GECHS | Aviso 12: Gender, Global Environmental Change, and Human Security

AN INFORMATION BULLETIN ON GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AND HUMAN SECURITY ISSUE NO. 12 April 2003 Gender, Global Environmental Change, and Human Security
	"...within a human security framework, the various causes and effects of environmental change are experienced differently by the two genders."
Introduction In the United Nations Development Programme's 2002 Human Development Report, it is stated that country-by-country assessments of commitments to key environmental issues are necessary in order to "ensure that people's enjoyment of the Earth is not at the expense of others - today or in the future" (UNDP, 2002). Such seemingly innocuous statements are common in environment and development literature, putting forth a notion that the word "people" may be employed neutrally. This is not the case. Men and women today, and will most likely in the future, experience the "enjoyment of the Earth" quite differently. Our view may be broadened one step further to say that within a human security framework, the various causes and effects of environmental change are experienced differently by the two genders. Evidence of the gender differential is plentiful. Data from many countries has shown there to be a difference between men and women in the capacities in which they come into contact with the environment, as well as how they respond to environmental change. In most cases, gender analysis has been excluded from studies of global environmental change, representing a major gap in its enquiries of human security thus far. Security concerns have recently been broadened from concerns of national security in the face of conflict and war to include human security issues stemming from resource scarcity, human rights abuses, human health, access to food and water, and environmental degradation (along with many others). There is an implicit gender element in this human security dialogue. It is especially relevant in the South where developmental concerns have neared a crisis point and women have borne the brunt of the most severe hardship. Women and their children constitute 80% of the world's refugees (including 'environmental refugees' of flooding, droughts, and other environmental hardships), they are trafficked in a global trade of prostitution, they are the main targets of population reduction programmes, and they bear the burden of a double workload in the form of paid and unpaid work (Jaggar, 2000). Women are often the least likely to obtain economic resources in the household and are the most likely to manage the sustenance and health of their entire family, the sick and elderly, and the community at large (Harding, 2000). The consistently marginalized position of women in the South implies that gender relations should be central to any discussion about human security and global environmental change (GEC). Some Necessary Concepts It is difficult to speak of a gender analysis of GEC and human security without briefly describing the concept of gender and how its use differs from the study of women in general. While the meanings of these concepts are still debated, there is some consensus as to how they are currently understood and used. Sex is the biological difference between men and women, while gender describes the "socially given attributes, roles, activities, and responsibilities connected to being a male or a female in a given society" (March et al., 1999). The concept of 'gender relations' is used to describe the social relationship between men and women and places importance on how power is distributed between the sexes in a given society. Thus a 'gender analysis' looks critically at the relationships between men and women in society and asks some basic questions: Who does what? Who has what? Who decides and how? Who is affected by what changes? Who gains? Who loses? There is significant variation in the nature of gender relations in different communities based on a variety of factors, including on the global scale where gender relations vary according to country and region. We can also ask: Which women? For example, women in poorer countries bear the effects of environmental change more severely than women living in wealthier countries. However, poorer women in rich countries are still more vulnerable to environmental change than relatively wealthier women living in the same area. A hurricane or flood that leaves two women homeless in the same city will have more impact on a woman without home or health insurance. Crucial to a gender analysis of global environmental change and human security are the concepts of production and reproduction. "Productive" work, including the production of goods and services for income or subsistence, is that which is mainly recognized and valued as work in society. An example of productive work is cash crop farming in the agricultural sector. "Reproductive" work refers to the necessary continuing care of the household. Such work is rarely considered of the same value as productive work and is never included in formal economic indicators. Reproductive work includes overlooked labour and toil, such as cooking, cleaning, bearing and raising children, and also the collection of food, water, and fuel. Both men and women are engaged in productive work, but it is not always valued in the same way. Reproductive work is done mostly by women and is rarely paid. When discussing the topic of gender and environmental change, it is necessary to be aware of the tendency to generalize about women in the South as though they all have the same interests and needs. Such a generalization leads to assumptions about the applicability of programmes and policies across regions and countries without taking into account the multitude of community-specific factors that may affect a woman's position in the household and community. Such factors include region, rural-urban differences, country-specific issues, class, caste, race, religion, and ethno-cultural diversity. A Neutral Environment? Trying to understand environmental change separate from the social, political, and economic context