Women and the Environment

8/7/2019 Women and the Environment

1/68

nd theEdited by Geraldine Reardort

Ox fam Focus on Gender


2/68

The books in Oxfam's Focus on Gender series were originally published assingle issues of the journa l Gender and Development (formerly Focus on Gender).Gender and Development is published by Oxfam three times a year. It is the onlyBritish journal to focus specifically on gender and development issuesinternationally, to explore the links between gender and developmentinitiatives, and to make the links between theoretical and practical wo rk inthis field. For information about subscription rates, please apply to CarfaxPublishing Company, PO Box 25, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 3UE, UK;Fax: +44 (0) 1235 553559. In No rth A merica, please apply to Carfax PublishingCompany, 875-81 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139; Fax: (+1)617 354 6875. In Australia, please apply to Carfax Publishing Company,Locked Bag 25, Deakin, ACT 2600, Australia; Fax: +61 (0) 6282 3299.

All rights reserved.No part of this publication m ay be reprod uced , stored in a retrieval system ortransmitted in any form or by any means with out the written perm ission of thePublisher.Front cover photo:Women working in a tree-nursery at M wanhuzi in central Tanzania.

GEOFF SAYER

Oxfam 1993Published by Oxfam (UK and Irelan d), 274 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 7DZ, UKDesigned and typeset by Oxfam Design department 1141 /PK/93Oxfam is a registerd charity No. 202918

ISBN 085598 221 7This book converted to digital file in 2010


3/68

ContentsWelcome to Focus on Ge nder iiBridget WalkerEditorial 1Geraldine ReardonWom en's relationship with the environmen t 5Joan DavidsonObitua ry of Joan Davidson 10Environm ental change and quality of life 11Joanne Harnmeijer and Ann Waters-BayerSustaina ble developm ent: wom en as partne rs 14Mariam DentEnvironm ent and wom en in Ugand a: the way I see it 19Judy AdokoPolicy statemen t on pop ulatio n and the enviro nm ent 22High-tech hazard s: bey ond the factory gate 24Claire Hodgson and Geraldine ReardonFin din g a voice 28Visanthi ArumagamThe Serdang Declaration 30Women in environm ental disasters: the 1991 cyclone in Bangladesh 34Rasheda BegumEnduring the drought: the responses of Zamb ian wom en 401 Background to the droughtRobin Palmer .

2 Women in the Eastern Province: more hit by drought and yet more enduringNawina HamaunduAfter the fisheries: the story of Sin alha n 45Eugenia Piza-LopezLooking for a regenerative approach to sustaina bility 50Nanneke RedcliftPowerful connections: South-S outh link ing 52Interview with Josefina StubbsResources Training pack, Book reviews, Further reading 55New s from GAD U 61


4/68

Welcome toFocus on GenderWelcome to this new publication from the Gender and Development Unit(GADU) of Oxfam. We hope that readers familiar with the GADU Newspackwill like the new format and that the publication will reach an even widerconstituency in both South and North.

Although there is a growing awareness that relief and developmentprogrammes not only affect women and men differently, but also have animpact on gender relations, the situation of poor women continues toworsen, and there is an increasing need to highlight gender in thedevelopment debate and document the experience of women.

Focus on Gender has been designed to provide a forum for developmentpractitioners, students and all concerned with the theory and practice ofgender-just development, to exchange views, record experience, describemodels of good practice, and disseminate information about networks andresources.

Focus on Gender will contain a range of articles, clustered around aparticular theme. In the first issue, our guest editor, Geraldine Reardon, hasassembled a rich anthology of material on the topic of environment; the Juneissue will focus on women and violence. Other themes to be addressed infurther issues will include income generation and micro-enterprises,North/South co-operation and networking, women and religion, and genderissues in emergencies.

We have no readers' letters in this first issue but look forward to hearingyour reactions both to the style and content and hope that it will become amedium for dialogue and debate. The book reviews, further reading list, and'News from GADU' have been compiled to promote networking andinformation sharing. We hope that future issues may include a 'noticeboard'with information from readers around the world.

Women in the South and the North are challenging the structures whichsubordinate them. In Focus on Gender we hope to record some of thosechallenges and develop a vision of development which does justice to all,both women and men. We welcome your help in this endeavour.

BRIDGET WALKER, GADU


5/68

EditorialGeraldine Reardon

T HIS FIRST ISSUE of Focus on Genderlooks at environment. Contributionscome from different parts of theworld and deal with different experiencesof 'environment'. Some of the articles tellharrowing stories of the effects of environ-mental disaster and degradation. Womenexpress anger at the treatment of womenby environment 'experts'. There is little tobe cheerful about in the environment issueitself, but there is hope in reading howwomen in the most desperate circum-stances are looking to the future and organ-ising to take control of their space in theenvironment.

To begin to understand what gender andenvironment means, we should look to thelate Joan Davidson's overview of the closeand complex relationships of many womenin the South with their surroundings. Thisis a sound introduction to the wide range ofissues and situations linking women andthe environment. Women are profoundlyaffected by environmental degradation, butto understand how this happens it is neces-sary to look at underlying factors such asdebt and structural adjustment, trade, aid,war and social struc ture.

The issue of access to land and landrights comes up in many of the contribu-tions. Few women own the land they workon and therefore do not always benefitfrom environmental improvements. Itsdegradation does affect them as the land

deteriorates so do the resources available tothem and the harder they have to work forsmaller rewards. Land rights and landreform are environmental issues for womenbut they are rarely identified as such byenvironmental experts, or by politicians.The fact of the widespread marginalisationof women in society, the law and economiclife, still needs to be addressed by thosewho want to 'save' the environment fromthe people who depend on it most.

In this issue Judy Adoko expresses herfierce indignation at the apparent assump-tion by development workers in Ugandathat rural women using wood for fuel areshowing a careless disregard for the 'envi-ronment'. Her explanation of the situationshows how women and their work arereduced to being demonstration projectsfor visitors while those controlling the com-mercialisation of firewood are ignored. It isclear that here, as elsewhere, a chasm inunderstanding exists between local womenan d the environmental and developmentexperts.

Rural women are not unaware of the con-cept of environmental degradation buttheir choices are limited and their respons-es might appear to an outsider to be lessthan ideal. Under closer scrutiny theirchoice might prove to be a sensible courseof action, given the constraints they have towork within: they make the most of whatthey have today because that is all they

Focus on Gender Vol 1, No. 1, February 1993


6/68

2 Focus on Gender

have. Poor people, often women, use finiteresources fuelwood, fish, water out ofnecessity, not because they seek an easyshort-term option at the expense of theirchildren's future.

Removing the causes of women'spoverty has to be part of the solution

for environmental stability.Rural women want to play a part in sus-taining the natural environment but theycannot embark on schemes which jeopar-dise their immediate, very precariouslivelihood. There has to be some assurancethat they will not lose what they haveworked so hard for. Removing the causesof women's poverty has to be part of thesolution for environmental stability.Judy Adoko's point that women's timeand energy is often assumed to be unlimitedis taken up by Irene Guijt in her outlineofnew training materials for natural resourcemanagement fieldworkers Women onEarth. She states that there is an assumptionthat 'women's active participation in naturalresource management projects will be auto-matic, regardless of whether there will beany direct benefit for them in doing so'.Understanding how people work and whythey use the methods they do is an earlystep in developing a w ay of working togeth-

er. Adopting a gender perspective must bepart of this understanding.Joanne Harnmeijer and Ann Waters-Bayer describe how environmental degra-dation affects the health of rural womenfarmers by creating more work for littlereward, and yet how women's health canalso be undermined by projects whichincrease agricultural production. Childrenthen become even more necessary, to help

with the heavier burden of work; but giv-ing birth to and caring for childrenbecomes an additional drain on the moth-er's time, energy and health.

