Investing in Women’s Leadership: A Climate Imperative at NYC Climate Week
By Amira Diamond, Melinda Kramer, Kahea Pacheco, WEA Co-Directors
Last week at Climate Week in NYC, we witnessed an extraordinary surge of momentum for women’s leadership in climate. The collective reach and impact we’re achieving together is vast, yet it’s staggering to realize that women-led environmental and climate work receives a mere 0.2% of philanthropic investment annually.
But we know that women are hit first and worst by the climate crisis and by environmental destruction.
We all know that women protecting the environment are often cut off from the resources, visibility, and agency we need to lead.
And we know that women are the key to solving the problem: WE are the Number One Solution to Reversing the Climate Crisis.
Last week, we were just a few blocks from the New York Stock Exchange, discussing climate change in the heart of the finance world, and whether we like it or not, money plays a central role in the story of climate change. There’s a saying in finance: “It’s not about timing the market; it’s about time in the market.”
There are some great parallels to be drawn between this time-tested economic truth and the WEA model that we’ve been practicing for nearly 20 years.
Think about it:
- Sustained investment in the market yields significant returns over time. At WEA, we’ve seen that nurturing women’s leadership and investing resources over time creates sustainable change.
- Just like gains in the market compound, our investment in women’s leadership creates exponential impact as they train up others.
- And just like stable market investments, we are building resilient communities that can withstand shocks.
Women are creating local, living mycelial economies — interconnected networks of community-based solutions that challenge the power dynamics that have long dominated our world.
A Story of Impact: Olanike Olugboji
Let’s take the story of our colleague, Olanike Olugboji, a founding member of WEA who helped co-design our organization in 2006. In 2008, she participated in WEA’s first Women and Water Training in Kenya. Afterward, she launched her own NGO, Women’s Initiative for Sustainable Environment (WISE), dedicated to improving health and protecting the environment by supporting women in promoting and selling clean cookstoves in their communities.
Today, Olanike is WEA’s Nigeria Program Lead. The ongoing collaboration between WEA and WISE has had a transformative impact in Sub-Saharan Africa, distributing over 60,000 clean cookstoves across Nigeria and mobilizing more than 1,860 eco-entrepreneurs and advocates who are driving the clean energy movement in Nigeria and beyond. They have literally transformed the economy, reduced carbon emissions, and protected women’s health.
Our work with WISE has spanned nearly two decades — through sickness, political unrest, moments of joy and times of despair, years of major productivity and periods of setbacks. It is a living example of a strong market return, but it is so much more than that. This collaboration has generated a massive return on investment, but we are not just shareholders of this work; we are sharing and holding this work together. We are building local, living mycelial economies that are reciprocal and life-giving.
A Call to Action: Investing in the Future
This is why we started WEA all those years ago: because in every corner of the world, there are women quietly laying the groundwork for the restoration, healing, and regeneration our world so desperately needs. Yet their work remains underfunded, unrecognized, and marginalized. Today, women’s leadership remains one of the best-kept secrets, but that is changing. The story doesn’t have to be one of a missed opportunity. Instead, it can become the opportunity of the ages.
Empowering women’s leadership is not just a moral imperative; it’s a climate imperative. When women’s leadership is centered, communities are more resilient, economies are stronger, and environmental outcomes are more positive. The future of our planet depends on the full participation and leadership of women in the fight against climate change.
Let’s keep believing in the power of sustained investment. Together, we can turn the tide.