Around the world, women and girls encounter violations of their right to water, food security, and a clean, healthy and safe environment. These violations of basic rights occur due to unequal gender-based power relations that exist across the globe, along with multiple intersecting forms of oppression and discrimination. For example, women are disproportionately affected when they are displaced from their lands as a consequence of large-scale infrastructure, mining or land conversion projects. If they are part of indigenous communities and/or any other socially or politically marginalised group, they have an even higher risk of losing their livelihoods, their homes, and their very lives.

That being said, women play a vital role in managing natural resources and mobilising efforts to preserve access and use of these resources for themselves, their families, and broader communities. Women are key experts in analysing the contexts and problems they face and in coming up with viable, sustainable and innovative environmentally-just proposals and solutions, yet are often ignored and marginalised in key decision-making processes. Furthermore, many women-led groups and organizations that support and advocate for women’s rights and environmental justice are being bypassed by the growing funding streams available for work on environmental sustainability, disaster mitigation, and climate change.