Increasing consumption of naturalresources is the reason given by manyprominent defenders of the environmentfor identifying 'over-population' as the keyculprit in environmental degradation. Butthis is often a false perception, and thecharge is made without examining theirown society's part in resource consump-tion, and with little regard for the dailyneeds of poor women. A strongly wordedstatement from DAWN refutes this analy-sis and points to changes to be made at aworld level to promote sustainable devel-opment and ease the burden on women.The pressures of the system of interna-tional trade and increasing industrialisa-tion have intensified not only hazards tothe natural environment but hazards in theworkplace. Around the world localeconomies are being transformed by thedevelopment policies of government andinternational insti tutions. People aredeserting their rural homes for the townsand cities. As the cost of living escalatesand as land deteriorates or is closed tothem, they seek a new ways to survive.In sub-Saharan Africa women have beenforced by drought and the rapidly declin-ing economic situation to join the ranks ofmale migrants to urban centres. Here theyface new types of environmental problems inadequate housing and sanitation, dis-ease and industrial pollution. In Senegal,for example, women and their children are

struggling to make a living without evenhaving a home. Mariam Dem describesprojects which are trying to enable womento earn money while maintaining theirhome base. She knows this is not the onlysolution and calls for more research to findout what women's real needs are and howthey can be adequately m et.In other parts of the world South-EastAsia and the Americas economies suchas Mexico are being transformed by export-led policies of industrialisation. Women areleaving rural areas in search of work toearn money in the new cash economy.


7/68

Editorial 3

Agricultural land is being turned over fornew factories, without the necessary sup-porting sanitation or social services. Townsare growing up around industrial sites inwhich most of the employees are women,exploited because of their low social status.Industrial waste is rarely controlled prop-erly so that many of the processes whichcause occupational health problems in thefactories can be directly linked to severe ill-nesses and death in the community.

The plantation system is not new, and ithas never been a safe working environment,but with the introduction of agri-chemicalsthe hazards are even greater. Research byPAN and by Tenaganita in Malaysia hasshown that women plantation workers aregiven the most dangerous jobs. Direct con-tact with chemical pesticides seriouslyaffects their health and that of their unbornchildren. In addition to carrying out moreresearch in other countries in Asia, PAN areholding a series of training workshops tohelp local organisations combat the use ofpesticides. The Serdang Declaration reflectstheir concern with an entire system of pro-duction and consumption.

In an environmental disaster, women canbe more vulnerable than men. Disasterspresent particular dangers for womenwhich can be related directly to their socialposition. It is not just the cruel climatewhich devastates lives but the cruelty ofsocial systems which create barriers to sur-vival. In disasters which strike suddenlyand without warning many women aretrapped in the homes which they fear leav-ing; they risk their own lives to save theirchildren; and afterwards they are prevent-ed from receiving their fair share of reliefaid. At the same time images of sufferingwomen are cynically used to raise fundsfor relief programmes.Rasheda Begum describes with angerand bitterness the treatment of women inBangladesh following the horrific cycloneof 1991. She tells how women's lives werelost because of social conventions, and how

the needs of women were ignored duringthe relief work. She describes the discrimi-nation and obstruction she met as a reliefworker. Determined that women shouldnot be treated like this in future, she listschanges which need to be made to disasterrelief programmes.In an environmental disaster, wom encan be more vulnerable than men.

Other environmental disasters do notcome suddenly but are agonisingly slow.The psychological effects of living in a seri-ous drought cannot be underestimated.The stress caused by the burden of extrawork, of daily hunger and death, and ofnot knowing when it will end, can be com-pounded by the pain of abandonment.From Zambia, Nawina Hamaundu tellshow women, whose husbands desertedthem to remarry in an area where therewas still food, continue to find ways ofcoping. Throughout Southern Africa,despite the gnawing hunger, women arefinding new personal strength and areorganising for new strategies.

Environmental degradation has manyhidden victims. When a fishery dies thefirst response is to think of the fishermenwho are without work and to mourn theirloss of a way of life. In most small-scalefishing communities women are also direct-ly dependent on the resource for their liveli-hood and their status. It is women who con-trol the processing and marketing of thefish, and whose earnings support the fami-ly. The case of Laguna Lake in thePhilippines is replicated thousands of timesaround the world as subsistence fisheriesare destroyed by outside intervention andindustrial pollution. When the resource diesthe women, as well as the fishermen, mustalso find ways of coping with the loss oftheir way of life. A loss of autonomy from an independent business women to alaundress can also bring a loss of self-


8/68

Focus on Gender

esteem. Fisherwomen, such as those atLaguna Lake have not given up and areorganising to regain their lost position.What is environment and why is itimportant for women? It is not just rain-forests, wild birds, and holes in the ozonelayer; it is also where people live and work.Their relationship with the environment isdetermined by their social position and bythe work they do. Definitions of environ-ment and prescriptions for solutions toenvironmental problems are dangerouswithout understanding the specifics ofeach case. As Nanneke Redclift says, globalneeds are not unitary and self-evident.In programmes for sustainable develop-ment, experience has shown that a highlevel of sensitivity is necessary if develop-ment is to be first acceptable and then sus-tainable. It is important to know what

women and men each mean by environ-ment and what the environment means tothem. Gender is a variable in environmen-tal analysis because men and women occu-py different spaces, carry out differentwork, have different responsibilities anddifferent needs.The concept of environment hasappeared in recent history as if it weresomething just invented. For the vastmajority of the world's population 'envi-ronment' is not a new concept but a basicfact of life. Poor women, in the countrysideand in the cities, live and work close totheir environment whether on a smallfarm, a plantation, in an urban community,or in an industrial zone. Problems of food,energy, sanitation and health confrontthem directly wherever they live and work.This is their environment.

Fanners on Sabu Island, Indonesia. Women in most Southern countries are at the centre of subsistencefood production. JIMMY


9/68

Women'srelationship withthe environmentJoan DavidsonAdapted from 'Women and the Environm ent', paper written for the Third Meeting ofCommonwealth Ministers Responsible for Women's Affairs. Ottawa, Can ada, 9-12 October 1990.

IT is DIFFICULT to define quite where'environment ' begins and ends forwomen in developing countries. Almostall development activities in some wayaffect their surroundings especially inrural areas. Changes in agricul ture ,forestry, and water and waste managementall have local environmental implicationswhich affect women. Women are alsodirectly affected by specifically 'environ-mental' activities those designed torehabilitate degraded areas, reduce pollu-tion or conserve genetic variety.

The way in which women relate to anumber of different natural resources, inboth rural and urban areas, are exploredbriefly below. The analyses show how andwhy women's interests have been dam-aged, and how they have responded toenvironmental crises.Women and landCultivable land is the basic resource formeeting food needs and often for servicinglivelihoods. Women are at the centre ofsubsistence food production accountingfor more than 80 per cent in some Africancountries. Women also produce cash crops,both on their own account, and as hiredlabour on commercial and family farms.

Yet, according to UN statistics, womenown no more than one per cent of th eworld's land, and even where they haveaccess to it for farming, their tenure is oftencostly and uncertain. Without ownershipof land or secure access to it, women aredenied access to credit, training, and othersupports to production, and cannot engagein the long-term conservation practicesthey have traditionally used.

