Climate Change and Women’s Rights


WashingtonPosterSalamanderWe are very happy to announce the launch of a new project with Coventry University Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR), to address climate change and women’s rights.

We have known for many years that food security can influence intimate partner violence. We also know that this violence against women in turn can increase women’s capacity to acquire HIV by a factor of 1.5: and that if a woman acquires HIV, her experience of gender-based violence increases considerably. This is just one of many examples where worsening weather patterns can have a direct impact on women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights and their capacity to respond effectively to the challenges of climate change.

The first international meeting under this initiative took place on June 29 and 30, 2016.

At the inaugural meeting, a group of experts (including campaigners, academics, activists and experts by experience) from around the world  explored policy opportunities to link climate change and women’s rights, and scoped priorities for research to inform policy-making in this regard.

Following the meeting, Salamander Trust and CAWR hope to begin a programme of inclusive and collaborative work (with meeting participants who would like to be involved) to develop participatory and transdisciplinary research which can contribute to the evidence base on links between climate change and women’s rights.  See more information here.

To see a presentation by Alice Welbourn on this topic from 2011, click here.  To view the poster above please click here.