Jeannette Gurung was one of the speakers on the roundtable discussion on ‘Investing in women’s economic resilience and social wellbeing : Rethinking the role of private sector development in Africa’ organized by the Foreign Policy Centre (FPC), supported by Nestle. This was the third event in the series of six FPC discussions and held on 4 November in the UK House of Parliament. The discussion focused on understanding how best to support women to adapt to a changing environment (with respect to water scarcity, climate change challenges, energy insecurity etc.) and balance conservation and consumption in an age of scarcity and uncertainty.
Jeannette emphasized that one of the best way to support women to adaptive capacity is to support the women’s groups and organizations. These groups provide critical support, particularly in times of need marked by food insecurity or extreme weather events linked to climate change. They also act as institutional safety nets and provide access to land resources, micro-credit, technical inputs, or links to the next level of public institutions such as local government. She also pointed out the need for measuring impact and how the application of the W+ Standard can guarantee a verified impact to women’s empowerment.
The discussion was moderated by Dr Lisa Cameron MP, Scottish National Party (SNP) Spokesperson on Climate Change and a member of the UK Parliamentary International Development Committee.