Number of questions: [7]
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Posted on 20/11/2008 18:20:04 |
Hey Sascha,
The achievement of the Millennium development Goals 1-6 (poverty, education, gender, child mortality, maternal health, spread and incidence of major diseases) depends on Goal 7 (environmental sustainability) - on whether we use the earth's resources in ways that are sustainable over a long period of time. This requires the active participation and empowerment of women. My question is do you think environmental sustainability and social justice go hand in hand?
regards, Wondy
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Wondwosen Asnake Kibret (from Switzerland)
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Dear Wondwosen Asnake Kibret
I could not have stated this better, in order to achieve the MGDs 1-7, women need to fully be empowered to participate, which means social justice, including women's equal rights, need to go hand in hand with environmental sustainability.
If women are not allowed to own land or resources, if women are not participating in policy making, if women do not have equal access to education, if women are not allowed to organise themselves and create organisations, ...but also, if women do not have access to child care, if only the "head of the family" receives social support payments and the women have no say on how they are spent, if tradition forbids women to take a role in public, ... then a main catalyst environmental sustainability is missing.
And sustainable development is becoming more and more the economic motor for countries. Just as an anecdote, as the car industry has collapsed under the financial crisis, we are hearing that it is the medium sized environmental businesses, particular in the area of renewable energies, which have become the motor of the economy in Germany...
Social justice, fair and equal changes for women, will help sustainable development and the economy, and it would be a major step for humanity if all countries would base their policies on this insight.
Thank you for that remark, i will continue to use it,
With my best regards,
Sascha Gabizon
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Posted on 20/11/2008 18:02:54 |
Sascha,
The UN declared 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation to bring to the attention of the world the disturbing reality of 2.6 billion people who do not have access to a clean and safe toilet – a very basic sanitation need. Considering the projects you are involved in, what are the specific implications for girls and women? Do you think the international community has done enough in assisting people without access to basic sanitation?
Wondy
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Wondwosen Asnake Kibret (from Switzerland)
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Dear Wondwosen Asnake Kibret
Thank you very much for your question.
In our work on sustainable sanitation, we are working with 30 partners in 12 countries to provide safe and sustainable water and sanitation to 25.000 people in low income rural areas.
The analysis of our project show that women and girls are the most effected by a lack of sanitation, due to a number of reasons;
- School toilets in rural villages in Eastern Europe often do not have doors, which means that there is no privacy, especially when girls have their period and need to change sanitary napkins, they will often stay at home, sometimes for the entire week because of this.
- School toilets in rural villages in Eastern Europe are outside pitlatrines, often placed at a great distance from the school. In winter time when temperatures descend far below zero, girls are in a worse position then boys, having to undress more to use the toilet, and girls often complain of blather infections.
- Women and girls are therefore more motivated then men and boys for having new toilets
The international community has made sanitation one of the MDG goals, but it is at loss at how to make investments into sanitation both sustainable and safe. Many national governments do not yet give sanitation the priority it deserves.
WECF believes that each child should have to right to a safe clean toilet in school. However, in areas without water supply and sewage, the current conventional pit latrines are not a good solution for cold and wet climates. The alternatives, such as urine diverting dry toilets, or still rarely known by policy makers and water companies. The international community can support demonstrating the feasibility of these sustainable sanitation alternatives at large scale, and develop guidelines and support for their implementation.
With my best regards,
Sascha Gabizon
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Posted on 20/11/2008 17:40:17 |
Dear Sascha,
Do you think the work you do in the EECCA countries can be replicated in other regions of the world? If so what recommendation do you have for organizations like UNEP?
Wondy
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Wondwosen Asnake Kibret (from Switzerland)
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Dear Wondwosen Asnake Kibret,
Thank you for your question.
Certainly, what we do can be replicated elsewhere. Of course the EECCA region has some specificities which make it sometimes easier, sometimes more difficult to achieve lasting results, then in Asia Africa or Latin America.
What is needed is a mixture of long-term cooperation between the members of our network, regular , preferable multi-annual funding, allowing for follow up and replication of successful results (not the EU type of one of projects), and a certain degree of good governance which allows local member organisations to be at the same time critical and constructive, whilst not having to fear for their lives. That is not the case in all EECCA countries, our member organisation in Russia, who are providing legal aid to victims of the nuclear plant of Mayak, are being threatened and intimidated.
