The Swaziland Rural Women’s Assembly (SRWA) is spearheading a grassroots response to climate change, organising women in the country’s rural areas to challenge both environmental destruction and patriarchal systems that worsen their vulnerability.
In collaboration with the Feminists for Alternatives on Climate and Environment (FACE), SRWA is taking action in communities most affected by the climate crisis—where erratic weather, prolonged droughts, and extreme heat have left homesteads either flooded or scorched.
Rural women, who are largely responsible for food production, water collection, and caregiving, are facing the heaviest impacts. Failed crops, disappearing livestock, and longer treks for water are becoming the norm. SRWA warns that the introduction of costly hybrid seeds by the state has also pushed many into debt, reducing traditional farming resilience.
One SRWA member, speaking during a recent community meeting, challenged the notion that rural women are silent in these crises. “There’s no such thing as the voiceless,” she said. “Only the deliberately silenced.”
Through FACE, the movement is demanding practical and systemic reforms. These include educating communities on their legal rights and pushing for Eswatini to ratify the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP), which affirms access to land, water, seeds, and food sovereignty.
SRWA is also addressing gender-based violence and inequality, calling for accountability within traditional leadership and linking the fight for climate justice to the broader struggle for gender equity.
Discussion about this post