Girls for climate action March Newsletter
By Babirye JOaNita
The Vision Document is ready and we are off to lobby. Please find a copy Here.
Girls For Climate Action is pleased to have been selected as one of the Action Coalition Leaders in the Generation Equality Forum co-chaired by UN Women, Mexico, France and representatives from civil society. Six (6) Action Coalitions make up the Generation Equality Core Group and we are leaders for the Action Coalition on Feminist Action for Climate Justice.
The Action Coalitions are expected to be a meaningful platform for global and local dialogue on various issues, especially on the structural gender inequalities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. A launch of the Action Coalition Blue prints and showcase of Action Coalition commitments will take place in March and June respectively. This is an opportunity to further our lobbying capacity on an international level for more youth inclusion in policy across the globe. We feel this is a bonus to the We Are Tomorrow Global Partnership. Read more here
Also, we represented as speakers on behalf of the Action Coalition on Feminist Action for Climate Justice during the International Women’s Day virtual event (IWD21) to amplify the Action Statements and Commitment makers model which aimed at attracting broad range of stakeholders to join the Action Coalitions and drive momentum towards the launch in Mexico and showcase of commitments in France. Catch the event here in case you missed it. Click here
G4CA also participatedin the FlipFlopi expedition.
The FlipFlopi is a boat made out of plastic waste. The boat sailed from Kisumu to Jinja in the bid to create awareness about the impacts of plastic waste on oceans and lakes as shared ecosystems. Since Jinja has the source of River Nile- the longest River, it is one of the hotspots. Of the three countries that border Lake Victoria, Uganda has the only river outlet. This is significant due to a recent study that found 88% of ocean plastics that is transported by 1350 comes from only 10 rivers. Of which the Nile is one. This means this river that supports over 400 million people across 11 countries is one of the largest plastic polluters in the world. This was the very reason the #plasticrevolution was brought ‘upstream’. To bring attention to this critical ecosystem, and to try to encourage regional agreement to see widespread legislation banning single-use plastics. Though Uganda does currently have legislation in place to ban single-use plastic bags or kavera as they’re called locally, there is no clear implementation of this throughout the country. Kavera can be seen everywhere. Choking villages, gutters and waterways and all on their way towards the lake.
We participated in this expedition as a start for the national water and environment week to showcase some of the activities we have done in the fishing communities and also the different practices we are putting forward to beat plastic pollution.
(Right) Explaining our activities to the mayor of Jinja and other city leaders.
