From 5–8 October 2026, Yaoundé, Cameroon, will host the fourth regional Women’s Climate Assembly (WCA), under the theme Our lands, our voices: African women united for climate justice and reparations.
The gathering will bring together women from across West and Central Africa to strengthen a movement for climate justice rooted in ecofeminist resistance and the defence of the commons, including land, forests, water, seeds and other resources collectively sustained and stewarded by communities.
Africa contributes a relatively small share of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet communities across the continent are experiencing some of the most severe impacts of climate change. Rural, coastal and forest communities, particularly women whose livelihoods depend heavily on natural resources, are among those facing growing pressures from drought, floods, land degradation and other climate-related threats.
The WCA seeks to strengthen and unify a Pan-African ecofeminist movement for climate justice by connecting women’s struggles across countries and communities. Its objectives include strengthening women’s leadership, developing shared strategies for climate justice, promoting community-based alternatives centred on food sovereignty and sustainable resource management, and advancing calls for climate reparations and more just development models.
Climate reparations beyond promises
African women play central roles in food production, water management and the protection of natural resources. They are also confronting the effects of drought, land degradation and extreme weather, as well as the expansion of extractive industries such as oil and gas. In some communities, these pressures are compounded by conflicts over land, natural resources and critical minerals.
The scale of the climate impacts is reflected in the World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Africa 2025. The report says climate- and weather-related hazards affected at least 13 million people and caused more than 3,000 reported deaths across Africa in 2025. Floods, droughts and tropical cyclones affected communities in different parts of the continent, while rising temperatures, ocean warming and sea-level rise continued to threaten food systems, livelihoods and ecosystems.
Against this backdrop, organisers of the WCA argue that the costs of climate-related losses should not be left for African communities to bear. The 2026 Assembly is calling for climate reparations that extend beyond promises of future aid, including greater resources for loss and damage, adaptation, ecosystem restoration and community-led alternatives, as well as accountability from major historical and current emitters.
Co-hosted by Green Development Advocates, WoMin African Alliance and other partners, the Assembly will bring together more than 75 women community leaders and activists, civil society organisations and allies from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea-Conakry, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Senegal.
The organisers say the Assembly will provide a space for women to share experiences of resisting extractive industries and what they describe as false climate solutions, while developing alternatives grounded in community knowledge and control over natural resources.
“The Women’s Climate Assembly taking place in Cameroon will allow women from other countries to experience firsthand the realities of Cameroonian women’s lives impacted by major projects and how they overcome these challenges,”Bela Marie Victorine, Cameroon
A permanent platform for African women-led resistance
Building on previous assemblies held in Nigeria and Senegal, the WCA has become a platform where women from communities on the front lines of environmental and climate struggles can share experiences, build solidarity and develop analyses based on their lived realities.
The 2026 edition aims to develop the WCA into a permanent platform operating at local, national, subregional and Pan-African levels. Organisers say this would help amplify the voices and demands of community women, which they argue are often absent from national and global climate discussions.
The Assembly will include discussions on national and subregional assembly processes, the impacts of the climate crisis in Africa, and strategies for resistance and community-led alternatives.
Thematic workshops will address the protection of the Congo Basin’s forests, food sovereignty and seed protection, feminist advocacy for climate justice, climate debt and reparations, and the expansion of oil and gas projects.
Popular education sessions will focus on practical knowledge, including seed conservation, mangrove management, processing natural products and preserving traditional ecological knowledge.
“Participating in the Women’s Climate Assembly gives me a platform to share my community’s experiences and learn from other African women. I believe our voices and lived experiences must be part of climate decisions. I am here to connect, learn, and strengthen our collective voice for our land, livelihoods, and future,” said Abbie Freeman, Liberia.
The 2026 Assembly in Cameroon comes as African women’s groups seek to strengthen a continent-wide movement around climate justice, resource sovereignty and community-led responses to environmental change.
For the organisers, making the Women’s Climate Assembly a permanent structure is also about ensuring that women living closest to the impacts of climate change have a continuing platform to shape the conversation, rather than being represented only during major international climate meetings.
