African Women, Religion, Climate Change and Food Security in the Context of Pandemics

Climate change, food insecurity and pandemics threaten the health and wellbeing of many people, particularly women, in Africa. Both the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 acknowledge the need to address these triple challenges. Within the SDGs, this is being pursued under SDG 2 (“Zero hunger”), SDG 13 (“Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”) and SDG 3 (“Ensure health lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”). Similarly, Agenda 2063 expresses this concern when emphasising the need to address climate change, ensure food security, as well as securing health for all. This chapter engages with the themes of women, climate change, food security and pandemics in Africa. It emerges from the realisation that all these challenges are gendered. Climate change, food insecurity and pandemics have a more devastating impact on women and girls than men and boys. Yet, African women have not surrendered to their fate. They are strategically placed to provide effective leadership, particularly from within their faith contexts. This chapter explores the responses of religious African women to the selected challenges through effective leadership in the context of the SDGs and Agenda 2063.