What do we do which would be useful to replicate: WECF implements local environmental health projects with 35 partner organisations, mostly run by women, in all the EECCA countries except Turkmenistan. Our activities are based on 5 strategies:
1. capacity building of partner NGOs,
2. demonstrating sustainable solutions (water supply, sanitation, energy, agriculture, chemicals and waste management)
3. independent data generation (e.g. water quality monitoring), analyzing and publishing lessons learned
4. policy development and monitoring policy implementation at local, national and international level
5. outreach and engaging citizens
It is the combination between testing and showing how alternatives can work, and the formulation of policy recommendation and media and outreach work, which makes a powerful and empowering combination.
Our Gender policy makes assures that our partners work both on women's empowerment and on gender mainstreaming, and that lessons are shared, so that the entire network functions is a fast learning organisation.
The EECCA countries are of course specific. The region can be divided into 3 categories; low and middle income countries with a democracy such as Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia; countries with important natural resources, with weak democracies such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, and then Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, low income and little or no possibilities for civil society organisations to develop activities. There is much more opportunity for NGOs to achieve lasting results and to work in partnership with authorities whilst keeping a critical independent voice. In the other countries the freedom of NGOs is much more curbed and the scale of their projects is restricted.
At the same time the region has still many structures in common, as well as having a common language, which helps greatly to share lessons between all the member organisations. The level of education, particularly of women, is also very high.
However, compared to for example India, it is more difficult to develop income generating projects or micro-finance projects, as banks are hardly developed in rural areas, and until recently entrepreneurship was discouraged or even punished. Corruption of state companies and authorities is also a barrier to sustainable development all over the region, as is the lack of a free and developed press in the 2nd and 3rd group of EECCA countries.
Of course, we could not exist without the support and the funding provided by some of the EU member states, as local funding is hardly not available for environmental NGOs.
What recommendations do i have for an organisation like UNEP? It is already excellent that UNEP has an active partnership policy with environmental NGOs of the region, through its Regional Meetings and representation in the major groups committee. But, as always, more can be done:
- Provide policy guidelines for governments in the EECCA and other regions, which provide a secure legal basis for environmental NGOs (real ones, not Gongos) to operate
- make it a condition for cooperation with governments that environmental and women's organisation should participate as stakeholders
- aim at a global convention on Rio principle 10, to insure access to environmental information, justice and public participation, and monitor its implementation
- be a partner in activities initiated by environment and womens NGO from the region, as for example the regional WAVE (Women as the Voice for the Environment) conference,
This has become a long story, but i will be happy to further extend on this issue if you wish,
with my best regards,
Sascha Gabizon
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Posted on 20/11/2008 17:21:25 |
Dear Sascha,
May I ask you what do you consider to be the most important issues from gender and environment perspective? I see here the problems of environmental equity, the issue of women's health being more or differently vulnerable to environmental problems... Are there others? And how do you see the role of UNEP and of your organisation in addressing them?
Sincerely yours, Nadya
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Nadya Mazur (from Moldova)
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Dear Nadya Mazur
Thank you for your excellent question.
At WECF we see women as catalysts of change towards more sustainable development, based on their different (gender) roles in society women are more often responsible for care functions in society, and are therefore more alert to health risks stemming from exposure to environmental hazards. In addition, in many countries women are still underrepresented in policy making, which means that their specific concerns, for example on environmental health, are less often a priority in policy decisions.
In addition, women's biological system is differently vulnerable to environmental hazards then that of a men, for example, women have more hormonal changes in their bodies then men, which makes that they are effected differently by hormone disrupting chemicals such as phthalates or certain pesticides. Policy action might want to reduced or exclude hormone disrupting chemicals in particular from products used by women and at the same time, better inform women of precautionary measures.
Gender roles in society also greatly impact on men and women's environmental health. The much lower life expectancy of men in the Eastern European region might well also stem from jobs typically done by men, such as work in the construction industry, where men are very much exposed to hazardous substances such as asbestos, which is still a main building material in the EECCA region.
Finally, women are the first environment for the child, thus environmental toxins in women will effect the health of future generations. Some of these chemicals remain active from one to the next generation. Taking this into account, UNEP should promote a stronger application of the precautionary principle in internatinoal chemicals policies. For example, international legally binding instruments to ban mercury and asbestos use are needed, as well as a much stronger SAICM.
UNEP has already developed a gender mainstreaming policy for its organisation, which is an excellent step.
With my best regards,
Sascha Gabizon
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Posted on 20/11/2008 17:04:23 |
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Sascha, do UNEP and other international organisations do enough to protect women and children from environmental hazards? If no, what shall be changed?
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Alexander (from Russian Federation)
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Dear Alexander
I am very glad that you ask this question, as I believe that none of the international organisations have made the protection of women and children from environmental hazards a sufficient priority.
