The Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which came into force in 2016, included gender equality as a principle in its preamble, as well as in the articles on adaptation and capacity-building. At the Medcop22, a Mediterranean meeting to prepare the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22), held in Tangier in July 2016, gender and climate workshops were put at the center of the meeting. In addition, a declaration on Gender and Climate of Mediterranean Women was adopted and signed by more than 200 structures and personalities, including the Foundation and 30 members of its Network of networks.

Following the COP22 held in Marrakech in November, the “Marrakech Proclamation for Action on Climate and Sustainable Development” was adopted by Heads of State, Governments and Delegations. Unfortunately, this proclamation makes no reference to human rights or gender equality. Despite this, the Foundation continued its efforts to make policy makers aware on the situation of girls and women living in rural and peri-urban areas who are particularly affected by the adverse effects of global warming and the scarcity of basic resources.

Therefore, the Foundation participated in several activities of the COP22 official program, such as the side-event, entitled, “Gender and Climate Justice: Good Practices in Responding to Climate Change” and the workshop on “Gender, Climate Action and Green Finance: New alliances for an effective action against climate change and facilitated access to climate finance". The Foundation also organized, in partnership with the Forum Femmes Méditerranée, a caravan of water carriers that took place at the same time as the march of the Moroccan Coalition for Climate Justice. This "caravan" aimed to draw the attention of the general public to the difficulties of water supply and its consequences for young women in charge of this chore (early marriages, dropping out of school, etc.).

Advocacy and awareness-raising activities will continue in the coming months thanks to the Federation of Leagues of Women's Rights FLDF - Marrakech section that coordinates the local cluster of gender equality actors© - Cycle 1 (production of a documentary on the impact of climate change on the daily life of rural women, meetings with the elected politicians locally and regionally). The actions of the FLDF Marrakech section have a dual objective. On the one hand, to stress the link between climate change and the increase of underage marriages in the region of Marrakech. On the other hand, to integrate the "gender and climate" component into territorial public policies.

Finally, the COP22 allowed a coalition between Mediterranean and African women facing the challenge of climate change in the Mediterranean to be formalized (Femmes Med Afrika Gender and Climate). The aim of this Coalition is to gather all the associations from the Mediterranean basin that work for social, political and economic empowerment of women and for the achievement of climate justice that respects gender equality. This Coalition has a Memorandum of Understanding and it plans to develop tools and work processes to defend the equitable access of women and girls affected by the consequences of climate change to financial and technological resources, as well as the adaptation and mitigation solutions adopted during the climate negotiations (MedCOP-Climate and COP).

All the images of the Foundation at the COP22 are on the Facebook page of the Foundation.

To find out more about the progress made in mainstreaming gender equality in climate actions, read the article "COP 22 on Climate, an initial assessment" prepared by Adequations, member of the Network of associations of Foundation.

Recording of the entire side event on Gender and Climate Justice: Best Practices for Climate Challenges (in French and English) with the participation of Fouzia Assouli, President of the Foundation (from the minute 5.05 to the minute 20.04) is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5uTJgEMs68