More modest progress was made across 33 additional opportunities, reflecting important but incremental advancements in women’s health innovation. Medical institutions in some regions began incorporating gender considerations into training curricula. Advances in sex- and gender-intentional research gained traction in some regions, and regulatory actors increased their application of sex- and gender-intentional policies and frameworks. Encouraging developments also emerged in vaginal microbiome research, contraceptive technology, fertility optimization, menopause, autoimmune diseases, neurological disorders, and mental health. The remaining 11 opportunities stalled or experienced setbacks.

In 2023, Camber Collective and the Economic Mobility & Opportunity team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) partnered to publish and disseminate a first-of-its-kind meta-analysis of life experiences that contribute to lifetime income—and the different ways in which Americans perceive the impact of these life experiences.

In the United States and in absolute intergenerational terms, economic mobility has been declining for decades. While plenty of research has been conducted to understand the different causes and manifestations of this decline, few have looked at the relative importance of diverse experiences along the life path, nor integrated the beliefs and experiences of people across the country at such scale. Applying these prisms availed an opportunity to fill the evidence gaps; bring data to inform investments, programs, and policies; and begin to challenge common misbeliefs around the largely systemic drivers of economic prospects.

The study identifies the relative economic impact of 28 different life experiences from birth through adulthood, drawing upon a meta-analysis of peer-reviewed academic literature, program evaluations, expert consultations, and a first-of-its kind survey of 4000 Americans to provide important lived experience insights. We are excited to expand upon, and disseminate, our findings throughout 2024 as part of Camber’s new research series Mobility Experiences: A Research Series on Pathways to Economic Mobility. Key insights will be made available to technical user groups such as funders, local decision-makers, and direct service delivery organizations at the community level, alongside a broader push to embed findings within the general public discourse via media and website dissemination.

When we center people in research, our insights are consistently richer—supplementing the ‘what’ with the ‘why’ and the ‘how’. The Mobility Experiences research not only strengthens the evidence base of what is already shown to contribute to economic mobility, it also highlights opportunities for further investigation to strengthen evidence on the impact of life experiences we known to be critical, but for which evidence is currently less abundant. Moreover, this research helps to start shed light on the biases and inequities of traditional academic methods where the experiences of marginalized communities are often erased in data.

As a firm, we are hopeful this report activates greater, and more effective, investment toward research and integrated interventions that eliminate barriers and enhance access to important experiences across the life course for more Americans. We look forward to providing follow-on support to organizations who express interest in applying these findings, via more sustained technical assistance.

“Camber Collective played a pivotal role in global climate discourse, notably at the African Climate Summit in Kenya, COP28 in Dubai, and the New York Climate Week. We not only showcased our sector’s achievements but also actively contributed to panel discussions that emphasized the critical intersections of climate change with agriculture in Africa, gender equality, economic development, and migration. These engagements underscored our commitment to integrating comprehensive strategies that address both environmental sustainability and social equity, reinforcing our dedication to spearheading community-led innovative solutions for climate action and sustainable development across the globe.

As our Climate Sector lead, Dr. Chidibere X. Ikejemba says above and also here: “Climate change is more than just an environmental concern; it’s an amplifier of existing societal structures and disparities. Within the geographic context of Africa, the confluence of gender and climate has profound implications for vulnerability, resilience, and empowerment. Women’s vital roles in agriculture, artisanal mining, and market sectors expose them directly to the whims of an unpredictable climate, magnifying vulnerabilities. The very framework of climate action must center a gender-inclusive lens, wherein women are not only the beneficiaries of climate policy, but its architects—driving innovation and holistic solutions.”

From 2023-2024, Camber supported the WA Fatherhood Council in its development of the WA Fatherhood Study. The Council is a collaborative of WA state agency providers, community partners, funders, advocacy, academics, and most importantly fathers with lived experiences. Camber and the Council conduct a nine-month “WA Fatherhood: State of the State” study that includes a landscape of current policies, funding, programs and experiences of fathers and fatherhood figures in Washington state, with a focus on identifying gaps and needs to inform strategic planning and policy recommendations. 

