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	If women are to be equally valued, they need to be equally represented by Plan International, CARE, agencies   Girls and young women worldwide consistently feel excluded from politics, according to new research by Plan International.   A survey of 29,000 girls and women aged 15-24, from 29 countries, found that respondents face significant barriers when taking part in political activities and feel poorly represented by the politicians elected to serve them.   Only half believe that people in their community view it as acceptable for girls and young women to engage in political activities and 19% have personally been discouraged from doing so.   Just 34% think politicians act on the issues that matter to them and only 11% of those surveyed are happy with their leaders’ decisions in those areas.   The report, called Equal Power Now: Girls, Young Women and Political Participation, is released ahead of International Day of the Girl and is based on a survey of adolescent girls and young women from countries ranging from Kenya to the USA to Brazil. In-depth interviews were also carried out with girls and young women in 18 countries.   It found that a clear majority care significantly about politics, with 97% of those surveyed agreeing that participating in politics is important and 83% saying they have personally done so.   But despite this, girls and young women are frequently shut out of political processes because of their age and gender, with 31% saying they do not feel politics is open to their participation.   Nearly 45% of those surveyed think politicians fail to understand their views. Amongst those who belong to an ethnic minority group, identify as LGBTQ+ or having a disability, this figure rises to 59%.   Stephen Omollo, Plan International’s Chief Executive, said: “Our research, which represents the views of thousands of girls and young women across countries with different cultures, income levels and civic contexts, has found that overwhelmingly, girls are political. But they are still being denied the right to shape the decisions which impact their lives most.   “As children and young people, they are being wrongly dismissed as being ‘too young’ to add value. At the same time, they continue to be held back by deep-rooted inequalities which mean girls and young women face more and different obstacles to access decision-making spaces than boys and young men. These challenges are compounded even further if girls also come from poverty or an ethnic minority.   “Despite this, we’re seeing girls and young women redefining what it means to be political, persevering against the odds to take part in formal political processes and also championing diverse youth movements, grassroots activism and collective action. Politicians and other power holders must stand with girls as they change the face of politics.   “It’s critical that girls and young women’s voices are heard. Critical as a right, critical to the policies and decisions that shape their lives, and critical to achieving gender equality.”   Globally, political leadership and representation remains heavily dominated by men with only 26% of national parliamentarians being women and only 1% women under 30.   Politics remains dominated by men   Of those surveyed, 32% say that they do not see any politicians that inspire them to participate in politics. Another 40% believe that female politicians suffer abuse and intimidation and that they are judged for how they look or dress.   In the words of Anna, 23, from Germany, “Men and boys are encouraged just by nature to be in those spaces whereas as a female, you feel that space isn’t made for you.”   Aurora, 20, from Ecuador, said: “For generations we have been sold this image… if they make me close my eyes and imagine a political person… I would have immediately thought of a man with a tie, because those are the images that are thrown at us… So, it’s hard for people to believe that a woman… can manage to be in these spaces. It’s a kind of behaviour that we have learnt from generation to generation.”   Despite this, 56% of girls who are of voting age have voted in a local or national election and 20% say they can see themselves standing for political office in future.   Ahead of International Day of the Girl, Plan International has published a Youth Manifesto written by young activists which calls on politicians and other leaders worldwide to support girls and young women to participate in politi   This includes increasing civic education, creating more policies and strategies that facilitate the meaningful participation of girls in politics, and adopting a zero-tolerance approach to violence against female politicians and activists.   This manifesto sits at the heart of Plan International’s Girls Get Equal campaign, which calls for a world where girls in all their diversity are equally able to make decisions about their own lives and shape the world around them.   http://plan-international.org/girls-get-equal/international-day-of-the-girl/ http://plan-international.org/publications/equal-power-now/ http://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/statement/2022/10/statement-girls-leading-from-the-front-for-their-future http://unworkinggroupwomenandgirls.org/reports/making-sure-girls-and-young-women-are-always-heard/ http://www.unicef.org/gender-equality/international-day-girl-2022   June 2022   If women are to be equally valued, they need to be equally represented, says CARE International   Leaders urged to listen to female voices, as women around the world personally address global leaders ahead of the G7 meeting.   