WUNRN
WOMEN NEED MORE LEADERSHIP IN
DEALING WITH DROUGHT
Source: Alertnet //
Vivian Leung - 8 August 2011
Internally displaced women wait to receive relief food from a
distribution point in
By Vivian Leung
The region, which is seeing
intensifying dry spells believed linked to climate change, is struggling with
what aid agencies say is its worst drought in 60 years. Pastures and wells have
dried, livestock are dying and thousands of families from southern
Women - as in most natural
disasters - are worst hit, aid agencies say. Changing that, they say, will
require efforts to involve women in preparing for, responding to and recovering
from drought.
“The climate sector often
presents women as passive victims of climate change, rather than effective
agents of change, ignoring women’s extensive knowledge and expertise with
regard to climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies,” Oxfam
International recently reported.
Henia Dakkak, a
More effort needs to be put
into consulting women and using their specific environmental knowledge to
improve agricultural and nutrition programmes, Dakkak said.
Women’s views are key to making
policies work, gender specialists say. But while women are needed in decision
making, many are reluctant to enter the public sphere without community
support.
CULTURAL BARRIERS
Many face cultural barriers to
an active public role, or simply lack the time. Louis Belanger, an Oxfam
International spokesperson, emphasised that women are frequently “on their
own,” widowed and with many children, key barriers to them gaining access in
the political arena.
Efforts to improve risk
reduction, adaptation and resilience to climate change are essential to helping
countries in the Horn of Africa cope with worsening drought – but gender issues
are also key, Oxfam researchers said.
Women for instance, produce a
majority of the world’s food but get less than 10 percent of farm credit,
according to the UNFPA. That suggests that “investing in women is key to
solving a food crisis,” the UNFPA said.
According to a June U.N. Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report,
“to stave off the worst effects of the global food crisis, it’s important for
all women - not just female farmers - to get better access to land, capital and
technology.”
Oxfam also reported last week that “long-term investment
in livelihood protection measures and smallholder food production” must include
efforts to provide support to women.
Investing in women can create a
“positive cycle of growth for the entire family”, because studies show women
reinvest in education and children’s healthcare when they receive more income,
the UNFPA noted.
To implement effective policies
that curb climate change and drought, women need to gain more representation in
government bodies, advocates say - not an easy task, particularly given
One model may be
“The model is built around
going through remote villages and choosing young women who have shown some
leadership potential in their community,” said Kay Khan, a Massachusetts state
representative who chairs the state’s Joint Committee on Children, Families and
Persons with Disabilities.
The women - chosen for being
known and trusted in their communities - are trained in basic health knowledge
and skills, from reproductive health to the use of mosquito nets to avoid
malaria.
HEP, created in 2004, could be
a first step to help rural women become leaders in their communities, according
to Khan, who visited
The programme has so far
trained 35,000 women, each of whom helps many other families in the
drought-prone country of 70 million.
The effort has run into some
problems, including an increasing number of promising girls being pulled out of
school to cope with difficult conditions at home. But the longer the programme
exists, the more “women will rise up,” Khan believes.
“I think it is a slow process,”
she said. “It’s all about education and (helping) young women to develop their
own skills and abilities to be seen as credible.”