In spite of agrarian reforms in manydeveloping countries, most productive landremains in the hands of relatively few peo-ple the commercial (mainly male) pro-ducers. Under formal and informal resettle-ment programmes, poor women haveeither become landless, or been forced ontothe less productive areas where yields arelower and output is of poorer quality.Attempts to grow subsistence crops inhighly marginal environments on landwhich may be unstable, dry or subject towaterlogging, pest-ridden and disease-prone result in severe soil erosion andthe related destruction of water and forestresources. Thus begins a cycle of accelerat-ing impoverishment of people and theenvironment. Poor farmers may over-exploit land and, as fallow periods shorten,the potential for soil recovery is reduced.Scarcity of fuelwood results in the burning

Focus on Gend er Vol 1, No. 1, February 1993


10/68

Focus on Gender

of crop and animal wastes, formerly used tomaintain soil fertility. Crop yields, the cook-ing of food, and diets may all deteriorate.Green Revolution agriculture a devel-opment ' success ' of the 1970s hasbypassed the problems of women farmers.Intensive food production with hybrid,high-yield seed varieties, like intensiveproduction of other cash crops for export,has been beyond the reach of most womenfarmers, who have no capital for the inputsrequired such as machines for planting andharvesting, irrigation, pesticides, and thehybrid seeds themselves.

Made landless or pushed in to marginalWomen and women's groups are in

the forefront of experiments insustainable agriculture.

environments, women have to feed familiesfrom smaller and more impoverished plots;they may also work (often unpaid) aslabourers in cash-crop farming. The workburdens of this 'doub le' day are exacerbatedby the need for women to travel greater dis-tance to collect fuelwood, water, fodder andfood when the environment deteriorates asa result of intensive farming. In the Indianstate of Rajasthan, now on the brink of adesertification disaster, wells and once-flowing rivers are dry. In 1975, the WorldBank and its partners supported the intro-duction of irrigated cash cropping of sugarcane. In an area with just 60 centimetres ofrainfall annually, the cultivation of sugar-cane has caused groundwater levels to falldramatically. The water table is now too lowto support regular subsistence cropping.

Evidence is abundant that highly-mecha-nised, chemical-fed agriculture, oftendependent upon large-scale irrigationregimes, damages soil fertility, surfacewater and groundwater resources, and treecover. Locally, heavy use of pesticides hasincreased pest immunity and brought

greater infestation, while species diversityhas declined. This has reduced the capacityof subsistence farmers to adapt to changingweather patterns by selecting the moreresilient seeds. This has also meant that therich fund of species knowledge (held bywomen) is being progressively lost.Thus, not only have the benefits of inten-sive agriculture bypassed women, but theyhave suffered, directly and indirectly, fromits 'success'. Their self-reliance and theircapacity to sustain the environment areundermined.Women and women's groups are in theforefront of experiments in sustainableagriculture such as introducing more flexi-ble cropping patterns, widening speciesdiversity, recycling organic nutrients, andother techniques for long-term resourceconservation. Traditional methods of inter-planting and crop rotation are blendedwith new styles of agroforestry to providean alternative approach which combinesenvironmental improvements with directdevelopment gains for women.Clearly, such innovations do not removethe injustices of land distribution and otherinequities that women farmers face. Butsustainable agriculture projects can oftenbe the trigger for other improvements initi-ated by the farmers themselves cropinnovation, for example.Women and waterIn many areas, women are 'invisible' watermanagers, responsible for supplying thewater needs of the family, domestic ani-mals and sometimes agriculture. A numberof studies have shown how their role insearching for potable supplies and carryingwater over long distances is important forthe health, economy, and social develop-ment of local communities. Yet women arefrequently excluded from the planning,implementation, and maintenance of watersupplies. At the same time, they suffer theconsequences, as in Rajasthan, of intensive,


11/68

Wom en's relationship with the environment

Wom en are usually responsible for supplying the water needs oftheir family, domestic animals and crops. This task is physicallydemanding and som etimes hazardous, as here in Bihar, India.ACIUNTO BHADRA/OXFAM.

irrigated agriculture and, elsewhere, of pol-luting industries.Women, forests and energyForests play a special role in the lives ofpoor women. Not only are trees importantin protecting watersheds, regulating waterflows and maintaining soil fertility and airquality, but they provide a 'cornucopia' ofbenefits food, fodder, fuel, buil dingmaterials, medicines and many of the mate-rials for women's income-earning activities.Increasing rates of deforestation from

commercial logging, agri-cultural development,migration and resettlement,and cutting for firewoodand charcoal have envi-ronmental consequenceswhich im-pinge directlyupon the lives of poorwomen. Work burdens areincreased as they must for-age further to find fodder,water, and fuel, leaving lesstime available for incomegeneration and other activi-ties to im-prove their stan-dards of living.Women's work in thehome, on the land and insmall industries dependsmuch more than men'supon biomass energy, espe-cially wood. Less woodmeans women may reducecooking times, with theconsequence that they andtheir children eat poorerfood, sometimes danger-ously undercooked. It alsomeans that crop and animalwastes, normally used tomaintain soil fertility,become substitutes; but theyare inefficient, pollutinghousehold fuels. Higherprices for imported fuels and the commer-

cialisation of fuelwood to serve rural (andincreasingly, urban) markets have furtherincreased the pressures upon women's tra-ditional supplies of wood as a 'free good'.The Food and Agriculture Organisation pre-dicts that 2,000 million people will sufferacute fuelwood shortage by the end of thecentury.The extension of commercial forest man-agement, with clear felling, the replantingof ecologically damaging species and theexclusion from decision-making of th eaffected local groups, have denied women


12/68

g Focus on Gender

In B urkina Faso, 90 per cent of energy needs are met from wood. Increasing deforestation makes the taskof gathering fuehvood more difficult and time-consuming. MARK EDWARDS/OXFAM

access to their forest life-support systems.Women have also suffered from well-meaning but inappropriate developmentactivities. Some social forestry schemes, forexample, with their emphasis on eucalyp-tus and other commercially valuablespecies, have ignored women's interests,not only by excluding them from the bene-fits, but in other ways, by diverting scarceresources, such as water, to be used asinputs to the schemes.

The Chipko movement and similargroups show how women have fought notonly to protect forests but to rehabilitatethem and introduce successful new tree-planting initiatives.Women in urbanenvironmentsPoor women who have migrated to urbanenvironments also face problems of deteri-

orating health, environmental degradation,and resource depletion, often more acutelythan their rural sisters. Most live as squat-ters in the centres of cities or in theunplanned informal settlements on theirmargins. These squatter settlements areoften built on land unfit for housing, proneto landslides, flooding, or pollution fromindustry . There are few, if any, services: noregular water supply, sewerage, garbageremoval, or electricity. Roads and transportfacilities are poor, medical care and educa-tion inadequate or absent.

Women, especially, suffer from threekinds of environmental degradation inthese urban-fringe areas. The effects ofminimal services, the constant danger ofindustrial pollution, and the cumulativedeterioration of the urban hinterland.Around most cities in developing countries(as around large refugee camps), waste dis-posal, deforestation, overcropping andovergrazing have so damaged soils that


13/68

Wom en's relationship with the environment 9

erosion, flooding or desertification has fol-lowed.In spite of some progressive schemes, thespecial needs of women are still ignored inmany housing projects which are designedto improve informal settlements throughupgrading or site-and-service schemes.House designs and plot sizes take noaccount of women's need to care for chil-dren, grow food or earn an income. Norare women yet adequately represented inlow-income housing management.

