– Highlights from the GreenGrowth Webinar (April Edition)
Africa’s development agenda and a just green transition cannot be achieved without deliberate investments in women and other vulnerable groups. Women are already playing indispensable roles in sectors like sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and climate adaptation. Yet systemic barriers — such as limited access to funding, underrepresentation in decision-making spaces, and exclusionary program designs — continue to hinder their full participation and benefit from green initiatives. To equip Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Africa with practical strategies to design gender-responsive programs, foster women’s leadership, and mobilize finance for women-focused interventions through strategic partnerships; Green Growth Africa, in partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), hosted the April edition of the GreenGrowth Webinar Series. Titled “Africa’s Development Agenda Needs Women: Investing in Women to Accelerate Green Growth,” the event brought together CSOs, as well as academia and government actors across the continent to explore strategies for placing women at the heart of Africa’s green transition.
Moreover, this edition of the webinar had amazing speakers lined up: Natania Botha; Award-winning Environmental Activist, Visual Artist & Sustainability Advocate from South Africa; Sharon Mutende; Gender Justice Advocate & Global Policy Analyst with the Children & Youth Major Group to UNEP from Kenya; and Funmilayo Oyekanmi – Lawyer & Executive Director, Human & Social Sustainability Network Africa – For African Youths from Nigeria. Over 399 people (236-Male; 163-Female) from 30+ countries across Africa registered for the programme, and 98 persons (53-Male; 45-Female) representing 67 CSOs from 24 African countries joined in the room while 65 persons viewed from YouTube!
Building Partnerships for Financing Women-Focused Interventions
In the first session, Natania Botha spoke on the importance of building partnerships with the private sector and policymakers to secure funding for women-focused green initiatives. Natania shared practical strategies for CSOs, including:
- Mapping stakeholders and aligning program goals with partner interests
- Demonstrating impact using data and human-centered stories
- Piloting projects to showcase proof of concept
- Developing compelling business cases for investment
She also highlighted existing funding platforms for women-led initiatives, while emphasising that partnerships require persistence, trust-building, and a shared vision for sustainable impact.
Designing Impact Programs for Women and Vulnerable Groups
The second speaker, Sharon Mutende, focused on designing inclusive and gender-responsive programs. Drawing from her expertise in environmental diplomacy and feminist climate justice, Sharon critiqued tokenistic inclusion and one-size-fits-all approaches that fail to address intersectional realities. She outlined essential principles for effective program design:
- Participatory co-design to ensure community ownership
- Intersectional budgeting to address diverse needs
- Leadership development pathways for women
- Localised solutions aligned with broader policy frameworks
- Use of disaggregated data to track gendered impacts
Sharon urged CSOs to centre women’s voices not just as beneficiaries, but as leaders and co-creators of solutions.
Empowering Women’s Leadership in the Green Sector
In the third session, Funmilayo Oyekanmi tackled the challenge of increasing women’s representation and decision-making power in climate action and the green economy. She stressed that women’s leadership is not just an equity issue — it’s fundamental for sustainable, inclusive solutions. Funmilayo identified key enablers for women’s leadership:
- Awareness of policy frameworks and opportunities
- Building technical capacities and leadership skills
- Addressing barriers like unpaid care work and structural biases
- Fostering collaboration and allyship across sectors
“Empowering women’s leadership transforms the quality, relevance, and sustainability of green solutions,” she noted, calling for systemic shifts to unlock women’s potential.
Conclusion
The April Edition of the Green Growth Webinar series ended with an interactive session that encouraged collaboration and reflection on how to drive gender-responsive green development in Africa. Key discussions emphasised the need to move beyond talk—calling on civil society to design practical, inclusive programs, build strong partnerships with the private and public sectors, and support women’s leadership through structural change and capacity building.
Following the webinar, participants reported that they gained practical strategies for designing gender responsive programs; learnt how to build partnerships with private and public sector groups to fund gender-inclusive programs; and discovered how to advance women’s leadership within their organisations. Moreover, close to 80% of respondents committed to implementing gender-responsive program design as a result of the webinar. In addition, 66.7% of respondents now plan to build new partnerships to support their projects while 55% indicated willingness to foster women’s leadership within their organisations. Indeed, this edition served as a catalyst for dialogue and momentum for integrating gender equality into green growth action in Africa!
The recording of the webinar is available HERE.
Responses from Post-webinar Survey
