Women & the Environment

Ontibile Moalusi discusses the neoliberal model, and some of its impact and challenges for women in this sector.

Over the years it has become apparent that women have an important role to play in sustainable development. However, the

field of environment and conservation still does not mirror a satisfying proportion of women’s participation. Women still form a small fraction of policy and decision-makers in this field. Management of the worlds natural resources cannot happen if a vital and dominant component of the population, women, are not involved.

The neoliberal model

In the decade since the Beijing women’s conference, the global context has shifted dramatically. There are so many trends that took place but I will focus on the dominance of the neoliberal economic and trade model, which emphasises the deregulation, and privatisation of public services. This approach has given enormous power to industrialised countries and transnational corporations. Global institutions, particularly the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank institutionalise these power imbalances. It is now well documented that these neo-liberal policies have increased inequality between people and countries as well as between men and women.

South Africa today has chosen three technological choices which have opened doors for transnational companies to have power in the economy – PBMR, genetically modified organics (GMOs), aluminium, and smelting industries. Taking GMOs for example, South Africa now has international seed companies; GMOs are pushed into agriculture rapidly; and lastly our legislation and practices are in favour of these gene companies.

Women in agriculture depend on the natural way of farming. The promotion of GMOs is thus displacing them from their income-generating activities while greatly adding to unremunerated work.

Challenges facing women

Women, especially rural women, are directly dependant on natural resources for their livelihoods, and the prosperity of their families. Any ecological imbalance caused by diminished biodiversity will impact directly and negatively on them. Women have been the custodians of most of the knowledge about customs and cultural practices around resource conservation and utilisation.

To start with, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) endorsed in 2000 by 191 countries do not represent the full vision of gender equity, equality, and women’s empowerment or poverty eradication and structural transformation envisaged in United Nations conferences and in the Declaration for Human Rights. Here are some of the challenges that we are faced with:

• Destructive cultural attitudes and practices: women are usually subjected to negative cultural norms that dent their growth and “trap” them in a position that becomes difficult to contest because of its common law nature. This includes decisions that are related to the allocation of land and even rights to access natural resources for basic sustenance.

• Availability of adequate and relevant com- munication/information on issues pertaining to environmental degradation and development challenges.

 

Access to information, participation and capacity building are key elements channelling empowerment towards women.

 

• Women need to have knowledge and statis- tics with which to assert their rights to mobilise for change and make informed choices about environmental issues.

 

• Control of sustainable access to natural resources by women is not yet fully realised.

 

• Women, particularly rural women require better access to information and support to take advantage of programmes and various support systems that exists.

 

Leadership and decision-making

Women are largely absent at all levels of policy formulation and decision-making in natural resource and environmental management, conservation, protection and rehabilitation. Their experience and skills in advocacy and monitoring of proper natural resource management too often remains marginalised in policy-making and decision-making bodies, as well as in educational institutions and environment-related agencies at the managerial level.

Women are rarely trained as professional natural resource managers with policy-making capacities, such as land-use planners, agriculturalists, marine scientists and environmental lawyers. Even in cases where women are trained as professional natural resource managers, they are often under- represented in formal institutions with policy- making capacities at the national, regional, and international levels. Often women are not equal participants in the management of financial and corporate institutions whose decision-making most significantly affects environmental quality. Furthermore, there are institutional weaknesses in coordination between women’s non-governmental organisations and national institutions dealing with environmental issues, despite the recent rapid growth and visibility of women’s NGOs working on these issues at all levels.

The strategic actions needed for sound environmental management require a holistic, multidisciplinary and inter-sectoral approach. Women’s participation and leadership is essential to every aspect of this approach.

 

Gendered Perspectives

In addressing the lack of adequate recognition and support for women’s contribution to conservation and management of natural resources and safeguarding the environment, governments and other sectors should promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective in all policies and programmes. This should include an analysis of the effects on both women and men, respectively, before decisions are taken.

 

Education and Information

Governments, (at all levels), should facilitate and increase women’s access to information and education, including the areas of science, technology and economics, thus enhancing their knowledge, skills and opportunities for participation in environmental decisions. They must also encourage the design of projects in the areas of concern to the Global Environment Facility that would benefit women and projects managed by women. They must promote the education of women of all ages in science, technology, economics and other disciplines relating to the natural environment so that they can make informed choices and offer informed inputs in determining local economic, scientific and environmental priorities for the management and appropriate use of natural resources.

Non-governmental and private sectors should assume advocacy of environmental and natural resource management issues of concern to women and provide information to contribute to resource mobilisation for environmental protection and conservation. They must involve women in the communication industries in raising awareness regarding environmental issues, especially on the environmental and health impacts of products, technologies and industrial processes. They must also support women’s consumer initiatives by promoting the marketing of organic food and product labelling.

 

Call to Action

This global and national scenario presents unprecedented challenges for the women’s movement but it is also a call to action. The same forces that are causing so much insecurity in the world have given rise to movements, both globally and here in South Africa, seeking alternatives to neoliberalism, social and economic inequalities and environmental devastation.

 

Ontibile Moalusi works at the Environmental Justice

Networking Forum.