WUNRN
VIDEO - UGANDA - Sisters on the
Planet - MARTINA
VIDEO - BANGLADESH - Sisters on the
Planet - SAHENA:
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Women
& Climate Change - A Tale of Two Mothers
11 Aug 2008
By Megan Rowling
Sahena Begum makes a portable clay oven, which can be easily
stored in a high place away from floodwaters.
OXFAM/Amin
Sahena
Begum, a young mother who lives in east Bangladesh on land that's often
inundated with water, says the floods are getting worse these days and
temperatures less predictable. Local people in her village, Kunderpara, no
longer know when it's time to plant their crops.
Martina
Longom is a young mother too. In Caicaoan village, in the arid Karamoja region
of northeastern Uganda, she says the elele bird no longer sings as it used to,
heralding the arrival of the rains. Out of the past three years, two have been
too dry to grow sorghum, and last year floods washed harvests away.
Martina and Sahena feature
in "Sisters on the Planet", a series of short films released by aid
agency Oxfam to highlight the impact of climate change on women, which you can
watch on YouTube.
The
other two films in the series released this summer star a British teacher
who's making sure her pupils are aware of climate change and a high-up Brazilian civil
servant and activist who has campaigned tirelessly on green issues since
she was a teenager.
When
"Sisters on the Planet" premiered at a central London cinema, Oxfam
GB chief executive Barbara Stocking explained why her organisation had decided
to put "sisters" in the spotlight. "When I meet women in poor
countries, they are formidable and resilient, and have joy in what they do. But
disasters affect women in particular ways - for example, they have to keep the
family together in the middle of floods," Stocking said. "Women
collect water, grow food and search for fuel, and it is these natural resources
that are being affected by climate change."
Oxfam
says women in developing countries are under particular threat from the
consequences of climate change because of their role as main family carers and
their greater reliance on natural resources like rivers and forests to do that
job. This exposure is often made worse by restricted access to money, physical
assets like land and machinery, education and public information, as well as
women's lower social status and limited involvement in decision-making.
And
in disasters like hurricanes and floods, Oxfam says there's growing evidence a
higher proportion of women are injured or killed than men. This is because
women are less likely to hear official warnings or be able to swim, and can
find it difficult to get away quickly if they have to look after children or
elderly relatives. In some cultures, they need to be accompanied by men when
they leave the house or are reluctant to use emergency shelters that don't have
separate toilets and sleeping areas.
After
disasters, women often find that their household tasks - like finding water -
take much longer. If food is short, they tend to be the first to go without,
and in flooded coastal regions some end up drinking salty water that can harm
pregnancies. Domestic violence can also increase as stress levels run high.
HELPING FAMILIES SURVIVE
The
films about Sahena and Martina show what a difference it can make to families
and communities when women are put at the heart of adapting to climate impacts
in order to avoid development disasters - a strategy Oxfam argues for in a briefing.
Sahena
explains that ever since she was a child she had wanted to stop women accepting
disasters as a way of life. Despite initial opposition from her husband and
brother, she managed to get elected as leader of the local disaster committee.
She
has a radio and is able to warn people when floods are coming, making sure they
head to shelters. She helps others make clay ovens, which they pack with dry
twigs and store in a high place. And she works with her friends and neighbours
to raise the level of their homes, toilets and places where livestock are kept,
to protect them from flooding.
Sahena
says people - including men - now respect and listen to her. "I'm proud
because I am a mother who can teach her children how to survive a
disaster," she says in the film.
But
for Martina in Uganda, the answers are much less clear. Some in her village
have been accused of putting a curse on the rain, and she's not sure who is
damaging the rain patterns and the climate. But what women in her community do
know is that they are having to walk longer distances to collect fruit,
firewood and water.
"I
regret having to raise my children at a time like this," Martina laments.
"What can I do for them now? What can I give them?"
The
difference between the two mothers in their knowledge and capacity to act
chimes with a recent draft paper prepared for Britain's Department for International
Development, which looked at existing academic work on women and climate
change and highlighted the gaps.
It
found that research on gender and climate change has focused mainly on South
Asia, and recommended paying more attention to the gender impacts of drought
and food shortages in sub-Saharan Africa.
More
widely, it concluded that failure to include women and girls in decision-making
processes on climate change policy makes it less effective, and the constraints
to women's participation should be identifed and addressed.
As
a positive example of the sort of work we need more of, it cited a report by
ActionAid and the Brighton-based Institute of Development Studies, published
late year and based on research with women in the Ganga river basin in
Bangladesh, India and Nepal.
WOMEN'S WISHLIST
The
report, called "We know what we need: South Asian women speak out on climate
change adaptation", documents how women are coping with rising
weather-related disasters and what their priorities are for securing their
livelihoods in the face of climate change.
These
include a safe place to live and store their harvest and livestock during the
monsoon season; better access to services such as agricultural extension;
training and information about adaptation strategies and livelihood
alternatives; and access to resources.
The
report argues that women are not passive victims of climate change but have
strong ideas about how to improve their resilience. Momena Begum from Gulzar
Mondol village in the Faridpur district of Bangladesh is one of many women
quoted.
"We
depend on cows, and it is important to increase our homestead. If our land gets
inundated, I have to buy a hundreds of bricks to increase the level
further," she says. "But I need money for that.
"Also,
none of us is educated. If we had an educated person or a veterinary amongst
us, that person could treat our livestock when the roads are blocked and the
veterinary cannot come. If we had a trawler (fishing boat) five of us could jointly
rent it, go to a nearby char (sandy island) and collect some grass to feed our
cows," she suggests.
The
report urges governments to give women an equal say in how the funds given to
poor countries to help them adapt to climate change are managed and spent. But
are policy makers really listening?
The
tale of the two mothers in the Oxfam films suggests they're still not trying
hard enough - especially in Africa.
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