In 2023, Camber engaged with the Task Force for Global Health (TFGH) Health Campaign Effectiveness (HCE) Coalition. Camber played a key role in supporting the co-development of their Collaborative Action Strategy Strategy which is a strategy that seeksto guide partners toward a future state where health programs collaborate effectively with each other and with corresponding health services to maximize the impact of campaigns on health outcomes, and ultimately aims to catalyze stronger, more resilient country-led health systems in the long-term. This strategy adopts systems lenses and aims, among other things, to work on inequities by streamlining campaigns and maximizing resource use benefiting populations.

The study was co-developed in 2023 by 48 global, regional, and country-level experts​ representing major campaign funders, implementors, and country leadership (grouped into Task Teams). Camber played a pivotal role in advocating for the inclusion of representatives from countries in the Global South within these task teams and in reaching out and including them. This effort aimed to ensure equitable representation and amplify diverse voices in shaping the strategy.The work of these task teams was iterative and collaborative, with specific focus around developing trust and giving legitimate voice to all stakeholders. 

The TFGH and Task Teams developed and adopted an expanded definition of campaign effectiveness. Traditionally, campaign effectiveness is measured through coverage with indicators that primarily measure targets, prevention, detection, treatment, and results/outcomes. Given the desire for an expanded definition beyond coverage, it can also be understood as a combination of additional parameters, including: efficiency, equity, availability, access, service quality (including timeliness), clinical outcomes, resilience and responsiveness, community awareness and community acceptance and engagement. 

As part of this work, Camber contributed to defining indicators assessing an expanded campaign effectiveness definition. We proposed a comprehensive list of suggested indicators designed to guide countries in developing Monitoring, Evaluating, Learning, and Adaptation strategies across campaigns. Drawing from implementation research, international best practices, and feedback from stakeholders at global, regional, and country levels, this list aims to enhance the measurement framework’s consistency and clarity. By offering adaptable guidance, countries can tailor these indicators to their specific contexts, ensuring a more accurate and relevant evaluation of health campaign outcomes. 

To circumvent this potential issue, we suggested an equity indicator—”Disaggregation of access and coverage data through socioeconomic, gender, geographic, and ethnic factors”— to measure the degree of fairness in the ultimate distribution of the campaign intervention. Similarly, for access, Camber proposed indicators such as the “mean distance to services for the target population” or “cost of getting the treatment for the target population” to measure the ability (physical, financial, cultural) of the target population to utilize the health services provided. These indicators not only enrich the evaluation process but also prioritize equity considerations within campaign assessments.

As the project transitions into the “planning and execution phase” of the CAS, we have been tasked with assessing the current HCE Coalition Governance Operating Model through interviews and surveys, followed by recommended updates, to reflect the evolving stakeholders’ priorities. We specifically considered how to integrate community and equity considerations into the governance diagnosis and framework, trying to ensure that decision-making power is distributed appropriately among stakeholders. During diagnosis and implementation, power shifting towards countries and beneficiaries as well as continuous learning and adaptability were clear priorities with specific mechanisms recommended. This is a work in progress, and Camber’s goal is to help refine a governance structure that not only supports effective decision-making but also fosters inclusivity, ownership and sustainability.

Camber is excited to continue to work with the HCE Coalition and help support focus country leadership in reviewing, customizing, and implementing the CAS to their specific contexts and needs. In that context, 2024 plans include building a Country Ownership and Partner Transition Plan to help transition work to country ownership of the CAS, fostering sustainability and resilience of the project.

In 2022, Camber began working alongside City of Hope to envision a robust model for supportive care services that provides comprehensive whole-person care for patients undergoing cancer treatment such as physical, practical, emotional and psychological, social, educational, and spiritual supports. We had the opportunity to build on that work in 2023, collaborating with the client to strategize how to potentially leverage technology to extend the supportive care services model beyond the City of Hope ecosystem

One of the key objectives of the project revolved around expanding supportive care access to underserved populations who face systemic socioeconomic, racial, or geographic barriers to care and often suffer inequitable and subpar health outcomes as a result. Such inequitable outcomes serve to compound the myriad injustices that typically characterize the under-resourced members of our society.

As a first step in exploring how to expand access to City of Hope’s supportive care model to all those in need, especially the underserved, Camber launched an extensive primary research campaign revolving around three key activities—convening an Advisory Board comprising supportive care subject matter experts; fielding a survey of cancer patients; and conducting focus groups with cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers. While the strategic insights gleaned from the Advisory Board meetings, we facilitated were invaluable, it was imperative to balance the insights garnered from those who operate from a place of authority with those affected by cancer as patients and caregivers who often do not have a guaranteed seat at the table.

