WUNRN
GENDER EQUALITY FOR THE ENVIRONMENT:
AN UNFINISHED AGENDA
Women
work closely with natural resources — and need to be closely involved in
managing them, says Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Executive Director & Assistant S-G
at UN Women
deputy
executive director and UN assistant s
ecretary-general at UN Women.
The first-ever United Nations Environment Assembly, that took place in Nairobi,
Kenya, last month (23-27 June), came at a historic conjunction of events, as
the international community discusses a new generation of Sustainable
Development Goals and a post-2015 development agenda that will build on earlier
successes and address gaps left over from the Millennium Development
Goals.
The Assembly convened a Gender and
Environment Forum and reviewed the Beijing Platform for Action, through which
189 countries adopted an agenda for empowering women close to 20 years ago (in
1995). The Forum’s High-Level Panel specifically looked at
Section K, which deals with women and the environment. And it found
an unfinished agenda.
Women Close to Nature
Activities traditionally carried out by women are closely linked to the
environment. They are often tied to ecosystem goods and services, such as clean
water, and influence and maintain ecosystem resilience.
For instance, UNICEF estimates that across 25 Sub-Saharan African countries
women spend a combined total of at least 16 million hours each day collecting
drinking water
(compared with men’s six million hours). [1] In many regions, women’s care work
includes water use and management: cooking, cleaning, and laundry, which all
require fetching and hauling water.
Similarly, women and girls spend a significant portion of their time (up to
four hours a day each in Sub-Saharan Africa) performing subsistence tasks
linked to natural resources, such as gathering fuel wood or growing vegetables
to feed their families. [2]
This deprives them of time or access to other activities — not least education,
decently paid employment and leisure — that could enhance their welfare and
wellbeing and that of their families. And it limits their options for social
and political interaction outside the household.
Yet it also means women
are well placed to understand first-hand how important environmental sustainability
and resource management are for their families and communities.
In spite of this, women remain insufficiently recognised and involved in
environmental policy-making
and environmental management. This must change; achieving environmental
sustainability, gender equality and women’s empowerment are closely
intertwined.
Platform Needs Political Push
A
major recommendation of last month’s Forum was political commitment to and
accelerated implementation of the Platform for Action agenda for empowering
women.
This requires renewed efforts by governments, civil society, the private sector
and others. Supporting women’s engagement in policy formulation — as
professionals, resource users and members of women’s organisations — is
critical for all spheres of life, including for natural resource management.
Section
K specifically calls for women to be actively involved in environmental
decision-making; for gender concerns and perspectives to be integrated into
sustainable development policies and programmes; and for mechanisms that assess
environmental policies’ impact on women.
The post-2015 sustainable development agenda must put renewed focus on women,
households and communities in the context of environmental management. And it
must respect and uphold women’s rights to essential environmental goods and
services such as water, energy and food.
It
will be crucial to put in place an environment that is conducive to gender equality
more broadly — through promoting gender-sensitive legislation; enforcing
existing legislation; making judicial systems more accessible and responsive to
women; and providing legal aid to women seeking to claim their rights. For
example, legal provisions and policies for improved access to adequate land are
essential for women’s economic empowerment.
Build on Success Stories
Despite obstacles, women everywhere show that they can be resourceful leaders,
innovators and powerful agents of environmental change. One prominent example
is the late Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai and her Green Belt
Movement in Kenya, through which women have planted more than 20 million trees
on their farms, schools and church compounds, helping to conserve the environment
and improve livelihoods.
There are many other successful initiatives led by amazing women, some of them
recipients of the SEED Award for Entrepreneurs in Sustainable Development,
which rewards local entrepreneurs that make real improvements in poverty
eradication and environmental sustainability.
In Colombia, through the business venture ‘PROVOKAME’, rural women produce,
market, and distribute biodegradable plates made from natural fibres, recycled
paper and seeds that may germinate after disposal.
In Uganda, BanaPads Social Enterprise employs young rural women to manufacture
and distribute sanitary pads produced from natural agricultural waste
materials. The enterprise provides young entrepreneurial ‘champions’ with a
complete start-up kit of inventory, training and marketing support.
These innovative initiatives and many more deserve greater support by
governments and donors to take them to scale and broaden their impact. As the
world experiences combined fuel, food, climate, economic and financial crises,
now is the time to leverage our collective creativity — including that of the
female half of our population — to find solutions to the world’s challenges.
Gender equality needs to be front and centre in plans and policies to achieve
environmental and economic sustainability. Such efforts will have the highest
returns if women can exercise their collective voice as managers, decision
makers, leaders, innovators, and contributors in all aspects of environmental
management.