Description of the project: CHANGE trains women with degrees from non-German universities to become climate advocates. The project enables highly qualified women with a migration background to be integrated into future-oriented careers and strengthens their influence in dealing with the impacts of climate change. They get to know the affected sectors, become aware of their professional and personal resources, and learn how to use them in their future professional field. Integrated technical and language learning improves their communication at work. Workshops on self-presentation, conflict management, and reconciling family and career prepare them for their roles as force multipliers in companies and communities.

Climate impact: Women from diverse cultural backgrounds are qualified to take responsibility for the future, to comprehend social, economic, and ecological developments, and to shape their professional activities accordingly. They are empowered to develop visions to face the changes caused by climate change. They bring with them indispensable experiences and perspectives from their countries of origin, which serve as important contributions to interdisciplinary solutions for climate adaptation and protection.

Gender impact: For LIFE, gender equality and equal opportunity mean the empowerment of women and girls as outlined in the SDG 5. We support women from all cultures in their professional development and offer customized information relevant to the labor market, career counseling, and integrated language support. In the CHANGE project, these principles are placed in the context of climate change in order to qualify women as mentors for climate change adaptation and to promote gender equality.

Scalability / replicability: The project represents a synergy of the local requirements for climate adaptation in the city of Berlin with the resources and experiences from the participants’ countries of origin, where climate change sometimes presents completely different challenges. This model is promising for the future due to its global approach, by countering climate change impacts through local measures that have grown out of experiences in diverse cultural contexts. In this way, learning outcomes from the global South and the global North intertwine.