Annan canvasses women empowerment against environmental degradation

June 17, 2005 - (Vanguard) United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, has called on member-states to pledge the empowerment of women and engage them as full partners in global efforts to address the vital challenge of desertification.

In his message on the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, Annan noted that desertification was one of the world’s most alarming processes of environmental degradation, which threatens the health and livelihoods of more than one billion people.

Each year, he pointed out, "desertification and drought cause an estimated $42 billion in lost agricultural production."

The great scope and urgency of this challenge, Annan said, led the world body’s General Assembly to proclaim 2006 to be the International Year of Deserts and Desertification.

The theme of this year’s observance of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Droughts is "Women And Desertification."

In many of the world’s dry, agricultural areas, including much of Africa, the Secretary-General observed that "it is traditionally women who devote time and effort to the land. In developing countries, women account for approximately 70 per cent of the agricultural labour force and produce 60 to 80m per cent of the food. It is primarily they who process, manage and market food for their families and societies, and who work directly with natural resources."

Annan further stated that they were the same women who, having seen environmental degradation and other problems close at hand, had acquired valuable knowledge.

Despite such efforts and knowledge, women living in dry lands tend to rank among the poorest of the poor, with little power to bring about real change, Annan said.

The United Nations Convention on Desertification and Drought underlines the important role played by women in ensuring implementation of the convention. Yet, Annan noted, with ownership and decision-making over land and livestock remaining predominantly in the male domain, women were often excluded from participation in land conservation and development projects, from agricultural extension work and from overall policy-making process.

Annan was cautiously optimistic that some progress were being made to help the lot of women as managers of the earth: "In many countries, women are beginning to gain access to land ownership and to take part in decision-making. Increasingly, member states are recognising that a lack of financial resources is impeding efforts by women and men to combat desertification," he said, giving women new opportunities to change their lives, societies and environments."

From: http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/world/w217062005.html