Mercy Global Concern - 2003

NEWS FROM CSD11

Dear friends:

Greetings from CSD11. Please find statements by the Women's Major Group below. The draft text, which will be negotiated next week, is available at the website listed. We are extremely pleased with both the level of Major Group participation during the first week of CSD11, and the strong support from Chair Moosa from South Africa, governments and major groups for gender as a cross-cutting issue in the future work of the CSD.

The Chair's Summary of the High-Level Segment, Chair's Summary of the Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue, and other CSD11 documents can be found at: http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd/csd11

Comments by Women's Major Group
On the Chairperson's Draft
Friday, May 2, 2003
11th Session, Commission on Sustainable Development

The Women's Major Group would like to thank the chairperson for the many opportunities we have had this week to give input into the discussions on the future work of the CSD. We are pleased that several of our key concerns are reflected in your draft decision. We would like to especially highlight the following:

a.. Gender equality as a cross-cutting issue to be addressed in every cycle.
b.. An integrated approach to each theme that addresses the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.
c.. The explicit inclusion of corporate social and environmental responsibility.
d.. The reaffirmation of the key role of the major groups at the local, national, regional and global levels.

Based on our initial review of the draft decision, we offer the following comments:

On the Future Organisation of Work of the CSD:

a.. We concur with the two year implementation cycle consisting of a review year and a policy year.
b.. The Secretary General's State of Implementation Report will be a critical input in the CSD review. Therefore, it is important that it specifically address all of the relevant cross-cutting issues, particularly gender equality.
c.. We endorse the use of regional implementation forums. This approach will enable greater participation of women and other civil society groups working on the ground. It is important that major groups have an opportunity to report on their own experiences in implementing the JPOI, as well as to comment on government reports.
d.. The CSD rules of procedure facilitating access of stakeholders at the regional level should be clearly articulated with the aim of maximizing participation.
e.. While we believe a dialogue with experts could be useful, experts should represent the multiple dimensions of sustainable development from both a policy and practitioner perspective. We also believe that these meetings should be open to observers and question why they would all have to take place in New York.
f.. We endorse the continued high-level segments at the beginning of CSD sessions. It is critical, however, that the ministers relevant to the focus area who are attending articulate a coherent national policy on the thematic issue that encompasses the social, economic and environmental dimensions. This could involve discussions between the finance, trade, environment and social development ministries, among others. It is also important for consultations to take place with relevant parliamentarians and legislative committees in preparation for the CSD review.

On the Multi-Year Programme of Work of the CSD for the period after 2003:

a.. We assume that the overriding theme of sustainable development for poverty eradication includes the three essential requirements for sustainable development contained in paragraph 2 of the JPOI. These include “poverty eradication, changing unsustainable patterns of production and consumption and protecting and managing the natural resource base of economic and social development.”
b.. As we already noted, we support the topics listed as cross-cutting issues in para.10 (e) but we think that the failure to include peace and human rights is a glaring omission. We would also favor the inclusion of education.
c.. The successful integration of gender as a cross-cutting issue will require institutional mechanisms, such as a gender focal point within the CSD, as well as explicit tools for gender mainstreaming. We have specific recommendations which we presented yesterday at the multi-stakeholder dialogue.
d.. Several of the cross-cutting issues, including sustainable production and consumption and health, might also be overarching themes for a CSD cycle.

On Reporting:

a.. Requirements for national reporting need to be strengthened as they are the foundation for learning, monitoring and accountability. Recognizing the burden that reporting may entail, we would propose that reports be more comprehensive but less frequent, if necessary. We would also urge that the reports contain gender disaggregated data.
b.. Since we believe that coherence and coordination within the UN system are critical for the successful implementation of Agenda 21 and the JPOI, we think the report requested from the Secretary General in paragraph 16 would be most useful. It is important that the agencies that deal specifically with gender, such as DAW, UNIFEM and UNFPA, are included. It is also most important that the report indicates how the agencies and commissions dealing with finance and other economic matters will collaborate with CSD and be integrated in the implementation of the JPOI.

On Enhancing Contribution of Major Groups:

a.. We are pleased with this section but would like to recommend, in addition to a better regional balance of major groups, that there be a call for gender balance.

On the CSD as the Focal Point for Partnerships:

a.. We believe this section strikes the right balance between recognizing the contributions that partnerships can make to implementation and the primary responsibility of governments to implement agreed commitments. We especially appreciate the provision that these initiatives be based on new and additional resources.
b.. Partnerships endorsed by the CSD should be required to make periodic public reports. This is essential for a credible monitoring mechanism.
c.. Ensure that partnership fairs showcase community based initiatives.

