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This story is part of Undertones, Global Voices’ Civic Media Observatory’s newsletter and column. Subscribe to Undertones. It is also part of Global Voices’ May 2026 Spotlight, “Global crisis, local solutions.” This series will offer stories of resistance and successful climate action, insight into how communities in the Global South are fighting back against the crisis, analysis of what this might mean for future generations, and more. You can support this coverage by donating here.
Amid 1970s environmental threats of nuclear proliferation and pollution, the origin of the term “ecofeminism” is attributed to Françoise d’Eaubonne, a French feminist and ecologist who is said to have first used it in her 1974 work “Le Feminisme ou la Mort” (Feminism or Death), which was reprinted in October 2020 by Le Passager Clandestin. D’Eaubonne argued that the oppression of women and the exploitation of nature stemmed from a system deeply rooted in patriarchal values.
D’Eaubonne’s theory is fully expounded in her 1978 work “Écologie et féminisme. Révolution ou mutation?” (Ecology and feminism: Revolution or mutation?), where she explains that for centuries, men have controlled the fertility of both women and the earth, but global capitalism has pushed this domination to a new extreme: life itself is now at risk. As men in power fail to address the ecological and political crisis, she contends that women must reclaim control over their fertility and build an ecological, egalitarian, and self-governing society.
Ecofeminism, as a practice, was advanced beyond Europe in the 1970s as well. In 1973, in India, women led the Chipko movement, organized to protect trees and forests from deforestation. In 1977, Kenyan activist Wangarĩ Maathai, who in 2004 became the first East and Central African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, founded the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots organization that, working on the intersection of ecological restoration and social justice, empowers rural women to restore ecosystems and forests through nature-based enterprises.
Also explored in the 1980s and 1990s, ecofeminism is becoming increasingly relevant and urgent worldwide, writes Katie Surma in an Inside Climate News article. According to Surma, women, driven by data and lived experience, are going beyond demands for greater female representation in spaces like the United Nations climate negotiations. Instead, they are calling for the dismantling of the systems they believe drive the crisis, including patriarchy, capitalism, and extractivism — the global extraction of natural resources for export.
Narrative: Women are essential to Uganda’s climate action
Grassroots movements in Uganda argue that women are among the most affected by climate disasters, yet their experiences and knowledge are not considered when addressing them. For these organizations, women have better insight into potential solutions, which is why they demand that women be involved in decision-making.
Rights 4 Her, a women-led organization that supports Ugandan women through advocacy, research, and education, pushes this narrative, asserting “women lead resilient communities.” In a post on X from May 2026, the organization states that women leaving informal settlements are the hardest hit by flooding, poor drainage, and waste pollution, making heavy rains a direct threat to their safety. Attached to the post are two banners pleading for “inclusive climate decisions,” where one of the messages states, “Ecofeminism is climate justice. Include women. Listen to women. Invest in women. Build resilient cities for all.” The symbolism of the images on the banner roots women to earth, highlighting the connection between the two, while highlighting the exclusion women face.
Banner from a Rights 4 Her post on X. Fair use. Global Voices’ AI Policy doesn’t allow the use AI images but in this case we are reproducing imagery used to support the narrative being discussed.
Girls for Climate Action, a youth-led organization addressing environmental challenges by centering young women and girls’ lived experiences and pushing for fair, resilient communities that live in balance with nature, also asserts this narrative. In a post on X in October 2025, in the context of Uganda’s National Adaptation Plan (NAP), the organization calls for “30 percent of climate finance to be set aside for women, girls, and vulnerable communities, the people who feel the impact of climate change most deeply,” highlighting that it “should fund real solutions, support women’s leadership, and strengthen the resilience of those on the frontlines of the climate crisis.”
Women’s knowledge, under this narrative, is also attached to Indigenous knowledge. Under its Climate Resilient Hubs initiative, Girls for Climate Action claims that “local and Indigenous knowledge held by women and girls about the environment is centered and valued in developing effective, community-driven solutions for climate adaptation and mitigation efforts.” Ecofeminism is likewise presented as a tool for questioning power, language, and colonial legacies, as Winfred Mugambwa, Executive Director of Rights 4 Her, states during an interview on the Center for Policy Analysis’s The Policy Digest Podcast.