The underlying factorsIn all these expressions of women's rela-tionship with the environment, the prob-lems are underpinned by the deterioratingeconomic circumstances of developingcountries. Foremost among these are lowrates of growth, high international interestrates and unsustainable debt-service bur-dens, declining terms of trade, and theresponses of structural adjustment whichhave led to more export-led cash croppingat the expense of food security, and reduc-tions in spending on health, education,training, and other services upon whichwomen depend. While there is no detailedevidence of the effects of structural adjust-ment on women's environmental interests,the local consequences of intensive cashcropping and forest exploitation clearlypenalise them. Higher prices for food andenergy may force women to abandon tradi-tional conservation practices and degradefragile ecosystems. Higher prices forimported fossil fuels prevent any switchaway from wood fuel and increase pres-sures upon dwindling forest resources.Adverse terms of trade, especially low andunstable commodity prices, have hitwomen producers as well as men.

Declining flows of official developmentassistance to developing countries and theresulting net resource transfers from them,the tying of aid to large-scale and industri-al development projects, the failure of aid

projects to address the needs of the poor-est, and adverse environmental conse-quences, all rebound upon women.Rapid population growth, apart fromincreasing environmental stress because ofgreater pressure on natural resources, is afurther drain upon women's capacity foreffective environmental management.Repeated pregnancies coupled with inade-quate diets and the burdens of caring forsmall children all drain women's physicalenergy.

Locally, the lack of other support mecha-nisms combine to limit women's effective-ness as resource managers. Without title toland, they have no access to credit for farmimprovements, conservation measures,energy-saving technologies or the develop-ment of viable income-generating enter-prises. Often women are discriminatedagainst in the content and style of trainingavailable, including extension advice.Foreign technologies and policies advocat-ed by external agencies are often inappro-priate and fail to build on women's tradi-tional knowledge and practices of naturalresources conservation. There are excellentexamples of women's groups taking actionto provide alternatives. But these initiativesreach relatively few women.Conflict prevents any long-terminvestment in conservation measures.

Continuing conflicts between and withinstates have devastating environmental con-sequences and women are frequently hardhit, as they are presently in Ethiopia,Mozambique, and elsewhere in Africa.Conflict prevents any long-term invest-ment in conservation measures. Refugeecamps grow and with them their degrad-ed, treeless hinterlands.Without action on all the underlying fac-tors debt and structural adjustment,trade, aid, population growth, discrimina-tion in local support mechanisms and civil


14/68

10 Focus on Gender

conflict women's efforts to resist envi-ronmentally damaging policies and torestore and protect the status of womenwill be decisive for the protection of theenvironment and natural resources.

ReferencesCecelski E (1987) Linking Energy with Survival;International Labour Office, Geneva.

Commonw ealth Expert Group on Women andStructural Adjustment (1989) EngenderingAdjustment for the 1990s; C o m m o n w ea l t hSecretariat, London.Gubbels, P A and Iddi, A (1986) Women farm-ers: cultivation an d utilization of soybeans amongWest African women through family health anima-tion efforts; World Neighbours, Oklahoma City.Shiva, V (1989) Staying Alive Women, Ecologyand Development; Zed Books, London.

Joan DavidsonJoan Davidson, Oxfam's policy advisor onenvironment and development, died on 21October. Her untimely death is a tragic lossto Oxfam and the wider movement cam-paigning for more sustainable develop-ment. She did pioneering work in raisingawareness of the gender dimension ofenvironment and development issues,resulting in the publication, with IreneDankelman, of Environment and Women inthe Third World (1988).

In April 1990 she joined Oxfam's PublicAffairs Unit, and with her job-share part-ner, Dorothy Myers, co-authored No Timeto Waste: Poverty and the Global Environment.The book was l aunched to coincide witht h e U n i t e d N a t i o n s C o n f e r e n c e onEnvironment and Development. Joan lob-bied to get issues of poverty , gender and

smal l - sca le , com mu ni ty -base d so lu t ionso n t o the Rio a g e n d a , and w i t h her col-league, Tricia Feeney, represented Oxfamon the official UK delegation at UNCED.She was a brilliant and creative thinkerand writer on a variety of subjects, includ-ing g reen ing the inner c i t ies and w i d e rp l a n n i n g i s s u e s . J o a n had a h o l i s t i ca p p r o a c h to life and was an a d m i r a b l e

teacher and enthusiast . She was a perfec-tionist , driven by her pass ionate concernfor people and her desire to bring aboutchange w h e t h e r in the inner cit ies inBritain or rural villages in the Third World.She leaves a husband and two sons, anda wide circle of friends. Those of us whohave had the pr iv i lege of w o rk i n g w i t hJoan will sorely miss her creative energyand her drive. DIANNA MELROSE


15/68

Environmental changeand quality of lifeJoanne Harnmeijer and Ann Waters-BayerHow do farmers see environmental changes affecting their family's well-being? How are they try-ing to cope with and improve the situation? What can outsiders do to support them in theseefforts? These questions were addressed in the March 1992 issue oflLEIA Newsletter, a journal ofthe Information Centre for Low External Input in Sustainable Ag riculture. The following is anedited version of that issue's editorial.

IN Participato ry Technology Devel-opment (PTD), the farmers choose theoptions they would like to explore. Intechnology assessment, the farmers judgewhether the results of the PTD process suittheir circumstances. Their choice of options whether with low or high levels of exter-nal inputs, whether for more or less sus-tainable forms of farming, will be based toa large extent on how they see changes intheir environment, their constraints, andtheir opportunities. Their assessment willbe based on what they value in life andthis is much more than merely increasedyields from crops and anim als.

Although assessment of sustainabilitydemands that more levels be taken intoaccount than just the farm level, we havechosen to focus first on farmers' views ofchanges in their environment. Have thesechanges affected their health in the verywide sense of 'well-being' or 'quality of life'?Coping, adapting,improvingThroughout the world, people are wellaware of environmental change. They arecoping with it. They are adapting to it. In

the face of constant change, they are tryingto create a better life according to their val-ues. If would-be development agents aresincere in their desire to participate in peo-ple's grassroots development projects, thenthey must find ways of recognising whatpeople are trying to do and supportthese efforts.When the people's views are sought and when their initiatives are recognised there is no room for the pessimistic fore-casts often made by environmentalists.Oral histories from the Sahel,1 for example,testify to people's versatility and ability toadapt in the face of considerable odds. Forexample, a decrease in per capita woodconsumption does not necessarily indicatea woodfuel crisis; instead, it may indicatehow women very sensibly respond todecreased woodfuel supplies by improvingthe way they use firewood.Relieving women's burdensBesides oral histories, various other tech-niques of participatory rural appraisal rapid or otherwise can be used effective-ly to stimulate local people to express theirviews about the implications of environ-mental change for their quality of life.

