Environmental Justice, Resource Governance and Women's Activism in Côte d'Ivoire: An African Feminist Analysis

This article employs an African feminist lens to examine the role of women’s activism in advancing environmental justice within the extractive resource governance frameworks of Côte d'Ivoire. It addresses the research problem of how women, who are disproportionately impacted by ecological degradation from sectors like cocoa, mining, and petroleum, articulate and assert their rights and knowledge systems. The study is grounded in qualitative empirical research, comprising semi-structured interviews conducted in 2023 with women activists and community leaders in affected regions, and critical discourse analysis of relevant policy documents and movement materials from 2021 to 2024. The analysis demonstrates that Ivorian women’s activism strategically intertwines demands for ecological reparations with critiques of patriarchal governance, framing environmental harm as a direct assault on social reproduction, cultural heritage, and bodily autonomy. The findings reveal that these movements are proactive in constructing distinctly African feminist ecological alternatives, thereby challenging both corporate power and androcentric state policies. The research significance lies in its centring of African women’s epistemic agency, arguing that effective environmental justice in resource-rich nations necessitates the integration of gendered, place-based knowledge. It concludes that sustainable and equitable resource governance must be fundamentally reconceptualised through these activist frameworks.