Dealing with climate change demands a more gendered approach
Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities: Progress for all -- with this very theme, the women of the world will be observing International Women's Day 2010
Rezina Sultana | The Financial Express | March 7 2010
The major concern of the present world is climate change and environmental degradation. In fact, involving women inprotecting the environmentwould help societies develop the sense of responsibility needed to maintain a good balance between humans and the earth's resources.
Environmental degradation, however, is a result of the dynamic interplay of socio-economic, institutional and technological activities. Environmental changes may be driven by many factors including economic growth, population growth, urbanization, intensification of agriculture, rising energy use and transportation. Poverty still remains a problem at the root of several environmental problems.
Idiatou Camara, Guinea's National Environment Director, one of four environmental protection experts exchanging views with the Commission on the theme of the gender perspective in environmental management and disaster mitigation, said: "Women need to participate at the national level and get their countries to empower women in regions unable to afford protection activities. They must encourage democratization and discourage the economic oppression that led to massive population movements degrading the environment. They must mobilize to reverse the poverty which excluded the poor from protecting the environment because limited knowledge and technical ability prevented them from addressing problems."
Marie Yolene Surena, Director, Civil Protection, Ministry of Interior of Haiti, said, "Investing in women for roles in environmental risk management was not only beneficial, but profitable. Managing environmental risk was part of the development process, while managing disasters now is a drain on development funds. The priorities must be to develop human resources, change laws, address food security and slow population increases."
Women's role after Haiti disaster: When Haitian commercial banks remained closed after the terrible effect of the earthquake, Fonkoze, the Haitian branch of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, mobilized over one weekend to get funds to its members in rural towns as well as Port-au-Prince. Between 2 a.m. and 2 p.m., on January 23, 2010 Fonkoze brought in 2.0 million dollars in cash from their US bank and distributed it by helicopters to regional offices in the most remote parts of the country.
Fonkoze has been operating in Haiti for 15 years. Ninety-nine per cent of its members are women. In addition to micro-lending programmes, Fonkoze sponsors major literacy, health care and micro-insurance programmes. Its remittances and savings accounts serve more than 200,000 people, making it a significant part of the country's financial system.
It isn't the first time that a micro-lending network of mostly women has taken a lead role in helping rebuild a country's economy after a natural disaster. In Poland, after a devastating flood in the mid-1990s, the US-backed Fundusz Mikro became the conduit for credit to small businesses, ultimately funnelling more than US$10 million to rebuild when the central government proved inept and also tone-deaf to the challenge.
Salving Briceno, Director, United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, said economic losses due to natural disasters had increased nearly ten-fold during the past four decades. In some cases, as in Afghanistan now, persistent drought was amplifying man-made emergencies. Numerous elements of a comprehensive and sustained policy for hazard awareness and disaster reduction should be looked at from a gender perspective. Balanced and equal participation of men and women informulating and implementing policies and programmes was essential.
The case of Bangladesh: The problems of women and environmental degradation have recently been addressed by women's groups. NGOs have been the most active, with 600 registered organizations. Among these 40 per cent were international, 38 per cent national, and 22 per cent local. NGOs have promoted the recent inclusion of environmental concerns into development plans.
The data shows about 100 NGOs are engaged in forestry projects. The National Association for Resource Improvement, for example, involves women in tree planting along roadsides and income-generating activities. About 75 per cent of upazilas (sub-districts) have environmental and women's projects, but fewer than 20 per cent of all villages are affected and 1.0 per cent landless people are reached.
In fact, women's groups have created awareness on women's problems and advocated for socio-economic changes. Women, despite cultural and social restrictions imposed on them, have changed environmental and economic conditions. Women's leadership and organizing abilities have contributed to public awareness of environmental degradation. Because Bangladesh is a delta, a rise in sea level from greenhouse effects would have serious consequences for the land and population.
Global warming has contributed to river flooding and climate changes that have increased rainfall and tropical storms. Deforestation upriver adds to the water overflow problems. About 20 per cent of the cultivable land area is affected by natural disasters. Population density is 760 persons per sq km. About 50 per cent of forested areas have been destroyed within the past 20 years. Around 4.0 per cent of gross domestic product comes from forest activity. The lack of wood fuel limits the ability of people to boil water and contributes to the increased incidence of diarrhoea, other intestinal problems, and less nutritious food.
Drought is another problem. Urban migration has overwhelmed the ability of urban centres to provide basic services. Coastal areas have been settled by 20 per cent of total population, but coastal storms regularly impact on people's lives and livelihoods.
The different roles and responsibilities of women and men in water resources use and management are closely linked to environmental change and well-being. This is true both for how women and men affect the environmentthrough their economic and household activities and how the resulting environmental changes affect people's well-being. Understanding these gender differences is an essential part of developing policies aimed at both better environmental outcomes and improved health and well-being.
Women play a critical role in the field of environment, especially in the management of plants and animals in forests, arid areas and wetlands. Ruralwomen in particular maintain an intimate interaction with natural resources, the collection and production of food products.
As their knowledge is transmitted through generations, girls and women often acquire a thorough understanding of their environment, and more specifically of its biodiversity. Their experience gives them valuable skills required for the management of the environment. Women have an important role to play in preserving the environment and in managing natural resources to achieve ecologically sustainable production (UNEP, 2004).
Despite women's assumed special relations to nature it should be stressed that all people depend on the environment and all should share the responsibility for sustainable use of water and other natural resources.
The impacts of the degradation of the environment on people's everyday lives are not the same for men and women. When the environment is degraded, women's day-to-day activities, such as fuel and water collection, require more time, leaving less time for productive activities. When water becomes scarce, women and children in rural areas must walk longer distances to find water, and in urban areas are required to wait in line for long hours at communal water points.
Despite their efforts, women living in arid areas tend to be categorized among the poorest of the poor, and have absolutely no means to influence real change. They are often excluded from participating in land development and conservation projects, agricultural extension activities, and policies directly affecting their subsistence. Men make most decisions related to cattle and livestock, and even in households headed by women, men still intervene in the decision-making process through members of the extended family. However, because of the important contribution of women, the fight against the degradation of arid areas requires a gender-inclusive approach.
In conclusion, we may say that women's status in conserving biodiversity may be enhanced through the following types of actions to integrate gender concerns into environmental planning:
- Improve data collection on women's and men's resource use, knowledge of, access to and control over resources. Collecting sex-disaggregated information is a first step towards developing gender-responsive policies and programmes.
- Train staff and management on the relevance of gender issues to water resources and environmental outcomes.
- Establish procedures for incorporating a gender perspective in planning, monitoring, and evaluating environmental projects.
- Ensure opportunities for women to participate in decisions about environmental policies and programmes at all levels, including as designers, planners, implementers, and evaluators.
- Foster commitment at all levels -- local, national, and international -- to integrate gender concerns into policies and programmes which will lead to more equitable and sustainable development.
- Incorporate a gender perspective into national environmental policies, through a gender policy declaration that demonstrates the government's commitment.
So, it is evident that the gender perspective should feature strongly in all our development efforts, especially in dealing with the adverse affects of climate change and environmental degradation, where women have equal stakes as men, if not more.
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