Call for Input: Gender, Conflict, & Environment – WEDO

February 23, 2006

WEDO – http://www.wedo.org/

Women’s Environment & Development Organization

 

Mia MacDonald – mia@wedo.org

WEDO
is writing to ask for your ideas. WEDO (the Women’s Environment
and
Development Organization) is in the process of preparing
several
proposals on behalf of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) for
programs
that integrate environment and gender.  We are currently
engaged in
consultations to help develop the program ideas, and would
really
appreciate your thoughts.

As you may know (and may have
attended), UNEP held a Global Women’s
Assembly on Environment: Women as the
Voice for the Environment (or
WAVE) in October 2004, which brought together
over 150 participants who
agreed on an action plan and a number of specific
project ideas.  The
WAVE outcomes and the work of the Network of Women
Ministers of the
Environment gave rise to UNEP Governing Council decision
23/11 that
requests UNEP to promote gender equality in the field of
environment. We
are seeking your feedback on two proposals, based on the
priorities
identified by the October 2004 Assembly, and included in the
Governing
Council decision. They are:

(a) Development of local level
and global policy advocacy
initiatives on the inter-linkages between gender,
conflict and
environment;

(b) Launch of an effort to use CEDAW’s article 14(h) to
increase
recognition of and attention to the gender-related aspects
of
environmental issues from a human rights perspective;

In order to
gather your ideas about these projects, we ask that you
answer a few
questions about either or both, depending on your current
work, areas of
expertise, and interests (included below and attached as
a Word file). We
need to have your responses by Wednesday, March 1 at
the latest, and it would
be optimal if you could reply before then.

If you would prefer not to
fill out the questionnaire and instead
provide your input via telephone,
please let us know and we can make
arrangements to phone you. We would be
very grateful for your help in
disseminating this questionnaire, as we want
to ensure that we are
consulting with a diverse range of groups. Please feel
free to forward
this message to your own networks and colleagues who may be
interested.

We are also developing two other proposals coming out of the
WAVE
conference: 1) Collection and dissemination of case studies on
women’s
successful participation in development of environmental and
sustainable
development policies; and 2) Creation of a mentorship program to
build
the leadership capacities of young women so they can be
actively
involved in environment and sustainable development policy
and
decision-making. You may receive a separate email from Irene
Dankelman
seeking your ideas about these projects.

With many thanks in
advance for your time, and your work.

Mia MacDonald
WEDO Consultant,
Mia@wedo.org

QUESTIONNNAIRE: PROPOSAL TO UNEP ON
CONFLICT, GENDER AND ENVIRONMENT

Background: Decision 23/11 requests
UNEP’s Executive Director to give an
account of lessons learned about
gender-related aspects of environmental
issues in conflict situations and to
apply its conclusions to UNEP’s
post-conflict assessment work. Women’s and
men’s relationships to the
environment and their lives overall are affected
in starkly different
ways during the lead up to a conflict and in the
post-conflict period.
Largely because of their lower status and higher
vulnerability to
poverty, violence, displacement, and environmental
degradation,
conflicts often result in disproportionately negative
consequences for
women. Women may lose their access to or control over
natural resources,
are often required to compensate for conflict-induced
“ecological
deficits” (e.g., walking further to find sources of water and
fuel), and
are rarely consulted about how to address environmental crises
brought
on by or that fuel conflicts, or to ensure sustainable development
when
conflicts end.

Despite these realities, far too often, women’s
needs, rights and voice
are neglected during post-conflict reconstruction,
including in the
areas of natural resource use and environmental management
and
restoration. Yet, experience shows that women are often more
attuned
than men to the tensions, including over resources, that may erupt
into
small-or large-scale conflicts. As such, they are well positioned to
be
agents of peace before a conflict breaks out.  Women are
also
acknowledged to be agents of cooperation during conflicts and in
the
post-conflict period, seeking to re-knit community or national ties.

Only recently, however, since the adoption in 2000 of Security
Council
Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, have governments begun
to
focus on the critical roles women play in conflict prevention
and
reconstruction. Yet, despite growing attention to the
relationship
between environment and conflict, including through UNEP’s
post-conflict
assessment unit, little of this deals with gender. As a result,
the
multiple environmental realities faced by women and girls in
conflict
situations remain mostly invisible. This indicates a crucial need
for
more work, both conceptual and practical, at local levels
in
post-conflict settings and in national and global policy processes.

The project aims to bring together women’s groups, environmental
groups,
and others at local levels to advocate for and implement
projects-either
environmental or peace building-that reflect the
interlinkages between
gender equality and environmental sustainability;
encourage greater
attention to the gender-conflict-environment nexus within
UN bodies and
processes as well as post-conflict reconstruction; and share
lessons
learned about gender-conflict-environment to influence how
agencies
address these issues at global and local levels.

