National Federation of Women’s Institutes Campaign action pack

                THE WHOLE STORY

RAISING OUR VOICE TO HIGHLIGHT THE CLIMATE IMPACTS ON WOMEN AND GIRLS

2021- The UK’s big climate year

This year, the UK will be playing host to a series of pivotal diplomatic conferences that have the potential to drive forward climate ambition and give increased assistance to those people and places that are the most vulnerable to climate change.

The biggest of these will be COP26- the annual UN climate change conference that will ‘make or break’ the strength of global climate agreements for decades to come.

COP26 will be the biggest ever diplomatic conference the UK has ever hosted, and Parliament, devolved administrations and local councils alike will be working to demonstrate that they are committed to raising the ambition of their climate commitments.

As a member of the largest women’s voluntary organisation in the UK, there will be a range of opportunities for you to raise your voice and show your support for COP26 agreements that deliver ambitious and fair climate action fit for the 21st century and beyond.

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        What is The Whole Story campaign?

 While climate change has negative consequences for all groups of people, there is evidence to show that some groups are disproportionately impacted by climate change.

This is particularly true of the climate impacts on women and girls.

Women and girls disproportionately confront a range of barriers which can hamper their ability to adapt to, or mitigate the effects of, climate change in their day to day lives.

These barriers can include the division of labour inside and outside the home, a lack of access to skills, knowledge and legal rights, and a lack of meaningful representation across global, national and local political levels. These affects can be disastrous on the lives of women and girls.

But things can be different. Organisations in the international development, environmental and women’s rights spheres have already demonstrated that when women and girls are empowered to use their critical knowledge, experience and unique roles in agriculture, food security, income generation and the management of natural resources, women are helping their families, friends and communities adapt to the challenges of climate change.

As the largest women’s voluntary organisation in the UK, the NFWI will be using our platform to stand shoulder to shoulder with women and girls around the world and will be calling on the UK Government to deliver a COP26 that provides a fair deal for women and girls everywhere in the fight against climate change.

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What The Whole Story campaign is calling for

We cannot continue with business as usual.

The UK Government has an unprecedented chance to work further with women in the UK and overseas to provide solutions to climate change.

In addition to the Glasgow Action Plan supported by The Climate Coalition, the NFWI will be urging the UK Government to:

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     • Host COP26 with a gender equal negotiating team

Research has shown that on average, women’s meaningful participation in climate negotiations and

conferences delivers climate policies with higher levels of ambition than without them.

To deliver high-ambition climate policies and to make sure that vital international climate agreements are made with the needs of the most climate-vulnerable in mind, the WI urge the UK Government to host the COP26 conference with a gender balanced negotiating team.

• Deliver a COP26 conference that is driven by and responsive to the needs of women and marginalised communities

• We are calling on the UK Government to centre the experiences of women and marginalised communities on the frontlines of climate change during the COP26 negotiations by including women and marginalised voices in the design and implementation of climate policies.

• We urge the UK Government to use their platform as COP26 host to encourage other nations to raise their own climate ambitions and targets.

• We urge the UK Government to provide accessible and inclusive platforms for women’s voices to be heard ahead of and during COP26.

• • We call on the UK Government to ensure their approach to COP26 is transparent and accountable. Work with women-led organisations and groups to deliver targeted capacity building

programmes on all levels

• We urge the UK Government to work with women-led national and local organisations and

community groups to deliver targeted training programmes to women in climate vulnerable areas.

This training should include practical forms of training which are responsive to the unique experiences of women to help communities adapt effectively to climate change, and advocacy training that will give women tools to assume climate leadership roles within their communities.

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 This training should also include empowering women to access community level funding schemes to better respond to the effects of climate change, and resources to overcome the gender stereotypical views of women’s time and capacity.

• To help to change attitudes about women’s capacity and capability, we would also like to see the UK Government support grassroots community programmes working with male members of households and communities to reinforce the move away from negative gender stereotypes to allow women to fulfil their full potential. This will help to remove some of the structural barriers that are inhibiting women’s access to economic empowerment, land rights and access to justice.

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What can I do to call for climate action in 2021?

