By Greg Odogwu
Last week in Abuja, a gathering of government officials, policymakers, activists, development experts and community leaders convened to discuss an issue that rarely receives the urgency it deserves in Nigeria’s public discourse: the intersection of gender and climate change. The National Conference on Gender and Climate Change, organised by the Women Environmental Programme in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Environment, and WECF’s support, brought together voices from across the country to review and strengthen Nigeria’s National Action Plan on Gender and Climate Change; to assess progress made so far and identify new strategies for ensuring that climate policies in Nigeria are gender-responsive.
Incidentally, the programme, held on March 5, coincided with the International Women’s Day celebration – commemorated every March 8. There is no better day to reflect on how Nigeria can respond more effectively to the environmental crisis while ensuring that women are not left behind.
At first glance, climate change may appear to be a purely environmental matter – melting ice caps, rising temperatures, flooding, drought, and changing rainfall patterns. Yet, a moment’s reflection reveals that it is a social, economic and political challenge. And like many crises that affect societies, it does not impact everyone equally. In Nigeria, women – particularly those in rural communities – often bear the heaviest burden of climate disruption. When rivers dry up, it is women who must walk farther in search of water. When farms fail due to erratic rainfall or prolonged drought, it is women who struggle to feed their families. When environmental disasters strike, the already fragile economic security of women becomes even more precarious.
This is why conversations about climate action cannot ignore gender realities. The conference, therefore, served as a timely platform to examine Nigeria’s National Action Plan on Gender and Climate Change. Developed as part of the country’s broader commitment to climate governance as enshrined in the Paris Climate Accord, the plan was developed to ensure that climate change policies and programmes integrate gender considerations and respond to the specific needs of women, men, youth, and vulnerable groups. The framework seeks to promote equitable participation in climate governance and ensure that women have access to opportunities, resources, and climate finance.
The organiser, WEP, has long championed this cause. As one of Nigeria’s leading environmental civil society organisations, the group has spent years advocating for policies that recognise women not merely as victims of climate change but as agents of environmental resilience. With grassroots-driven projects it undertook in Nigeria and other countries, the WEP has proved that women are not just vulnerable to climate impacts; they are also critical to the solutions. Across rural habitats, women are farmers, food processors, water managers and custodians of local ecological knowledge. Their daily interaction with land and natural resources gives them practical insights into environmental change that often escape policymakers sitting in distant offices. When climate policies exclude women, they exclude this knowledge as well.
In line with the agreed five priority areas of capacity building, gender balance, coherence, gender responsive implementation and monitoring and reporting, and in recognition of the need for gender mainstreaming in the implementation of its Nationally Determined Contributions, Nigeria developed its NAPGCC in 2020, which was approved by the Federal Executive Council that same year. The priority sectors covered by the Plan include agriculture, forestry and land use; food security and health; energy and transport; waste management, and water and sanitation. After a five-year implementation, it expired in 2025.
Highlights of notable achievements include establishment of gender-responsive climate units within key agencies at both national and subnational, launch of targeted programs supporting women’s livelihoods, climate-smart agriculture, and clean energy access, integration of gender considerations into national and state-level climate adaptation plans, and community-driven adaptation initiatives demonstrating measurable resilience gains.
The Abuja conference was convened to take stock and assess how the country fared in this implementation and then strategise on what is next for us on the gender and climate change pathway. For instance, participants from subnational governments – directors from state climate change departments – were on hand to throw light on how the project was executed in the states. The stakeholders shared results, highlighted lessons learned, and then, after group work, charted a concrete path for sustained, gender-responsive climate action nationwide.
Discussions centred on evaluating achievements under the action plan, identifying existing gaps, and developing practical recommendations for improving gender-responsive climate policies in Nigeria. The forum also highlighted the importance of integrating grassroots experiences into national climate decision-making processes. One of the major themes of the conference was the need for stronger gender mainstreaming in climate action. Speakers emphasised that addressing climate change effectively requires understanding how environmental challenges affect women and men differently and ensuring that policies respond to these realities.
According to participants, gender-responsive climate action should be guided by three key pillars: empowerment, inclusion and equity. Empowerment means strengthening the leadership and decision-making capacity of women in climate governance; inclusion means ensuring meaningful participation of women and vulnerable groups in policy processes; while equity is promoting fair distribution of climate resources, opportunities, and benefits across gender groups. These pillars are considered essential for building resilient communities and ensuring sustainable development in the face of increasing climate risks.
However, the most striking aspect of the project is the collaboration between WEP and the government, which should serve as a model for emulation and scaling. The Founder and Global Lead of WEP, Dr Priscilla Achakpa, elucidated, “We wouldn’t have been able to do this project without the Federal Ministry of Environment… In 2015, when we started the NAPGCC, after the Paris Accord was signed, the government supported, and we spearheaded the project. It took us several years, and the action plan was approved by the President himself on August 12, 2020. It is a great milestone. And Nigeria is now seen as a leader in this sector. When you talk about issues of climate change and gender, globally, Nigeria is used as a reference point.”
My view is that the ‘National Action Plan on Gender and Climate Change 2.0’ should be quickly drafted, adopted and implemented by the Federal Government and concerned stakeholders. It holds the key to our being able to consolidate on climate action gains, and to generally navigate the complicated arena presented by worsening climatic exigencies.
Globally, gender mainstreaming in the climate change sphere took a long time coming, and Nigeria has a duty to not just tag along but lead the regional thrust. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, like some other multilateral environmental instruments, did not include any reference to gender in its initiating provisions. Starting from Kyoto Protocol’s Decision 36/CP.7, which urged “Parties to take the measures necessary to enable women to participate fully in all levels of decision making relevant to climate change”, to the Paris Accord’s Action Plan on Gender and Climate Change, the world had finally put its best foot forward in repairing the deficiency.
But beyond policy language, the real challenge lies in implementation. Over the years, Nigeria has produced many well-intentioned frameworks designed to address environmental problems. From desertification control programmes in the North to coastal management strategies in the Niger Delta, the country has repeatedly acknowledged the need for environmental action. Yet the gap between policy design and practical execution remains wide.
As the Director, Department of Climate Change, Federal Ministry of Environment, Dr Iniobong Abiola Awe, charged participants at the conference, “I urge all stakeholders, government ministries, states, civil society, communities, and development partners to commit to gender-responsive climate action as a non-negotiable, foundational element of Nigeria’s climate resilience. Let us translate these findings into bold, concrete actions: budgetary allocations, inclusive governance, targeted climate finance for women-led initiatives, and robust data systems to track progress.”