Camber thus placed great emphasis on ensuring that the content, structure, and delivery of the survey and focus groups was considerate of the circumstances of cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers as well as designed to generate a deep understanding of a diverse set of needs. Given the sensitive nature of our primary research topic—living the cancer journey, from diagnosis to hopeful remission—we collaborated closely with the client to craft survey and focus group questions using appropriate and respectful language that provided the space for authentic sharing. To include the voices of non-English speakers, we worked alongside City of Hope to translate questions into Spanish; though Camber is cognizant that cancer is not limited solely to Spanish and English speakers, these two languages combined are spoken at home by ~90% of Americans. Finally, we sought to ensure that survey and focus group participants were representative of the US cancer population, especially with regards to their geographic, financial, and racial/ethnic backgrounds.

Camber leveraged everything we learned from the survey and focus group participants to better understand the different barriers preventing people from benefiting from supportive care services as well as which services should be prioritized. We utilized this nuanced understanding to develop the overarching model for a digital supportive care services tool expressly designed to mitigate access barriers and provide those services deemed most in need and/or most impactful by our primary research participants. Our recent work with City of Hope reinforced the importance of employing an intentional approach to understanding and addressing health inequities that not only elevates the voice of those most impacted, but also is cognizant of the historical and social roots of those inequities—and the Camber US Health team is excited to continue to further build out and refine this approach through our 2024 project work.

From 2023-2024, Camber supported the WA Fatherhood Council in its development of the WA Fatherhood Study. The Council is a collaborative of WA state agency providers, community partners, funders, advocacy, academics, and most importantly fathers with lived experiences. Camber and the Council conduct a nine-month “WA Fatherhood: State of the State” study that includes a landscape of current policies, funding, programs and experiences of fathers and fatherhood figures in Washington state, with a focus on identifying gaps and needs to inform strategic planning and policy recommendations.

Many people assume that because fathers are men/male- presenting adults, they do not face systemic or structural barriers and challenges that require equity considerations. The opposite is true. Our society has systemically created barriers and challenges that often ignore the needs of fathers and undervalue the importance of fatherhood. It was important to involve fathers and those with lived experiences every step of the way because many times “we didn’t know what we didn’t know.”

The vast majority of state agency leaders, staff, and providers, especially those working in early childhood and family supports, were women. Similarly, women also represented the front-line service providers in health care (social workers/community health worker, pre-/post-natal, pregnancy providers etc.), childcare, and social services.

In order to understand how fathers access services, move through the systems, and how they perceive bias and exclusion, we had to be open to listening to their stories. The WA Fatherhood Study covered a breadth of topical areas including Basic Needs (e.g., food, housing, financial support), Health (physical, mental, behavioral), Education, Employment, Family Supports, Safety, Legal, and Justice systems. Camber focused on the state and local systems, and in partnership with a University of Washington team focused on the experiences of dads by conducting a statewide “Dads Survey” and conducting a series of listening sessions with providers and lived experience individuals. We learned that oftentimes there are important intersections between race/ethnicity, income level, justice involvement/history, and relationship/custody status, and other factors that impact how fathers experience exclusion and limited access to services.

Our belief, using a Targeted Universalism framework, is that all fathers should have an equal opportunity to be a positive and supportive presence to their children and co-parents. With that goal in mind, there are fatherhood segments that experience disproportionately more barriers and challenges, access fewer services and resources, and experience worse outcomes. What proved challenging was the data collection and analysis approach in the Study. In order to understand the fatherhood experience, we needed disaggregated data by gender and parental status. Most programs report the gender split, and also whether a household unit is a family with children. However, few programs capture at the individual level whether an adult receiving services is a mother or father. Agency partners and program leads discovered the importance of asking adults whether they have (minor) children in their household, and/or if they have shared custody of a (minor) child. By understanding how fathers are currently receiving services or not receiving services as compared to the general population, we can see whether there are systemic or structural barriers.

In many of the family support programs (e.g., home visiting, food & cash assistance, and early learning programs), it is mostly mothers accessing services on behalf of the family or enrolling the child. In traditional family unit, the father would receive benefits as a part of the household. However, non-traditional families (e.g., shared custody, non-cohabitating) are often not equally supported, and it’s usually the father who receives fewer benefits. The systems involved in serving families have not fully grasped the variation and nuances of non-traditional families, and how to support them in an equitable way that doesn’t pit father against mothers in the division or prorating of resources.

