APWLD is Asia Pacific’s leading feminist, membership driven network. We hold consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. Our 180 members represent groups of diverse women from 25 countries in the region. For nearly 25 years APWLD has been empowering women to use law as an instrument of change for equality, justice, peace and development. We use research, training, advocacy and activism to claim and strengthen women’s human rights.
Our network includes past, present and aspiring women politicians and leaders. Please contact us for comments on current issues. We will do our best to put media in contact with experts and concerned parties across the region.
Sarah Matsushita, Information and Communications Officer
sarah@apwld.org
Ph: (66) 53 284-527
For immediate release: 6 December 2011
Contact: Sarah Matsushita sarah@apwld.org Ph: (66) 53 284-527
Recognise the Rights and Roles of Rural and Indigenous Women in Tackling Climate Change
Durban, South Africa: Women and men, due to their gender roles and existing unequal power relations between them, have different vulnerabilities and responses to the impact of critical and harmful conditions resulting from global climate change. They have differentiated capabilities and preferences regarding policies and measures to tackle the problems. The existing policy framework to tackle climate change, however, is ignorant of unequal power relations between men and women.
APWLD stipulates full integration of the gender dimension into addressing climate change in accordance with international human rights, including women’s human rights. APWLD supports the most marginalised women in Asia Pacific who are among the most vulnerable to the negative impact of climate change- yet who have least contributed to the causes.
Research was conducted among rural, indigenous and Dalit women in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Philippines who engage in small-scale farming, fishery and other subsistence activities. Although the political, social and economic context of each country in the region differs, the research revealed that the impact of climate change has aggravated gender inequities and worsened the situation for women. Already saddled with unjust and discriminatory policies and existing gender norms, women face great difficulty coping with the effect of climate change. The lack of a clear land tenure system, of adequate social services for education, health and water, of decent jobs and of support for small scale agriculture, fishery and forestry, have only been worsened with the advent of climate change.
The research results also demonstrated that rural, indigenous and Dalit women in those countries are gatekeepers of their ecosystems and communities, struggling to conserve diminishing resources for survival and adaptation. The strategies they have undertaken are family or community-based, low-carbon and more in harmony with natural ecological systems. Women are ready to take on leadership towards more resilient community-building using their knowledge and skills.
APWLD therefore calls for climate change policies at global and national levels that will:
- Integrate gender perspective and ensure non-discrimination against and support for the most marginalized populations, rural, indigenous and Dalit women; Recognise the role of rural, indigenous and Dalit women in small scale farming, fisheries, hunting and other activities;
- Provide for women’s access to and control of land, water and other natural resources, as well as access to adequate social services and technology meaningful to strengthening their resilience;
- Ensure women and their organisations and communities have direct access to funds catering to their adaptive needs in every sector with adequate resources; Ensure and promote meaningful participation, representation and leadership of women in decision making at all levels;
- Provide consistent and timely information in relation to climate change science and policy, including early warnings of extreme weather events and possible effects, using communication methods appropriate for these women, including rural, indigenous and Dalit women, and in their own languages.
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For immediate release: 6 December 2011
Contact: Sarah Matsushita sarah@apwld.org Ph: (66) 53 284-527
End Marginalisation of Women’s Concerns and Integrate Women Fully into Negotiations
Durban, South Africa: We acknowledge that “gender” has gained recognition and that gender language has been included in the official documents and appears in many projects or side events at the United Nations Framework on Climate Change COP17. However, we are concerned that the term “gender” has been poorly conceptualised in official documents and lacks the critical edge that we have been advocating for. To achieve gender and climate justice, a fundamental transformation in the current global economic system and climate change negotiations has to occur. Central to this is ending the marginalisation of women’s concerns and integrating women fully into these negotiations as key agents in making this transformation happen.
The structure of the current global economic system is based on a combination of an international gendered division of labor, exploitation and domination that excludes women from being represented on an equal basis and in equal numbers to men. However, we want socio-economic development not to be driven by market mechanisms, but to ensure people’s right to define how they understand and envision development, based on their own rights, local experiences, needs and responses, in ways that are sustainable for our planet.
Women cannot accept the mere inclusion of gender in market mechanisms that recognise “differences” of gender roles without changing the exploitative and oppressive power relations in it, nor can we accept the use of these “differences” to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of these mechanisms to make more profit for big corporations and the very few in power. Our feminist approach to climate, gender and environmental justice confirms our understandings that market mechanisms do not transform the current economic paradigm, nor construction of equality and justice between men and women and our relationship to nature.
We also stress the importance of a human rights-based approach and remind the governments of their obligations under the international human rights framework. In order to ensure women’s human rights, including economic and social rights, the major source of funding should be public. Women’s rights to information, resources and technologies must be ensured. We demand that all adaptation finance be provided as grants, to avoid burdening indebted developing countries and poor people with debts. Moreover, our experiences of large-scale projects funded by international financial institutions lead us to reject the proposals that the World Bank take a central role in administering the climate change financing mechanisms.
We propose that all stakeholders work together towards a new paradigm that is based on realisation of human rights of all women and men- particularly poor, marginalised women and indigenous peoples- to promote a sustainable partnership with – not domination of – nature and a people-centred economic system.
