A-21: WOMEN
Distr.
GENERAL
A/CONF.151/26 (Vol. III)
14 August 1992
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH
REPORT OF THE UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON
ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
(Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992)
Chapter 24
GLOBAL ACTION FOR WOMEN TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE
AND EQUITABLE DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAMME AREA
Basis for action
24.1. The international community has endorsed several plans of action and
conventions for the full, equal and beneficial integration of women in all
development activities, in particular the Nairobi Forward-looking
Strategies for the Advancement of Women, 1/ which emphasize women's
participation in national and international ecosystem management and
control of environment degradation. Several conventions, including the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
(General Assembly resolution 34/180, annex) and conventions of ILO and
UNESCO have also been adopted to end gender-based discrimination and ensure
women access to land and other resources, education and safe and equal
employment. Also relevant are the 1990 World Declaration on the Survival,
Protection and Development of Children and the Plan of Action for
implementing the Declaration (A/45/625, annex). Effective implementation
of these programmes will depend on the active involvement of women in
economic and political decision-making and will be critical to the
successful implementation of Agenda 21.
Objectives
24.2. The following objectives are proposed for national Governments:
(a) To implement the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the
Advancement of Women, particularly with regard to women's participation in
national ecosystem management and control of environment degradation;
(b) To increase the proportion of women decision makers, planners,
technical advisers, managers and extension workers in environment and
development fields;
(c) To consider developing and issuing by the year 2000 a strategy
of changes necessary to eliminate constitutional, legal, administrative,
cultural, behavioural, social and economic obstacles to women's full
participation in sustainable development and in public life;
(d) To establish by the year 1995 mechanisms at the national,
regional and international levels to assess the implementation and impact
of development and environment policies and programmes on women and to
ensure their contributions and benefits;
(e) To assess, review, revise and implement, where appropriate,
curricula and other educational material, with a view to promoting the
dissemination to both men and women of gender-relevant knowledge and
valuation of women's roles through formal and non-formal education, as well
as through training institutions, in collaboration with non-governmental
organizations;
(f) To formulate and implement clear governmental policies and
national guidelines, strategies and plans for the achievement of equality
in all aspects of society, including the promotion of women's literacy,
education, training, nutrition and health and their participation in key
decision-making positions and in management of the environment,
particularly as it pertains to their access to resources, by facilitating
better access to all forms of credit, particularly in the informal sector,
taking measures towards ensuring women's access to property rights as well
as agricultural inputs and implements;
(g) To implement, as a matter of urgency, in accordance with
country-specific conditions, measures to ensure that women and men have the
same right to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their
children and have access to information, education and means, as
appropriate, to enable them to exercise this right in keeping with their
freedom, dignity and personally held values;
(h) To consider adopting, strengthening and enforcing legislation
prohibiting violence against women and to take all necessary
administrative, social and educational measures to eliminate violence
against women in all its forms.
Activities
24.3. Governments should take active steps to implement the following:
(a) Measures to review policies and establish plans to increase the
proportion of women involved as decision makers, planners, managers,
scientists and technical advisers in the design, development and
implementation of policies and programmes for sustainable development;
(b) Measures to strengthen and empower women's bureaux, women's
non-governmental organizations and women's groups in enhancing
capacity-building for sustainable development;
(c) Measures to eliminate illiteracy among females and to expand the
enrolment of women and girls in educational institutions, to promote the
goal of universal access to primary and secondary education for girl
children and for women, and to increase educational and training
opportunities for women and girls in sciences and technology, particularly
at the post-secondary level;
(d) Programmes to promote the reduction of the heavy workload of
women and girl children at home and outside through the establishment of
more and affordable nurseries and kindergartens by Governments, local
authorities, employers and other relevant organizations and the sharing of
household tasks by men and women on an equal basis, and to promote the
provision of environmentally sound technologies which have been designed,
developed and improved in consultation with women, accessible and clean
water, an efficient fuel supply and adequate sanitation facilities;
(e) Programmes to establish and strengthen preventive and curative
health facilities, which include women-centred, women-managed, safe and
effective reproductive health care and affordable, accessible, responsible
planning of family size and services, as appropriate, in keeping with
freedom, dignity and personally held values. Programmes should focus on
providing comprehensive health care, including pre-natal care, education
and information on health and responsible parenthood, and should provide
the opportunity for all women to fully breastfeed at least during the first
four months post-partum. Programmes should fully support women's
productive and reproductive roles and well-being and should pay special
attention to the need to provide equal and improved health care for all
children and to reduce the risk of maternal and child mortality and
sickness;
(f) Programmes to support and strengthen equal employment
opportunities and equitable remuneration for women in the formal and
informal sectors with adequate economic, political and social support
systems and services, including child care, particularly day-care
facilities and parental leave, and equal access to credit, land and other
natural resources;
(g) Programmes to establish rural banking systems with a view to
facilitating and increasing rural women's access to credit and to
agricultural inputs and implements;
(h) Programmes to develop consumer awareness and the active
participation of women, emphasizing their crucial role in achieving changes
necessary to reduce or eliminate unsustainable patterns of consumption and
production, particularly in industrialized countries, in order to encourage
investment in environmentally sound productive activities and induce
environmentally and socially friendly industrial development;
(i) Programmes to eliminate persistent negative images, stereotypes,
attitudes and prejudices against women through changes in socialization
patterns, the media, advertising, and formal and non-formal education;
(j) Measures to review progress made in these areas, including the
preparation of a review and appraisal report which includes recommendations
to be submitted to the 1995 world conference on women.