Our goal in the Study was disrupt a resource scarcity mentality that pits fathers against mothers. This shifting can be difficult because with any publicly funded program, there are limited resources, and inevitably, there are perceptions that by serving fathers more, you may be taking away from mothers. We facilitated monthly co-design sessions with the Council in order to navigate these nuanced and often politically charged conversations, many of whom were parents (fathers and mothers) themselves and understanding the dynamics and challenges associated with non-traditional family structures, shared custody arrangements, and co-parenting plans. In some cases, we developed a deeper understanding of the issues and came up with opportunities and strategies for the future.

In other cases, we only scratched the surface of the issues by naming the types of data metrics – inputs and activities, disaggregated by parental status, that we want to see tracked and reported. By understanding how fathers are accessing, or not accessing certain programs like food and cash assistance, transitional housing/shelters, child support order modifications, family supports and parenting classes, and postpartum and mental health services, we will begin to better formulate strategies on how to serve a father’s unique and often unmet needs.

Thirty years ago, the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act of 1993 was passed, changing the trajectory of women’s health research in the US by requiring NIH (National Institutes of Health)-funded clinical research to include women and underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities. In the last three decades, women have seen major advancements in health, including greater, more efficacious family planning methods [1] and global reductions in maternal mortality. [2]

And yet, too many women still die or live in poor health due to social and structural inequities, often exacerbated by crises such as conflict, climate change, and COVID-19. [3] In the US, women’s reproductive rights were transformed overnight by the Supreme Court’s 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, with dissenting Justices stating that “young women today will come of age with fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers.” [4]

Against this backdrop, 2023 was a milestone year for the women’s health research community. In early 2023, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women’s Health engaged Camber Collective to help bring together a partnership of women’s health experts, innovators, and advocates that, over nine months, produced the inaugural Women’s Health Innovation Opportunity Map. This report, launched in October at the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting in Dakar Senegal, highlights 50 high-impact opportunities to advance innovation for the health of women globally.

A core principle shared by BMGF, NIH, and Camber was to ensure an inclusive and collaborative approach to develop the Opportunity Map. To that end, Camber helped design and facilitate an approach by which over 250 stakeholders—known as the Innovation Equity Forum (IEF)—collectively generated, evaluated, and prioritized opportunities. BMGF, NIH, and Camber worked to ensure diverse perspectives were not only represented but elevated within the IEF: members spanned over 50 countries and a variety of sectors, age groups, races, and ethnicities, and IEF leadership positions were held equally by members from low- and middle-income countries and high-income countries. To promote equitable engagement among members worldwide, Camber designed creative collaboration methods like virtual white boarding, asynchronous drafting and feedback, and a hybrid convening with in-person and virtual participants. Throughout, Camber, BMGF, and NIH took a highly iterative approach by sharing interim results alongside a variety of input- gathering activities so that members saw their feedback reflected.

Since publication, the Opportunity Map— alongside landmark studies that demonstrate the economic and societal value of women’s health research [5]—has been widely referenced, including in a ground-breaking report by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with McKinsey Health. [6]

The momentum to coalesce global leaders, researchers, and communities around the importance of women’s health continues to increase: the World Economic Forum recently launched the Global Alliance for Women’s Health, and the Biden Administration established the first-ever White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research.

Amidst the sprawling narrative of climate change, an essential facet often recedes into the backdrop: its gendered dimensions.

Climate change is more than just an environmental concern; it’s an amplifier of existing societal structures and disparities. In the vast and diverse expanse of Africa, this confluence of gender and climate has profound implications for vulnerability, resilience, and empowerment. From the immediate ramifications in sectors where women predominantly work, to the broader challenges and opportunities posed by the shift towards a sustainable green economy, and ultimately, to the envisioning of a world where women’s voices lead and shape the climate discourse — each temporal perspective reveals distinct challenges and pathways to empowerment.

In the short term, women’s vital roles in agriculture, artisanal mining, and market sectors expose them directly to the whims of an unpredictable climate, magnifying vulnerabilities. As we transition to the medium-term, the promise of a green economic transition looms large, but without proactive inclusion, women risk being sidelined in this transformative shift. By the long-term, opportunities emerge to not only address immediate impacts or structural changes, but instead to reimagine the very framework of climate governance through a gender-inclusive lens. Women should not merely be beneficiaries of climate policy, but its architects, driving innovation and holistic solutions.

