The International Water Management Institute, MENA and the Harvard Kennedy School Women’s Network present:
Changing the narrative of women working in agriculture in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcod-iqrjktHte0O5PvYU5W4YQdf-s3e44h
Date: Friday March 8, 2024
Time: 4pm CET/10am ET
The MENA region is the driest region in the world, with only 2% of the world’s renewable water supplies. The region hosts 12 of the most water-scarce countries in the world out of total 17 countries in the world. For this reason, the region is extremely vulnerable to drought, unpredictable rain falls, and at times, flooding. As climate change continues to have a negative impact on the region’s climate, and natural and man-made disasters increase, these droughts increasingly have a severe impact on the region’s agriculture. Rural women, who make up half of the agricultural workforce, are increasingly vulnerable to water shortages and other forms of climate crises (IWMI-MENA drought project, 2023).
Women working in agriculture in the region are dependent on farming and natural resources for livelihoods and are thus impacted by droughts, floods, and declining harvest resulting from climate change. Climate change reflects and magnifies discriminatory gender norms and the unequal socio-economic status of women. Women in developing countries often rely on natural resources as primary means of living for themselves and for their families. When drought causes water to dry up, women must walk further to collect it, taking more time away from education and income generating activities.
Join us for a special International Women’s Day webinar co-hosted by HKSWN and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) MENA office where we will delve more into why women are most heavily affected by climate behaviour and its impact on the agriculture sector and discuss the needed interventions from government, financial institutions and development partners to address these challenges.
Speakers:
Dr. Noura Abdelwahab, Lead Gender Expert, IWMI and Member of HKSWN
Dr. Maha Al Zubi, Lead Regional Researcher, IWMI
Tatiana Der Avedissian co-president HKSWN and head of business development for Economist Impact’s World Ocean Initiative
About the speakers:
Dr. Noura Abdelwahab- Lead International Gender Expert- International Water Management Institute-MENA Office
Dr. Abdelwahab is HKSWN member. She is leading the integration of gender in a number of climate resilience projects in the MENA region including Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Iraq. She is an experienced Gender export with more than 20 years of experience in conducting gender and market assessments and research for International and regional organizations namely the International Water Management Institute, World Bank, ITC, UNDP, ADB, IOM, ILO, WFP, ICARDA, FAO, and USAID. Over the years, she has built strong relations with the different stakeholders and active market players in the MENA region. She is an economics graduate from Cairo University and holds a master’s degree in economics from Nottingham University and a PhD degree in Economics from Cairo University.
Dr. Al-Zu’bi holds a PhD Degree in Environmental Design from University of Calgary, Canada. She has over 15 years of experience in research for development, and natural resources policy development and governance. She conducted most of her research in Central and West Asia and North Africa region focusing on agri-food and water systems to propose climate policy and principles for governance of climate change adaptation. Dr. Al-Zu’bi has published various peer-reviewed journal papers, and policy briefs related to climate change governance and adaptation, water management, energy-water-food nexus. Currently, she is working as Regional Researcher – Sustainable and Resilient Water Systems at the International Water Management Institute, and Co-leading the CGIAR Initiative “Fragility to Resilience in Central and West Asia and North Africa”
Tatiana Der Avedissian- co-president of the Harvard Kennedy School Women's Network
Tatiana Der Avedissian is a communications and sustainability expert. She is currently head of business development for Economist Impact's World Ocean Initiative and sits on The Economist Group's sustainability steering committee. Outside of work she uses her expertise to advise and support other organisations with their strategic communication and business needs. She helps lead the strategy and fundraising efforts for two charities in the UK, serving as trustee and co-president of Alkionides UK, and chair of the board of trustees of the Armenian Institute. She is co-founder of The Armenia Project and sits on the board of the UK-Cyprus Enterprise Council. Der Avedissian was recently appointed as an advisor and the climate justice coordinator for the W7 Italy.