The role of girls' education in fighting climate change
Assembly readers (and twin sisters!) Eduek and Uforo Nsentip ask Malala Fund’s research officer Naomi Nyamweya about the relationship between climate change and girls’ education.
When you think of solutions to the climate crisis, your mind might first go to electric cars, solar panels and wind farms. But did you know that educating girls is one of the most powerful, yet overlooked strategies in the fight against climate change?
Malala Fund’s latest report, A greener, fairer future: Why leaders need to invest in climate and girls' education, explores why educating girls can not only improve our societies’ resilience to climate change but also reduce the rate and impact of global warming.
Ahead of the report’s release, we had the opportunity to speak with one of the researchers behind it, Malala Fund’s Naomi Nyamweya. Naomi helped explain the links between girls’ education and climate change and why addressing one crisis will help address the other. She shared the process behind this paper, why research is an important tool in advocacy and how governments can equip girls with the skills and values they need to build a more equal world.
We hope that after you read our conversation, you leave with a little more vocabulary and knowledge to speak out about the girls’ education and climate crises and help build a greener, fairer future.
Uforo Nsentip (UN): Tell us a bit about your role as the research officer of Malala Fund.
Naomi Nyamweya (NN): I think about my role as research officer at Malala Fund as having four different streams of work. The first stream of work is developing an evidence base for our global advocacy and policy positions and establishing us as a thought leader by carrying out various research projects. This can be primary research, such as the research that we did for COVID-19, where we were looking at the impacts of COVID-19 on education and the financial conditions of households, or secondary research, where you use data that's already available or research that other people have already done and then you put all of that, and find a way to build a coherent argument. I work to develop an evidence base for our advocacy so that we're not just asking for things without any proof of why these things are meaningful asks.
The second stream of work is support to national advocacy, which is when members of our Education Champion Network in each country advocate to policymakers, decision-makers and communities to create a more enabling environment for girls’ education. Sometimes as part of this work we have research that takes place at a national level, and my role is to provide support; sometimes I provide quality assurance or help with developing the approach or help with selecting the consultant.
(Courtesy of Naomi Nyamweya)
And then there's the third stream of work, which is building partnerships with other research organisations, funds, NGOs and INGOs. I build relationships with other researchers and data organisations so that we can work together towards the same goal.
The fourth stream of work is conducting desktop research to develop talking points for our representatives. So, for example, if Malala has an engagement and she is going to be speaking with a government, I develop talking points to make sure that the things that she is saying are in line with our policy positions and are, of course, evidence based.
Eduek Nsentip (EN): Why is research important? What role does it play in activism and, in particular, why is research important to the girls’ education and climate movements?
NN: The role of research is persuasion. Research for advocacy is carried out with the intention of providing evidence and arguments that can be used to support a particular cause or position or persuade people to take a certain action. Carrying out research can also establish you as an expert on a particular issue and help you think of solutions. For example, in girls’ education, you can look at what different countries are doing to enhance the quality of girls’ education and then you can look at the results to learn what works and what doesn't work; then, you can make an evidence-based argument for a certain position.
Research can also be used to show that there is public support for something or that the public cares about an issue. For example, you can conduct a survey and ask people: “How do you rate the importance of girls’ education?” If governments and policymakers see that there's a lot of public support for an issue, then they are more likely to act on it. Research can also provide the basis for media and public awareness around a specific issue to get more people talking about it.
Another thing that research does, which is very important, is that it helps you to dispel myths, rumours or false assumptions. So you're able to say that this is based on science. This is what is true. And the other things that people are saying are really not factual because there is no research that has been done that can prove this, that can say that this is a fact.
UN: For the research process of this paper, what were your objectives and what were the steps in the conducting of this research?
NN: As you may know from college, when you begin the research process you have to clarify what the problem is and formulate a hypothesis. For this report, our first hypothesis is that there is a relationship between girls’ education and climate change in that climate change makes it difficult for girls to access 12 years of education. Our second hypothesis is that girls’ education is good for climate change because it enables girls to act in ways that are sustainable and to offer up solutions to the climate crisis.
After you formulate what your hypothesis is, you have to think of your research questions. Because I’m a quantitative researcher, my question was: To what extent does climate change influence girls’ access to 12 years of education? Or: To what extent is climate change going to stop girls from going to school? Is climate change going to cause girls to drop out from school? Is climate change going to reduce the supply or demand for education? And so those are the things that I thought about.
After you’ve formulated a hypothesis and thought of your research questions, then you review the literature to see what research is already out there and identify the gap. What questions have not been answered yet? What can you say that’s new? After that, you decide what instruments it is that you are going to use to carry out the research. Then there is the data collection, the data analysis, the interpretation of this data and the report writing.
