This COP27 opening photo says it all: 110 Heads of State and Governments, 11 women.
This is why The Rallying Cry is working hard to get more women’s voices in the room and more seats at the table, especially for the African women driving change on the front lines. We need more inclusive, collective climate leadership and finance decisions that take lived experience and private sector innovation into account.
COP27 is not an inclusive gathering in general but the hurdles to get there for the people living climate change every day are considerable: getting Blue Zone accreditation, Egyptian visas, extortionate accommodation prices, flights of 20 hours or more from within the African continent, while taking time out of running businesses and families = not a level playing field.
It has been a challenging journey but we are arriving with two African women Lelemba Phiri and Bupe Chipili to lend their powerful stories and experiences to the COP dialogue - because we simply cannot solve a global crisis without some of our best leaders.
As ever, it takes a village; we are grateful to the village that helped us get to COP including FMO - Dutch entrepreneurial development bank, Carolina Benavides Piaggio, Andrew Shaw, Jorim Schraven, Bogolo Joy Kenewendo, Apple Tree Capital Partners, Kite Insights and the incredible efforts of our TRC dream team working tirelessly behind the scenes.
There is an African proverb which says if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. When it comes to the climate crisis, we need to go fast AND far. Together. Now.
We’re looking forward to the next days and sharing our ideas about how we can shift capital, narratives and leadership to drive the change we need commensurate to the level of urgency.
Check out our newly launched Thought Leadership Report “Accelerate transformation: Invest in African women leading climate action”.
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