Seven women from countries including Ukraine, Afghanistan and Bangladesh have written to G7 leaders to offer a first-hand perspective on how the world’s most pressing crises are affecting women and girls globally.   Despite crises and disasters disproportionately affecting women and girls, women are wholly under-represented in political leadership and decision-making positions.   Only 10 countries currently have a female head of state and only 13 countries have a woman head of government. Now, with the absence of Angela Merkel for the first time since 2005, this G7 will be the first summit without a female representative from a nation-state for 17 years.   CARE has coordinated the series of seven letters, written by women from around the world addressing the world leaders attending the G7 in Germany this week.   In the letters, the women provide their own perspectives for world leaders as they seek to address major global issues, such as climate change and conflict. The letters are:   Badia from Afghanistan writes about the impact of the food crisis on her family. Daria, a Ukrainian refugee, shares her story of fleeing war, her gratitude to her host country of Poland, and asks G7 leaders to continue to support vulnerable Ukranian refugees and need for relief for refugees worldwide, no matter which crisis they are fleeing.   Adenike from the Lake Chad region of Nigeria describes the impact of the climate crisis on women and girls in her community, and outlines the support they need from world leaders.   Marwa, a 15-year-old Syrian girl dreams of being an architect so she can rebuild her home country. She asks leaders for support for returning home and having access to opportunities there.   Dalia from Yemen describes living through over 2,600 days of conflict and asks leaders to give women in Yemen the platform to have a voice and be at the centre of finding solutions.   Ruma a garment worker in Bangladesh asks countries to ratify R190 and G7 to lead the way for no woman’s workplace to be a place of harassment and sexual violence.   Hodan, a 15-year-old from Somalia, writes about the barrier to education for girls and her personal experience of being forced to leave school due the ongoing drought in Somalia. She calls on leaders to ensure that girls like her can complete their education.   CARE International works with women and girls and their communities to overcome the complex drivers of poverty. All women featured in the letters have worked with CARE International - whether as participants such as Badia who have received food parcels from CARE - or later as working for CARE as Daria has done.   Helen Pankhurst, CARE International UK's Special Adviser on Gender Equality, said:   “These letters from around the globe illustrate just some of the challenges so many women face around the world. “If women are to be equally valued, they need to be equally represented. It is not only about fairness, but about ensuring appropriate policies because different perspectives are seen and understood.   “We no longer even have a single female leader of a nation-state present around the G7 table. This feels like a sad testimony of lack of progress, in fact, the reverse. Now more than ever the most powerful men on the planet need to listen to the priorities of women and girls brought into policy and action.”   http://www.care-international.org/news/leaders-urged-listen-female-voices-women-around-world-personally-address-global-leaders-ahead Visit the related web page
	Climate Change is putting women & girls at greater risk by Tsitsi Matekaire and Tara Carey IPS UN Bureau, Equality Now Malawi   Aug. 2022   It is often those least responsible for causing climate change that suffer the most from the impacts. And such is the case with women and girls in Malawi – one of the world’s poorest and lowest carbon-emitting countries but ranked fifth in the Global Climate Index 2021 list of nations worst affected by climate-related extreme weather.   Climate change exacerbates sexual and gender-based violence in numerous ways, pushing people further into poverty, enflaming conflict over depleting natural resources, forcing migration, and compounding pre-existing gender discrimination. All these and many other forces conspire to put vulnerable women and girls in greater danger of sexual abuse and exploitation.   A recent study by Cambridge University analyzing scientific literature on extreme weather events found that gender-based violence — such as sexual assault, intimate partner violence, or trafficking, both during and after disasters — are recurring issues in studies worldwide.   In Malawi, the climate crisis is already triggering more erratic and extreme weather, resulting in chronic water, food, and financial insecurity for millions. Over the past twenty years, droughts and floods have increased in intensity, frequency, and scale, causing devasting environmental, social, and economic damage.   Around 9 out of 10 people in Malawi depend on rain-fed agriculture, and over half the population is food insecure. Rising temperatures, unreliable rains, and extreme weather events like cyclones influence food production and costs.   The economic downturn triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war against Ukraine, which has disrupted global supplies of cereals and fertilizers, have pushed prices up further.   According to World Bank data, 82% of Malawi’s population live in rural areas, and women account for 65% of smallholder farmers, making them particularly exposed to food insecurity. Women are often dependent on natural resources, and many earn a living in the informal sector, leaving them less able to withstand economic and environmental shocks.   