(Courtesy of Eduek Nsentip)
EN: Can you describe the relationship between girls’ education and climate change?
NN: That's a really good question, and it's a question that we have been exploring for the past few months. First I think there is the obvious relationship, which is that if climate change continues to happen the way that it's happening it's going to affect girls’ access to education. We already see that in certain areas, girls are unable to go to school because perhaps there's been a flood and their school has been flooded or wiped out. And then there's also the fact that when climate change puts pressure on a household, they are likely to pull girls out of school. For example, if there's a drought and a household has no food, then a “solution” might be to marry off their daughters in exchange for livestock to support the family, or so that the family can have one less mouth to feed. We saw this in Ethiopia, where the U.N. reported that there was an increase in the number of girls forced into marriage during a period of drought between 2010 and 2011.
Another way that climate change can affect girls’ education is the fact that household responsibilities tend to be gendered, so when climate events make it difficult to fulfil these responsibilities girls no longer go to school. For example, girls are the ones that go out to collect water for the household, and if there's drought they have to go farther. And if girls have to go farther then they are unlikely to go to school because they are not going to go to school late.
And I think the most important linkage, which is the linkage that we try to make very clear in our report, is that when you equip girls with holistic skills — so not just teaching girls science, technology, engineering and mathematics, but also teaching them how to think critically, how to be adaptable, how to be creative, how to have a voice and how to stand up for themselves — then they are able to think about climate change from the root of the issue, they themselves are able to bring up solutions and push policymakers to implement solutions.
“When you equip girls with holistic skills — so not just teaching girls science, technology, engineering and mathematics, but also teaching them how to think critically, how to be adaptable, how to be creative, how to have a voice and how to stand up for themselves — then they are able to think about climate change from the root of the issue, they themselves are able to bring up solutions and push policymakers to implement solutions.”
EN: What is the Paris Agreement? Why is it important, and what have governments signed up to?
NN: The Paris Agreement is an agreement that was adopted in December of 2015, and it's a legally-binding international treaty on climate change, which basically means that countries are bound by law to do what the Paris Agreement says that they are meant to do. The goal of the Paris Agreement is to limit global warming to well below between 1.5°C and 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels (meaning before the industrial revolution).
In order to achieve this goal, countries need to behave in certain ways. The implementation of this Paris Agreement requires there to be an economic transformation and a social transformation. Under the Paris Agreement, countries have to submit Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which is basically a country's climate plan for how they will contribute to limiting climate change and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
A push that Malala Fund is making is for countries to include girls’ education in their NDCs, for them to say: “As a country we're going to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by putting more money into girls' education.” In our report, we have presented the evidence of why this is an effective method of reducing climate change and bringing down global temperatures, or at least making sure they don’t keep rising.
UN: When girls are given the opportunity to exercise their sexual and reproductive health and rights through quality education and access to contraception, how can that reduce the rate and impact of global warming?
NN: Studies have shown that when you educate girls, they tend to have children much later on in life, and they also tend to have fewer children because they are able to space out their children and they are also able to plan out their families. So if you provide every girl with a quality education and the right to exercise their sexual and reproductive health freedoms, there's a projection that fossil fuel emissions would reduce by 37% to 41% by the end of the century. We also see that by 2050, we would be able to reduce carbon emissions by 85 gigatons. One gigaton is two million elephants — so that’s a big amount. If you compare girls' education to very popular climate solutions like solar power, you see that girls' education is four times more effective in emissions reduction than solar power is. It's also more effective than solutions like nuclear power and electric cars.
However this argument comes with a disclaimer, because we are not saying that the solution to climate change is to control girls’ and women's bodies. We are not saying that education is good because it makes girls have fewer children. Women have not caused climate change, so we can’t say that the solution to climate change is to stop women from having children. But what we are saying is that when girls are educated, sometimes they choose to have fewer children. And when they have fewer children, then the rate of climate change reduces for a number of reasons.
(Courtesy of Uforo Nsentip)
UN: We started a petition on Change.org to include Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in our global educational curriculum. Do you think if girls are taught the SDGs in school, including those related to climate change and quality education, it will encourage them to take action on these issues?
NN: First, I think it’s incredible that you've taken initiative. A lot of people have ideas that they don't act on, and so the fact that you had an idea and you've acted on it and it's gained traction I think that's really impressive and you should keep on with what it is that you're doing. Just keep on with that same spirit. And I agree with the entire premise of your petition, which is that we need to teach students about the SDGs because the point of sustainable development is to have a world that the future can live in, and the future is the children that are in school right now. So those are definitely things that they should be taught.
UN: What role does social justice play mitigating climate change?
