[Gender] New UN study highlights women's role in restoring drylands

[Paula Zuñiga]

 New UN study highlights women’s role in restoring drylands



5/30/2006


 


The world’s rural women can play a crucial role in efforts to restore
drylands, according to a new study released by the International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD) at a major UN conference on women and
desertification being held in Beijing this week. 

The report entitled, “Gender and Desertification: Expanding roles for women
to restore drylands,” highlights the role of women in managing natural
resources and the disempowering constraints they face while dealing with
desertification of land. 

Desertification is a process of land degradation in dryland areas, which is
caused by poverty, unsustainable land management and climate change. Experts
say it affects women and men differently due to their “strictly gendered
division of labour.” 

Through their daily work, rural women have acquired extensive knowledge on
managing natural resources, which enable them to play a crucial role in
combating desertification, according to the report’s authors who note that
women often do not have decision-making authority and thus are excluded from
dryland development projects. 

“We need to have a long-term focus on women affected by desertification,
extending beyond this International Year of Deserts and Desertification,”
said Sheila Mwanundu, an IFAD official responsible for technical advice.
“Women need to be empowered to take control of their own lives and their own
development.” 

According to IFAD, currently one-third of the earth’s land surface is
threatened by desertification, a phenomenon that poses a risk to the
survival of over one billion people in more than 100 countries. Over the
past 23 years, the UN agency has spent over $3 billion to support dryland
development projects in a number of developing countries. 

http://www.ifad.org/pub/gender/desert/gender_desert.pdf 

 

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