Women come

Through my organization, the World Resources Institute Africa, we support women entrepreneurs in bringing prosperity, sustainable livelihoods and environmental restoration to their communities through the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative And Restore locally, which WRI initiated this year, and which aims to accelerate the recovery of degraded lands across Africa. Women like the three founders of Exotic-EPZ in Nairobi, who process macadamia nuts from 7,000 farmers in Kenya to sell them all over the world. Women like those in the Green Belt Movement network of Maragua, Kenya, plant bamboo as a source of biomass and an opportunity for entrepreneurship.

In this work I join the work my mother undertook with the Green Belt Movement: empowering women to mobilize and regenerate their environment And standing up to powerful forces that want to marginalize them.

Like the women of Kenya, India and Argentina, we are about to lose everything we hold dear: our lives, our heritage, our livelihoods, the future of our children and their children and a large part of the non- human world. This moment calls for the feminist qualities of unity, collaboration, focused action and shared understanding. Are we going to maintain the order that led to this terrible impasse, or are we going to call for a different future, however risky, in the face of political structures that appear violent and entrenched, but are in fact fragile?

Africa has enormous potential: a vibrant, young population and an abundance of resources – whether solar energy or minerals. It is up to us, as Africans, to chart the path forward to a green, resilient climate future that gives us energy independence, eradicates poverty and protects nature.

My mother laid out a credo that millions of women still embody, even if they have never heard these words: “Those of us who understand it, who feel strongly about it, must not grow weary. We must not give up. We must persevere. I always say the burden is on those who know. We are the ones who need to take action.”

Or, as Professor Mũgo would remind us: “Women are coming.”

Wanjira Mathai is director of Africa and global partnerships at the World Resources Institute. She is also the current chairperson of the Wangari Maathai Foundation and former chairperson of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya.