Women. Work. Climate.

This is the title of an article by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Climate Change Adaptation group outlining how the global agency is trying to improve the lives of some of the world's poorest women so they are more resilient to climate change.

Some approaches to climate change focus on mitigation (reducing the negative effects and tackling the causes) while others are about adaptation - finding new approaches so the changing conditions do not alter income and life quality too much. The UNDP is working with women in particular to ensure they have the potential to be independent income-earners, enhance their life choices and empower them to bring about positive change within their family and community. Much of this is being achieved by providing funding and training for appropriate technology innovations that, despite seeming simple, can bring significant improvement to the lives of women.

By reducing the hours spent on collecting water, or fuel wood or grinding cereals for staple meals, women find they have time freed up to engage in wage-earning activities that can provide them with an independent income. Read this article here by the UNDP to see how hours can be reclaimed by low-cost, easily implemented changes that means even as the climate changes, these women will be in a stronger position to safeguard their own - and their family's - social and economic futures.