At WECF we have been cooperating with top level scientists, from universities in Europe and the USA, on the issue of how environmental pollution harms people's health, in particular of vulnerable groups such as children. Children are particularly vulnerable in their early stages of development, especially during pregnancy exposure to very low doses of hazardous chemicals, heavy metals or radiation can lead to lifelong and irreversable health damage.
The problem is that environmental policies have often 2 problems:
1- they are not sufficiently based on the precautionary principle, and early warnings do not lead to restrictions . For most of the well-known dangerous substances, chemicals and heavy metals, such as mercury, lead, asbestos, edosulfan, lindane... and many others, it has taken numerous decades before steps where taken to restrict their use, or in some cases, this has still not happened, whilst hundred thousands of men, women and children have suffered birth defects, develop incurable diseases or have died from exposure to these substances. Currently, for several hundred of the 100,000 chemicals used on the world wide market, we have very strong indications that they are leading to irreversible, lifelong health damage, and that we should urgently ban or restrict their use, for example in the case of endocrine disrupters like phthalates. Nevertheless, we continue to find them in baby toys, baby creams, baby furniture as if there was no scientific evidence on their probable health effects available at all.
2. The second problem is that many policies regulation environmental hazardous substances are based on standard setting and maximum allowed levels, which, unfortunately, do not take into account the specific vulnerability of children, nor of women.
UNEP should take a leading role, in cooperation with WHO and other UN agencies working on the protection of women and children, to develop guidelines for precautionary environmental health policies, and, to encourage a world wide convention on children's environmental health, building on the Children's Environmental Health Action Plan for Europe.
With my best regards
Sascha Gabizon
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Posted on 20/11/2008 16:14:43 |
Dear Mrs. Gabizon,
I would highly appreciate if you can send me a link to your webpage. I am interested in the activities you have in Eastern Europe.
Thank you very much,
With my kind regards
Kamelia Savova
EcoWorld2007
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Kamelia Savova (from Bulgaria)
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Dear Kamelia,
Please visit our website, www.wecf.eu , and please do not hesitate to concact us, we are working with environmental organisations in Bulgaria and other Eastern European countries, on environment and health projects, with women and men, and will be glad to tell you more about that,
best greetings
Sascha Gabizon
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Posted on 20/11/2008 04:02:28 |
Hi Ms. Gabizon,
This is Wenbo. I am a Gr. 12 student and my goal is to go to UNEP when I grow up. Is it possible to ask you about your experiences in life and how you eventually get involved with UNEP? I am curious because I am going into college next year and I wonder what courses should I take and what choices should I make in the future so that I can be somebody in your position one day.
And I am a "woman" too. Haha!
Sincerely,
Wenbo
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Wenbo Zhang (from Canada)
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Dear Wenbo Zhang
Thank you for your message, and it is a wonderful goal in life to want to go to UNEP!
You asked me how i got involved with UNEP: that was 4 years ago, when UNEP organized a conference for women's environmental leaders from across the world, and i was invited because of the work i do with women' and environment organisations. My organisation, Women in Europe for a Common Future, is a non-profit network organisation, we have a 100 member organisations in 38 countries in Central Asia , Caucasus, South Eastern Europe, Turkey, Eastern Europe and the European Union. But we also have individual members from all over the world. Our aim is to create a healthy environment for all, and to empower women to be catalysts for this.
Our organisation tries to be a platform of opportunities for enthusiastic women and men to work either very practically in their communities (we fundraise for our members to improve the health and environment situation through very concrete projects like renewable energy systems for rural households in Kyrgyzstan, just to give one example), or to work at international policy level.
After the invitation in 2004, my organisation joined officially as a partner of UNEP. UNEP has a network of environmental, women's, trade union and other civil society partners, who are asked to give input into its work-programmes and strategies. I think that is very good for UNEP, as they in this way keep a close relationship to "normal" people all over the world, their concerns, their proposals for solutions.
So what advice can I give you for your choices in the future, if you want to work for UNEP, i can only recommend that you try to work with local and international environmental organisations, that is the best school. I am sure you can get really interesting internships with NGOs in Canada or abroad. As for which courses to chose, international law is always good, but so are technical subjects, for example in the area of renewable energy, or even... business administration and economics, which is what i studied, and it has helped me a lot to have worked in the "commercial" world for some time before creating our non-profit organisation.
I wish you lots of luck in your choices of college courses and i hope to see you at UNEP maybe one day!
best greetings
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