would not give a complete picture. Consequently, trying to understand environmental change in isolation of the gender relations of a given society would also be incomplete. Looking at environmental change and how it relates to the lives of a marginalized group in society is not new. Studies of how countries of the South are related to the world's environmental crisis have been prominent since the late 1960s when issues such as "runaway population growth" in the South began to concern many as a threat to the environment and the natural resource base. Such concerns may have been argued based on empirical evidence, however, the political nature of the issue is evident when we consider that these arguments placed the responsibility of reversing the trends almost entirely upon the poor countries in question. A fundamental premise of a gender analysis is to accept that environmental change is not a neutral process, but rather, it is rooted in historically, politically, and socially constructed processes. In turn, environmental change also affects existing socio-economic inequalities (including inequality between the sexes) and political circumstances. There are three extensions of this premise. The first is that the costs and benefits of environmental change are not distributed equally among men and women. Secondly, the unequal distribution of costs reinforces existing social and economic inequalities between men and women. Finally, environmental change can also affect the ability of actors to control and resist one another. The ability of women to resist marginalization is often propounded by changes in environmental conditions. Can the environment itself be understood in a neutral manner? Should we think of deforestation, the effects of climate change, soil erosion, flooding, or other forms of environmental change as separate from social, political, and economic forces? A gender analysis would suggest that an environment-society dichotomy should not be created and environmental changes should be examined in the way that they relate to human activities, and not only as descriptions of physical changes. Dimensions of a Gendered Environment One way of examining the relationship between the environment, human activities, and gender in particular, is through exploring different dimensions of environmental change. Table 1 sets out two dimensions of environmental change and looks at how each relates to socio-economic activities and gender inequality. Table 1. Gender Analysis of Dimensions of Environmental Change

Episodic Environmental Change and Vulnerability While women in the South deal with many of the daily aspects of environmental change, including the consequences of degraded resources that are depended upon for daily provision of food, water, and fuel (including forest and water resources), they face the brunt of sudden, episodic changes as well. The level of vulnerability of actors is often related to their social and economic marginality. For example, poor women, who are the collectors of water for their household in many countries of the South (though not always exclusively), often have to walk long distances in order to obtain it. In the case of episodic change, such as a drought, the marginal position of women may leave them weaker and ultimately unable to find water for theirhousehold. Their economic position may not leave them with alternatives to purchase water elsewhere. Inequalities within the household may also be perpetuated if the burden of liability for a household's water shortage is borne by its female members. These various responses to an episodic environmental change will vary in intensity depending on the coping ability of the female members of households. Daily Realities While episodic changes in the environment leave women especially vulnerable and rapidly diminish their abilities to resist and control such change, it is the everyday dimension of environmental change that is most visibly imprinted onto the lives of women in the South. This is not to say that one dimension of environmental change has more impact than the other, but rather that the effects and responses of women and men to those effects are of a different magnitude and scope. Work in this area by Indian economist Bina Agarwal on rural peasant and tribal women in India has been very fruitful in demonstrating the relations between women and their daily experiences with the environment.* She has shown that in their role as primary collectors of fuel, food, and water, poor rural women in India spend more time in direct contact with the environment than men in their communities. This is particularly true for rural women who do not have ready access to resources being sold in the marketplace, either due to insufficient income or proximity to the nearest urban centre. One example of such an activity is the collection of firewood for fuel, a role carried out mainly by women and children. Table 2 shows data from select states of India demonstrating the amount of time taken and distance travelled in order to carry out this task. Table 2. Amount of Time Taken and Distance Traveled for Firewood Collection in Different Regions of India

Research in India has also shown that rural poor women gather most of their resources for household activities from common lands and so are left more vulnerable to resource depletion. An inequality in men and women's access to private property resources is one reason for women's dependency on common resources. Productive resources, such as agricultural land, are largely in the hands of men, as is the income associated with its yield. The decline of forests and other common resources may lead to the lengthening of a woman's working day, already averaging 10 to 12 hours (Agarwal, 1999). Extra working hours can be quite significant as they may eliminate altogether the possibility of women's engagement in income-generating activities or the ability of female children to attend school. Additionally, women are more vulnerable to food shortages that may occur indirectly as a result of degradation or state appropriation of resources, and directly due to the intra-household system of food