Advocating at Intersection of Women’s Rights and the Environment

Held at 10:30am in the Church Center of the UN, this panel session was sponsored by the Women’s Environment and and Development Organization (WEDO). WEDO is an international advocacy organization that works to ensure that women’s voices are heard in decisions made about sustainable development. The panel was conducted by 4 WEDO staff, including the organizations co-directors.

The panel began by providing an overview of the intersection of environmental advocacy and women’s advocacy. For some this is a newer idea, and advocates are trying to define what it means to work at the intersection of these two issues. For WEDO, this is not a new issue, and it has been working at the intersection of women’s and environmental issues since the early 1990s. In 1991, the Women’s Congress for a Healthy Planet set the stage for international dialogue about the role of women in environmental decisions. This was followed by the Women’s Action Agenda 21, which has served as the basis of WEDO's advocacy work.

WEDO staff then presented the 3 primary activities they are engaged in to support advocacy for women in environmental and development decisions. Recognizing that women’s voices can’t be heard if they are not present at the table, WEDO’s Women’s Delegate Fund serves as a funding source and travel agency for women representing their national governments at international negotiations. 40% of the women the Women’s Delegate Fund has funded have been the only female representatives sent by their nations. WEDO conducts trainings for women engaged in negotiations and advocacy work, and they also prepare reports and research on the status of women and the environment. WEDO's Gender Climate Tracker app (genderclimatetracker.org) provides information on 3 topics: the participation rates of women on national delegations, gender mandates across international policy decisions, and NDC (nationally-determined contributions) analysis. They will soon be launching a website that will provide additional information, and as an open-source site, the public and civil society will be able to enter information about national and local conditions that may not be visible to those working at the international level.

WEDO supports the perspective that “silos are sexist”, saying that working in silos unnecessarily divides us and prevents us from seeing the big picture. Working on gender and climate issues separately makes it more likely that the work done on one issue harms the other. For example, work to improve the economic empowerment of women can harm the environment, if the action taken promotes environmentally extractive practices. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to work at the intersection of these issues.

The Need for the Voices of Women in Sustainable Development

The panel began by looking specifically at the 16th Sustainable Development Goal, which calls for the promotion of peaceful, just, and inclusive societies, as well as accountable institutions at every level of society. The starting level, the moderator noted, is the community level. She then posed the questions: Will these goals make a difference for rural women in poor communities? What kind of institutions will empower her? 

The panel was titled “Women’s Leadership in Community-Led Development,” and was sponsored by two organizations, The Hunger Project, and the Movement for Community-Led Development, which consists of a network of 25 international NGOs. The panel discussed examples of women’s leadership in development at the community level, in contexts such as India and Ghana. Some of the positive outcomes of women in leadership included women’s empowerment, transformative leadership, and increased opportunities for relationships between women and their leaders. 

A strong theme throughout the panel was the inclusion of women. “Women know what is best for women,” one of the panelists from Women Thrive Worldwide stated. A seemingly obvious statement, but often overlooked in all levels of global development. This was demonstrated as a panelist from the Ford Foundation asked us to reflect gender representation within the United Nations. The decision-makers leading the United Nations continues to be that of privileged Western men, and voices of women are not adequately represented at arguably the largest international organization advocating for gender equality. Another panelist from Save the Children International noted that development cannot be sustainable unless it is inclusive and participatory, supporting women and girls as agents of change. 

If women in rural communities are the most disadvantaged and impoverished group of people in the world, the only way to support them is to talk to them, include them in conversation, and bring their individual and collective voices into the processes of decision-making and development.