24.4. Governments are urged to ratify all relevant conventions pertaining
to women if they have not already done so. Those that have ratified
conventions should enforce and establish legal, constitutional and
administrative procedures to transform agreed rights into domestic
legislation and should adopt measures to implement them in order to
strengthen the legal capacity of women for full and equal participation in
issues and decisions on sustainable development.
24.5. States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women should review and suggest amendments to it by
the year 2000, with a view to strengthening those elements of the
Convention related to environment and development, giving special attention
to the issue of access and entitlements to natural resources, technology,
creative banking facilities and low-cost housing, and the control of
pollution and toxicity in the home and workplace. States parties should
also clarify the extent of the Convention's scope with respect to the
issues of environment and development and request the Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women to develop guidelines regarding
the nature of reporting such issues, required under particular articles of
the Convention.
(a) Areas requiring urgent action
24.6. Countries should take urgent measures to avert the ongoing rapid
environmental and economic degradation in developing countries that
generally affects the lives of women and children in rural areas suffering
drought, desertification and deforestation, armed hostilities, natural
disasters, toxic waste and the aftermath of the use of unsuitable
agro-chemical products.
24.7. In order to reach these goals, women should be fully involved in
decision-making and in the implementation of sustainable development
activities.
(b) Research, data collection and dissemination of information
24.8. Countries should develop gender-sensitive databases, information
systems and participatory action-oriented research and policy analyses with
the collaboration of academic institutions and local women researchers on
the following:
(a) Knowledge and experience on the part of women of the management
and conservation of natural resources for incorporation in the databases
and information systems for sustainable development;
(b) The impact of structural adjustment programmes on women. In
research done on structural adjustment programmes, special attention should
be given to the differential impact of those programmes on women,
especially in terms of cut-backs in social services, education and health
and in the removal of subsidies on food and fuel;
(c) The impact on women of environmental degradation, particularly
drought, desertification, toxic chemicals and armed hostilities;
(d) Analysis of the structural linkages between gender relations,
environment and development;
(e) The integration of the value of unpaid work, including work that
is currently designated "domestic", in resource accounting mechanisms in
order better to represent the true value of the contribution of women to
the economy, using revised guidelines for the United Nations System of
National Accounts, to be issued in 1993;
(f) Measures to develop and include environmental, social and gender
impact analyses as an essential step in the development and monitoring of
programmes and policies;
(g) Programmes to create rural and urban training, research and
resource centres in developing and developed countries that will serve to
disseminate environmentally sound technologies to women.
(c) International and regional cooperation and coordination
24.9. The Secretary-General of the United Nations should review the
adequacy of all United Nations institutions, including those with a special
focus on the role of women, in meeting development and environment
objectives, and make recommendations for strengthening their capacities.
Institutions that require special attention in this area include the
Division for the Advancement of Women (Centre for Social Development and
Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations Office at Vienna), the United Nations
Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the International Research and
Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) and the women's
programmes of regional commissions. The review should consider how the
environment and development programmes of each body of the United Nations
system could be strengthened to implement Agenda 21 and how to incorporate
the role of women in programmes and decisions related to sustainable
development.
24.10. Each body of the United Nations system should review the number of
women in senior policy-level and decision-making posts and, where
appropriate, adopt programmes to increase that number, in accordance with
Economic and Social Council resolution 1991/17 on the improvement of the
status of women in the Secretariat.
24.11. UNIFEM should establish regular consultations with donors in
collaboration with UNICEF, with a view to promoting operational programmes
and projects on sustainable development that will strengthen the
participation of women, especially low-income women, in sustainable
development and in decision-making. UNDP should establish a women's focal
point on development and environment in each of its resident representative
offices to provide information and promote exchange of experience and
information in these fields. Bodies of the United Nations system,
governments and non-governmental organizations involved in the follow-up to
the Conference and the implementation of Agenda 21 should ensure that
gender considerations are fully integrated into all the policies,
programmes and activities.
Means of implementation
Financing and cost evaluation
24.12. The Conference secretariat has estimated the average total annual
cost (1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this chapter to be about
$40 million from the international community on grant or concessional
terms. These are indicative and order-of-magnitude estimates only and
have not been reviewed by Governments. Actual costs and financial terms,
including any that are non-concessional, will depend upon, inter alia, the
specific strategies and programmes Governments decide upon for
implementation.
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Notes
1/ Report of the World Conference to Review and Appraise the
Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development
and Peace, Nairobi, 15-26 July 1985 (United Nations publication, Sales
No. E.85.IV.10), chap. I, sect. A.
END OF CHAPTER 24
.
===RRojas Research Unit/1996============================================