distribution, which often systemically disadvantages female children and women. They are also more exposed to physical and health hazards due to the nature of their daily tasks and have less access to health care facilities (Ker Conway & Garb, 1999). Agarwal's conclusion has been one of great influence in the area of women, environment, and development. From her work in India, she has concluded that people's responses to environmental change, and specifically to degradation, "need to be understood in the context of their material reality, their everyday interactions with nature, and their dependence on it for survival" (author's emphasis, Agarwal, 1999). Gender-specific observations suggest that the response of men and women to environmental change may be traced to a gender division of labour, property, and power, and are generally structured by the way productive and reproductive work is organized, according not only to gender, but also class, race, and caste. Expanding Human Security: Gender and Health A human security framework, coupled with a gender analysis, offers a useful means for understanding the wide-ranging effects of environmental change. Only recently conceptualized as an issue of human security, human health and its relation to environmental conditions have great impacts on the community's well-being and capacity to cope with other pressures. These additional pressures include natural resource degradation or other human induced changes in a community's social, economic, and environmental structures. To illustrate this point, we can look to recent studies in the rural district of Migori of the province of Nyanza, Kenya (Oduor-Noah & Thomas-Slayter, 1995). Historically, Migori is one of Kenya's poorest districts. In the South Kamwango Sublocation of Migori, one of the community's most significant issues is the presence of acute health problems rooted in the area's environmental conditions. Two related problems have been shown to make up the majority of health problems: decreasing water quality, and poor sanitation. Obeng, an expert on African freshwater ecosystems, has stated, "the incidence of diarrhoeal and other diseases is greatly increased by the use of contaminated water for drinking and bathing, together with insufficient education on environmental sanitation and hygiene" (Oduor-Noah & Thomas-Slayter, 1995). Kenya's National Health Sector Strategic Plan has identified the need for safe water and improved sanitation in rural areas (a target of a 30% increase in the provision of such services in rural areas by 2004 has been set), however the Ministry of Health has claimed that progress on implementation of the plan has been slow (KMOH, 2002). Supporting evidence from South Kamwango indicates widespread poor health in the community and, consequently, Kenya's highest rate of early childhood (0-2 yrs) mortality. Figure 1 demonstrates the various causes of childhood mortality, as perceived by the women in South Kamwango, and serves not only to illustrate their perception of the relative importance of certain problems, but also underlines the most significant health issues in the area. Figure 1. South Kamwango Perceptions of Causes of Mortality of Own Children Who Have Died Before the Age of Five

Source: Oduor-Noarh & Thomas-Slayter, 1995 Migori's population is young (members of the community aged 15 years or younger make up about 50% of the entire population) and childcare is the domain of women. Consequently, increasing population growth and decreasing water quality compound pressures on the responsibilities of women. The low levels of women's education perpetuate these conditions further. Interviews conducted with household women showed some knowledge of prominent diseases. However, they did not perceive the relationship between deteriorating environmental conditions, sanitation, and their children's health problems. It is also important to note that lower levels of health were noted in poorer households within the community. Although services such as the provision of safe water and improved sanitation form a necessary foundation, the increased access of women to education about health and hygiene are also crucial building blocks for the overall improvement in the conditions of the rural poor. While there is no silver bullet answer to the problem of decreasing water quality, attempts to slow the contamination of waterways require complementary factors, such as improved public services and the empowerment of women to control and resist the changing environment. The Gender Dimension of Policy Policies and programmes that seek to better the lives of the poor in the South, but inadequately account for existing gender relations, sometimes serve to worsen the situation of women in the affected communities. There are many examples of policy and programming that incorrectly assume certain gender roles and, consequently, complicate existing gender relations. In 1989, the cane processing factories in the region had adequate supplies of raw sugar cane and therefore they did not issue contracts in South Kamwango. The government issued a prohibition on growing sugar cane because of the concern that local sugar cane would be diverted to the production of brewed liquor, which was an illegal activity. The most immediate result of the ban on sugarcane was a severe cut in the community's most significant source of income. Residents of South Kamwango could not see prospects for an alternate cash crop and evidence has shown that the poorest households in particular suffered the most from the prohibition (Oduor-Noarh & Thomas-Slayter, 1995). The ban on sugarcane has had a significant impact on the economic activity of both sexes and unexpectedly increased women's responsibilities. The first change occurred as a result of the existing gender division of labour where men were responsible for income-generating agricultural activity (sugarcane and livestock), while women cultivated food crops for household consumption. The cut in income from the ban on sugarcane has resulted in the need to sell food crops, thereby increasing the workload of women. There was a noted increase in the malnutrition of