CSW Consultation – Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF) 5 August 2017
Challenges:
Rural women and girls are disproportionately affected by climate change and extreme weather due to cultural norms, lack of power, and having unequal access to productive resources. Women are often excluded from training programs on new sustainable technologies and agricultural practices, making it difficult for them to adapt to changes in climate and make use of the most cost and energy efficient methods of farming. Also lacking representation in the political sphere, women are unable to influence policies that dictate how their communities will support sustainable development and mitigate climate change. This could lead to communities or countries adopting strategies that will benefit the large-scale farming done mainly by men, while failing to address the issues associated with smaller, household gardens that many women use for financial gain and livelihood. Women as the main caretakers in the home are highly dependent on water and energy resources. However, these resources are often located far distances away or are difficult to collect, and the roads leading to them are rarely safe, lacking sidewalks and clear road signs. This difficulty in accessing water and energy resources causes women to have to spend many hours a day collecting them when they could instead be gainfully employed and generating income. The poor access to natural and productive resources traps women in a cycle of poverty and food insecurity because they have less time to spend on income-generating activities and are also unable to participate in the decision-making process on policies that could improve their situations.
Approaches:
Gender mainstreaming is the overarching strategic approach for achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment at all levels, as mandated by the Beijing Platform for Action. Results show that a consistent use of mainstreaming gender into other sectors leads to more effective policies, also for rural women. Even though the method has been known and practiced since over 20 years, it has not been applied systematically and therefore responses and impacts are still limited. A major challenge is the context-specific approach requiring teams with diverse expertise and the willingness to cooperate across disciplines.
Rural women have difficulty creating employment opportunities for themselves because of their unequal access to financial institutions and assets (loans etc.). In many communities, women are legally unable to own property, leaving them with nothing to provide as collateral for commercial loans. Without loans, credits and other financial assets, it is difficult for women to develop entrepreneurial economic activities that can lift them out of poverty and provide them with independence. In order to improve this, CSOs should work with governments and banks to develop low-cost loans available for women and women cooperatives working to generate economic empowerment for themselves.
Transformative Impacts:
In terms of “transformative change,” the following of the 2030Agenda’s sustainable development goals would have an enormous impact for rural women’s empowerment. The program Women 2030 enacted by Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF) in cooperation with partner worldwide works to provide gender-responsive strategies for achieving SDGs, promotes gender mainstreaming on all levels and focuses, i.a. on SDG 5 (gender equality) and SDG 13 (mitigating climate change). SDGs apply to both the global north and south, and with projects designed especially for each region, the 2030Agenda can really impact women’s empowerment. Like stated before, a major obstacle for rural women is access to productive resources, so with the more sustainable technologies and practices implemented under the SDGs, resources will become more readily available to women, who will have to spend less of their time gathering them and will be able to spend more time on education and gainful employment. Efforts to achieve the SDGs will also engage the male population, who are prominent actors in the relevant fields of climate science and renewable technology, and if gender-mainstreaming is used in SDG achievement, men will be exposed to the issues facing rural women and will hopefully become more gender sensitive. One possible solution would be to build the capacity of rural women and women NGOs on social and professional development, while increasing their engagement in policy development. The creation of formal dialogue platforms would be useful in bringing together women CSOs and representatives from local and regional governments to not only increase women’s participation in the political sphere, but also to ensure that gender responsive strategies are used when drafting new legislative measures. This would also allow rural women to monitor the implementation of policies and be able to advocate for improved access to natural resources, especially water and energy, for better enactment of gender-equality laws, and for more sustainable rural development. These platforms for conversation will allow CSOs to bring the government’s attention to the issues facing women, and will provide women with the opportunity to develop greater agency.
Д-р. Anke Stock
CSW Consultation – Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF) 5 August 2017
Challenges:
Rural women and girls are disproportionately affected by climate change and extreme weather due to cultural norms, lack of power, and having unequal access to productive resources. Women are often excluded from training programs on new sustainable technologies and agricultural practices, making it difficult for them to adapt to changes in climate and make use of the most cost and energy efficient methods of farming. Also lacking representation in the political sphere, women are unable to influence policies that dictate how their communities will support sustainable development and mitigate climate change. This could lead to communities or countries adopting strategies that will benefit the large-scale farming done mainly by men, while failing to address the issues associated with smaller, household gardens that many women use for financial gain and livelihood. Women as the main caretakers in the home are highly dependent on water and energy resources. However, these resources are often located far distances away or are difficult to collect, and the roads leading to them are rarely safe, lacking sidewalks and clear road signs. This difficulty in accessing water and energy resources causes women to have to spend many hours a day collecting them when they could instead be gainfully employed and generating income. The poor access to natural and productive resources traps women in a cycle of poverty and food insecurity because they have less time to spend on income-generating activities and are also unable to participate in the decision-making process on policies that could improve their situations.
Approaches:
Gender mainstreaming is the overarching strategic approach for achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment at all levels, as mandated by the Beijing Platform for Action. Results show that a consistent use of mainstreaming gender into other sectors leads to more effective policies, also for rural women. Even though the method has been known and practiced since over 20 years, it has not been applied systematically and therefore responses and impacts are still limited. A major challenge is the context-specific approach requiring teams with diverse expertise and the willingness to cooperate across disciplines.
Rural women have difficulty creating employment opportunities for themselves because of their unequal access to financial institutions and assets (loans etc.). In many communities, women are legally unable to own property, leaving them with nothing to provide as collateral for commercial loans. Without loans, credits and other financial assets, it is difficult for women to develop entrepreneurial economic activities that can lift them out of poverty and provide them with independence. In order to improve this, CSOs should work with governments and banks to develop low-cost loans available for women and women cooperatives working to generate economic empowerment for themselves.
Transformative Impacts:
In terms of “transformative change,” the following of the 2030Agenda’s sustainable development goals would have an enormous impact for rural women’s empowerment. The program Women 2030 enacted by Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF) in cooperation with partner worldwide works to provide gender-responsive strategies for achieving SDGs, promotes gender mainstreaming on all levels and focuses, i.a. on SDG 5 (gender equality) and SDG 13 (mitigating climate change). SDGs apply to both the global north and south, and with projects designed especially for each region, the 2030Agenda can really impact women’s empowerment. Like stated before, a major obstacle for rural women is access to productive resources, so with the more sustainable technologies and practices implemented under the SDGs, resources will become more readily available to women, who will have to spend less of their time gathering them and will be able to spend more time on education and gainful employment. Efforts to achieve the SDGs will also engage the male population, who are prominent actors in the relevant fields of climate science and renewable technology, and if gender-mainstreaming is used in SDG achievement, men will be exposed to the issues facing rural women and will hopefully become more gender sensitive. One possible solution would be to build the capacity of rural women and women NGOs on social and professional development, while increasing their engagement in policy development. The creation of formal dialogue platforms would be useful in bringing together women CSOs and representatives from local and regional governments to not only increase women’s participation in the political sphere, but also to ensure that gender responsive strategies are used when drafting new legislative measures. This would also allow rural women to monitor the implementation of policies and be able to advocate for improved access to natural resources, especially water and energy, for better enactment of gender-equality laws, and for more sustainable rural development. These platforms for conversation will allow CSOs to bring the government’s attention to the issues facing women, and will provide women with the opportunity to develop greater agency.