Description
Climate action is often discussed through large-scale technologies and financial instruments, yet women in local communities are already building practical responses with limited resources. This presentation shares the experience of “El poder de ellas” (“The Power of Women”), a women-led process in northern Cauca, Colombia, that connects collective farming, circular economy practices, community reinvestment, care, and environmental advocacy as pathways to climate resilience.
Through collective plots and food-growing initiatives, women cultivate food while strengthening household livelihoods, exchanging knowledge, building trust, and creating networks of mutual care. These spaces demonstrate that food security and climate adaptation are not only technical challenges: they are also shaped by social ties, women’s autonomy, and the capacity of communities to organize and remain in their territories.
The process includes a community practice known as the “bolsa común” (common fund), through which part of what is generated is reinvested to sustain new cycles of collective work. Rather than presenting this as a formal climate-finance instrument, the experience offers a grassroots example of solidarity, shared responsibility, and local resource management that can inform conversations about how climate finance reaches and supports community-led solutions.
Women also transform textile scraps and unused clothing into reusable ecological bags, extending the useful life of materials while linking income generation, waste reduction, and circular-economy principles. In parallel, they have contributed to an environmental agenda focused on protecting life, water, and territory and strengthening women’s participation in environmental action.
Drawing on my experience as a lawyer, human rights defender, environmental leader, Master in Public Policy, doctoral candidate in Government, Public Policy and Public Administration, and member of UN Women’s Civil Society Advisory Group for Latin America and the Caribbean (2026–2028), I argue that resilient ecosystems require investment not only in technologies, but also in women’s collective capacities, local knowledge, and community organization.
The presentation proposes lessons for climate justice and locally led financing: resources should reach women-led territorial processes in accessible and flexible ways, recognizing women not merely as beneficiaries, but as decision-makers and creators of sustainable solutions.
| Title | Women-Led Climate Resilience: Collective Farming and Circular Economy in Northern Cauca, Colombia |
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