UN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women is collaborating with the Network of Africa Women Environmentalists (NAWE), to develop more accessible platforms for dialogue and engagement with communities in climate sensitive livelihood locations and to encourage landscape approaches to adaptation and restoration challenges.

Gender-based vulnerabilities are further exposed due to social norms that dictate women’s behavior.  In Africa, the COVID 19 crisis has taken a significant toll on food production itself, as it sickens the aging agricultural workforce or prevents women, who are often tasked with caring for the elderly, from getting to the fields. Seventy-nine percent of economically active women in least developed countries rely on agriculture as their primary source of livelihood (FAO). As a result, the economic stress on women has intensified. In places with less stability, if food security is threatened, civil tension and unrest are a real possibility.