Focus on G ender Vol 1, No. 1, February 1993


16/68

12 Focus on Gender

As increasing time is spent on collectingor economising on water and fuelwood,less time is available for improvements inagricultural production. Yet, as the wife ofa 'model farmer' in Kenya showed, intensi-fication of farming is making even moredemands on women's time.This is also an issue which has to besquare ly addressed in designing andassessing innovations in low-external-inputand sustainable agriculture (LEISA). Low-external-input may mean high-internal-input of labour often by women. Byfocusing on this problem now, we hopethat future research will pay particularattention to the demands which LEISAtechnologies make on women. The nextobvious step then is to work together withwomen to develop technologies whichrelieve, rather than increase, their work-load.Why women get tiredEnvironmental degradation affects womenin many ways, especially when they haveprimary responsibility for producing foodfor the family. As supplies become scarcerand of poorer quality, getting food and fueltakes more time, thus having a directimpact on the time available for food pro-duction within the household, and on thenutritional status and health of householdmembers. Water shortages, declining soilfertility, and fuel shortages are all part ofinter-linked circuits of shortages begettingshortages: less water means fewer crops less fodder means fewer livestock lessdung means poorer crops, and so on.

Not only do agricultural crops suffer,wild plants which farming families collectto supplement family nutrition, to use asmedicines, and sometimes also to sell, dis-appear. Poorer-quality fuels are burned forcooking and heating, causing more smokeand, thus, more ailments of the eyes andrespiratory tract. And, at the end of the dayMa has to work harder and longer.

This chain of cause and effect should beobvious, but what is less obvious is thatincreased production from farming can alsolead to poorer nutrition and health. This isthe case when cash crops or 'modern' foodsare promoted to the extent that they replacetraditional foods. Then the farming familybuys or grows foods which are often lessvarious and nutritious than the traditionallygrown and gathered foods. Agric ulturewith chemicals may give higher yields, butwhat about residues in and on food or pol-lution of (drinking) water?

A further important but complex rela-tionship between environmental degrada-tion and health concerns family size. AsCaldwell2 points out, decisions about fami-ly size can, to a large extent, be explainedby the nature of the household economy.When more labour is needed to derive aliving from a degraded environment, more

Pounding grain, Senegal. Many of the householdtasks carried out by women are physicallyexhausting. Deteriorating environments meanwomen have to work even harder.BERNARD TAYLOR/OXFAM


17/68

Environmental change and quality of life 13

children are needed to supply this labour.The draining effect of numerous pregnan-cies and child births and the demands onwomen's time, energy and health of caringfor small children are multiplied by theincreasing difficulties of obtaining waterand fuelwood.

First needs firstIt is therefore not surprising that, whenagricultural development workers attemptto support farmers' efforts to improve theirsituation, the first priority may not be toimprove farming techniques. This wasencountered by World Neighbors in Togo,where rural communities chose toimprovewater supply and eradicate thewater-related disease Guinea worm, so thatthey would be able to work their fields.

It is important that development projectsaddress a wide range of farmers' needs, andnot only identify felt needs, but alsorespond to local people's ideas of how toaddress them.Outsiders must also realise that, in themotivation for and process of farmers'efforts to adjust to changing circumstances,aspects of culture and identity can be veryimportant. Farmers assess new technologiesnot only according to economic costs andbenefits but also according to the effects ofinnovations on physical and spiritual well-being.

Whose quality of life?When talking about environmental man-agement by local people trying to ensuretheir livelihood, the wider political dimen-sions cannot be ignored. First of all, theaffected communities need to make theirplight and their achievements morewidely known. This may serve to obtainfinancial and moral support from influen-tial people.

Publicity may also be a way to exertpublic pressure to prevent policies being

implemented which are detrimental to theenvironment and health of farming com-munities. In Thailand, the journalistSanitsuda Ekachai and the Thai Develop-ment Support Committee have publicised apolicy aimed at protecting health by fight-ing narcotics. The deforestation and highlevels of pesticide use associated withgrowing cabbages in place of opium pop-pies is having devastating effects on vege-tation and water supply and thus, on thewell-being of local farmers. What is goodfor some, is bad for others.

It is important that developmentprojects address a wide range offarmers' needs, and respond to localpeople's ideas of how to address them.

Conflicts of interests also arise whenmeasures proclaiming nature conservationbring benefits only to a privileged segmentof the population. Cases from South Africaquite forcefully bring out the politicalstruggle of communities threatened withmeasures that uproot their environmentand themselves from land they have usedfor centuries.

Only when individuals and communi-ties join forces can they hope to have someimpact on the power game that would oth-erwise ignore the rights of local residents.1 Cross N and Barker R (eds) (1991) At the desert'sedge: oral histories from the Sahel, SO S Sahel /Panos,London2 Caldwell J (1982) Theory of Fertility Decline,Academic Press, LondonFurther reference:Cecelski E (1987) 'Energy and rural women'swork: crisis, response and policy alterna-tives', International Labour Revieiv 126(l):41-64


18/68

Sustainable development:women as partnersMariam DemThis article has been edited from a paper presented by Mariam Dem at the ICVA Forum March1991, Dakar, translated by Sarah Perman and Tim Beech.

T HE 1980s saw southern SaharanAfrica plunge into an unprecedentedeconomic crisis. In countries such asSenegal the essentially rural economy,dependent as it is on the vagaries of climateand fluctuating exchange rates, was severe-ly weakened. Agriculture expanded onlyslightly and food production failed to keeppace with the accelerated populationgrowth. Food needs were not met bydomestic production.In order to break out of this spiral ofdecline governments turned to externalborrowing US$134 billion in 1988,according to a World Bank report on sub-Saharan Africa. Instead, the economic crisisbecame entrenched by the continued build-up of foreign debt.In addition, IMF-imposed StructuralAdjustment Programmes in the region, ini-tiating liberalisation of the economy andprivatisation of state services, have led toweak economic growth, or sometimes to noeconomic growth at all, and to a decline inliving conditions. In the urban environmentit is leading to a situation of misery on ascale never seen before. Social indicatorsare reaching the danger point as povertyspreads and grows deeper.

One adjustment after another has led towidespread disillusionment; people nolonger believe that their living conditionswill ever improve.

Poverty in the urban areasInappropriate economic policies, such asSenegal's New Agricultural Policy, haveexacerbated the deterioration in living con-ditions by advocating the liberalisation ofthe agricultural sector, in particular theabolition of state subsidies for agriculturalinputs. In desperation, the rural populationof Senegal are leaving their rural villages insearch of food, money, and greater dignity.In L'Etat du Tiers Monde (1989) NoelCannat notes that the population of sub-Saharan Africa is increasing at four timesthe rate of the world population. Senegal istypical of this phenomenon.In the urban centres, the quality of life isalso deteriorating. Thirty-nine per cent ofthis still primarily agricultural economynow live in towns. The urban population isgrowing rapidly as a result of the naturalincrease in the population at a rate of 2.7per cent per year, and the massive exodusof population from the rural areas.The state, once the leading employer, isgetting rid of its employees through the so-called 'voluntary redundancy programme'and is no longer recruiting new staff; it isabandoning those companies it used tosupport, ending state aid to commercialenterprises, and cutting back on socialinvestment. In 1989, 30,000 officials weresacked from rural employment agencies,

Focus on Gender Vol 1, No. 1, February 1993


19/68

Sustainable development 15and investment in social programmes hasbeen drastically reduced. Businesses andfactories are shutting down or laying-offmost of their staff. Unemployment is rife.

Women and the economiccrisisWomen are particularly affected by this cri-sis, both in the countryside and in thetowns, each situation posing its own set ofproblems. The increase in poverty in coun-tries such as Senegal has also led to thefeminisation of the population : men areleaving Senegal for work and studies else-where , so that now 3,618,000 of the7,171,000 Senegalese are women.