Question 1:
Do you agree or disagree with our assessment (above)? If you
agree that there
is a need to address this set of issues, what would
you
propose?

More specifically, our thinking
is that a project on
gender-conflict-environment would include the following:
(1) training
for and implementation of local projects in 3-5 sites
through
partnerships of women’s groups, environmentalists, peace groups,
and
others (including rights-focused organizations); (2)
outreach
to/education of lead agencies in local and national reconstruction
on
the importance of gender analysis and action and of women’s unique
roles
and burdens with respect to the environment in pre- and
post-conflict
situations (this would include organizations focused on the
environment,
including UNEP); (3) similar outreach to and education
of
headquarters-level staff leading post-conflict reconstruction
efforts
(e.g., OHCHR, ICRC, World Bank and UNEP); (4) advocacy within
UN
agencies and bodies and INGOs to encourage them to give higher
priority
to women’s unique roles in pre- and post-conflict situations with
regard
to the environment and natural resources; and (5) development of
a
manual or other publication that would assist agencies in
addressing
gender-conflict-environment in planning and implementation.

 
Question 2: What do you think of this approach? How would you
improve or
modify it?

Question 3: Would
you like to be involved in this work? If so, how? (For
example, being a
partner organization for implementation at local or
national
levels).

Your contact
information:

Question 4: Is there anyone else to whom you think we
should send this
questionnaire? If so, can you provide us with their contact
information?

Thank you. Please return by March 1,
2006 to: Mia MacDonald,
mia@wedo.org <mailto:mia@wedo.org>

QUESTIONNNAIRE: PROPOSAL TO UNEP
ON CEDAW AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Background: Decision 23/11 encourages UNEP’s
Executive Director to work
with the Committee on the Elimination of all Forms
of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW) and other relevant human rights
bodies on
gender-related aspects of environmental issues.  While the
CEDAW
convention does not contain any article that is specifically related
to
gender and the environment, article 14(h) refers to the position
of
rural women and their environment. It reads: “To enjoy adequate
living
conditions, particularly in relation to housing, sanitation,
electricity
and water supply, transport and communication.” Given
women’s
near-universal lack of equal access to and rights over
natural
resources, our assessment is that women’s groups and their partners
at
local, national and global levels can use CEDAW article 14(h) to
press
for more equitable access to and control of resources. This work
would
also help embed the vital interconnections among gender, environment
and
rights in legislation and policy recommendations.

Our research
has found that almost no work is being done that uses CEDAW
to extend women’s
rights in the environmental arena. Similarly, almost
no country in its report
to the CEDAW Committee addresses the links
between gender and environment.
This suggests that this is an area ripe
for further action in communities, in
national legislatures, and within
the CEDAW Committee and other international
human rights mechanisms.

What we propose is an exchange of ideas and
strategies between women’s
groups working at national levels to implement
CEDAW and groups
concerned with environmental issues; development of advocacy
campaigns;
and outreach to the CEDAW Committee to encourage it to issue
a
recommendation on environment and gender equality that would
influence
how states report on these issues to the Committee. This could, in
turn,
increase the attention other human rights bodies pay to issues of
gender
and environment, and the priority given to them. 

Question 1: Do you agree or disagree with our assessment (above)? If
you
agree that there is a need to address this set of issues, what would
you
propose?

 

More
specifically, our thinking is that a project on CEDAW and the
environment
would include the following components: (1) capacity
building for women’s
groups working at local and national levels on
using CEDAW to promote gender
equality in the area of environment; (2)
linking (electronically or through
written materials or exchanges) of
women’s groups experienced in using CEDAW
at national and local levels
with groups interested in using article 14(h);
(3) development of
partnerships at local and national levels with groups
working on other
rights issues, including economic, social and cultural (ESC)
rights and
the intersection of environment and rights; (4) facilitation
of
interaction between UNEP staff and the CEDAW Committee; (5) outreach
to
and education of CEDAW Committee members based on the work done
by
groups at local and national levels; and (5) global level advocacy for
a
recommendation from the Committee to governments on gender
and
environment.  

Question 2: What do you think of this
approach? How would you improve or
modify
it?

Question 3: Would you like to be
involved in this work? If so, how? (For
example, being a partner organization
for implementation at local or
national
levels).

Your contact
information:

Question 4: Is there anyone else to whom you think we
should send this
questionnaire? If so, can you provide us with their contact
information?

Thank you. Please return by March 1 2006 to: Mia
MacDonald, mia@wedo.org