Give to gain: Resilience has a woman’s face

Growing up in rural Bhutan, I did not learn the meaning of resilience from textbooks. I learnt it from the women in my life.

I learnt it from my mother, who worked in our fields, understood the rhythms of the seasons better than any meteorologist, and still found time to manage home and ensure that her children received an education. I remember people from my village and surrounding villages visiting our home to seek counsel from her on complex issues like inheritance disputes. She did it all with quiet strength but never called it leadership. But that is exactly what it was.

I learnt it from the women farmers who could read the sky and the soil. They were the first to worry when crops failed. They were the ones who rationed food so everyone could eat. They walked longer distances when water sources dried up.

I learnt it from teachers who insisted that leadership was not defined by gender or a sense of entitlement but by character and service.

Long before climate change became a global agenda item, the women in our region were already adapting. They were climate leaders without ever being called so. Today, the world has the language to describe what they lived through. Climate change amplifies existing inequalities. It threatens livelihoods, health, and dignity, and it does so disproportionately for women and girls.

Women remain historically underrepresented in the design, implementation, and financing of climate action. Under a worst-case climate scenario, an estimated 158 million more women and girls could be pushed into poverty, which is 16 million more than the projected number of men and boys. (UN Women)

At recent global climate forums, the imbalance remains visible. At COP29, only 6 out of 78 leaders referenced the impacts of climate change on women, and four of those voices were women themselves (WEDO). This is not just a representation gap. It is a leadership gap in shaping solutions.

The climate finance landscape reflects a similar imbalance. Out of USD 33.1 billion per year in bilateral climate-related development assistance, only 57% integrates gender considerations, and only 2.4% has gender equality as a principal objective (OECD DAC, 2022). In mitigation finance, the figure drops to just 2% (OECD, 2022). For adaptation, it is 4% (OECD CRS, 2022). And when we look at projects that explicitly target both climate adaptation and gender equality, the number stands at a mere 0.1%. (OECD, 2022)

We are integrating gender. But we are not prioritising it.

This year’s International Women’s Day theme, ‘Give to Gain’, resonates deeply with me.

In our culture, we often say that generosity strengthens community. When you give land to build a school, you gain an educated generation. When you give trust, you gain loyalty. When you give opportunity, you gain transformation.

If we give women meaningful space in climate decision-making, we gain more inclusive and effective policies.

If we give funding directly to women-led and community-based institutions, we gain stronger adaptation outcomes.
If we give visibility to women’s leadership, we gain accountability in climate governance.
If we give better data and evidence, we gain smarter and more equitable investments.
If we give institutional commitment, not just policy language, we gain lasting change.

Across the Hindu Kush Himalaya, women are already on the front lines, leading sustainable agriculture, managing water resources, responding to disasters, preserving biodiversity, and holding communities together in times of crisis. But too often, they lack access to finance, technology, and platforms to scale their contributions.

At the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), as we move forward into our next Medium-Term Action Plan, our commitment is clear: to make strategic investments in women and systematically include them across our science, policy, and finance platforms; to strengthen tracking of gender equality and social inclusion; and to ensure that climate finance in the Hindu Kush Himalaya reaches those who are already leading change on the ground.

But beyond institutional commitments, I carry something more personal.

Every time I meet women farmers in the mountains of our region, I see reflections of my mother. I see the same quiet determination. The same intelligence is rooted in lived experience. The same ability to hold families and ecosystems together under stress.

Living in the mountains has taught me that resilience is not abstract. It has a face. It has a voice. And very often, it is a woman’s voice.

On this International Women’s Day, let us celebrate women’s contributions and invest in them. Let us not only acknowledge inequality, but also correct it. Let us not only integrate gender, but also prioritise it.

Because when we truly give to women, we do not diminish ourselves.

We gain stronger communities.
We gain a more resilient planet.

And that’s something worth fighting for.

Happy International Women’s Day.

Pema Gyamtsho