Strengthening Local Climate Leadership: Evaluating a Community-Based Empowerment Initiative
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52428/27888991.v7i11.1476Keywords:
climate leadership; women empowerment; youth engagement; green entrepreneurship; sustainable development; Sindh; environmental educationAbstract
Women and youth play a critical role in advancing local climate action and sustainability, particularly in vulnerable regions such as Sindh, Pakistan. This study evaluates the outcomes of two Green Earth Action Day Foundation (GEAF) climate leadership sessions conducted across eight schools and five communities, engaging 450 women and 350 youth. The purpose of the project was to enhance climate knowledge, promote green entrepreneurship, and strengthen environmental stewardship through community-driven initiatives. Methods included structured workshops, pre- and post-surveys, hands-on sustainability activities, and leadership mentoring. The results demonstrate significant increases in climate knowledge (average 62% improvement), sustainable behavior adoption (45% increase), and willingness to participate in green entrepreneurship (58%). A total of 18 climate-focused activities were completed, including awareness drives, tree plantation, recycling actions, and water conservation demonstrations. Schools and communities reported noticeable improvements in climate awareness and engagement among participants. These findings highlight the importance of inclusive, locally tailored interventions that empower women and youth as environmental leaders. The study concludes that gender-inclusive climate leadership models can generate measurable social, behavioral, and ecological impact, and can be successfully replicated in other regions.
Downloads
References
Aguilar, L. (2012). Women and climate change: Vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities. In State of the World 2009 (pp. 59-62). Routledge.
Chambers, R. (1994). The origins and practice of participatory rural appraisal. World Development, 22(7), 953–969. https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750X(94)90141-4 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750X(94)90141-4
Chawla, L., & Cushing, D. F. (2007). Education for strategic environmental behavior. Environmental Education Research, 13(4), 437–452. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620701581539 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620701581539
Fatima, B., Parveen, F., Sawani, S., & Rozi, S. (2025). Improving global warming awareness among adolescents in Karachi, Pakistan: A quasi-experimental school-based intervention. Discover Public Health, 22(1), 499. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12982-025-00257-7 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12982-025-00899-7
Gondal, A. Q., Ahmad, M., & Hameed, A. (2024). Empowering change: The critical role of women and youth in climate leadership. *AL-AHQAQ, 2*(2), 1–9.
Goryunova, E., & Madsen, S. R. (2024). The current status of women leaders worldwide. In Handbook of research on gender and leadership (pp. 2–22). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035306893.00010 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035306893.00010
Huq, H., Rahman, M. M., & Hossen, M. A. (2023). Women-led climate change adaptation: A study in Northwestern Bangladesh. Sustainability, 15(20), 15041. https://doi.org/10.3390/su152015041 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su152015041
Kabeer, N. (1999). Resources, agency, achievements: Reflections on the measurement of women's empowerment. Development and Change, 30(3), 435–464. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7660.00125 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7660.00125
Kakade, K. S., Kulkarni, A. M., & Naik, K. R. (2024). The role of women leadership in environmental management. In Opportunities and challenges for women leaders in environmental management (pp. 31–49). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-5986-7.ch003 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-5986-7.ch003
Lammers, K., Belmin, C., Soomauroo, Z., & Hoffmann, M. M. (2024). Empowering women in a climate-changing world through climate-resilient energy access. In A. F. B. Araújo (Ed.), Women and the energy sector: Gender inequality and sustainability in production and consumption (pp. 91–124). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43091-6_5 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43091-6_5
Lecoutere, E., Achandi, E. L., Ampaire, E. L., Fischer, G., Gumucio, T., Najjar, D., & Singaraju, N. (2024). Fostering an enabling envi-ronment for equality and empowerment in agri-food systems: An assessment at multiple scales. Global Food Security, 40, 100735. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2023.100735 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2023.100735
Memon, F. S., & Amjad, S. (2020). Understanding women's perceptions of promoting education and policy initiatives about climate change in rural areas of Sindh, Pakistan. Journal of Education and Educational Development, 7(1), 140–156. https://doi.org/10.22555/joeed.v7i1.3223 DOI: https://doi.org/10.22555/joeed.v7i1.3223
Monroe, M. C., Plate, R. R., Oxarart, A., Bowers, A., & Chaves, W. A. (2019). Identifying effective climate change education strategies: A systematic review of the research. Environmental Education Research, 25(6), 791–812. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2017.1360842 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2017.1360842
Wellman, R. L., Henderson, A., Coleman, R., Hill, C., & Davey, B. T. (2025). Assessment of a youth climate empowerment program: Climate READY. Geoscience Communication, 8(1), 1–46. https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-8-1-2025 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-8-1-2025
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Pirah Siyal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish in this journal accept the following conditions: The authors retain the copyright and assign to the journal the right of the first publication, with the work registered with the Creative Commons 4.0 attribution license, which allows third parties to use what is published as long as they mention the authorship of the work and the first publication in this journal. Authors may make other independent and additional contractual agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the article published in this journal (eg, include it in an institutional repository or publish it in a book) provided that they clearly indicate that the work it was first published in this magazine. Authors are allowed and encouraged to share their work online (for example: in institutional repositories or personal web pages) before and during the manuscript submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, more and more quick citation of published work.
