Asia Pastoralist Women's Gathering 2025
We are delighted to invite you to the Asia Pastoralist Women's Gathering, December 10-13, 2025, co-hosted by Ahmedabad University with key partners including Pastoral Women Alliance and MARAG (Maldhari Rural Action Group). Pastoralism sustains lives, landscapes and economies across nearly a quarter of the world's land—in places where crop agriculture is not possible. In Asia alone, millions depend on it for food security, biodiversity conservation and climate resilience. Yet the women who anchor these systems remain among the most under-recognised contributors to rural economies and environmental stewardship.
Ahmedabad University will host the gathering on December 10-11, 2025, bringing together women pastoralist leaders from across Asia alongside policymakers, researchers, civil society organisations and international institutions. The event marks fifteen years since the MERA Declaration—a landmark 23-point charter articulated by women pastoralists in 2010 that called for rights, recognition and inclusion in policy and decision-making.
In 2026, the United Nations will observe both the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP) and the International Year of Women Farmers. Over three days, participants will revisit and update the MERA Declaration in light of climate change, land rights and biodiversity; develop a shared policy roadmap for gender-transformative pastoralist interventions; strengthen regional solidarity and leadership across Asian women pastoralist networks; and formally launch Asia-level engagement for IYRP 2026. The outcomes will be carried forward to global policy platforms, including the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP17), to be held in Mongolia.
