PODA-Pakistan organized a webinar on ‘‘Amplifying the Voices of Pakistani Rural Women in COP26’’ on Wednesday 10, 2021. Seventy-one participants including 58 rural women leaders from 40 districts of Pakistan participated in the webinar. Other participants of the event included representatives from the government, civil society organizations, academia, and research institutes.

From climate change issues to innovative solutions, everything was discussed at this diversified platform. Most women leaders shared real-life issues they face includes; deforestation, prolonged droughts, heatwaves, crop failure, declining underground water table, food insecurity, health issues due to excessive application of chemicals in agriculture due to continuous onsets of extreme weather events and risks. Personal experiences by rural women farmers were shared where the well-being of crops and livestock were at stake due to the fluctuating weather patterns—many raised issues of poor waste management and sanitation in their regions, which was affecting the river streams and impact on women’s health and nutrition.

The Pakistani rural women leaders highlighted the following 4 key points for COP26 are:

1. Around 3 % of Philanthropic environmental funding supports women’s and girls’ environmental activism.
2. Despite their major role in the agriculture sector, women hold less than 15% of land globally.
3. Women and girls are underrepresented in advancing climate justice across all levels and sectors from national to community level planning the public sector, climate finance, and clean energy.
4. Climate interventions fail to adequately account for women and girls’ realities in climate crises such as violence, healthcare needs, fraught economic resilience, and unpaid care and domestic work. Women and girls compose less than a third of total students enrolled in educational fields informing the green jobs approach.