children, which, being the domain of women, was responded to by female members of the household taking on extra income-generating activities, such as petty trading. A decision that was intended to increase well-being resulted in an increase of the workload for women as well as a greater incidence of malnutrition. Population Policies Policies in the South can also have detrimental effects on the perception of women and their relation to the environment. Betsy Hartmann has written extensively on this subject in relation to population policies and the reproductive health and rights of women. Hartmann (1997) argues that as a result of packaging population growth as inextricably tied to environmental degradation, 'women, population, and the environment' have been formally linked, targeting population policies to limit fertility rates as the central means for controlling environmental deg-radation, along with other perceived perils of population growth, such as undoing economic gains, exacerbating poverty, and impeding democratic governance. Hartmann gives an example of this formal link between women, population, and the environment in the so-called Population, Environment, and Development Triangle used by the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), shown here in . Figure 2. Population, Environment, and Development Triangle

Source: UNFPA 1992 (from Hartmann, 1997) Women are placed at the centre, showing how their role and status affect each sector represented by the three points of the triangle. Although they are represented as able to affect population, environment, and development, their role in population is emphasized beyond the other two sectors. UNFPA "tilts the triangle" by claiming that, "poverty [caused mainly by high rates of population growth] is an overriding factor which intensifies the positive or negative nature of this web of relationships" (Hartmann, 1997). Hartmann argues that there is an emphasis placed on controlling fertility, which is conceptualized as a means to addressing both poverty and environment (1997). While family planning services offer a significant means to empower women to control their own fertility, it is necessary that population reduction strategies be viewed as part of a broader health and human rights approach in order to avoid marginalizing the interests and needs of women when designing policies and programmes intended to curb environmental degradation. The Effective Participation of Women in Decision-Making The absence of women in formal (and informal) decision-making processes distorts the distribution of benefits from policy and programming decisions, and does not allow for concerns that are specific to women to be adequately addressed. This phenomenon occurs globally and locally. UNDP's 2002 Human Development Report describes the world average of the portion of parliamentary seats held by women to stand at a feeble 14%. In order for women to be able to address their needs and adequately respond to environmental change affecting their daily survival, effective participation of women in both local government and organizations addressing structural responses to environmental change is necessary. Agarwal (1999) has identified three indicators of effective participation of women from her work with tribal and rural peasant women in India: � Formal membership of women in organizations/governing institutions � The attendance of women at meetings where they are members � The views of women being given weight at meetings they attend The implications of women not being represented in decision-making include not only the inequitable distribution of the benefits and costs of environmental change among the sexes, but also the reinforcement of existing gender inequalities, which serve to reduce the bargaining power of women within and outside of the household. Conclusion: Further Policy Recommendations The following are some policy approaches and specific recommendations, many of which are explicitly advocated by experts in the area of gender, environment, and human security issues. � Gender-aware policies: To be effective, policies and programmes addressing environmental change cannot be gender-blind (do not distinguish any differences between the sexes). Gender-blind policies have a tendency to exclude women as they are usually biased towards existing gender relations. Policies should strive towards responding to the needs and interests of both men and women facing global environmental change by either working within the existing gender divisions of resources and responsibilities, or by aiming to transform the existing divisions and create balance between the sexes. They should also be sensitive to the differences in material reality of women from different regional/race/class/caste backgrounds and the implications of such on responses to environmental change. � Reconceptualizing the environment and consideration of daily tasks: While ecologists and environmentalists have traditionally viewed the non-human world as inherently important, when setting policy directions it is useful to recognize the importance of natural resource preservation or water quality as it relates to human needs and how global environmental change is related to gender relations and, specifically, women's survival. Policy directions also need to encourage the consideration of micro-level issues, including daily tasks and intra-household activities that leave women more vulnerable to environmental change (i.e., proximity to unsafe water, the collection of dry firewood for fuel). � Gender-responsive budgeting: First advocated by Australian activists who pushed their government to analyze the gender impact of all elements of the national budget, gender-responsive budgets are not separate budgets for the female segment of the population, but rather ask policy-makers to view fiscal policy through the lens of gender. The 2002 Human Development Report asserts that the key question is: "What impact does fiscal policy have on gender?" This question may be addressed by being inclusive of gender issues (through consultation) during policy-making about issues of global environmental