Climate change is not just an environmental problem – it acts as a “threat multiplier” interacting with social systems to exacerbate systemic inequalities. So, although everyone is affected by the ravages of the climate crisis, the vulnerability of individuals varies depending on their gender, geography, class, ethnicity, and age.   Global warming and environmental damage are gendered because the ability of women to adapt is hampered by their social status and limited income, education, and resources. Women are more likely to live in poverty than men and commonly have less schooling, decision-making power, and access to finance.   When yields from harvests are reduced, this leaves subsistence farmers with little or no surplus produce to sell to earn money for purchasing basics like medicine, clothes, sanitary products, schooling, and agricultural inputs for bolstering farming production.   Being unable to produce enough food to feed their families or pay for other essentials puts women under intense pressure to find alternative sources of income. This renders them more susceptible to sexual exploitation, which can take various forms such as transactional sex in exchange for goods, and being trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation.   Family financial hardship also disproportionately affects girls, who are frequently pressured to drop out of school to do domestic work and find paid employment. This, in turn, increases their susceptibility to exploitation, including false promises made by traffickers about jobs and education further afield.   In addition, girls experience higher rates of child and forced marriage, as parents may view marriage as a coping strategy to elevate monetary difficulties and shield daughters from sexual violence. It is estimated that around 1.5 million girls in Malawi are at risk of becoming child brides as a direct result of climate change.   There are other ways that existing gender roles interplay with climate change and sexual violence. In Malawi and across sub-Saharan Africa, gathering water and firewood is widely deemed the responsibility of women and girls. A lack of clean water and depletion of natural resources caused by environmental degradation means they often have to travel further to acquire scarce resources.   Not only does this use up precious unpaid time that could be spent on beneficial activities such as income generation or schooling, but it also heightens their exposure to rape and sexual assault. And in some instances, women and girls must contend with sexual exploitation and abuse by those who control access to limited natural resources, such as at water collection points.   For the vast majority of victims of trafficking, sexual violence, and exploitation, justice goes unserved. Caleb Ng’ombo runs People Serving Girls at Risk (PSGR), a frontline organization in Malawi that works to end human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, prostitution, and child marriages.   Caleb explains, “Victims are being failed by Malawi’s criminal justice system. Few cases make it to court. Those that do are plagued by multiple delays, and perpetrators are rarely punished.”   “Child marriage, sexual exploitation, and trafficking have blighted the lives of thousands of women and girls across Malawi, and the worsening climate crisis is putting more at greater risk. The government should not turn a blind eye to gender-based human rights violations. Addressing these problems must be central to climate response, including disaster and adaption planning.”   Malawi is a source, transit, and destination country for sex trafficking, and climate crisis is fueling it. PSGR and international women’s rights organization Equality Now have submitted a joint complaint to the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) highlighting the poor implementation of anti-trafficking legislation by the Government of Malawi is leaving girls unprotected against sex trafficking.   Malawi’s criminal justice system needs to respond better to the realities and needs of survivors, including safeguarding them against further exploitation and ensuring support services are readily available.   Effectively addressing this crisis requires a gender-responsive, human rights-based approach from the state, one that targets the root causes of gender discrimination.   Climate change also demands action from wealthy industrialized nations that bare the largest responsible for global warming due to their high emissions, both historical and current.   Around the world, a growing climate justice movement is calling for Global North governments to provide countries like Malawi with international finance for climate adaption, restitution for damages already caused, and national debt cancellation so money can be redirected towards supporting those in need, in particular women and girls and other marginalized groups.   With global temperatures continuing to rise, it is vital that laws, policies, and funding deliver on the distinct vulnerabilities and requirements of women and girls so they are protected against gender-based violence and better able to cope with future climate shocks.   * Tsitsi Matekaire is the Global Lead on End Sexual Exploitation at Equality Now and Tara Carey Head of Media.   http://www.ipsnews.net/2022/08/climate-change-putting-women-girls-malawi-greater-risk-sexual-violence/ http://www.equalitynow.org/ Visit the related web page
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