Event: Addressing The Gender Dimension of Vulnerability: An Adaptation Framework that Works for Everyone

Friday, November 18th, 2011

[ November 30, 2010 6:30 pm to November 30, 2011 8:00 pm. ] CARE International and the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) are partnering on a side event at UNFCCC COP-17 on November 30, 2011 from 6:30-8pm in the Hex River Room. This event will use an interactive discussion format to explore the complexities of vulnerability from a gender perspective and make recommendations to input into an adaptation framework that works for everyone.

Posted in Events, News, WEDO at COP17 |

Women on the forefront at the Earth Summit ’92 in Rio. A personal journey by Irene Dankelman

Monday, October 31st, 2011

Thinking of about 20 years ago, I really feel privileged to have been part of the movement that shaped a gender perspective into sustainable development. In the early 1990s I was working with the United Nations Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM, in New York as their gender-environment advisor, preparing for the upcoming United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. On many occasions we met with members of women’s organizations in the lead up to the Conference.

I remember a meeting room in the cellars of the UN building in New York: fully packed with women…

Posted in Newsletters, Rio +20, WEDO History |

NEW Article: “Women and Energy Access: Impact on Sustainable Development and Livelihoods”

Monday, October 31st, 2011

“Women and Energy Access: Impact on Sustainable Development and Livelihoods,” written for the Commonwealth Ministers Reference Book 2011 by WEDO Program Coordinator Eleanor Blomstrom and Gail Karlsson, Policy Advisor at ENERGIA , highlights the importance of energy services and technologies to women’s development.   

 In many developing countries, women lack access to basic technologies such as stoves and water pumps and much of their time and energy is devoted to fuel collection. Prioritizing rural women’s energy access through government electrification and effective fuel distribution plans, investing in technologies, and enabling gender analysis and audits in energy projects, are all strategies…

Tags: Energy
Posted in Library, News, Sustainable Development |

Memorial for Wangari Muta Maathai, Tues. November 14th

Friday, October 28th, 2011

[ November 14, 2011; 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm. ] Wangari Muta Maathai
(1940–2011)
A Memorial Ceremony

Philosopher, environmentalist, educationist, political activist, freedom fighter,
mother, grandmother, guiding light. We will miss her. We will celebrate her. We will
emulate her. We will never forget her.
— H. E. Macharia Kamau, Ambassador and Permanent Representative at Kenya Mission to
United Nations

Posted in Events, News, WEDO History, Women's Leadership |

Climate Conversations – “Property Can’t Own Property”

Friday, October 28th, 2011

Women in Cameroon have developed a vision for a gender-sensitive approach for their country’s nascent Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) programme.

They have put together a roadmap to ensure that women are involved in the formulation of Cameroon’s national REDD+ strategy.

The premise is that women should be given equal opportunities to learn about REDD+ initiatives, and their capacity strengthened so they can influence, participate in and benefit from the programme. The roadmap will be presented at the U.N. Climate Convention in Durban in December.

Policymakers often wrongly assume that women are involved in decisions about the management of natural resources. In Cameroon, for example, women are often excluded from both formal and informal decision-making processes.

Posted in Africa, Forestry, In The News, News, REDD+ |