NN: I think social justice provides a framework for us to think about environmentalism more as environmental justice. Environmental justice is the understanding that climate change and all the bad things that happen due to climate change affect those who are marginalised more, namely women and people from Black and Brown communities. This frame of thought will also lead us to ask questions such as: Who caused climate change and who bears the brunt of climate change? When we look at it that way, we are able to go back and think about the roots of the climate crisis — like colonialism.
During colonialism, you had White people going to African countries and buying slaves and then taking these African slaves to Caribbean countries and the Americas, where they used slave labour to produce cotton or sugarcane which was then sold to bring wealth into the West. That process started to cause climate change. Then you think about how the same White people went into countries that had minerals like Mexico, mined silver and damaged the land. This harmed the people that lived there then, but we still see it harming people now. What we're saying is that the people that have caused climate change cannot tell the people that have not caused climate change that they need to reduce their emissions. That is not justice.
So, what is justice? Justice is when the person who caused the problem bears the highest cost of bringing about the solution. So going back to the Paris Agreement and the NDCs; we can't put the same weight on African countries to reduce their emissions when they are still getting industrialised, when they are still playing catch-up, as we are putting on countries that are already industrialised. Similarly, we are very careful about how we speak about the role of women's reproduction in the fight against climate change, because women did not cause climate change. Poor women did not cause this climate change. Black and Brown women did not cause climate change. And so we cannot then say that the solution lies in their bodies.
“What we’re saying is that the people that have caused climate change cannot tell the people that have not caused climate change that they need to reduce their emissions. That is not justice.”
EN: In the report, you featured quotes from young women on the forefront of climate movements. Who are some of the activists you featured and what are their demands for leaders?
NN: So we have Evelyn Acham from Uganda and Tokatowin Iron Eyes who is an Indigenous climate activist in the U.S.. Tokatowin wants leaders to centre the voices of Indigenous activists and Evelyn wants leaders to centre the voices of African climate activists because, as I said, they are bearing the brunt of climate change. These two girls are also asking for climate education — meaning education about climate change — to be included in curriculums and to be included in curriculums in a way that's transformative.
So an example that Tokatowin gives is that in her curriculum, students don't learn about climate change. They learn about the fossil fuel industry, and it's taught as something that's good because it's good for the economy. But when she steps out of the classroom, she can see how the pipes that are being built and the way that the system of extraction is degrading her community. So in her mind, you can't really teach that the fossil fuel industry is 100% good because it's good for the economy when it's not good for the environment and it's not good for the climate. So both of them are asking leaders to include climate change education in the curriculums.
Then there's another young activist called Lauren who is from The Bahamas, and she talks about social justice, environmentalism and environmental justice. And she asks us to think about that very important connection. She makes a point about environmental racism. And from her point of view, environmental racism means that the poor Black and Brown communities are the ones that, as I said earlier, bear the biggest brunt of the climate crisis when they've caused the least harm. She also asks that environmentalists look at environmentalism and realise that the movement has historically been very exclusionary and dominated by White men. And so then that influences the thinking. The thinking is very White. It's very male. It’s very racist. So she asks for environmentalists to look at the history of environmentalism.
UN: The paper proposes the Gender-Equal Green Learning Agenda, a new framework to help every girl go to school, all students learn the tools, skills and values they need to thrive in the green labour market and take actions to achieve climate justice. What does education look like for girls in the Gender-Equal Green Learning Agenda?
NN: The Gender-Equal Green Learning Agenda has four pillars: access, skills, values and activism. The first pillar, access, means ensuring that all girls are completing 12 years of quality education. Then the second pillar is skills. We want to teach girls an expanded vision of green skills to help them think about things like adaptability and creativity in order to help them secure jobs in the future that will help fight climate change. Then the third pillar is values, by this we mean that we want to promote sustainable values through climate education. We need education to have a bolder curriculum which interrogates the sources of climate change and encourages learners to adopt new ways of thinking and act in a way that’s sustainable. And then the final pillar is activism: empowering students to take action on climate justice. In order to advance climate justice, we must teach students to collectively challenge the systems that uphold climate injustice — things like extractivism, racial inequality and gender discrimination.
“In order to advance climate justice, we must teach students to collectively challenge the systems that uphold climate injustice — things like extractivism, racial inequality and gender discrimination.”
UN: What can Assembly readers do to support the paper and its findings?
NN: Apart from reading the paper and sharing the paper in their networks, Assembly readers can get on TikTok and follow Malala Fund on TikTok and share our posts around the reports. Assembly readers can also write to their local elected representatives and just explain their sentiment about climate change or sign your petition in order to make the push for SDGs to be included in curriculums around the world. And Assembly readers themselves can adopt sustainable behaviours, and they can go out and educate themselves and others about the impact of girls’ education on climate change in order to support the research that we’re doing.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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