This multi-temporal lens is not just a structure; it’s an imperative. To holistically address the gendered dimensions of climate change, it is vital to understand the intertwined challenges, risks, and opportunities across different time horizons.

Short-term challenges: The immediate gendered impact and African women at the frontline

In the vibrant tapestry of African economies, women emerge as the unspoken anchors, particularly in sectors that are now facing the brunt of climate change’s onslaught. Their daily endeavors, often rooted in the land and the environment, are directly threatened, translating environmental changes into immediate challenges for their households, communities, and, by extension, entire economies.

Agriculture: the lifestream of many, now under siege

In countries spanning from the Sahelian regions to the Great Rift Valley, agriculture stands as a testament to women’s resilience and ingenuity. A majority of the small-scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are women,[1] and they are responsible for producing a significant portion of the continent’s food. However, with climate change disrupting rainfall patterns, prolonged droughts and unexpected floods are becoming annual calamities. These aren’t just climatic anomalies; for many women, they mean failed harvests, escalating debts, and nights when their children go to bed hungry. Beyond immediate food security, these impacts exacerbate already prevalent challenges: limited access to agricultural training, credit facilities, and advanced farming tools.

The bustling informal markets: Critical social infrastructure at risk

In numerous African cities, from the alleyways of Marrakech to the busy streets of Accra, the informal market sector buzzes with activity and is predominantly steered by women. These markets, vital for local economies, are incredibly sensitive to climate perturbations. A single flood can wash away a woman’s inventory, accumulated over months or even years. An unexpected heatwave can render perishable goods unsellable. Furthermore, climate-driven changes in market systems can negatively impact informal vendors’ ability to stay afloat, particularly if they don’t have access to formal financial services. For many women in these markets, there’s no safety net; a climate-induced setback can mean spiraling into debt or pushing their families further into poverty.

Artisanal and small-scale mining: vulnerable yet vital

Across Africa, women make up nearly half of the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) workforce.[2] Often existing outside of the formal labor market, these women regularly operate under dangerous and uncertain conditions that leave them particularly vulnerable to both the economic and physical risks of climate change. Without access to skills, resourcing, and legal protections, female miners are disproportionately exposed to the financial and safety risks of an already dangerous profession. To make matters worse, the green transition will require significant increases in the precious metals like cobalt and lithium that fuel “green” technologies. Female miners will likely bear much of the burden of this increased demand.

In understanding the short-term ramifications of climate change through this gendered lens, we witness a theme: it’s not just about economic output or statistical figures but the lived experiences of countless women, the narratives of families under duress, and the ripple effects that shape communities and nations. Climate change and its consequences underscore long-standing socio-economic vulnerabilities—and addressing these immediate impacts is crucial, not just for the women affected, but also for the social fabric of the African continent.

Medium-term risks and potential: navigating the green transition – Paving the way for inclusive sustainability

The clarion call for a green, sustainable future resonates across continents, and Africa stands at a unique intersection of challenges and opportunities. However, the green transition is a uniquely double-edged sword: while the green economy offers vast potential, its dawn risks leaving women vulnerable to unintended hardships. This phase demands more than just economic adaptation; it requires a societal metamorphosis that champions inclusivity and equity at its core.

Emerging green industries: Doors half-open?

With the decline of traditional, resource-intensive industries, the green economy promises a myriad of new job opportunities. Sectors like renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and eco-tourism are burgeoning. However, this shift will also necessitate massive transitions within existing job markets, and without intentional interventions, women are likely to suffer the most from these transitions. As job markets change, studies suggest that gender attitudes drive economic inequities for women during times of financial hardship.[3]

Similarly, women are more likely to miss out on the opportunities afforded by the green transition: as jobs evolve, there’s an urgent need for training and reskilling programs. Yet, due to societal norms and logistical barriers, women may find it harder to access these programs. Whether it’s a solar technician course in a distant town or an online certification hindered by a lack of internet access, the challenge is dual-faceted: making green jobs accessible and ensuring women can access them. Overcoming this means not only creating green job openings but actively dismantling barriers that prevent women from seizing them.

