Centring women’s knowledge and leadership in Nepal’s climate response

Author: Manjeeta Gurung

Indira Dhital, a local woman leader from Kavre, central Nepal, recently recited this poem at the culmination of a UN Women project focused on building women’s climate and disaster resilience by strengthening climate smart villages. It captures Nepal’s erratic climate reality, where disaster is no longer a distant threat, but a recurring part of life. Nepal’s vulnerability to climate change is deeply intertwined with both its fragile geography and persistent social inequalities. Women, especially those in rural and Indigenous communities, depend heavily on natural resources for their livelihoods and daily survival. As rising temperatures, erratic rainfall and environmental degradation intensify, so too do the burdens they carry.

In September last year, record-breaking rains caused the Bagmati River to overflow, inundating parts of Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. At the same time, heavy floods and landslides swept through multiple districts across Nepal, damaging homes, agricultural lands and vital infrastructure.

“When the landslide hit last September, it polluted our water source and washed away all the taps and pipes. For nearly three months, we had no clean drinking water,” recalls Purnima Shrestha, local women group’s facilitator and resident from Kavre.

These floods and landslides were a harsh reminder of how climate change disproportionately affects women. Across Nepal, women are often the first to respond, the last to leave and the ones holding communities together in the aftermath. Their care responsibilities, already immense, are mounting under the strain of climate impacts.

As another farmer, Niruta Moktan from Sindhuli, shares: “The water source in our village dried up. Now we walk more than an hour daily to fetch water. On top of that, we farm, cook, fetch water and energy, preserve them and care, but it’s rarely acknowledged.”

The climate crisis is, in many ways, also a care crisis.

But amid the growing risks, women’s knowledge offers a powerful and often untapped resource. Rural and Indigenous women have safeguarded ecological knowledge for generations: from managing forests and water systems to maintaining biodiversity and preserving traditional farming techniques. Their lived experiences, when recognized and supported, can guide adaptation strategies that are locally grounded and sustainable.

The introduction of climate-smart technologies and tools such as solar water pumps, improved cookstoves, drip irrigation systems, maize sheller and mini tillers has already begun to ease this burden in several communities. These technologies reduce physical strain, save time and boost productivity. More importantly, they allow women to reclaim space for leadership, enabling them to put their knowledge into practice.

Realizing this fact, UN Women Nepal is working to ensure that women are not just included in climate action, but shaping it. It supports spaces where women critically engage with local climate issues, build confidence and mobilize for collective climate action. Whether in local women’s self-help groups or farming groups, women are leading solutions that combine traditional knowledge with modern innovation.

Through initiatives related to its climate-smart village project, UN Women is scaling support to strengthen social capital in communities affected by climate crisis and disaster through women’s collective reflection, voice and action. UN Women has been supporting local government to advise on gender-responsive climate-resilient decision-making; and strengthening data and evidence on climate vulnerabilities that help ensure access to climate finance.

The approach is setting an example for inclusive climate action, says Kunsang Lama, Mayor of Namobuddha Municipality, Kavre.

“UN Women and its partners have helped us integrate Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) into our climate action plans and build the capacity of our local institutions to integrate gender in disaster risk reduction and adaptation plans,” he says.

In order to build climate resilience that is both effective and equitable, grass-roots women must have direct and easy access to climate finance, not only as beneficiaries but as decision-makers and right holders. Flexible funding mechanisms, community-based grants and gender-responsive budgeting can unlock women’s leadership.

“Nepal’s climate future depends on a shift towards feminist climate justice,” says Patricia Fernandez Pacheco, UN Women Country Representative to Nepal. “It requires investing not just in tools and technologies, but in the people who know how to use them wisely: women who have been living with, learning from and protecting the land for generations.”

Climate justice, after all, is not only about redistributing resources, but also about redistributing power.

As local woman leader Purnima Shrestha, from Kavre, aptly said: “We know how to live with the land, we just need a seat at the table.”