The Gender Stakeholders’ Group for the Asia-Pacific Partnership for Disaster Risk Reduction (GSHG) successfully convened a regional gathering as part of the Draw the Line campaign on 19 September 2025. This gathering brought together activists from across the Asia-Pacific to amplify grassroots demands and strengthen feminist agendas in global climate discourses. GSHG members joining the event presented key demands synthesized from extensive grassroots-level discussions held with communities at country level.
Mwanahamisi Singano (Mishy) of the Women and Gender Constituency kicked off the session by providing context on the campaign’s objectives and emphasized that transformative solutions to the climate crisis cannot be achieved without centering feminist agendas in climate justice movements.
ActionAid Bangladesh, Hari Welfare Association, Shift the Power Coalition and a representative from ADRRN shared emerging needs highlighted in the community gatherings. The locations of the gatherings organised by Action Aid Bangladesh include cyclone-prone- Satkhira district, flood-Prone- Lalmonirhat district, occupational hazard reported from garment industries and the informal Settlements/slums-Dhaka District. Hari Welfare Association presented outcomes from their discussions with female peasant groups in Shaheed Benazirabad and Mirpurkhs Districts. While Shift the Power Coalition, a Pacific network of women-led DRR organizations, shared highlights from their partner meeting and Instagram campaign. A representative from ADRRN raised issues concerning women’s caregiving roles, mental health, dignity, and menstrual hygiene, within the context of climate change and DRR.
Priyanthi Fernando, Executive Director of the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies, shared her insights on the need to empower communities to question global power structures that are exacerbating the climate crisis, to find long-term solutions
The discussion was able to highlight a range of demands from different specific vulnerable groups such as female peasants, women from disaster prone areas, young women from Pacific communities etc. The demands reflected both localized needs as well as demands for structural reformation. The localized needs included: embankment shelters friendly for female users and people with disabilities, health and hygiene needs of females in disaster relief camps, flood and saline resistant crops, climate adaptive technologies and skills training for women farmers and workers for livelihood security.
The structural reforms highlighted were: enforcement of labor laws, investment in early warning system, increasing direct, accessible and flexible climate financing for women-led and community organizations, loss and damage reparations, reparations framed as justice, not charity, making historical emitters and corporations accountable, protection of traditional food, ocean and water security knowledge in Pacific regions, and inclusive decision-making structures with women with disabilities at the forefront.
In closing, Mwanahamisi Singano remarked that the Draw the Line campaign is not a one-time initiative, but a continuous movement. "The demands raised today will directly contribute to advancing the broader movement for climate and gender justice," she affirmed. The gathering concluded with a strong call for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to increase public awareness regarding the root causes of the climate crisis, thereby building the civic pressure necessary to compel governments to act decisively.
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