Women Confronting Loss and Damage: Implications for the UK’s international climate policy

Policy brief making recommendations to the UK Government on international loss and damage climate policy based on findings from ActionAid UK’s report: ‘Women confronting loss and damage in Africa: Feminist climate justice research from Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Zambia'.

Executive summary

This policy brief draws on ActionAid UK’s new report which looks at the impacts of climate change-induced loss and damage on women at risk of marginalisation in four African countries: Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Zambia. It explores the gendered experiences of loss and damage; how loss and damage is curtailing women’s rights; the barriers that women are facing to be able to respond to and deal with loss and damages; and how women on the frontlines of the climate crisis are overcoming these barriers.

The policy brief outlines the knowledge and policy gap on loss and damage and women’s rights, and the need for further feminist research on gendered climate impacts. It looks at the lived realities of loss and damage for women and girls living in the Global South and the implications of this for the UK’s international climate policy and programming. It then sets out the key components of a gender-transformative approach to loss and damage programming which shifts power, safeguards women’s rights and enables women to lead. The brief ends with a series of targeted recommendations for the UK Government’s loss and damage climate policy in 2022 and beyond.