Violence against women and girls (VAWG) and climate change are two of the most pressing global emergencies and sustainable development challenges of our time. VAWG is the most widespread human rights violation worldwide, affecting more than an estimated 1 in 3 women throughout their lifetime. Globally 81,000 women and girls were killed in 2020 alone, and a woman or girl was killed in their home every 11 minutes. Climate change is threatening our planet’s sustainability with devastating social, cultural, economic, health, and human rights impacts, affecting women and girls disproportionately, especially the most marginalized groups. It is also a serious aggravator of the different forms of VAWG.
There is also growing concern of the impact of climate change on child marriage and sexual exploitation. When families are struggling to cope with food scarcity, girls may have to drop out of school to help secure food or water and child marriage may be used as a survival strategy. In some cases, where men have to leave home to seek income-generating activities elsewhere, women and girls may be more vulnerable to sexual exploitation, particularly as food becomes scarcer. Some studies have highlighted that male food vendors, farmers and landowners have exploited resource scarcity and demanded sex from women in exchange for food. For instance, Sex for fish and sex for pads are the quintessence of VAWG in Lake Victoria region.
WISE does this through sensitization events to schools and communities and collaborates with like-minded partners and stakeholders for further linkages.
