For the August 2024 episode of the IGC podcast, we are joined by Yasmina Benslimane, founder of Politics4Her, award-winning feminist activist, consultant, women's empowerment coach, and one of the ten IGC Youth Champions, along with Ambassador Matthew Wilson, Permanent Representative of Barbados to the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, and other International Organisations in Geneva.
They discuss the challenges Global Majority countries face in light of the unfolding climate crisis and outline their vision for true climate justice—from ensuring meaningful and equitable participation in decision-making to reforming the global financial architecture.
TRANSCRIPT
Aditi Kekre
Hello and welcome to a new episode of the IGC Podcast. I'm Aditi Kekre and I'm with the IGC Secretariat. Today we are going to highlight the Youth Champions programme, which is a six- month long mutual mentoring exchange that connects 10 Geneva-based Gender Champions with 10 young gender equality activists from around the world. The programme seeks to promote an intergenerational dialogue between participants, amplify the voices of the young activists and facilitate learning experience for our established Gender Champions. For today's episode, we are joined by Ambassador Wilson and Yasmina Benslimane, who are going to discuss climate challenges faced by global majority countries.
Matthew Wilson is the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Barbados to the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation and other International Organisations in Geneva, and Chair of the WTO Working Group on MSMEs. He has held various senior positions, including Chief of Staff at the International Trade Centre and Senior Advisor to the WTO Director General. Matthew is an International Gender Champion and a strong supporter of diversity and inclusion. He has degrees in psychology, sociology, international relations, development studies and an MBA-essentials. Welcome to the podcast, Ambassador Wilson!
Ambassador Matthew Wilson
Thank you so much for having me.
Aditi Kekre
Yasmina Benslimane is an award-winning feminist activist, consultant and women's empowerment coach dedicated to advancing gender equality and promoting women's rights. As the founder of Politics4Her, she advocates for increased political participation and representation for young women and girls from global majority countries. She focuses on climate justice, forced migration, gender-based violence and peace- building. Welcome to you as well, Yasmina.
Yasmina Benslimane
Thank you so much! I think that we should also add on Matthew's bio that he's the best mentor.
Ambassador Matthew Wilson
Oh, that's great. Thank you, Yasmina, you're the best mentee! Or peer, shall I say?
Aditi Kekre
Let's start by getting the terminology right for those who are less familiar with the term: what do we mean when we speak about global majority countries?
Yasmina Benslimane
I’m happy to answer that. So, the term global majority countries refers to nations primarily in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, which collectively represent the majority of the world’s population. The term is preferred to a “Global South” or “Global North” because it avoids colonial implications and geographic inaccuracies that are associated very often with these labels. So really “Global Majority” is a decolonial term and a way to say: we are not minorities, we have been minoritised, which is very different. And it emphasises the demographic realities, and just seeks to decolonise language by highlighting the diversity of all of these regions without positioning them as inferior to the so-called developed countries. So that’s the way that I see it.
Aditi Kekre
Thank you so much, Yasmina, for that explanation. Both of you are either from or based in a Caribbean Island. Could you tell us what are the most prominent challenges related to climate faced by the communities you are in touch with?
Ambassador Matthew Wilson
Well, let me start off here, given that I'm from Barbados, and I'm also representing Barbados here in Geneva. And I would say that for Barbados and other Small Island Developing States, the climate crisis is real. It's existential. It is visceral, and we can see it and we can feel it, and we're living it every single day. You have rising sea levels. You have the ocean that is warming, the acidification of the ocean. This has an impact on fishing, on coral reefs, on surge protection. We have rising temperatures. If you think it's hot in Europe, imagine how hot it is in the Caribbean right now. And that impacts productivity. Impacts machinery and hard infrastructure. It impacts agriculture and food security. It impacts health as well, something which I think we think far too little about. Then, of course, we have the threats of hurricanes. You know, this year - and Yasmina would have lived through this living in the Caribbean region- we had Hurricane Beryl, which is the earliest on record category five hurricane, which had an incredible amount of damage in some of the countries in the Caribbean. And a few years ago, we also had some storms and hurricanes through the region that completely decimated some of our small islands. Wiped out the GDP of certain islands in a matter of hours.
I mean, think about that, you know. And this is why this whole element of vulnerability and resilience is so important, and why countries like Barbados through the Bridgetown Initiative try to take this message to the international community: that you cannot just look at things like GDP per capita, you have to look at vulnerability, how challenging it is to build back after a climate or natural disaster. And some of the challenges that we're facing are in terms of accessing finance, issues around insurance. This is something that we don't talk about very much, but you have many of the major insurers right now who are a little bit reticent about ensuring property and businesses in the Caribbean and other Small Island States. You can imagine what that does for investment and for investors and for investment attractiveness, if you are not having your properties and your businesses and your houses insured. So, this is something that I think we need to think quite a bit more about going forward.
