Clara Benjamin

Bio
Clara is a climate and gender equality advocate from Tanzania, currently focused on advancing sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) and gender equality within climate action spaces. Clara leverages her academic background in Environmental Science and Management to drive her advocacy efforts, addressing both environmental and gender-related challenges. While working on various projects, Clara realized how severely climate-related challenges affect adolescent girls in vulnerable communities. This fueled her deep commitment to addressing the intersection of climate change and its disproportionate impacts on adolescent girls and women. They face significant challenges, underscoring the need for resilience through the protection of bodily autonomy and access to climate-resilient health systems. Through her work, she has engaged directly with adolescent girls to understand their challenges and has trained them to advocate for issues affecting them and their communities. Clara’s advocacy work spans across local, regional, and global platforms, where she has used her voice to influence policy and inspire action. She has engaged in spaces like COP27, advocating for gender equality, and served as a speaker at the Afro-Asia Summit, addressing sustainability in the context of climate change. Her work extends to regional forums like the African Union, where she contributed to a Plan of Action that tackled the role of cities in migration, climate change, and environmental issues across Africa. Through these experiences, she has improved her skills in lobbying, public speaking, and engaging decision-makers, ensuring that the needs of girls and women are prominently addressed. In participating in the Emerging Leaders Program, Clara envisions influencing policy shifts, creating local action, and ensuring that young women and girls are empowered to be part of the solution.