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Maliza van Eeden
Maliza van Eeden
Topic: Women,Conflict and the Environment
Maliza van Eeden is a South African lawyer. She graduated from the University of Cape Town in 2001 and subsequently practiced as an attorney in Cape Town. She has been working in UNEP's Post-Conflict ...
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Number of questions: [2]
Posted on 08/03/2007 12:20:27
In what ways is the Gender Aspect important in your area of expertise, especially in terms of equity and equality?
Jane Smith (from Kenya)
Dear Jane

Thank you for your question. I would like to direct you to my article titled "Gender and the post-conflict environment", which answers your question directly and appears today on UNEP's new gender and environment website. You may view the article through the following link:

http://www.unep.org/gender_env/Information_Material/Conflict.asp

Posted on 08/03/2007 08:03:10
What strategies do you propose for educating policy-makers in your area of specialization ?
Centre for Environment Education (from India)
Consciousness of gender issues can be achieved through a combination of a “top down” and “bottom up” approach. While it may be appropriate to sensitize people to the problems of gender inequities through laws and policies, it is also necessary to build consciousness through the awareness of ordinary women and men. The education and support of a body of women who can articulate issues and campaign strongly is a powerful way of ensuring that their message is carried into the policy sphere.

In the context of UNEP’s work in conflict and post-conflict countries, the challenge is to identify concrete examples of best practice in environmental management to address the differential impact that conflict has on women (e.g. a combination of conflict-related human displacement and environmental degradation means that women sometimes have to walk far to gather water and firewood, which makes great demands on their time and exposes them to physical assault and sexual violence). These elements of best practice must be adopted by all UN agencies to ensure that women are able to access the benefits of UN programmes and projects. This integration should take place through the implementation of training modules for UN country teams and should take account of the specific conditions in the country of operation by using the knowledge of local women’s groups and organizations. For example, during UNEP’s post-conflict environmental assessment of Lebanon, UNEP's scientists were given training on local gender and cultural issues by local gender experts before commencing their fieldwork.

    
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