Yasmina Benslimane
I would also like to add a little bit to that, of course, I relate to everything. I'm based in Puerto Rico, which is a modern-day colony. So, that adds also layers of complexities to the climate crisis. As Ambassador Wilson mentioned, there are very recurrent hurricanes, and the water is getting warmer. The weather is getting hotter as well, and that affects disproportionately communities that are perhaps elderly or that are sick. And I see with my own eyes the erosion of properties that are in front of the beach. I live through power and water outages all the time. Every single week, there is one or the other, especially because the energy is controlled by LUMA, which is a US and Canadian Private Company. So that adds also another layer of complexity. There's also settler colonialism, which exacerbates these issues, because historically marginalised communities don't have the resources or the supports for recovery and resilience, just like Ambassador Wilson mentioned. There are a lot of communities that are still recovering from the Hurricane Maria that happened years ago. So, it's something in everyday life, food security as well.
And if you take an intersectional lens and see how colonialism is affecting food security and the climate crisis even more, that also highlights how there are colonial legacies, and it's urgent to address them. Ambassador Wilson mentioned the health. For example, the island of Vieques in Puerto Rico has been used for testing bombs by the Navy for decades. A lot of the residents have high rates of cancer. The biodiversity loss is heartbreaking. I had to snorkel with turtles who had big tumours because of how toxic the waters are. So, there's so much to unpack, but most importantly, you know, Caribbean islands are almost not responsible for the climate crisis, but they're the most affected and at the front line of it as well. So, it's something that we really need to acknowledge and face as well in everything that we undertake in terms of recovery, in terms of preparing for disasters, and so on and so forth.
Matthew Wilson
I want to pick up on something Yasmina said, which is which I think is so important. So, all of these countries in the region, in the Caribbean and the Pacific, they’re vulnerable. But within these vulnerable countries, you have vulnerable communities, and those are often women and girls, the elderly, people living with disabilities, people below the poverty line, people living on the coastlines, where, as Yasmina mentioned, there’s a huge amount of erosion. So, you know, you need to also think about the vulnerable within the vulnerable communities, within the vulnerable countries, and that you do have to have very bespoke, very specific, very intentional programmes and interventions to make sure that you protect the most vulnerable.
Aditi Kekre
Thank you so much, Ambassador Wilson and Yasmina, for shedding light on how real the climate crisis is and also, what are the intersectional impacts on communities in the Caribbean. You have been very vocal in your advocacy for climate justice and the meaningful participation of women, girls, and marginalised groups in climate action. Why does equitable representation matter in climate action, and how can we overcome the barriers that prevent participation in climate-related decision making?
Yasmina Benslimane
So, like Ambassador Wilson mentioned, each group, depending on different intersections, will face different challenges. And if they are not here to represent themselves and talk about the issues that they are facing, how are we going to fix these issues? These communities that are the most at risk and the most impacted by the climate crisis are also the ones that are most left behind. When I go to high-level events to represent the voices of young women and girls, especially from global majority countries, it’s a big responsibility. And knowing that young women and girls is not a homogeneous group- that there are those that are forcibly displaced, those that are living under authoritarian or dictatorship regimes. There are so many different layers of complexities to take into account when we talk about marginalised groups and those that are left behind.
And if we truly want equitable representation and climate action, we need to properly fund and include the voices of those left behind. And I can talk a lot about young women and girls, because this is the community that I serve. And it’s very unfortunate that these high-level events where decisions are made, where policies are drafted, do not include meaningfully young women and girls in their diversity. Why? They’re held in the most expensive and visa restrictive cities in the world. So, there’s no such thing as diverse representation at every decision-making table. And if there is, very often, it’s tokenistic and it’s not meaningful engagement. It’s just to look good. So that’s something that I strongly advocate for: to dismantle the layers of bureaucracies that we have in order to just have our voices heard, that we’re not even sure that they will be included in decision-making processes.
Ambassador Matthew Wilson
It's not just the morally right thing to do to be inclusive in your decision-making and your standard-setting and your roll-out of programmes. It is the smart thing to do. If you want these programmes and interventions to be sustainable, you have got to include the next generation in how they're crafted. Because they're the ones who are going to be most affected by the climate crisis. They're the ones who are going to be given the reins to ensure that these things work and have positive externalities for the populations. So, they have got to have a voice in how they are crafted. So, I think that, you know, it's the smart thing to do and it's the moral thing to do as well.
