Women climate justice activists have called out false solutions imposed on Africans by international institutions and multinationals on the pretext of helping communities adapt to extreme weather patterns.
The activists gathered at a Nairobi hotel last week for a two-day conference to discuss the feminist approach to climate financing.
In the forum organised by Akina Mama wa Afrika, the activists from Kenya, Zambia, Tunisia, Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda raised their reservations about supposed adaptation and mitigation measures forced on Africans, calling them “false solutions”.
Dr Melania Chiponda, a climate justice and energy expert from Zimbabwe, said everywhere in Africa, international institutions and multinationals are imposing false solutions on men and women.
“Imagine you’re a woman and you have been using indigenous seeds to produce food to feed your children and you know the seeds can withstand the drought to some extent. You saved these seeds for reuse,” she said on Thursday during an interview with Nation.Africa at the hotel.
“And here comes a big corporation that produces seeds and they tell you, you need different seeds that can withstand drought. But you don’t know whether these are the right seeds because you don’t have a lot of information; the only information you have is that they can withstand the drought because that’s what you have been told.
“And so, you adopt these seeds, which have been genetically modified or produced in a lab… And once you harvest, you cannot save the seeds for reuse.”
She concluded: “This changes your life and your way of producing food…this false solution takes away your power to control your seed systems and how you produce food.”
AMwA executive director Eunice Musiime said while Africans feel the real impact of the climate crisis, they deserve real solutions that work for them.
“If financing for climate mitigation and adaptation is coming in the form of loans, it means you’re compounding the debt crisis. The African continent has contributed the least to the climate crisis, so there is a need for a differentiated responsibility,” she said. BY DAILY NATION