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        G7

11th-13th June 2021

Great Big Green Week 18th-26th September 2021

COP26

1st-12th November 2021

There are lots of opportunities for you to take action to protect the climate this year.

What the WI did to take climate action to influence the G7?

The G7 took place between 11-13th June in Carbis Bay, Cornwall. At the G7, leaders of some of the wealthiest countries around the world came together to discuss a range of diplomatic issues.

Key topics included building back better and greener from COVID-19.

WI members across England, Wales and the Islands took part in the Crack the Crises ‘Wave of Hope’ to call on the Government to take urgent action on the four issues of COVID-19 recovery, nature degradation, climate change and gender inequalities and injustices. WI members came together across their communities to create decorative window displays of handprints with messages of hope to raise awareness of the need for urgent climate action. These images were collated together for use in a physical display at the G7.

The NFWI Public Affairs team also took part in the ‘Wednesdays for Women’ march to Downing Street.

Research and Campaign Officers Aanchal and Fiona joined representatives of leading women’s rights organisations to call on the Government to deliver vital G7 agreements that tackle violence against women and girls, ensure that women and girls are represented on all levels of leadership, and to tackle the crisis of unpaid care.

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What can I do to get involved in the Great Big Green Week?

  The WI is supporting The Climate Coalition’s plans for the Great Big Green Week.

Running from the 18th- 26th of September 2021, the Great Big Green Week will be a national week of events celebrating action on climate change.

Communities across the UK will be joining together to celebrate local action on climate change and to protect our green spaces, and will be calling on politicians to raise their ambition and champion action on climate change.

As a WI member wanting to raise your voice for vital climate action, The Climate Coalition would like to invite you and your WI to either organise a community event for the festival, or help to arrange and co-ordinate your own community festival. You can also take part in a range of activities from home.

The WI has been working with The Climate Coalition and its member organisations to provide plenty of resources for you to use to help you organise your community event or green week. These include resource guides focusing on the practicalities of organising your own event, promotional resources which would help you advertise your local green week or community event, and toolkits on how to engage your MP on climate change as a constituent. These can be found on the Great Big Green Week website: www.greatbiggreenweek.com/ resources/

Throughout the year, The Climate Coalition will also be organising training webinars to help you plan your community event or festival. This can be found on the Great Big Green Week ‘Training’ page: www.greatbiggreenweek.com/ training/

 What can I do to get involved in plans for COP26?

  Alongside supporting campaigns from the Crack the Crises Coalition and The Climate Coalition, the WI will be asking members to urge the UK Government to deliver agreements at COP26 that work for the most climate-vulnerable, especially for women and girls.

Take a look overleaf to find five things you can do to take action to deliver climate agreements that will work for women and girls across the world.

Following the Great Big Green Week in September, there will also be additional opportunities to get involved in The Climate Coalition’s plans for COP26.

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How can I get involved in the WI’s ‘The Whole Story’ campaign?

There are five ways you can get involved with The Whole Story campaign.

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        1.

2.

3.

Organise a WI meeting to raise awareness of the impacts of climate change on women and girls at home and overseas.

• There are lots of resources available for you to organise this meeting, from an informative PowerPoint and script, to printable fact files and a quiz for you to use in your WI meeting. These are available on MyWI.

• You could organise this meeting to suit your and your WI’s needs- perhaps you could make this meeting open to other interested members in your community or community groups also working on climate change. Do let the NFWI Public Affairs team know about the events or meetings you are holding, and whether or not your events would be open to other WIs to attend. You can contact us on pa@nfwi.org.uk.

Take part in our No More Loopholes bracelet craft action to urge your political representatives to deliver COP26 agreements without any climate loopholes for women and girls

• We have produced an easy-to-use ‘No More Loopholes’ craft bracelet resource which includes instructions on how to create the bracelet, which can be found on pages 10 to 11.

Meet with your MP and encourage them to become a parliamentary champion of the climate impacts on women and girls within parliamentary business and within your constituency.

• A series of informative briefings have been put together for your use focusing on the impacts of climate change on women and girls. These are available on MyWI.

• You can also use The Climate Coalition’s resource on how to engage your MP on climate change. This is available here: www.greatbiggreenweek.com/resources/

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 4.

