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ELEVATE: Early Career Researchers’ Initiative for Strengthening Women's Climate Resilience

LSE PI: Dr Sara Mehryar
Moja PI: Dr Akeel Abbas
Duration: January 2025 - December 2025

A women watering a plant with running water from a hose in front of a house surrounding by sand.

Extreme heat, drought and water scarcity are among Iraq’s most significant climate-related challenges, severely impacting food, water, social and health security. Women in Iraq face difficulties in coping with these extremes due to socioeconomic disparities, limited access to resources, health and safety risks, restricted mobility and cultural barriers. Women in southern Iraq are especially vulnerable because they rely on farming and livestock.

Existing gender inequalities hinder women’s ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from such events, increasing their vulnerability and that of their communities. Enhancing women’s resilience is crucial not only for their well-being but also for strengthening the overall resilience of their communities.

This project brings together early career researchers with established researchers and practitioners from the UK and Iraq for a workshop to identify, assess and address gaps in women's resilience to extreme heat and water scarcity in Iraq. Through climate resilience assessments, the participants and mentors aim to pinpoint the main challenges and weaknesses in women’s resilience, and the most urgent areas for resilience-building. Select teams formed through the workshop will then develop and implement research projects addressing the challenges.

The project is funded by the British Council's Researcher Challenges Grant.

Access to clean water sparks joy for an entire village in Anbar (C) UNDP Iraq, Flickr (2021)

The ELEVATE hosted an 4-day online workshop in April 2025 for early career researchers and practitioners based in the UK and in Iraq to the explore the challenges posed by climate change for women in Iraq and identify innovative solutions to improve their resilience. Sessions included seminars by experts in the field and training courses designed for the workshop's participants. At the end, participants submitted research proposals to a competitive funding call. We are excited to award funding to the below collaborative pilot projects:

  • Adapting to Change: Climate Displacement, Gendered (Women)
    Dr Dahab Aglan, Dr Raed Aldulaimi, Hasan Azeez and Firas Salih
  • Closing the Gap in Iraq’s Climate Framework
    Ahang Hawrami, Yahya Jaber, Alannah Travers and Sama Yas
  • Digital Resilience: Climate Actions through the Visual Lens of Female Photographers in Iraq
    Dr Khamael Al Safi, Zainab Mehdi and Noor Omer
  • Rural Women of Al-Hawizeh Marsh: Affectation and Resilience
    Afrah Almwatwari, Farah Salim, Salam Khanjar and Safaa Khalaf

Project Outputs

Principal Investigators

  • Sara Mehryar

    Sara Mehryar | Principal Investigator

    Sara is a Research Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE.

  • Akeel Abbas

    Akeel Abbas | Principal Investigator

    Akeel is a Middle East specialist and the director of the Studies and Research Department at Moja. He has a PhD in Cultural Studies with a focus on national and religious identities, modernity and democratisation in the Middle East.

Mentors and Associate Partners

  • Layla Amer

    Layla Amer | Technical Adviser

    Layla is a technical advisor and project management specialist with experience at leading INGOs and NGOs in Iraq.

  • Michael Mason

    Michael Mason | Palestine Programme Director

    Michael is Professor of Environmental Geography in the Department of Geography and Environment at LSE and Director of the Palestine Programme at the Middle East Centre.

  • Sana Murrani

    Sana Murrani | Visiting Senior Fellow

    Sana is Associate Professor in Spatial Practice with a background in Architecture and Urban Design. She is the Arts/Health Research Lead at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture at the University of Plymouth, UK.

  • Zeinab Shuker

    Zeinab Shuker | Assistant Professor

    Zeinab is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Sam Houston State University in Texas, USA and a fellow at Century International.