The unemployment created by reducedpublic spending puts the burden of bring-ing in an income for the w hole family moreheavily on women than ever before. In the

countryside, the fall in the price of cashcrops means that women have to do extrawork in order to increase production ontheir own land. This increased workloaddoes not in itself mean an increase inwomen's income because the women donot always control this land in mostcases it is controlled by men.

In urban areas, the increase in housingcosts forces women and their children intopoor housing conditions. Unemploymenthas increased the burden on women ofmaking ends meet for the family. They areturning to the informal sector a widerange of services and small-scale manufac-turing to keep the family going.However, this increased role for womenin the struggle for economic survival hasnot changed their position within the com-munity. They continue to be exposed to allforms of discrimination in everyday life. Inthe urban areas, as in the countryside,

Market traders, Senegal. Women are increasingly turning to the informal sector to bring in an income tokeep their families going. DIANE CROCOMBE/OXFAM


20/68

Focus on Gender

power remains firmly male: land rights,family law, access to credit, access to tech-nology, and access to education. As a con-sequence of the socio-cultural environment,the effects of the economic crisis in urbanareas hit mainly women, and limit theiropportunities to improve the physical envi-ronment.To tackle misery and destitution, disad-vantaged populations everywhere put sur-vival strategies into action. In Senegalwomen play the greatest part in these.Nothing is beyond them: they are preparedto undertake any work as long as it bringsin a little income to help feed their familyand pay for the education of their children.Many are fortunate in still having their tra-ditional associations to rely on and to workwithin, and where possible they readilyalign themselves with these organisationsto benefit from development activities.Sustainable developmentfor urban womenOxfam intends to give more support to theurban women who have been badly affect-ed by Senegal's economic crisis. It plans todo this by participating in the movementpeople are creating to free themselves frompoverty.Support has been given to women fromurban areas in their attempts to organisethemselves and to carry out income-gener-ating activities. This support has assumeddifferent forms the most im portant ofwhich is to place funds at the women's dis-posal for carrying out activities which bringin an income to enable them to improvetheir own and their families' lives.

Another form of support has been inbacking women's organisations so that theycan act as a counter-balance to women'sexclusion from the spheres of influencewhich affect their lives, and to their mar-ginalisation, which is often linked to theirlack of information and training.In sum, our work with women in urban

areas aims to support them in the context ofsustainable development, by promotingand strengthening organisations whichmobilise women to earn a l iving, toimprove their health and education, and tolearn about and defend their rights.Above all, however, our task is to fur-ther a process of change through supportwhich answers women's needs by financ-ing income-generating activities to givewomen more economic power; improvingtheir livelihood by promoting education,health and the preservation of the environ-ment; and supporting grassroots initiativesin the rural population in order to slowdow n the drift to the cities.Some examples of womenworking togetherA group of Serere women (the Serere areSenegal's second ethnic group) have settledin the capital, Dakar, having left their vil-lages to follow their husbands. The womenwanted to maintain solidarity by becomingorganised. Credit funds have enabled thewomen to support their small trading activ-ities without being at the mercy of money-lenders, nor being forced to abandon theirfamily through a lack of money, as is sooften the case.This support has also consisted of train-ing which sensitises women to family plan-ning. This is in response to the distress ofthose women who, with nine or ten chil-dren, are faced with health problems andenormous difficulties in finding food andlodging.Another group are the ' pounders ofCastor', rural women who came to Dakarduring the dry season to earn an income fortheir families by pounding millet and thenselling the hulled grain in competition withlarge-scale traders. Unfamiliar with thecity, most had no base in the town and sowould sleep with their small children in themarket under very difficult conditions.

Oxfam aims to 'root' these women in


21/68

Sustainable development 17their villages by financing their work dur-ing the long nine months of the dry season.The women work not only in millet trad-ing, but also in sheep-fattening and otheragricultural activities.Working with women forsustainable developmentSustainable development for women meansthere are problems to be tackled: Access to the ways and means of pro-duction such as land, agricultural equip-

ment and inputs: in Senegal, women donot generally have any land, despite thelaw which administers land as thenational estate, accessible to all. The cus-tom of patriarchal control of the landmeans that women and their organisa-tions often are given land which is notwanted because it is either too far awayor barely fertile.

Insufficient and inaccessible resourcesfor women: because women are farfrom the centres of decision-making,criteria for the allocation of resourcesignore wom en's circumstances.The absence of information and training:women need to be able to apply theirown choices and m anage their lives inthe best possible way.The need to strengthen the space forwomen's independent reflection andexpression: often bound by their socio-cultural and political environments,women, particularly those from the poorsections of society, often accept what issuggested to them because they havenot been given the opportunity to saywhat they w ant or are able to do.

Mariam Dem (right) talking to an Oxfam-supported women's group. Support for women who are organ-ising themselves can help create and strengthen women's confidence. JEREMY HARTLEY/OXFAM


22/68

18 Focus on Gender

Questions to ask ourselvesLike many development NGOs, most ofour work is carried out in rural areas. Weare now asking ourselves questions aboutthe realities of life for urban women.Strategies and techniques which have beensuccessful in rural areas are not necessarilysuitable for the cities.How should women's organisations in theurban areas be strengthened?What sort of training would strengtheneffectively their econom ic role?How should we fight against violenceagainst women in a cultural context inwhich talking about yourself or your fami-ly is considered shameful for women?Which strategies would oppose policieswhich have negative effects on women?Some answers are already emerging fromour experiences with women's organisa-tions. For example, networks of grassrootswomen's organisations are the soundestbase on which to build female solidarityand women's representation. Access toinformation and training is crucial forwomen in order to give them more respon-sibility in the community and in the choic-es which affect them.

Working with women for sustainabledevelopment in countries like Senegalmeans asking these questions in the contextof where women are now, what they have,and what they lack. Access to resourcesand land is a main issue, as is educationand training particularly for young girls.Reducing domestic workloads, betterhealth care, more information, particularlyabout family and employment rights sothat people know what they are legallyentitled to, are all important.

There should be more research on theeffects of structural adjustment on women,looking at issues such as children's school-ing, remuneration for domestic work, and

wom en's physical and m ental health.The impact of development policies andwomen's projects should always be studiedclosely, and this research must take intoaccount the roles the women occupy, theconditions they live in, their status andtheir relationship with men.ConclusionSustainable development presupposes that,through their active participation, disad-vantaged people, of which women rankamong the poorest, can determine and con-trol the development process. Therefore,the process should be made more democra-tic, to accommodate women and recognisetheir roles.

Demands made by grassroots peoplethemselves, supported by their own organ-isations, is the indispensable condition forsustainable development. This means cre-ating mechanisms and spaces for womenwho have something to say. Support forwomen who are organising themselves canhelp create and strengthen women's confi-dence, and thereby boost the whole coun-try's development.Is it appropriate to work with womenwithout considering their needs, their sta-tus, and their roles in society? Is it notrather a case of implementing structuralchange for a better social system becausethis will be fairer for the disadvantaged?

Sustainable development also needsfairer relations between the North and theSouth, built against a background wherewe recognise each other's characteristics,agree to share 'know-how ' and resources.Development organisations, and all theplayers in development, have to engage ina new dynamic w here each participant willtake on his or her own responsibilities inthe search for more justice, dignity, andprosperity for the poor sections of society in particular , for wom en.


