COP28: Tanzanian woman wins climate award in Dubai

Source: The Citizen

Dar es Salaam. A Tanzanian woman, Maanda Ngoitiko, has won an international award for her efforts to enhance leadership capabilities for indigenous women pastoralists in Tanzania.

Four winners of the 2023 Local Adaptation Champions Award from around the world were also recognised by the Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA).

The winners were announced yesterday during an awards ceremony on the sidelines of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

According to the CGA statement, the awards recognise exemplary locally-led efforts to address climate change impacts and build effective resilience.

Ms Ngoitiko, Pastoral Women's Council co-founder and executive director, said: "Although pastoralist men and women are equally exposed to climate shocks and stress, women have fewer opportunities to access and control productive resources."

She added that women also have fewer opportunities to engage in alternative climate resilience livelihoods and incomes. "Their knowledge of the environment is crucial but often goes unnoticed or ignored in drought mitigation and adaptation strategies," she said.

Ms Ngoitiko received the award after working in four provinces of northern Tanzania to enhance indigenous pastoralist women's leadership capabilities and build women's capacity to achieve equality as decision-makers in pastoralist societies.

The Lake Natron Community accepted the award in recognition of its members' commitment to implementing its action plans in a region that is particularly vulnerable to climate change-related hazards like droughts and flooding, which threaten livelihoods and create food insecurity.

More than 500 applications were submitted across four categories: Women in Leadership, Innovation in Devolving Finance, Business Adaptation Solutions, and Capacity Building.

"The winner in each category received €15,000 (Sh40.7 million) to invest in future activities and will benefit from sponsorship by the Adaptation Fund, including attending the Fund's prestigious learning and sharing events," read the CGA statement.

General coordinator Tzinnia Carranza López said: "Communities involved in this project benefit from affordable, relevant, and innovative ecotechnologies that make them better able to adapt to extreme weather events."

Members of the community attend workshops outlining the theoretical and practical elements of the ecotechnologies, which means people have the skills and knowledge to strengthen their community resilience.

"Utilising ecotechnologies means people can produce their own food using agroecological techniques that are more resilient to extreme weather events," Carranza López added.