Financial inclusion: more than just access

While the green transition promises innovative solutions, these often come with a price tag. Access to credit, loans, and financial literacy becomes crucial. Yet, many women often find themselves sidelined in the financial landscape. As green businesses emerge and sustainable projects are greenlit, ensuring women entrepreneurs and workers have the financial tools to engage becomes paramount.

Policy frameworks: From neutral to gender-responsive

As countries lay down the regulatory frameworks for the green transition, there’s a risk of these policies being gender-neutral, rather than gender-responsive. For the transition to be genuinely inclusive, policies need to be crafted with a conscious understanding of the unique challenges and potentials women bring to the table. This includes, but is not limited to, affirmative action, targeted grants for women-led green ventures, and mentorship programs.

In the medium term, as Africa navigates the intricate challenges of sustainability, the undercurrent remains: a green future that isn’t inclusive is a half-realized dream. The green transition is as much about technology and industries as it is about people—and ensuring that women are empowered participants, leaders, and beneficiaries in this journey is a non-negotiable.

Long-term opportunities: Amplifying women in climate leadership – the catalyst for holistic solutions

As we cast our gaze to the distant horizon of the climate struggle, the long-term view isn’t just about enduring resilience, but about nurturing a more inclusive vision of leadership in climate spaces. Historically, women’s voices have been relegated to the peripheries of climate decision-making, but the long-term combat against climate change necessitates their central role. For a challenge as vast and multifaceted as climate change, the solutions too must be interwoven with diverse insights, and women hold the keys to many of these nuanced understandings.

The multidimensional lens of women leaders

Women, with their multifaceted roles as informal leaders, community organizers, caregivers, and innovators, often have a deeply holistic understanding of societal ecosystems. Female leadership can help ensure that unintended consequences of climate initiatives, much like the green transition, are mitigated via awareness and understanding of local and community needs. When these insights percolate up to decision-making echelons, they ensure that climate policies are not just reactive but are anticipatory, comprehensive, and deeply empathetic.

Local knowledge, global impact

At the grassroots, women often serve as the custodians of traditional knowledge. This reservoir of wisdom, accumulated over generations, can offer invaluable insights into sustainable practices, resource management, and community resilience. As climate initiatives turn to time-honored and traditional practices for potential solutions, women may hold the key to successful implementation: by amplifying their voices, we ensure that local solutions don’t just benefit one community but can be scaled and adapted globally.

From tokenism to tangible change

For far too long, women’s representation in climate arenas has oscillated between neglect and tokenism. The future demands a shift. Beyond mere numbers, the emphasis should be on creating environments where women’s voices are actively sought, heard, and acted upon. This means challenging patriarchal structures, encouraging mentorship, and building capacity. It means both ensuring that women have the education and resources to engage with standard elements of climate work, while also embracing multifaceted, traditional, and holistic approaches to countering climate change.

The ripple effect of women in leadership

The benefits of women in leadership extend beyond the immediate decisions. When young girls see women shaping global climate agendas, it ignites aspirations. It sends a powerful message that they too can be changemakers. This cascading effect, where one generation of women leaders inspires the next, can galvanize a global movement of informed, passionate leaders in climate and beyond.

In the long arc of the climate narrative, the story isn’t complete without women leading the charge. As the challenges intensify, the solutions too must evolve, and therein lies the potential of women’s leadership. The future of climate action is not just about adaptation and mitigation, but about transformation—and women are poised to be at the heart of this revolution.

Weaving a tapestry of resilience and hope

The interplay between climate change and gender underscores not only pressing challenges but also unprecedented opportunities to sculpt a more inclusive and climate-resilient future. Through the lens of short-term, medium-term, and long-term perspectives, a holistic picture emerges, revealing the layered vulnerabilities and strengths of women in the epoch of climate change.

In the short term, recognizing the immediate gendered impacts, especially in sectors predominantly helmed by women, such as agriculture, provides the impetus for swift interventions. These immediate threats underscore the need to bolster women’s resilience, particularly in areas where their livelihoods and sustenance are intertwined with the environment.

As we navigate into the medium term, the global shift towards a sustainable green economy emerges as a double-edged sword. It carries the promise of revitalization and renewal but could inadvertently perpetuate gender inequities if not managed inclusively. This phase emphasizes not merely the adoption of sustainability but the integration of gender equity into the very blueprint of this transition.

