental health and gender-based violence in developing countries, or the world over for that matter, and, consequently, little insight into determining what is required to help build resilience of people.

“Much of what is available is anecdotal. We set out to put the science behind the stories.  The lack of data remains a key challenge to prevention and control, so gathering this evidence was vitally important. We wanted to get a deeper understanding of the ground reality and contribute in the development of recovery and support provision.”

The event at Africa Climate Week will be a far-reaching and deep conversation on climate justice, equity and the human right to health. It will be used to share breakthroughs in terms of providing new evidence on the increasing incidence of GBV and mental health of women in Malawi and will allow for rich discussion with partners in scaling up and scaling out with work in other countries in Africa.

Professor Jafry added: “This is all about sustainability and working towards the sustainable development goals − to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all of society by 2030. Our particular focus is contributing towards Goal 5: gender equality.”