WUNRN
CLIMATE CHANGE - AFRICA RURAL
WOMEN'S ASSEMBLY GRASSROOTS ADVOCACY IN DURBAN
Making their voices heard: rural women take to the streets in
Photo: Zahra Moloo/IRIN
DURBAN, 9 December 2011 (IRIN)
- While heads of state and negotiators gathered behind closed doors at the 17th
conference of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Durban, more
than 500 women from across Africa arrived by the busload at the nearby University
of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) chanting and singing.
"They are refusing to sign the deal! We want a legally binding agreement
with sanctions. Men, you don't know what you want!" a woman sang, echoing
the same frustration that negotiators from developing countries are facing
inside the UN conference centre, trying to push more powerful countries to
commit to emissions reductions.
For the duration of the official conference, UKZN hosted an alternative, a
"People's Space", where activists, environmental justice
organizations and social movements converged to build solidarity at the
grassroots level and pressure governments to take a tougher stance on causes of
climate change.
The Rural Women's Assembly, a network of women's groups from more than 10
African countries, including
A 2010 Oxfam
report states that 75 percent of the world's poor live in rural areas and that
rural livelihoods are especially vulnerable to climate change.
"You know, we feel the impact of climate change, but it is difficult for
us to understand it. Sometimes we have a lot of rain, sometimes we have none at
all," Ana Paula Tauacale of the National Union of Farmers of Mozambique,
told IRIN. "The problem affects us as women because we are the main food
producers and we depend on the rain. We are not like men, who can migrate to
find work elsewhere."
People
power: demonstrators from the Democratic Left Front in |
The
She added: "There is hardly any or no relationship between the conference and
social movements. They say that the negotiations are too technical for poor
people and therefore they, the technocrats, have the knowledge and can
negotiate. We are saying no, there should be no negations without us, that we
don't inform. It is us, the mass base and peasant and labour movements, which
hold power. We are the ones who can push for change. Both NGOs and governments
must begin to realize this."
Resistance
In
"For 16 times now, it's been failure by these elites to make a deal that
will save the planet. And each group here has separate grievances, so there may
be women farmers, trade unionists, democracy activists," Patrick Bond,
from UKZN's Centre for Civil Society, told IRIN. "People are not
optimistic because the balance of forces is so adverse. Think of the 1 percent
doing all the deals on Wall Street and the London Stock Exchange. These are the
same people that are here in
As the conference comes to a close, the EU and an alliance of developing
countries are urging the US and big developing countries such as India and
China to sign a deal that will enable a roadmap toward a legally binding
agreement on emissions reductions.
"It's really frustrating to developing countries that developed countries
are not increasing their ambitions," said Rashmi Mistry, climate change
advocacy coordinator for Oxfam. "We're really concerned because time is
running out. If we continue along this path, it's been estimated by the
International Energy Agency that in the next five years, we won't be able to
prevent the worst onset of climate change."