5.

Attend our NFWI virtual webinars to learn more about the climate impacts on women and girls straight from policy experts already working on this.

• These webinars will be scheduled throughout the year in the run up to COP26- keep an eye out for how you can register for these webinars in WI Life and on the NFWI’s social media pages.

• The webinars will be stored on the WI’s YouTube channel for you and your WI to access them at a later date.

Contribute your climate hopes, fears and experiences of climate change to the NFWI’s digital ‘Climate Scrapbook.’

• Your contribution can be anything from a researched, factual blog about your experiences of climate change. a short piece to camera about what you would like to see arise from COP26, photos or drawings of what you would like to protect from climate change, a piece of creative writing, an interview with a Climate Ambassador in your WI- anything that you feel encapsulates your hopes, fears and experiences of climate change.

• The Climate Scrapbook will be going live on the NFWI’s website shortly. Keep up-to-date on the progress of the Climate Scrapbook by registering your interest by emailing pa@nfwi.org.uk.

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No More Loopholes Bracelet

Project design and photography: Jane Bolsover, JaneBCreatives Ltd

In November 2021 the UK will be hosting the COP26 in Glasgow, the UN’s climate conference.

A common criticism of COP conferences is that they ‘manufacture loopholes’, delivering agreements which allow national Governments worldwide to avoid fully implementing high-ambition climate agreements or emissions reductions.

As COP26 hosts, the UK Government has a responsibility to make sure that all climate agreements produced at COP26 are without these loopholes, delivering a greener, cleaner and healthier future for everyone, especially those that are the most climate- vulnerable.

These bracelets form a physical representation of this situation – crochet is formed by creating a series of loops using a hook. Our bracelet design also features a series of square holes, which are ‘closed’ using wooden beads.

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You can send these bracelets to your Member of Parliament to call for a COP26 conference that works for everyone or send them to your family and friends to raise awareness of COP26.

We will also be planning further campaign actions with your No More Loopholes bracelets closer to the date of COP26.

Let us know when you have made your bracelet by tagging the WI in your social media posts, or by emailing a photograph of your bracelet to pa@nfwi.org.uk.

         Skill level:

Beginner

Finished size:

Approximately 16mm deep x 160mm long (excluding the loop)

Stitches:

This bracelet is formed using three basic UK crochet stitches: chain, slip stitch and treble. For details on how to work these stitches, please see the ‘Basic Crochet Stitches’ section. These can be found on MyWI.

You will need:

• Double Knit yarn

• 3.50mm crochet hook • 6mm wooden beads

• 12mm wooden button • Darning needle

• Small pair of scissors

NB- these instructions are written for a right-handed person.

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      1.

For the foundation of the bracelet, chain 37 stitches.

2. For row 2, turn, working into the back ridge only.

Slip stitch into the second chain from the hook, and in each chain across make 36 slip stitches.

3.

Row 3:

Chain 4 stitches, turn.

    5. Chain 1, skip 1 slip stitch, then treble 1 into next

whole slip stitch, repeat 16 times to end of row to form 18 square holes.

  4. Treble 1 into 6th whole slip stitch from hook

(ie. both front and back ridges of the slip stitch).

    7. Fold chain over to form a loop and slip stitch

into end stitch on foundation row. Fasten off yarn and invisibly weave tail in to secure. Trim off excess yarn.

Use starting end of yarn to sew a button to the opposite end of bracelet and weave tail in to secure.

 8. Using the needle and a separate length of yarn,

thread the beads onto the bracelet, by passing the needle through the centre of each treble stitch and sliding on a bead in between, to fill each hole.

Weave the yarn ends in at each end of bracelet to secure and trim off excess yarn.

6. Button loop and attached button:

Chain 6

Note: When forming the treble you should have 4 loops on your hook before you begin the second wrap of the yarn.

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  Contact us

National Federation of Women’s Institutes Public Affairs Deparment

104 New King’s Road, London, SW6 4LY Tel: 020 7371 9300 ext 212 www.theWI.org.uk publicaffairs@nfwi.org.uk

Incorporated in England & Wales as a company Limited by Guarantee – No. 251 7690

Charity Registration No. 803793

June 2021