In the long arc towards the future, the long-term perspective magnifies the critical importance of women’s leadership in climate discourse. It’s not about token representation but the profound transformative potential that women, with their diverse insights and holistic understanding, bring to the table.

This comprehensive narrative—spanning immediate actions, transitional strategies, and long-term leadership visions—reiterates the importance of gender-responsive approaches at every stage. As we strive to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, and Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts, the gender-climate nexus cannot be sidelined. By anchoring our strategies in a multi-temporal framework, stakeholders, be they governments, private entities, or civil society, can collaboratively weave a future where climate resilience and gender equity thrive in tandem. This intersectionality, spanning gender, climate, and broader societal domains like health, food systems, and well-being, mandates nuanced, integrated solutions.

Addressing the gender-climate interplay, especially in regions like Africa, is paramount in our shared journey towards a sustainable future. A multi-temporal approach, championing the immediate, the impending, and the visionary, promises not only resilience but empowerment—heralding a brighter, more equitable, and climate-resilient tomorrow.

The path forward: A call to action

Our journey to understand and address the intricate dance between gender and climate change is not at its end, but rather at an impactful juncture. The next steps we take can either bolster or erode the resilience and empowerment of African women, who stand on the frontline of the climate crisis.

The realities of African women, with their rich tapestry of experiences, cultures, and wisdom, must take center stage in future research. Beyond sterile data and detached observations, we must immerse ourselves in the lived narratives of these women. Their struggles and triumphs amidst the changing climate—whether it’s the farmer battling unpredictable rains in Kenya or the market vendor navigating the aftermath of a storm in Nigeria—hold invaluable lessons for policy design and implementation.

Informed policies are more than just responsive; they are anticipatory, sculpting a path that doesn’t just react to the challenges but paves the way for a brighter future. Such policies should champion the amplification of women’s agency, ensuring their voices aren’t merely heard, but resonate in the decisions that shape their world. In a gender-responsive path forward, all climate strategies must be evaluated through a gendered lens and should ensure access to education, training, and finances and representation in decision-making and leadership.

By fostering environments that support women’s leadership at community town halls, national platforms, and international climate summits, we can tap into the transformative potential that women bring to the table. Yet, the emphasis on African women doesn’t diminish the global nature of this narrative. The continent’s stories, while deeply rooted in its unique socio-cultural and environmental milieu, echo a universal testament to women’s roles as formidable change-makers in the climate narrative. Their resilience, innovations, and solutions can inspire and inform strategies worldwide.

As we look to the future, our vision must be twofold: to adapt to the changing climate while concurrently reshaping it, ensuring that the new world we’re forging has women not as passive participants but as active architects. The charge is clear: in the quest for a sustainable and equitable world, women’s empowerment isn’t just a desirable outcome—it’s a vital catalyst.

Citations

Dr. Chidiebere E.X. Ikejemba is the Director of Climate & Environment at Camber Collective. His body of work focuses on climate equity and justice, building resilient climate-smart development programs, strengthening political will for urgent climate change action and many other levers of activation. His theory of impact operates across both the upstream and downstream of a systems chain. that encompasses, just transition, agriculture & food security, migration, economic & rural development, climate education, waste management (circularity), healthcare, corruption and democracy, energy access, gender inclusion, carbon neutrality and other dimensions. The circularity of Camber’s approach and theory of influence is, we believe, the most congruous path to balancing economic reality and humanitarianism.  

Ella Geismar is a Consultant in our San Francisco office. She is a strategy consultant with experience in creating stakeholder-led, community-oriented programs and policies both domestically and abroad. Prior to joining Camber, Ella was a researcher and consultant on Hawai’i’s first ever state-level food systems strategy, an active initiative seeking to center resilience, equity, and indigenous knowledge into Hawai’i’s management of land and resources. In addition to her work in food systems and sustainability, Ella has worked extensively in higher education access. From 2018-2020, Ella served as the Programs Director at Parami University, a Bard College partner institution and Myanmar’s first-ever liberal arts institution. She also worked as a consultant for Fulbright University Vietnam, the first such institution in Vietnam, and as the Academic Associate for a network of dual-enrollment public high schools in cities across the United States seeking to promote college access and equity for underserved student populations. Ella holds a Master of Public Policy from the Goldman School at UC Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and French from Wesleyan University. In her free time, you can find Ella hiking, biking in the East Bay hills, and hunting down new food experiences