Breaking out of Marginalisation
The Breaking out of Marginalisation Programme recognises that Rural, Indigenous and Migrant (RIM) women across Asia Pacific are among the poorest and most marginalised in society. Rural and indigenous women’s lives and livelihoods are threatened by climate change events, environmental degradation, militarisation, ethnic and religious discrimination and economic policies that make small scale subsistence farming unsustainable. Women displaced from their lands are more likely to end up in low paid, unregulated work and are especially at risk of being trafficked. Domestic work is the largest driver of labour migration in the region for disenfranchised women seeking economic survival and migrant domestic workers face heightened vulnerability and lack of access to their rights. Across Asia Pacific, domestic work is recognised as an extension of household chores and due to this invisibility of work, governments fail to extend to domestic workers the rights and benefits other workers enjoy.
Women are affected more severely and are more at risk from natural disasters and extreme weather events, including during post-disaster response efforts. Women’s exclusion from decision-making and limited access to and control over resources impedes their rights, and in the case of climate change, means that women’s voices are absent from decisions about environmental management, climate change adaptation and mitigation, with long-term consequences for the wellbeing of women, their families and the sustainability of their communities. It is therefore important to articulate rural and indigenous women’s critical role and capacity in the nurturing of a sustainable ecological system.
Programme Objective:
To increase the capacity of Rural, Indigenous and Migrant women to be vocal, effective advocates for human rights and just development.
Strategies
Women-led participatory research for climate justice
To gain a voice in policy debates over climate it is important that rural and indigenous women document their own practices and experiences and are the authors of their own research. Women lead participatory research promotes democratic participation of women in policy making around development at local, national, regional and international levels. APWLD will work with six (6) partner organisations (based in Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Philippines x 2 and Indonesia) to undertake research detailing their own experiences of climate change and their local strategies of adaptation / mitigation.
In 2010 the partner researchers collaborated to come up with a research tool-kit establishing shared resources and methods. In 2011 the organisations conducted and documented the research and commenced advocacy strategies. A mid-research evaluation meeting will be held to share progress and address barriers (hoped to be scheduled with the 2nd Asia Rural Women’s Conference to maximise learning and impact). These findings will be collated for both national and international advocacy strategies.
Climate Justice Briefs: Rural Women’s Adaptation Strategies document the issues of climate change on women in Asia Pacific, with rural and indigenous women directly part of the research, participating in the collection and documentation of the effects of climate change on their villages and districts. These five reports culminated from 2011 participatory action research with local partners, conducted “to document the impact of climate change in our communities, discuss how climate change exacerbates gender inequalities, and present our policy demands to promote meaningful change for women in our community.” Read more and see the documentaries here
Links to the full briefs below:
Climate Justice- India- -Society for Rural Education and Development (SRED)
Climate Justice- Indonesia - -Solidaritas Perempuan (Women’s Solidarity of Rights)
Climate Justice- Philippines CWEARC - Cordillera Women’s Education Action Research Center (CWEARC); and Innabuyog
Climate Justice- Philippines AMIHAN -AMIHAN Federation of Peasant Women, Inc.
Climate Justice- Sri Lanka - National Fisheries Solidarity Movement (NAFSO)
Rural and Indigenous women documenting rights violations for advocacy
Rural, Indigenous and Migrant women from eight countries (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Kyrgyzstan, and Indonesian province of West Papua) participated in a pilot training on documenting human rights violations in September 2010. In 2011 the training will be put into practice. The long term aim of this project is to change policies, laws or practices that are eroding the rights of RIM women. In 2011 the objective is to create advocacy platforms to lobby for the identified change. The participants will conduct fact-finding missions in their respective areas of work in coordination with other local women’s and peasant or indigenous people’s organisations. The thematic focus will depend on the expertise and priorities of each of the participants and their communities, from violence against women, migrant domestic workers, land and property rights of rural women, to the right to livelihood of women in fishing communities.
Each project will have a specific change objective focussed around law, policy or practice. A campaign plan and advocacy plan for each case will be developed. APWLD will work with the partners to develop their documentation, advocacy tools (visual and written documentation) and strategies. The research will feature in APWLD’s consultation with UN Special Mandate holders, with ASEAN representatives, ILO and other selected international, regional and national advocacy platforms.
