The Mahila Housing Trust addressed water scarcity, flooding, extreme heat and vector-borne diseases by empowering women from urban slums to devise locally relevant and pro‐poor climate resilient solutions in their communities.
Over the past 15 years, India has witnessed climate extremes: in 2010, heat waves killed 1,300 people, in 2013 they killed 1,500 and in 2015 they killed 2,500. This rise in temperature, water scarcity, humidity and unhygienic water management practices is projected to increase malaria rates by 5% by 2030. In Ahmedabad, more than 40% of the city’s population lives in slums and informal settlements. Their residents face an absence of infrastructure, limited access to basic urban services, occupational risks and social marginalization. However, climate shocks and stresses have been felt unequally across genders: Women are particularly impacted by losses and damages and often driven to poverty.
Established:
- 107 community‐based organizations (comprised of 250 households each, where 1 woman represents 1 household)
- 114 community action groups (leaders from community-based organizations that work for their slums)
- 1,604 women leaders, named “Vikasinis” (drawn from community action groups and trained to work at the city level)
- Trained 1508 community action groups on the impacts of climate change
- Developed technical solutions for vulnerable urban communities—including green roofs, drain dredging, water meters, water purifiers and vector disease surveillance systems "
- Improved climate response capacities across 100 slum communities
- Provided training sessions to 445 Vikasinis (58 sessions on climate change and 17 more focused on areas ranging from water conservation to heat stress)
- Effectively communicated the impacts of climate change to local language communities via community action groups
- Developed multi-stakeholder partnerships in five cities between low-income communities and 280 technical experts
- Created new tools to share scientific knowledge and climate resilience planning
- Provided financial and non-financial incentives for communities to invest in climate resilience technologies and solutions
