Climate Change: Dr Esther Onyango

“We must consider the systemic inequalities and socially constructed gender norms that increase women’s exposure to climate risks, and reduce their agency to cope with and recover from the impacts of climate change. Understanding these differential impacts on women from climate change and human health risks is a key element of my work. Through the global platform of the WOW community, I have the opportunity and community to extend these learnings and messages to emphasise the importance of having women at the frontlines of climate change action – from the grassroots to national and international decision-making levels – to ensure that we have gender-responsive climate change adaptation policies and programming.”

Dr Esther Onyango is a Climate Change and Health Research Scientist at Griffith University. Esther’s work defines her as a holistic thinker, moving beyond discipline-specific boundaries to develop novel ways of addressing the connections between climate change, mosquito borne diseases, the environment and human health. A key aspect of her work is to understand the differential vulnerabilities experienced by women and how to help them cope to climate change impacts. Through her work and activities, Esther aims to inspire and mentor women to increase their participation in STEM careers and she has recently been named as an African Women at the frontiers of climate change research by the African Institute for Medical Sciences (AIMS).