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Women and Girls: Catalyzing Change in the Climate Crisis

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Session Description

Climate change deepens existing structures of inequality, including gender inequality. Limited access to resources, restrictions of rights, and exclusion from decision-making make women and girls more vulnerable to the effects of a warming planet. But, women can also be the strongest agents of change around mitigation and adaptation efforts if allowed to pursue education, control family planning, and allocate household resources. We’ll delve into the research and hear from powerful leaders effecting change in their communities and beyond.

Time & Location

Time:
1:30 PM - 2:45 PM, Thursday, April 12, 2018 BST
Location:
Rhodes Trust Lecture Theatre
Speakers
  • Moderator
    Senior Writer, Project Drawdown
    Dr. Katharine Wilkinson is Senior Writer at Project Drawdown, where she collaborated with Paul Hawken on the New York Times best-seller Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming. Katharine’s interdisciplinary background cuts across research, strategy, and thought leadership, with a focus on exploring, amplifying, and invigorating action to address climate change. Previously, she was Director of Strategy at the purpose consultancy BrightHouse and worked for the Boston Consulting Group and the Natural Resources Defense Council. Based on her doctoral research at the University of Oxford, Katharine published Between God & Green: How Evangelicals Are Cultivating a Middle Ground on Climate Change, called “a vitally important, even subversive, story” by The Boston Globe. Her recent fellowships include Aspen Ideas and Summit LA, and her voice has been featured by The Weather Channel, Talks @ Google, and on campuses including Columbia, Princeton, and Yale. Katharine holds a doctorate in Geography & Environment from Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and a B.A. in Religion from Sewanee—The University of the South.
  • Speaker
    Founder and CEO, Root Capital
    Willy Foote is founder and CEO of Root Capital, a nonprofit that offers farmers around the world a path to prosperity by investing in the agricultural businesses that serve as engines of impact in their communities. Since its founding in 1999, Root Capital has provided more than $1.7 billion in loans to 770 agricultural businesses in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Together, these businesses have bought and marketed crops for 2.4 million smallholder farmers, reaching over 10 million people in rural communities. Willy is a Skoll Entrepreneur and an Ashoka Global Fellow. He served for nearly a decade on the Executive Committee of the Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) and serves on the Strategic Advisory Council of the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan. Willy holds an MS in development economics from the London School of Economics and a BA from Yale University.
  • Speaker
    Founder and Executive Director, Il’laramatak Community Concerns
    Agnes Leina comes from Northern part of Kenya, Samburu who are also mainly pastoralists and very traditional in their way of life. She holds a Masters Degree in Rural Sociology and Community Development, from the University of Nairobi, Kenya, and a Bachelors, degree in Communications and Community Development from Daystar University, as well as a Post-Graduate Certificate in International Development from the University of Birmingham - United Kingdom. Agnes is the Founder and Executive Director of Il’laramatak Community Concerns: - whose name denotes care givers, or pastoralists, an Indigenous People’s Organization whose main objective is to restore dignity among Indigenous people, with special emphasis to Girls and Women, and which envisions a society of Indigenous Peoples of Kenya that is free from all forms of discrimination. She is also the Gender Coordinator of IPACC, Indigenous People of Africa Coordinating Committee, and she sits in the Advisory Committee of FIMI, a global Indigenous Women’s network among others. She has over 15 years of experience in working for Indigenous Pastoralist Communities, especially women and girls, in defending their human rights concerns in Education, Climate Change, Land and Natural Resource rights, Violence against women, Early Marriages and FGM, as well as access to alternative livelihoods among others, at the Community level, National, Regional and International levels As an indigenous girls’ and women’s rights defender and a social scientist, Agnes has presented various papers concerning indigenous girls and women in various fields, at the UNFCCC, UNPFII, FOKO Conference in Finland,, Indigenous Women s’ Conferences in Lima and Manila, Presented papers at the EGM at UN HQs, attended preparatory meetings for World conference on Indigenous Peoples -WCIP, in Alta, and in New work at the PGA meetings among
  • Speaker
    Vice President and Regional Director for Africa, World Resources Institute
    https://www.wri.org/profile/wanjira-mathai