From the Climate Justice Now! Press Conference, COP17, 6 December 2011
The dominance of “the 1%” corporate elite over “the 99%” of the people is being challenged around the world. These same tensions and dynamics are at play here at the UNFCCC COP17, which has been taken over by the interests of corporations. The UNFCCC process is betraying the interests of people globally, while providing industry with new opportunities to profit from climate chaos.
Meanwhile, there is great debate in the halls of the ICC about the future of the Clean Development Mechanism, Carbon Markets, REDD+ and the Kyoto Protocol itself. Should these industry-friendly schemes continue or is the process so corrupt and bankrupt that it needs to be eliminated and replaced by truly just and effective climate mitigation strategies? Climate Justice Now! Speakers will address these issues from the perspective of the global climate justice movement and present real, community-based solutions.
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For immediate release: 30th November 2011
Drafted by women’s organizations within the BetterAid Coordination Group
Contact: Sarah Matsushita sarah@apwld.org Ph: (66) 53 284-527
US gender plan lacks the ‘power’ in ‘empowerment’
Busan, Korea: Women’s organisations from around the world have chosen not to endorse the current Busan Joint Action Plan on Gender Equality and Development that US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton will launch today. The group are releasing a position statement on the plan which expresses concern about the overwhelming focus on promoting women as vehicles of economic growth, rather than rights holders in the plan. Women’s Groups who have been engaged in the BetterAid civil society platform are particularly concerned about the plan’s narrow focus on developing economies, rather than developing women’s enjoyment of rights.
“What this plan fails to recognise is that there should be Power in Empowerment. We all know that increasing the number of women available in the labour market can be very profitable. But does it result in better development outcomes or rights for women? Not from our experience” said Azra Sayeed of Roots for Equity, Pakistan. Empowerment needs an enabling environment rooted in concrete rights for women. Women’s organisations within BetterAid are therefore calling for a re-think of the proposed plan and call on governments to use a human rights-based approach to development plans, particularly those aimed at women.
Yesterday women’s groups heard more about the draft plan during a side event where the World Bank and US government and regional banks cited examples of economic growth resulting from increased use of women’s labour or increased access to debt. “We heard quite a bit about the potential economic growth women can generate, but we didn’t hear anything about guaranteeing decent work, sovereignty over land and resources, or shifting economic and social systems that impoverish and discriminate against women,” said Kate Lappin, from the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD).
“Of course we welcome any new money that governments commit to women’s rights. But those commitments should be driven by a real commitment to the enjoyment of women’s rights and to strengthen their autonomies, not a desire to generate economic benefits””. “A human rights-based plan should be developed in dialogue with women’s rights organisations and gender equality advocates among others, to contribute to democratic ownership, accountability, participation and be informed by the collective expertise of women globally,” said Katia Uriona, of Coordinadora de la Mujer/Bolivia.
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For Immediate Release: 6th May 2011
Donors must improve on Istanbul summit pledge to world’s poorest
Budget squeeze no excuse to let targets slip
Brussels, Belgium: The first UN summit for the world’s poorest countries in a decade must ensure that developed nations make good on commitments to help the most destitute, a global coalition of over 1000 civil society organizations said today.
“Richer nations cannot use the economic crisis as an excuse not to follow through on their engagements,” said Tony Tujan, co-chair of BetterAid.
“This week’s conference must ensure the immediate flow of 0.15 percent – 0.20 percent of the total gross national income of developed countries to the less developed countries, in line with previous commitments.”
The four-day United Nations conference on the 48 Less Developed Countries opens in Istanbul on 9 May. The so-called LDC-4 summit will adopt an “action program” for the coming decade that is likely to include a target of cutting the number of people suffering from poverty and hunger by half.
BetterAid insists the Istanbul summit must go beyond good intentions to produce concrete results that go beyond the limited achievements of the last LDC conference in 2001.
“The Istanbul meeting must transcend business as usual to yield robust and ambitious plans so that the gap between the haves and have nots can be narrowed down significantly, if not eliminated, within the coming decade,” said Arjun Karki from LDC Watch and BetterAid. “It is a tragedy that in the 21st century there are still populations categorized as poor, excluded, and vulnerable.”
In particular, the poorest nations need funding in addition to already committed development money to help them cope with the effects of climate change. The entire group of LDCs emits only about 0.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet their populations are hit the hardest by the impact of global warming.
The Least Developed Countries have a combined population of 885 million of whom 75 per cent are living on less than $2 a day.
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APWLD is a member of the Civil Society Open Forum for Development Effectiveness, and the Better Aid Coordinating Group, two civil society platforms which are working to promote effective development practices and increased space CSOs within the Aid Effectiveness agenda of donors and governments in the lead up to the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, 2011.
BetterAid unites over one thousand development organizations from civil society worldwide, and has been working on development cooperation and challenging the aid effectiveness agenda since January 2007. BetterAid is leading many of the civil society activities including in-country consultations, studies and monitoring, in the lead up to the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF4) in Busan in November 2011. www.betteraid.org
Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness is a fully participatory international CSO-driven process involving some 3000 organizations in national, regional and international consultations to build consensus on commonly accepted principles of CSO development effectiveness and their implementation as well as the minimum standards for an enabling environment on behalf of donors and partner governments. On the road to HLF4, Open Forum will be finalizing its International Framework for CSO Development Effectiveness at its second Global Assembly in June 2011. www.cso-effectiveness.org.