23/68

Environment andwomen in Uganda:the way I see itJudy Adoko

FROM MY EXPERIENCE in Oxfam, the typeof 'environmental' project that existsin Uganda is the type started by anoutsider going to a women's group andenlightening the women on the dangers ofenvironmental degradation caused by cut-ting trees. Women are told that there isdrought because trees are being cut for fire-wood. They are also told that if they do notplant trees, they will have no firewood forcooking. The other benefits put forward forwomen engaged in such tree-planting pro-jects are income, which they can get fromthe sale of seedlings, better nutrition fortheir children from eating fruits and, ofcourse, shade for their homes.The more advanced environmental pro-jects are involved with improved charcoal-burning stoves which consume less char-coal, thereby saving both charcoal andmoney; and with composting for fertilising.

Inputs for projectsFor women to carry out the tree-plantingprojects they need, amongst other things,land and water for the seedlings .Traditionally, in most Ugandan cultures,land is used by women but owned by men.There is also a shortage of land; so much sothat no group could afford to plant trees ontheir own, on an empty plot. Most womenplant a few trees on either a coffee planta-

tion or banana plantation where the cropsare traditionally owned by men. So, what-ever good the trees do, they do not directlybenefit the women anyway. A woman hasto wait for her few trees to mature beforeshe can cut one down to use as firewood.Considering that these trees are only a fewin number, how long can she use the fire-wood for cooking before she has to plantagain and wait another two years?While waiting for the trees to grow, thewomen continue to water the seedlings, andmeet visitors brought to them by NGOs.In some projects I visited there were signsof seedlings gone to waste because of lackof water; the women had to walk miles tofetch water for their domestic use and justcould not keep the seedlings watered. Someschemes have introduced a bicycle whichcan be used for collecting the water for theseedlings, but this is not available for

domestic use. Why, I wonder, does it needa concern for 'environmental issues' ratherthan women's daily burden of water-carry-ing before a bicycle is introduced?

Benefits accruing to womenFirewoodThe women who plant trees for firewoodhave to wait two to three years before theycan harvest the firewood. Even then the

Focus on Gender Vol. l,No.l, 1993


24/68

20 Focus on genderbranches are just twigs which could neverboil beans. If the trees are plantedspecifically for firewood, it means that theyhave to be cut down eventually. How,then, would this contribute toenvironm ental protection? (Perhaps theargument is because they have avoidedcutting down another one.)Environmental ProtectionAlthough I do not have the statistics toshow who are the greatest destroyers oftrees, I have lived in Uganda long enoughto know that in my village firewood is col-lected from dry trees after the burning ofgrass in December not from green trees.After the grass is burnt the women can seemore clearly in the bush and pick the deadwood, leaving the green pieces. (As far as Iknow none of the environmental NGOs inUganda have touched on grass burning asan environmental issue.) Very, very rarelywere green trees cut down for firewoodand even then it was only the old womenwho did this because they were too weakto walk long distances looking for drytrees.It seems to me that in Uganda the great-est destroyers of trees are the charcoalburners who are business men, sometimeswielding considerable power. If we want ameaningful environmental project, wouldnot they be the best target, rather than thepoor village women who already havetheir arms full of work?IncomeThe seedlings are supposed to be sold bythe women to raise income. The price forthis is usually 50 or 100 shillings perseedling (USH 2,050 to 1). Considering thesmall amount of money most women haveat their disposal, it is no wonder that onewoman in a group I visited w anted to starta poultry project for cash. According to her,'one cannot eat trees'. In one project wefound that some seedlings were boughtfrom wom en's groups by men because it is

they who traditionally 'owned' seedlings.They would then grow them and sell them.NutritionPartners involved in environmental pro-jects argue that planting some trees, espe-cially fruit trees, will improve the nutritionlevel in families. This argument does nothold water with me because most homes Iknow (in Lango) have planted trees such asmango, orange and (in Buganda) Jack fruit,since long before 'environment' was anissue. I think that this is just a way of tryingto impress hind ers.

In Uganda, the land on which women groiu foodis oivned by men. J ENNYMA

Concluding commentsConsider then the following: Such environmental tree-planting pro-jects add to women's burden of watercollection.


25/68

Environment and women in Uganda 21 They do not address gender issues suchas ownership of land. They do not benefit women immediatelyeither in cash or in firewood. They do not benefit the environment forlong. Women are not the greatest destroyers oftrees.Fruit has always been available.Is it fair that women should be burdenedwith 'env iron m en t' w hich, to me, is aworld-w ide problem of tomorrow? Whatcan environmental projects also do aboutthe local problems of today?

Cooking over a wood fire, Uganda. The shortageof fuelwood is caused by trees being cu t down forprofit by charcoal burners. JENNY MATTHEWS/OXFAM

ProposalIt is true that poor people are affected,maybe more than others, by their environ-ment, but I believe that they are alreadystruggling with too many immediate prob-lems to be saddled with 'environment'.This is especially so as they are not thegreatest culprits in destroying it.

Therefore, my proposal is that partnersshould target rich groups to carry out envi-ronmental projects, but not women. Allthat should be done for women is to letthem know that environmental degrada-tion is dangerous for them and for theirchildren tomorrow. (As if they did notalready know!)

I would further propose that schools,especially primary schools, be used for treeplanting in their community. Young boysat home could also be mobilised to growtree seedlings in their communities.Fetching water and watering the seedlingscould become an occupation for the boys,who are relatively free com pared to girls.With regard to the introduction of envi-ronmentally improved charcoal-burningstoves: some projects introd uce thesestoves in villages where charcoal is notused anyway. It is town-dwellers who arethe main users of charcoal for cooking andheating. Even so, at current pricesimproved stoves are too expensive for mostpeople, at 5,000 to 6,000 shillings, com-pared with 1,200 shillings at the most forordinary stoves.

Environmental projects should sensitisethe charcoal-burning businessmen, if theydo not already know of the danger thatthey are creating. If they do know, weshould lobby for laws for sustainable forestmanagement.


26/68

Policy statement onpopulation and theenvironmentIn the context of the emerging debate which named population size as a major cause of environmen-tal degradation, three groups the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the InternationalSocial Science Council (ISSC), and Development Alternatives with Wom en for a New Era(DAWN) came together to consider the evidence, each group contributing its own special experi-ence to the exercise. The following statement was formulated at a workshop sponsored by these threegroups in Cocoyea, Mexico, in February 1992.

T HE CURRENT MACRO-DEBATE w h i c hportrays population growth as thecentral variable in environmentaldegradation is not supported by researchfindings. Extremes of wealth and poverty,leading to overconsumption by some andthe erosion of l ivelihoods for others ,skewed distribution and use of resources,and patterns of human settlement (includ-ing urbanisation) have a stronger demon-strable relationship to env i ronmenta ldegradation than population size per se. Inaddition, macro-global economic strategiesand policy decisions are increasingly affect-ing both people and the natural environ-ment. These findings are supported instudy after study.

