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Experts urge Nigeria to strengthen gender-responsive climate policies, empower rural women – EnviroNews
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Experts and climate advocates have called for stronger gender-responsive climate policies in Nigeria, urging the government to move beyond international commitments and ensure that women, particularly those in rural and vulnerable communities, have a meaningful role in climate decision-making.
The call was made on Monday, September 14, 2026, during a webinar organised by the Centre for 21st Century Issues (C21st), focused on feminist climate justice and the implementation of the Belem Gender Action Plan, which provides a global framework for integrating gender equality into climate action.
Speaking at the virtual event, Yusuf Olatunji Kelani, Special Assistant to the President on Climate Change Matters, said climate change affects everyone but does not affect everyone equally.
He noted that women in coastal communities, farming communities and households facing limited access to water, food and energy often experience the effects of climate change differently and more severely.
“Climate change is not only an environmental issue,” Kelani said, stressing that it is also an economic, social justice and human rights issue.
According to him, women should not be viewed solely as victims of climate change but as leaders, innovators, farmers, entrepreneurs, scientists, policymakers and community organisers already contributing to climate solutions.
He identified areas including renewable energy, clean cooking, sustainable agriculture, waste management, recycling, ecosystem restoration and green entrepreneurship as sectors where women could play greater roles.
Kelani said Nigeria’s climate response must therefore be gender-sensitive, adding that gender considerations had been incorporated into the country’s climate planning across sectors such as agriculture, energy, industry and housing.
From commitment to implementation
A major concern raised during the discussion was the gap between climate commitments and their implementation at the national, state and community levels.
Kelani said Nigeria needed to domesticate international climate commitments and take them beyond international conferences to communities where people experience the impacts of climate change directly.
He identified five key areas requiring attention: localisation, climate finance, participation, measurement and accountability.
Speaking further, he said women and community organisations must have meaningful access to climate finance, while women should participate not only as attendees at climate meetings but also in policy formulation, budgeting, project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
“Women must not merely be invited to climate meetings. They must have meaningful influence over the decisions being made,” he said.
Rural women must not be left behind
Associate Professor of Law at the University of Bradford, Dr. Padi Obani, who spoke on the history and significance of the Belem Gender Action Plan, said gender-responsive climate action must recognise that women do not experience climate change in the same way.
She explained that the Belem Gender Action Plan builds on years of international efforts to integrate gender into climate governance, dating back to the Lima Work Programme on Gender, adopted in 2014.
The first Gender Action Plan was adopted at COP23 in 2017, followed by subsequent reviews and extensions.
Obani said the Belem Gender Action Plan provides an implementation-oriented framework comprising 27 activities and 98 deliverables, organised around five priority areas: capacity-building, knowledge management and communication; gender balance and women’s leadership; coherence; gender-responsive implementation and means of implementation; and monitoring and reporting.
She stressed that the framework recognises differentiated vulnerabilities and the need for an intersectional approach.
“The experience of a woman in Lagos is different from that of a woman in the Niger Delta,” she said, noting that age, disability, location, economic status and access to resources can all influence how women experience climate change.
Obani called for the implementation process to reach state and local levels and include community-based organisations, traditional institutions, grassroots groups and other actors who understand the realities of affected communities.
She also warned against relying exclusively on national organisations based in Abuja or major cities when determining climate priorities.
Climate change and the burden on women
Elizabeth Jeiyol, a feminist and environmental geographer and development practitioner, further linked global climate frameworks to the everyday experiences of Nigerian women.
She said climate policies must examine not only who is affected by climate change but also who has access to the power and resources needed to respond to it.
According to her, women often face greater challenges because of unequal access to land, finance, healthcare, technology, information and decision-making spaces.
She pointed to water scarcity, food insecurity, flooding, prolonged heat, displacement and disrupted livelihoods as climate-related challenges that can increase women’s domestic and unpaid care responsibilities.
“When food, water and other resources become scarce, women’s domestic and care responsibilities can increase,” she noted.
Jeiyol argued that climate discussions must therefore move beyond broad statements about vulnerability and examine what climate change means in the daily lives of women and girls.
She urged stakeholders to ask who bears the greatest burden when communities experience water shortages, reduced agricultural production, displacement, disrupted education and climate-related disasters.
Financing remains a major obstacle
The speakers also identified inadequate financing as one of the biggest barriers to implementing gender-responsive climate action in Nigeria.
Kelani said Nigeria was working towards strengthening its climate finance architecture, including the operationalisation of the country’s Climate Change Fund.
He said the government was seeking significant capitalisation for climate financing and infrastructure while exploring opportunities in areas such as renewable energy and clean cooking.
However, participants stressed that funding must reach women-led organisations, community groups and grassroots initiatives rather than remaining concentrated at the national level.
The discussion also highlighted the importance of ensuring that climate finance mechanisms are accessible to organisations working directly with vulnerable communities.
By Omowumi Abraham