With regard to the themes for the next two CSD cycles, we recognize the emerging consensus in favor of water and energy. We have already begun to work on gender, water and poverty and stand ready to work with the chairperson, member states, UN agencies, and major groups to ensure that women's experiences on the ground and systemic barriers to women's equality are addressed as a central component of CSD 12.

Delivered by Marta Benavides, El Salvador

Statement by Women's Major Group

Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue, May 1, 2003

11th Session, Commission on Sustainable Development

Chairperson, your summary yesterday gave the Women's Major Group new confidence in the implementation of the WSSD. You recognized gender as a specific focus in the future work of the CSD. However, the commitment to gender equality must go beyond words to become actions—actions that are grounded in a human rights framework and women's empowerment, actions that promote multilateralism and peace.

As UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan remarked on International Women's Day this year, “Study after study after study has shown that there is no effective development strategy in which women do not play a central role. When women are fully involved the benefits can be seen immediately: families are healthier, and better fed; their income, savings and reinvestment go up. And what is true of families is also true of communities and, in the long run, of whole countries.”

We propose the following measures to ensure that gender is a cross-cutting issue in all future work of the CSD.

(1) Institutional Mechanisms and Capacity-Building

a.. Establish a well-resourced Gender Focal Point within the CSD by 2004 to monitor gender as a cross-cutting issue
b.. Establish a multidisciplinary Working Group on Gender and Sustainable Development as part of the UN Interagency Taskforce on Women and Gender Equality, working closely with Division on the Advancement of Women and UNIFEM

(2) Gender Balance and Participation

a.. Establish time bound benchmarks toward equal participation of women and men in all CSD forums b.. Create a Global Fund for Civil Society Participation and establish procedures that guarantee meaningful participation by civil society

(3) Monitoring and Reporting

a.. Conduct a Gender Analysis of JPOI progress reports during the CSD Review Year and develop a Gender Monitoring Report in connection with the Commission on the Status of Women's ten year review of the Beijing Platform for Action in 2005
b.. Promote the development of national and local Gender Budget Initiatives, to assess the differential impact of specific policies on women and men and improve accountability, transparency, and targeting of resources
c.. Support capacity building for women's organizations to engage in an active monitoring process, continuing to hold governments accountable for commitments made at the UN Conferences, including WSSD

(4) Gender-specific Information and Analysis

• Collect sex-disaggregated data in the implementation of the JPOI
• Use gender indicators related to sustainable development for monitoring and reporting of WSSD implementation

With the recognition of water and energy as sectors of particular importance for the CSD work program, we would like to emphasize the need to integrate a gender perspective in these and any other themes. Finally, the World Trade Organization and International Financial Institutions, which are accelerating privatization of natural resources, water and health services, and education, must follow the principles of socially just and sustainable development.

Litha Musyimi Ogana and Haddas Giorgis

 

Women's Major Group, Ministerial Roundtable 29 April 2003.

Gender and Poverty

Poverty eradication and sustainable development cannot be achieved if the CSD, and indeed governments, do not partner with women. Women form the single most important constituency and change agents in poverty eradication and sustainable development. They have to be deeply involved, represented, and visible partners of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The MDGs that have been committed to, such as halving poverty and increasing access to clean water by 2015, cannot and will not be achieved unless gender equality is taken as a critical component. It is now imperative that governments make gender equality central to the implementation of JPOI and the MDGs.

In Multi-Stakeholder Dialogues held prior to WSSD, women submitted that in inhuman and gender-insensitive macroeconomic and trade policies have been a major cause of poverty. Policy coherence is important, but it is not enough. Bearing in mind that women underwrite the cost of badly designed and implemented policies such as SAPs, the newly engineered PRSP to poverty eradication should not be implemented in a one-size-fits-all approach. Such an approach presents the danger of de-emphasizing linkages between poverty eradication and sustainable development, and undermines the critical role of women in fostering and reinforcing those and other linkages.

Finally, the when it comes to implementation of any policy or program, the impetus is on national budgets and how these activities are financed. Engendering of the national, sectoral, and local authority budgets is one sure way of guaranteeing that the JPOI and MDGs implementation is engendered. Your country, South Africa, has taken the lead in the gender budgeting initiative. The Women's Major Group recommend that the CSD facilitate the adoption and highlight such best practices and call for engendered budgets.

