Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim is an environmental activist and geographer. She is the Coordinator of the Association of Peul Women and Autochthonous Peoples of Chad (AFPAT) and served as the co-director of the pavilion of the World Indigenous Peoples’ Initiative and Pavilion at COP21, COP22 and COP23. Ibrahim is an environmental activist working on behalf of her people, the Mbororo in Chad.Her focus on environmental advocacy stemmed from her firsthand experience of the effects of global climate change on the Mbororo community. Ibrahim has written on the importance of recognizing indigenous people’s rights when crafting global climate change for a variety of outlets, including Quartz and the World Economic Forum’s Agenda. Ibrahim has worked collaboratively with UNESCO and the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC) on a project to 3D map Chad’s Sahel desert region, where 250,000 Mbororos currently live, relying on subsistence farming. In an interview with BBC for BBC’s 100 Women project, Ibrahim noted: “Every culture has a science. So it’s really important for the indigenous voice to be there.” In 2016, Ibrahim was selected to represent civil society at the signing of the historic Paris Climate Agreement on April 22, 2016. In 2019, she became one of the 17 people to be appointed as an advocate of Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations. Ibrahim serves in a number of leadership capacities advocating for the importance of indigenous knowledge in mitigating the effects of climate change. She is co-Chair of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change, representing the group at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and of the Pan-African Alliance Climate Justice (PACJA), where she also acts as the chair of recruitment. She is also a member of the Policy Board United Nations: Indigenous Peoples Partnership (UNIPP) and of the Executive Committee for the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC). In 2017, Ibrahim was recognized as a National Geographic Society Emerging Explorer, a program that recognizes and supports outstanding scientists, conservationists, storytellers, and innovators. In 2017, she was also featured as part of the BBC’s 100 Women project, recognizing 100 influential and inspiring women every year. In 2018, she was listed as one of BBC’s 100 Women. In 2019, she received the Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award from the Pritzker Family Foundation.