Other Ugandan organizations, such as the National Association of Professional Environmentalists and the Osukuru United Women Network, also advance the ecofeminist framing. The narrative is also asserted by academics such as Sheila Christine Nakkazi, Research Analyst in the Sectoral Department at the Economic Policy Research Center.
The context surrounding the narrative
Feminism in Uganda, as explained by Amon Ashaba Mwiine in an article published in the “Journal Agenda: Empowering women for gender equity,” has not followed a single linear path; it has evolved through interactions among feminist theory, political conditions, and activist practice — strongly influenced by postcolonial advocacy.
The colonial legacy has been at the center of the criticism and self-criticism of the feminist movement in Uganda and the region. Leading African feminist and Ugandan Sylvia Tamale argues in an interview that African liberation is only possible through a decolonial Pan-African feminist lens with the Ubuntu language at its core. This philosophy is based on the principle that human inter-relationships and inter-dependence make humans who they are. She states when referring to the feminist movement in the region that:
“Being under the grip of coloniality, we keep returning to its logic, we keep returning to its processes to solve our problems. We are fooled into thinking that it’s where it will lead us to modernity and development. So, our ways of thinking, our ways of being and doing, have been captured by Eurocentric worldviews, which actually denigrate African traditional worldviews. The Ubuntu worldview reflects Africans’ understanding of the essence of humanity. It understands very well that you cannot live well if others do not.”
The Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, 1995 (amended through 2018), and the Local Governments Act, 1997 (amended through 2020), set the legal framework for women’s participation in the country’s policy decision-making, establishing a mandatory one-third of local government seats and parliamentary positions for women. According to UN Women, 22 percent of members of local deliberative bodies, 34 percent of parliamentarians, and 30 percent of ministers are women in Uganda, which doesn’t reflect the country’s demographics, as the preliminary results of the 2024 Census show 51 percent of Uganda’s population is female.
In addition to the gap in representation in political institutions, women in Uganda face high levels of gender-based violence, with recent tech-facilitated violence targeting women politicians. Child marriage is another challenge, as 43 percent of Uganda’s girls are married before 18 years old, and one in four girls aged 15–18 is pregnant or has a child, according to a 2020 report.
In its National State of the Environment Report 2024, the Ugandan government listed rapid population growth, urbanization, climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource depletion as key challenges to sustainable development. The report states that, under climate change impacts, “rising temperatures, floods, and droughts, further disrupt ecosystems’ health and agriculture,” and that “air pollution, water contamination, land degradation, and biodiversity loss are major concerns that need to be tackled.” To address these challenges, the government of Uganda has worked and currently works with the United Nations Development Program.
Critics argue that the Ugandan government’s climate policies are fundamentally contradictory, citing the East African Crude Oil Pipeline project, which they say exposes a stark gap between the government’s environmental commitments and its actions. Currently under development, the large-scale fossil fuel infrastructure project aims to move crude oil from Uganda’s Lake Albert oilfields to the Tanzanian port of Tanga for distribution to international markets.
A report from Climate Rights International documents that under the Kingfisher oil development project, operated by the Chinese National Offshore Oil Company Uganda Ltd. — which is part of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline — those living near to the project “have been forcibly evicted without compensation,” “coerced into selling their land at inadequate prices,” with many reporting “threats, intimidation, and violence, including sexual violence.”
Environmental activists have likewise told Human Rights Watch that “working on oil is forbidden,” explaining they have faced threats, the closing of their offices, and even detention for investigating the effects of the pipeline. Human Rights Watch asserts that the crackdown on climate activists “has created a chilling environment that stifles free expression related to concerns about one of the most controversial fossil fuel projects in the world.”
According to Freedom House’s Freedom in the World 2025 report, in Uganda, “Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are increasingly vulnerable to legal restrictions, burdensome registration requirements, and intimidation,” based on an extensive legal framework that includes the NGO (Amendment) Act (2024), Public Order Management Act (2013), Anti-Money Laundering Act (2013), Anti-Terrorism Act (2002), Computer Misuse (Amendment) Act (2022), and the Anti-Homosexuality Act (2023). Civil Liberties are scored 24/60 by Freedom House, with the country being classified as “not free.”
Uganda held a presidential election in January 2026, where Uganda’s electoral commission declared President Yoweri Museveni the winner, securing him his seventh term. Human Rights Watch reported several irregularities in the electoral process, including authorities hindering the rights to freedom of expression and assembly.