And then, you know, Youth bring a kind of innovation, new perspectives that maybe my generation, we have lost. Youth don't see geographical boundaries around ideas. They just see ideas that can help the Global commons. They are in contact with different people with different experiences from all over the world, and they're able to pull from those stories, from those realities. They'll be able to pull innovative solutions from all parts of the world. And that is what we need when we're crafting 21st century policy around climate, around development, around inclusivity. We need these kinds of novel ideas. So, I think that for any government, for any policy-maker, to leave the voice of youth and to leave the voice of women, girls, persons with disabilities, LGBTQI+, outside of the discourse, I think we're doing ourselves a huge disservice.
Yasmina Benslimane
Yes, and just one last thing, I think it’s unfair that young people and women and girls in all their diversity have to fight to make this world better, while decisions are made, and policies are drafted without including them. And most of the time, those that draft these policies are older, white, cis men that won’t be affected by these decisions in the near future. And that not only is it the right thing to do for our future, but it’s also our present. A lot of time we say, oh, young people are the future. We’re not, we’re also the present.
Ambassador Matthew Wilson
And I think going forward, there's something that every single government and institution needs to keep in mind. They need to educate, they need to legislate, and they need to regulate. And what do I mean when I say that? They need to educate people as to why it matters that we have diversity in decision-making. They need to legislate it. They need to almost make it mandatory that the seats around the table are filled with the people and the lives and the representation that these policies are supposed to impact on. And it needs to be regulated. We need to hold people to account. There needs to be greater accountability. That there's no green washing, for example, in what is happening, or there's no gender washing in what is happening. That there are legitimate spaces for young people, for women, for girls, for other discriminated and vulnerable communities to have a real impact and voice in global policy-making. So, educate, legislate and regulate.
Yasmina Benslimane
Period.
Aditi Kekre
Lately, there has been a lot of talk around leveraging finance for effective climate action. How does that look like in practice? And how can climate finance support global majority countries and create opportunities for advancing gender equality?
Ambassador Matthew Wilson
Small countries like those of us in the Caribbean and the Pacific, we have not caused this climate crisis. It is therefore almost immoral to expect us to be able to deal with this existential threat, which is at our doorsteps, by ourselves, using our own resources.
There needs to be more fairness and more equity in accessing climate financing, which means also breaking down some of the very archaic rules and regulations in the global financial architecture, including around using terminology and indices like GDP per capita, which does not take into account issues like vulnerability and resilience. And I think that this is something that Barbados has really, really taken to heart. We recognise that there's some serious problems out there in the global financial infrastructure. And through the Bridgetown Initiative, which is now at its 3.0 iteration, we have put a number of concepts, ideas and formulations and suggestions on the table to have people think about why is so important to invest in adaptation and mitigation. The Loss and Damage Fund, for example, is something that the Bridgetown Initiative has been advocating for. We have advocated, and we've been successful, I'm happy to say, in including disaster clauses and pauses in loan agreements from the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. We are now pushing for philanthropic organisations to do more, to put a small percentage of their funds into the Global commons. We are now asking for the private sector to do a lot more, because we cannot achieve this just with public money. The private sector has got to be on board. And we're also recommending things like global levies on shipping and even on luxury air travel as a way to show commitment and contribute to the global part which will have a positive impact on the Global commons.
So, and climate finance is also about development. So, we also need to broaden that, to look at issues like aid for trade, for example, and using trade policy to be able to support, you know, the just climate transition. And it's difficult when you look at the numbers. So, during the first year of the pandemic, for example, governments, especially the developed country governments, they were able to mobilise 16 trillion in Covid stimulus packages, 16 trillion in public money in the first year of the pandemic. For climate finance, it has been said that we need to have at least 9 trillion a year by 2030. In 2022, rich countries were only able to meet their 2020 target to deliver 100 billion in climate finance. Think about that. There's something wrong with the maths. As Yasmina would tell me, the maths is not mathing.
You know that you have this huge gap in climate finance needs, and the money is there. So, it's not about liquidity. It's about political will, and this is where we really need to hold certain entities’ feet to the fire to get them to understand: climate crisis is going to hit small economies like those in the Caribbean and the Pacific and in Africa first, we know that. But we know that's going to lead to mass migration. We know that's going to lead to even more hunger and poverty than there is today. Do you know that there are 152 million more people hungry today than they were before the pandemic? One in four children today are facing hunger because of increased conflict and extreme weather events caused by climate change. It will only get worse, and it will eventually get to your doorstep. So, everyone has got to be committed to this fight against the climate crisis.
Yasmina Benslimane
Mic drop.
Now definitely I would, first of all, Barbados is exemplary in terms of climate justice and everything that the Prime Minister does. I remember when I first met with Ambassador Wilson, I said, I'm such a big fan of your Prime Minister. She's iconic.
