ABSTRACT
The important role of women in economic and social development in both their communities and countries, relative to men, is increasingly being recognized. Numerous formal “events” have helped to enhance recognition of this role. For example, the United Nations Decade for Women from 1975 to 1985 drew global attention to women, especially the trying conditions under which many of the poorest lived. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro during 1992, which was discussed in Chapter 4, presented a global action plan to institutionalize the role of women in environment and development. Some of the key objectives and actions related to women and environment in Agenda 21, one of the main documents to emerge from UNCED, are shown in Boxes 10.2 and 10.3.
Studies show that because of their responsibilities for securing food, fuel, and water – and the labor burdens imposed on them when the resources needed to produce these goods become scarce – women tend to have a greater interest in preserving and conserving croplands, forests and other natural resources for perpetual use, whereas men are more often concerned with converting these resources into cash. Development programs that vest control over natural resources solely within the hands of men, or profit-making enterprises in general, are in effect explicitly supporting short term consumption at the expense of long term sustainability.
Source: Jacobson, 1992: 13. Selected objectives proposed for national governments in Chapter 24 (Global Action for Women Towards Sustainable and Equitable Development) in Agenda 21to implement the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women (1985], particularly with regard to women’s participation in national ecosystem management and control of environmental degradation;
to increase the proportion of women decision makers, planners, technical advisers, managers and extension workers in environment and development fields;
to consider developing and issuing by the year 2000 a strategy of changes necessary to eliminate constitutional, legal, administrative, cultural, behavioural, social and economic obstacles to women’s full participation in sustainable development and in public life;
to establish by the year 1995 mechanisms at the national, regional and international levels to assess the implementation and impact of development and environment policies and programmes on women and to ensure their contributions and benefits.
Source: United Nations Conference on Environment and Development 1992 Agenda 21. New York, United Nations. Aspects requiring urgent action, as stipulated in Chapter 24 of Agenda 21Countries should take urgent measures to avert the ongoing rapid environmental and economic degradation in developing countries that generally affects the lives of women and children in rural areas suffering drought, desertification and deforestation, armed hostilities, natural disasters, toxic waste and the aftermath of the use of unsuitable agro-chemical products.
In order to reach these goals, women should be fully involved in decisionmaking and in the implementation of sustainable development activities.
Research, data collection and dissemination as stipulated in Chapter 24 of Agenda 21Countries should develop gender-sensitive databases, information systems and participatory action-oriented research and policy analyses with the collaboration of academic institutions and local women researchers on the following:
knowledge and experience on the part of women of the management and conservation of natural resources for incorporation in the databases and information systems for sustainable development;
the impact on women of environmental degradation, particularly drought, desertification, toxic chemicals and armed hostilities; and
the integration of the value of unpaid work, including work currently designated “domestic”, in resource accounting mechanisms in order to better represent the true value of the contribution of women to the economy, …;
measures to develop and include environmental, social and gender impact analyses as an essential step in the development and monitoring of programmes and policies.
Source: United Nations Conference on Environment and Development 1992, Agenda 21, New York, United Nations.
