Asia Archives - Women Speak

7 03, 2025

https://www.internationalrivers.org/news/women-at-the-forefront-of-water-governance-paving-the-way-to-a-sustainable-and-climate-just-future/

Women at the Forefront of Water Governance: Paving the Way to a Sustainable and Climate-Just Future

Aparna Packer2025-12-03T23:37:42-05:00Tags: Asia, International|

Women river defenders from across Asia and the globe are building a collective movement to challenge traditional water governance systems that often exclude them. The Women and Rivers Network, which has grown to over 200 members since its 2019 launch in Nepal, is a key platform where these leaders—many of whom are Indigenous—strategize, share skills, and build solidarity. Face-to-face gatherings, such as the 2024 Asia Women and Rivers Congress in Thailand that convened over 125 women from 18 countries, are crucial for coordinating shared responses to threats like large-scale dam construction and for advocating for a broader women’s leadership scale in cross-border water policy and dialogue. The network directly equips participants with seed grants for community-based projects, such as launching various science initiatives to gather data on understudied rivers, or producing documentary films that immortalize their local histories of resistance. Through this transnational network of alliances, women are building the collective power to influence policy, lead efforts in the just energy transition, and secure a seat at the decision-making table for water management.

15 12, 2023

https://asia.landcoalition.org/en/newsroom/creating-space-for-the-youth-of-asia-to-drive-climate-solutions/

Creating space for the youth of Asia to drive climate solutions

Aparna Packer2025-04-19T16:30:04-04:00Tags: Asia|

Before and after COP28, Asian youth were greatly involved in climate activism. Dazzle Labapis, a Programme Officer from the Non-Timber Forest Products–Exchange Programme Asia, purposely increases youth engagement with her forest and policy-based work – focusing in particular on getting Indigenous youth involved. A Bangladeshi movement called Stand 4 Her Land, led by Raihana Rahman, encourages women to engage in coastal resilience and flood mitigation efforts in their communities. By engaging young people in their work, Asian environmental organizations are teaching them to continue land preservation and climate solution work, training and uplifting the next generation of change makers.

16 11, 2023

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/climate-and-environment/2023/11/16/2311916/feminist-approach-key-just-energy-transition-asia-coalition

Feminist Approach Key to Just Energy Transition in Asia — Coalition

Katherine2024-09-13T15:22:29-04:00Tags: Asia|

The Asia Feminist Coalition calls for a feminist approach to energy transitions in Asia, aiming for a just shift to clean energy that tackles historical and current gender inequalities. This involves empowering women and integrating them into the renewable energy sector, while also overhauling economic, social, and political systems to combat systemic inequities. Promoting small-scale, locally owned, and gender-representative energy systems, upskilling women for participation in male-dominated pathways, and implementing gender-responsive policy frameworks are crucial. Ensuring women's control over natural resources and protecting community rights from large-scale clean energy projects are also key priorities. The coalition advocates for economies prioritizing state-led redistribution and increased international climate finance, with a focus on gender equality and debt cancellation for climate-vulnerable countries in Asia. These efforts aim to achieve a just feminist energy transition, fostering a more equitable and sustainable future in the region.

17 04, 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXjUi-a6Y2k&ab_channel=FoodandAgricultureOrganizationoftheUnitedNations

Statement of Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact

Katherine2023-11-28T17:07:55-05:00Tags: Burma, Myanmar, Asia|

In this short video from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Naw Ei Ei Min, a Karen Indigenous woman from Myanmar, speaks about the importance Indigenous women hold in the fight to end hunger and malnutrition. She describes how Indigenous women hold traditional knowledge, are protectors of Native seeds, and contribute to sustainable livelihoods, yet remain invisible, with their rights going unrecognized and unprotected. Min says if the 2030 agenda is achieved, it will only be possible through the empowerment of Indigenous women and addressing their needs through policies that are gender sensitive and culturally appropriate.