change, or by using participatory approaches to invite the recommendations of local communities to prioritize public spending. The major drawback of the participatory approach is that it requires a certain level of participation of women in the local setting. � Encouraging the participation of women in decision-making: As previously mentioned, addressing the needs of both men and women as they relate to global environmental change requires effective participation of women in decision-making. Agarwal has noted that the presence of gender-progressive non-governmental organizations has seen some balancing of decision-making powers between the sexes, as has involvement of women from the initial stages of organizing local decision-making processes and the presence of a critical mass of women at meetings. � Encouraging all-women organizations STYLE="COLOR: #B8860B": Examples of grassroots women's responses to global environmental change have exposed the effectiveness of all-women organizations. While it is important not to romanticize the organizations, in recognizing the impact of region/race/class/caste in marginalizing women from each other all-women movements have been successful in resisting threats to their survival and livelihoods through the presence of critical mass. It must be noted that though these movements do not explicitly challenge existing gender divisions, they may serve to empower women to resist gender inequality in a variety of circumstances. The underlying sentiment of the above analysis is that policy-making and programme design addressing global environmental change and human security issues in the South cannot be undertaken without implicit consideration of gender relations in the community. It is necessary that fundamental changes occur in both the existing gender relations that maintain inequalities between the sexes as well as the perception of women and their role in society. Nevertheless, an increase in political will and inclusion of recommendations by experts in the field when formulating policy directions can bring about positive change as evidence has shown. References and Key Readings Agarwal, B. (1999). Gender and environmental action. In J.K. Conway, K. Keniston, and L. Marx (Eds.), Earth, air, fire, water: Humanistic studies of the environment (pp. 206-252). Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. Agarwal, B. (1997). The gender and environment debate: Lessons from India. In N. Visvanathan, L. Duggan, L. Nisonoff, and N. Wiegersma (Eds.), The women, gender and development reader (pp. 68-75). London: Zed Books. Bryant, R.L., and Bailey, S. (1997). Third world political ecology. London: Routledge. Harding, S. (2000). Gender, development, and post-Enlightenment philosophies of science. In U. Narayan and S. Harding (Eds.), Decentering the center: Philosophy for a multicultural, postcolonial, and feminist world (pp. 240-261). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Hartmann, B. (1997). Women, population and the environment. Whose consensus? Whose empowerment? In N. Visvanathan, L. Duggan, L. Nisonoff, and N. Wiegersma (Eds.), The women, gender and development reader (pp. 293-302). London: Zed Books. Jaggar, A.M. (2000). Globalizing feminist ethics. In U. Narayan and S. Harding (Eds.), Decentering the center: Philosophy for a multicultural, postcolonial, and feminist world (pp. 1-25). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Kenya Ministry of Health (KMOH). National health sector strategic plan. www.ministryofhealth.go.ke Conway, J.K., and Garb, Y. (1999). Gender, environment, and nature: Two episodes in feminist politics. In J.K. Conway, K. Keniston, and L. Marx (Eds.), Earth, air, fire, water: Humanistic studies of the environment (pp. 259-278). Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. March, C., Smyth, I., and Mukhopadhyay, M. (1999). A guide to gender-analysis frameworks. London: Oxfam GB. Oduor-Noah, E., and Thomas-Slayter, B. (1995). A pocket of poverty: Linking water, health, and gender-based responsibilities in South Kamwango. In B. Thomas-Slayter (Ed.), Gender, environment, and development in Kenya: A grassroots perspective (pp. 161-188). London: Lynne Rienner Publishers. United Nations Development Programme (2002). Deepening democracy in a fragmented world. Human Development Report 2002. NewYork: Oxford University Press. Monika Rahman AVISO is a publication of the GECHS project. Previous issues are available on the GECHS website or from the project office. GECHS The Global Environmental Change and Human Security (GECHS) project is a core project of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP). The main goal of the GECHS project is to advance interdisciplinary, international research and policy efforts in the area of human security and environmental change. The GECHS project promotes collaborative and participatory research, and encourages new methodological approaches. The GECHS project involves activities including research projects, workshops, training activities, publications and policy briefings. Interested individuals should contact the project office for further information. GECHS International Project Office Dept. of Geography and Environmental Studies Carleton University 1125 Colonel By Drive Ottawa, ON, Canada K1S 5B6 phone: +01-613-520-2600 ext.1984 fax: +01-613-520-4301 email: info@gechs.org http://www.gechs.org Opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not reflect an official position of the IHDP, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the University of Michigan, The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) or Proctor and Gamble This publication is supported by:

The Woodrow Wilson Center Environmental Change and Security Project and the

International Development Research Centre Support by the University of Victoria is gratefully acknowledged prepared for the Global Environmental Change and Human Security Project by Monika Rahman Carleton University Advisory Board for Aviso Steve Lonergan - Chair University of Victoria Geoffrey D. Dabelko Woodrow Wilson Center Mike Brklacich Carleton University Richard Matthew University of California, Irvine