Reflections and New Beginnings: YALI
When I received that email from the Washington Fellow officer informing me that I was selected for the YALI Program and will be at the Goldman School of Public Policy (GSPP), University of California – Berkeley, immediately I ‘googled’ the institution in an attempt to get a picture of where I will be attached for six weeks. I was thrilled to learn that it is the number one Public Policy School not only in the USA but in the World. I felt privileged and humbled, got down on my knees and thanked God for this once in a lifetime opportunity.
Excited and eager to grasp all the knowledge that I can possibly get in this prestigious institution, I arrived in the International House (a hostel near the university campus), and since I have arrived in this exotic city, my thinking and perspective of so many things have changed.
Firstly, I have seen and was inspired by young students challenging the fundamental standard notions many teachers and professors a have about policies that affect our day-to-day life. It made me realize how underrated and undervalued young people are in my country and Africa at large. The society tend to look at us, young people, in one of two ways: they’re either victims or potential victims they perceive they need to protect, or they’re perpetrators that need to be punished. That’s the society’s narrative – where is the real narrative?
In my work, where I focus on women’s rights, gender equality and women empowerment, I strongly believe that excluding women from politics, business and public life, will slow down development, and that investing in the education of the girl child is crucial for the overall wellbeing of the society.
Nevertheless, there are things that never came to my attention; for example, one of the most urgent issues of our time, climate change is already impacting populations and ecosystems around the globe, threatening to set back development efforts by decades. Matters pertaining the impacts and roles of women in global warming have never crossed my mind during my years of works. I have come to importantly realize that women’s vulnerability can obscure the fact that they are an untapped resource in efforts to cope with climate change and reduce the emissions that cause it!
As innovators, organizers, leaders, educators and caregivers, women are uniquely positioned to help curb the harmful consequences of a changing climate. At both a personal level and at my capacity as the Executive Director of SSWEN, I settle on effecting a national climate change policy in our agenda of women empowerment and significantly engendering such policy.
I choose not to view us, women as victims of climate change, but rather agents of change through mitigation, management and adaptive activities in our households, workplaces, communities and countries!