Climate Justice
Towards a Just Energy Transition in South Africa
Women in rural and peri-urban areas, where MACUA and WAMUA organise, play key roles as food producers and caregivers. Many depend on natural resources for their livelihoods. So extreme climate-related droughts, flooding and other disasters disproportionately impact women’s health, food security and livelihoods.
In places where mining and extractive industries produce greenhouse gases and associated chemicals that cause severe environmental problems, women often bear an unequal share of social, economic and environmental risk.
About Macua
Contamination of fertile farmland destroys their livelihoods and forces many women into transactional sex work; mining communities tend to have higher numbers of sex workers. Mining pollution also threatens women’s reproductive health, resulting in higher rates of miscarriage and children born with abnormalities.
Rural women’s health and livelihoods, which are directly affected by the quality of their environment are important entry points for grassroots organisations to help communities understand women’s rights and the impact environmental degradation, including climate change, has on their lives.
These areas also present rich opportunities for women’s participation in decision-making processes related to health and economic livelihoods.
This project seeks to provide a space where those directly impacted by climate change can share their concerns, stories, and ideas about how to respond to their immediate needs and build resilience, while building the community agency to articulate their issues to contribute to ensuring a transition that is just and equitable.
A critical focus of the project revolves around ensuring that global priorities and local realities are able to engage in dialogue which recognises the importance of each. Decisions taken at the local level have a significant contribution to make towards the resolution of the global crises. By the same token decision that are taken at a global level often have severe consequences at the local level.
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These areas also present rich opportunities for women’s participation in decision-making processes related to health and economic livelihoods.
This project seeks to provide a space where those directly impacted by climate change can share their concerns, stories, and ideas about how to respond to their immediate needs and build resilience, while building the community agency to articulate their issues to contribute to ensuring a transition that is just and equitable.
A critical focus of the project revolves around ensuring that global priorities and local realities are able to engage in dialogue which recognises the importance of each. Decisions taken at the local level have a significant contribution to make towards the resolution of the global crises. By the same token decision that are taken at a global level often have severe consequences at the local level
Through engaged and active involvement as citizens communities will be encouraged to find creative ways to imagine and develop innovative ways to address challenges faced by mining affected communities as a result of climate change.
The project supports Branches with active Climate Justice Teams (CJT) which monitors and records local surveys which track the impacts of climate change on people’s daily lived experiences and compile important information about environmental and social health issues affecting the community.
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The Climate Justice Teams (CJT) also seek to stimulate public debates at the local level on the impacts of climate change on the community through undertaking public awareness campaigns and holding public dialogues.
Along with building awareness at the local, level the CJT’s also seek to mobilise the community around holding duty bearers to account for harmful practises.
To be a powerful movement of mining-affected communities united around the concept of the Peoples Mining Charter premised on Economic, Environmental and Social Justice.
Each branch broadly undertakes the following programmes:
Each branch broadly undertakes the following programmes:
- Project Kick Off Meetings: (Educational workshop to elect CJT and subsequent CJT Planning meetings)
- CJT Meetings to develop survey and plan engagements with the community.
- Community Health and Environment Surveys which includes:
- Preparation and planning workshop
- Actual surveys
- Analysis of the surveys workshop
- Community report back Meeting on outcomes of survey.
- Campaign Meetings
- Develop Campaign Materials.
- Community Actions
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As a national movement representing marginalised and impacted communities, MACUA and WAMUA have understood that the members and communities of mining affected communities, who are mainly rural and peri urban, and who live cheek by jowel with some of the most ecologically harmful industries, are at the coal face of the most severe climate impacts. As such the movement has an obligation to highlight and inform the community and to build their agency to advance their own interests.
Through building the agency of the community to address the issues that affect them, we hope to build stronger communities who are well informed, able to produce their own knowledge and develop action plans to challenge or address those issues directly.
The project aims to build sustainable structures at community level that would lay the foundations for community organisations that are able to manage and account for funds which in turn will lend it credibility in pursuing other sources of support and funding in the community and beyond.
The CJT’s are also connected into the MACUA and WAMUA branches and the shared capacity will assist in ensuring that project is able to build and grow over time.
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