Litha Musyimi Ogana

Intervention during discussions:

With regard to Japan's statement on the 3rd World Water Forum, we observe that the current trend towards privatization of water services by multinational corporations has deteriorated women's and poor communities' access to water and has deepended poverty. Indeed, the Camdessus report on financing water infrastructure is in direct conflict with the Millennium Development Goal on access to water. In the 21st century we still have women walking up to 20 kilometers to fetch water. It is unimaginable what privatization of water will mean to women in a world where feminized poverty is already a harsh reality.

 

Women's Major Group, Ministerial Roundtable 29 April 2003.

The Social and Gender Dimensions of Health.

The Women's Action Agenda for a Peaceful and Healthy Planet 2015, which was prepared by the global women's movement as an input in the WSSD, defines ‘Health ' as a holistic phenomenon in our lives. Not only should basic needs be met, and should people be able to live in safe livelihoods, with water security, food security, energy security and biodiversity as essential elements, but it is also necessary that there is environmental security (e.g. living non-toxic and biosafe lives) and ecological security (e.g. prevention of climate change, flooding, erosion). And last but not least: the prevention and absence of violence, conflict and war – in this context I want to call your special attention to the situation of the millions of (environmental) refugees in the world. We see health and environmental and ecological security as basic human rights.

As everybody in this room knows, gender issues are central to people's health and to the planet's health. The gender aspects of health and sustainable development have also been underlined in chapter VI of the JPOI (these references are available here on paper).

Often there is gender-based inequality in access to health services, disease prevention (incl. prevention of HIV/AIDS). Women often face wider exposure to unsafe situations (e.g. use of pesticides without protection or proper information, absence of waste disposal, unsafe water, and unhealthy indoor environments). Also: women have a different susceptibility to toxic substances (e.g. POPs). On the other hand they are the ones that have disproportionate responsibilities, and are owners of very valuable knowledge and skills bases (e.g. on medicinal plants/biodiversity, ecological vulnerability).

We can not ensure and improve health and sustainable development without focusing on gender. And so every of the themes which have been mentioned here in CDS11 yesterday and today, and will be mentioned tomorrow have a gender perspective. Therefore it is essential for WSSD implementation to make gender a cross-cutting issue throughout: e.g. by making the CSD policies, programmes and initiatives gender sensitive (for example focusing on access/control over services, knowledge, land, water). By strengthening the institutional capacity of CSD and the secretariat, e.g. appointing gender focal point and coordination with specialized agencies and divisions (such as DAW, UNIFEM). By ensuring gender balance and enabling the participation of women at all levels in the CSD process. And by using sex disaggregated data, and using gender analysis and/or budget studies. All these recommendations for provisions for the future role of CSD will be included in a (WEDO) paper which is available here.

(Irene Dankelman, WEDO)

 

Opening Presentation at WEDO Side Event, New York, 1 May 2003 - Irene Dankelman

Make the Connections: Poverty, Water and Gender in the CSD and the MDGs

Yesterday I attended the UNIFEM facilitated ECOSOC Roundtable on ‘Economics and Rights: interconnections in the context of HIV/AIDs and feminized poverty '

when Sissel Ekaas, director of the Women and Population Division of FAO, finished her Power Point presentation with showing us a slide of an old woman in a rural landscape in Malawi, surrounded by 6 of her 9 grandchildren – all of whom had lost their parents to AIDS. She was the sole food producer, water carrier, energy provider and caretaker of that family…..Her picture has made a deep impression on me.

She stands symbol for what the theme of this meeting is about – connecting poverty, gender and water – as one of the life essential assets. What does it mean to her life that she has to walk everyday a long way to collect water, is there enough for the children en to produce her crops, is the water clean, can she – as a widowed woman – collect and use it freely?

At this meeting we talk about CSD, MDGs, about implementation of international agreements and structures. What do the MDGs bring her, or her grandchildren? Does Kyoto's WWF make any difference to her life? How do we ensure that the coherent implementation of WSSD brings light and life into their days? Accessibility, control over and affordability of such essential natural resources are essential for her and her grandchildren's livelihoods and health.

The MDGs and JPOI

In the Millennium Development Declaration of 2000 world leaders committed themselves to several concrete goals and targets.

MDG.1. Speaks about the eradication of poverty and hunger by 2015.

MDG.7. About ensuring Environmental sustainability; and targets to Halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015 (to which WSSD adds a similar sanitation goal).