But it's also interesting to see how the climate crisis is intimately tied to colonialism, to capitalism. There's billions of dollars in fossil fuels industries, and we have to be happy that at the last COP, there were a few million dollars committed to the Loss and Damage Fund? Again, the math is not mathing. There are the resources, there is the money. But it does not go to the right pockets. It does not go to the ones that are the most affected by the climate crisis. And the climate crisis knows no borders, no social class. So eventually it will affect the richer. It will affect the oligarchs. It will affect everyone.
At the current rate that we have right now, in terms of climate finance, there's only 2% that goes towards projects that involve both climates and gender. But women and girls are 14 times more likely to die during a disaster, so how come we're not investing properly into their work? They are at the front line. If you think climate justice movements, you're going to think young people, and you're going to think young women, particularly. They are the protectors of our Earth and Indigenous communities even more. And they feel it. They feel it the hardest, especially those that are in agricultural land, because it's something that they've been doing for generations, and now they're seeing the effects and the changes. And it affects the economy. It affects many different issues, from sexual and reproductive health rights to having access to food, just like Ambassador Wilson mentioned. And we're seeing a surge in forced displacement related to either disasters or related to the climate crisis.
We've seen it also in Morocco, my home country, where 300,000 people were forcibly displaced because of the earthquake. And although the climate crisis does not trigger earthquakes, it is likely that it triggers the recurrency of all of these disasters more and more, and we're seeing that it's happening and affecting more global majority countries. And it's just a pity that not as much effort is put to prevent and to be prepared to these climate disasters, and that the funding does not go towards the communities, not only that are the most affected, but also at the front line that are facing the crisis, hence, first. And for that to happen, we need to shift from fossil fuels, because they are responsible for 70% or more of carbon emissions. And no matter if all of us go vegan, zero waste, whatever you want, the individual responsibility will never be over the responsibility that they have within the fossil fuel industry or our heads of states and people in power. So for me, I think it's important to increase the funding and support gender-responsive climate actions, especially those that are led by women, youth, Indigenous communities, historically marginalised groups. And this has to be sustainable, flexible core funding, not just throwing a couple $1,000 and say, yeah, we're helping save the climate crisis by giving a few thousands to groups that are leading climate justice efforts.
Aditi Kekre
Now before we wrap up, what do you think would be a key takeaway for our Gender Champions from this conversation? If you can share in a line or two.
Yasmina Benslimane
Yeah, I think it's important to have an intersectional approach to everything. So, when you talk about youth and you want to involve young people, make sure that you're going to involve young people in all their diversity and as in a way to amplify their voices, not have this like saviourism complex, where you speak for the voiceless. I think young people are very resilient, very smart and brilliant, and they are leading climate revolution. So just see them as your peers. Don't see them as lower than you or as they don't know what they're talking about. They know very well, they're very conscious, and we are very united in our struggle. There's a lot of transnational solidarity.
So, when you include young people in your work, make sure that you will take this intersectional approach without tokenism, and that you advocate to fund young people, flexible, sustainable, core. That you make sure that they're represented. When you look around the room and you don't see youth voices, there's an issue. If you don't see youth voices in all their diversity, there's an issue. And just know that, you know, young people want to work with the older generation as well. We love intergenerational partnership and dialogue. We need each other in order to make this world better. So, I think it's important for us to realise that, to come together. And just to end on a positive note, you know, like we want to build tables together. There are already tables, we are not there. We don't have seats. It's very western centric dominated. So, we want to build these tables together. We want to bring seats, new seats at the table.
Ambassador Matthew Wilson
There was the first black woman who ran for, I believe it was President in the US, Shirley, Chisholm. She was actually educated in Barbados. And there is this beautiful quote attributed to her that says,”if you're not invited to have a seat at the table, bring a folding chair”. So, I agree very much that you need to start building your own tables. And although there's only one Yasmina in this world, they are many people who have Yasmina's passion and network and intelligence around these issues. And governments, private companies, philanthropists, NGOs, you do yourselves a great disservice when you don't create space for voices like Yasmina. You do yourself a great disservice. For the International Gender Champions, I would say four A's: One, continue the advocacy. That's so important. We have got to continue to amplify the voices of young women and girls. The second A is accountability. We have got to hold ourselves and our institutions to account to make sure that we do bring diverse voices into the decision-making. The third is access. We need to continue to advocate for access to climate finance. All of us have got to sing from that same sheet. And the fourth A is agitation. We have got to continue to support a community of agitation, a community of activists who are brave and willing to agitate and speak truth to power.
Aditi Kekre
Thank you so much, Ambassador Wilson and Yasmina for joining us today and for this very insightful discussion!
Yasmina Benslimane
Thank you.
Ambassador Matthew Wilson
Thank you.