And last but not least MDG 3 Calls for promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women. A goal which should not only stand at its own, but which should cross-cut all the other targets. It is now widely recognized that gender equality and women's empowerment are essential to human development and poverty eradication. For example, UNFPA concludes in a recent paper that elevating the status of women is key to resolving the world's water crisis. Therefore in each of the MDGs a gender perspective is needed, and already clear proposals are developed to include gender-sensitive targets and indicators in each of the MDGs (see UNDP paper 2003).

In the Johannesburg Political Declaration (2002) it is stated in principle 18 that: “We are committed to ensure that women's empowerment and emancipation and gender equality are integrated in all the activities, encompassed within Agenda 21, the MDGs and the JPOI.” This is further elaborated in more than 30 gender-related references throughout the JPOI text. For example article 24 says :

(a) Mobilize international and domestic financial resources, at all levels, transfer technology, promote best practices and support capacity building for water and sanitation infrastructure, and services development, ensuring that such infrastructure and services meet the needs of the poor and are gender-sensitive.

(b) Facilitate access to public information and participation, including by women, at all levels in support of policy and decision-making related to water resources management and project implementation.

Article 27 (l) Transfer and disseminate technologies for safe water, sanitation, and waste management….taking into account country-specific conditions and gender equality including specific technology needs of women.

Of importance is also Article 81 which calls for: Promotion and support of land tenure and clarification of resource rights, and to enable women producers to become decision-makers and owners in the sector, including the right to inherit land. Land and water rights are often related.

World Water Forum 3, Kyoto

During the World Water Forum in Kyoto, last March, civil society groups – among which many women's organizations - pushed very hard for a gender focus in the WWF 3 deliberations and outcomes. The Ministerial Declaration acknowledges the central role of women to poverty eradication and water resources management.

“Major groups including CEOs, unions, indigenous people, water journalists, parliamentarians, youth and children all have a point of view and deserve the right to be heard. Yet large segments of society, especially women and the poor, are not given a voice.”

“The need for capacity building, education and access to information for enhanced effectiveness in water management is unquestioned. These critical elements of the water development process are often treated as an add-on to programmes, with scant regard to local capacity-building institutions, gender mainstreaming, cultural diversity and traditional knowledge or to long-term commitment.”

“ Gender-sensitive participatory processes at the community level have proved effective, and in some countries they are supported by gender inclusive policies. Education on integrated water resources management needs to continue to be made available to all stakeholders. “

“Local people, authorities, the research community, farmers, industries, women and minority groups are empowered and involved in the development of basin and aquifer strategies, agreements and institutions.”

Worth mentioning is that the Forum also stated: “Our common basic requirement for water is an opportunity for cooperation and peace.” It is also worth recalling that water was defined as a human right in a General Comment by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2002).

From Words to Action There is a lot of movement in the gender and water sector. Many words have been spoken and commitments made regarding the need for a gender specific approach in sustainable development. We are here together to make CSD work for people and for the planet. As has been mentioned this morning in the MSD, special provisions are needed to ensure a gender specific implementation of the WSSD, the only way it will work and it will bring us steps forward in meeting the MDGs and beyond.

As the reality people's lives show: gender has to be a cross-cutting issue in all future work of the CSD. Therefore specific measures should be taken at institutional level (establishing a well-resources gender focal point (there was one in the fore-days of Rio) within the CSD by 2004), to ensure gender balance and participation in WSSD implementation, by putting specific monitoring an reporting systems in place (e.g. gender analyses of the JPOI progress reports and Gender SD Monitoring Report on 2005), and the availability of gender-specific information and analysis.

During Kyoto many events took place which gave visibility to women's roles, positions and concerns regarding water resources, including the concern about the impact of water (services) privatization on poor women's livelihoods and lives. Eradication of poverty: yes, but also prevention of new poverty and ensuring women's access and control over resources. When CSD11 decides that ‘water ' should be a central theme of CSD12 in 2004, ample room should be given to gender-related initiatives, which were so challenging in Kyoto.

Perhaps we should go back to the grandmother and her 9 grandchildren in the CSD Review Year, and ask her if her life became any easier. Let us give her back her hope in her grandchildren's future.

Irene Dankelman, WEDO and University of Nijmegen, Netherlands; irene.dankelman@antenna.nl; more information on gender and Sustainable Development: www.wedo.org; and in: Untapped Connections: Gender, Water and Poverty. WEDO, 2003