People have traditionally adapted to andshaped the natural environment throughthe accumulation of local knowledge andexperience. This relationship has beenincreasingly disrupted as a result of exter-nal global forces, notably the globalisationof capital, large-scale technology and com-munications, subordination within worldmarkets, and rising levels of consumption ,particularly in industrialised countries.These processes have eroded livelihoods,

the natural environment. The focus on pop-ulation growth as the key factor in degrad-ing the environment is thus misplaced.Because poor women and children arethe poorest of the poor, and because of thecentral role that women play in householdand natural resource management, they areparticularly affected by the erosion oflivelihoods. It has been repeatedly demon-strated that fertility is determined by cul-tural and socio-economic factors such aswomen's economic autonomy, legal andpolitical rights, education, health, andaccess to reproductive health services.Fertility decline is also related to theimproved survival chances of offspring.However, general erosion of livelihoodsare increasingly undermining women'saccess to health services (including familyplanning services) and education.Policy implications are:1 Despite current ideologies and policiesfavouring trade liberalisation free ofstate regulation, market forces cannot berelied upon to protect the livelihoods ofpeople or the health of the environment.2 The global community including NGOs

Focus on Gender Vol. l,No.l, 1993


27/68

Policy statement on population and the environent 2 3

and international institutions, nationaland local governments have an obliga-tion to protect the environment and tohelp to ensure the sustainable liveli-hoods of present and future generations.3 Extractive industries including mining,logging and petroleum tend to disruptboth the physical and social environ-ment. It is therefore recommended that:

an international data base of the social,economic and environmental effects ofthese traded resources be established; information drawn from the data basebe made available to local communities; social and environmental impact stud-ies be commissioned by governments; an international code of ethics forextractive companies be incorporatedinto all concessions and contracts.

4 Intensive agriculture, transformativeindustries, and military activities, thatproduce waste and pollution as well assevere social and economic dislocation,adversely affect the environment andthe health of people. Critical assessmentof the environmental and human effectsof these processes is urgently needed.

5 In order to promote the sustainability ofagriculture, international organisations,national governments, and producers'associations must develop and dissemi-nate more careful guidelines and regula-tions, to ensure that the use of modernagricultural technology (fertilisers, pesti-cides and herbicides, irrigation andmachinery) have the least deleteriousimpact on the environment and people.6 There must be a reassessment of macro-economic forces such as debt, resultingstructural adjustment programmes,financial and trade flows and agree-

ments, and national government inter-ventions to mitigate their dramatic anddamaging effects on the natural environ-ment and livelihoods of the poor.

The focus on population growth asthe key factor in degrading theenvironment is misplaced.

7 In order to promote sustainable devel-opment and sustainable livelihoods: Management of local resources andthe definition of 'environmental prob-lems' must be democratised so that localcommunities can influence and invokestate regulations and policies which pro-tect their access to resources. Women's entitlements and access tokey services must increase, for example:education, employment and child carehealth care for themselves and theirfamilies, adequate reproductive healthservices, equal property and legal rights. Women must have a stronger role indecision making. People must have increased access toinformation on the environmental dam-age of the industrialised products andprocesses encountered in everyday life.

8 Governments, corporations, academicinstitutions, and society as a whole mustpromote more environmentally-soundand sustainable forms of developmentand technology, including the transferof environmentally-appropriate technol-ogy. To this end, innovative measuresmust be developed and implementedwith respect to national income account-ing systems, taxation and legislation.9 There must be a concerted effort on thepart of the local, national, and globalcommunities to change values that have

led to overconsumption, so as to pro-mote a new ethic which attaches prima-cy to caring for people in harmony withthe environment.


28/68

High-tech hazards:beyond the factoryClaire Hodgson and Geraldine Reardon

M ICRO-ELECTRONICS is generallyconsidered 'clean technology',the pollution-free answer to thedirty manufacturing processes of the past.The image belies the truth. Micro-electron-ics manufacturing is dangerous to thehealth of the workers employed, their fami-lies, and the surrounding environment.This is especially the case in countrieswhere workplace and environmental con-trols are suppressed or non-existent.Most micro-electornics production takes

place in South-East Asia, but manufactur-ers are always on the look out for morefavourable locations. The intense competi-tion in the industry encourages companiesto move to regions where incentives arehigh, wages are low, and environmentalcontrols lax. Eager to attract and maintaininvestment, local governments in countriesas diverse as Mexico, Scotland, Thailand,and the US compete with each other to cre-ate company-friendly conditions.Micro-electronics workers are mostlyyoung women, especially in the demandingwork of semi-conductor or 'chip' fabricationand assembly, and companies rely on exist-ing discrimination in local labour markets tokeep costs down through low salaries andshort-term contracts. Rural women, middle-aged married women, immigrant and ethnicminority women are also recruited, depend-ing on local conditions.

In contrast to the industry's glamorousand ultra-modern image, these women arepotentially exposed to a whole array ofhighly hazardous chemicals and dangerousproduction processes, very often withoutadequate health and safety protection.The manufacture of electronic productsuses five major processes, requiring work-ers to clean, bond, solder, etch and plate,using a wide range of substances such aschlorinated hydrocarbons suspected ofcausing cancer or corrosive acids likehydro-fluoric acid that can cause anythingfrom minor burns to blindness. It is com-mon for chemicals to be heated, a processwhich can make them even more danger-ous, and which widens the area they conta-minate.Common complaints andslack standardsThe full and long-term effects of exposureto many of the toxic chemicals used in theindustry have yet to be established eitherby industrial or government-sponsoredresearch. The little that is known forexample, that epoxy resins can cause skin,eye and respiratory problems shouldlead to the enforcement of stringent healthand safety procedures, but monitoring andenforcement are generally weak.

Focus on Gender Vol. l.No.l, 1993


29/68

High-tech hazards 25

GTE Lenkurt , a company based inAlbuquerque, New Mexico, was taken tocourt by a former employee dying of can-cer. The case uncovered an array of healthproblems in m ore than 200 employees 95 per cent w omen, 70 per cent Hispanic including cancers rarely found in NewMexican Hispanics, frequent miscarriages,excessive menstrual bleeding necessitatinghysterectomies, and bizarre skin and neu-rological disorders. Their work was assem-bling solid-state devices inside electroniccomponents. Management were 'vehe-mently anti-union, and persistently puni-tive to workerswho expressed concernsover working conditions'.1 The companyeventually settled out of court as did thechemical manufacturers Dow, Du Pont,and Shell, charged with distributing dan-gerous products with insufficient warn-ings.

There is a widespread lack of knowledgeof substances, for example:By 1980 more than 3,000 new chemicalswere being developed annually.Between 700 1000 of these substancesenter regular commercial use everyyear.... Of the 45,000 toxic chemicals list-ed by the US National Insti tute forOccupational Safety and Health ... 2,500were identified as carcinogens, 2,700 asmutagens .... Less than 7,000 had beenadequately tested.2

This worrying lack of research applies tomany of the chemicals used in micro-elec-tronics production. Given this, their impacton workers' health and on the environmentrequires close monitoring by managementin co-operation with employees. Yetdespite 25 years of production very littledata or in-depth case studies are available.

Beyond the factory gatesIf women working inside factories are atrisk, what is the guarantee that women liv-

ing outside are not? The hazardous effectsof electronics production do not stop at thefactory gates.The industry consumes large quantitiesof clean air, pure water and highly refinedchemical inputs, yet a number of very seri-ous toxic chemical leaks, spills and air-borne emissions have been reported overthe past 20 years. These reports have beenmade because there was someone on thelook-out; where there are no concernedenvironmental agencies, governmental ornon-governmental, the hazards go unde-tected. In the US, vigilant community, envi-ronmental and labour organisations haveworked together to clean up a specific a rea.In countries where legal safeguards are nilor unenforced, high-tech industrial pollu-tion continues unabated.

Assembling new technology products inAntigua. Most workers in the m icro-electronicsindustry are young women.PHILIP WOLMUTH/PANOS PICTURES


30/68

26 Focus on genderThe Mexico-US borderAlong the Mexican side of the Mexico-USborder there is an industrial zone called themaquiladora, where mainly foreign-ownedassembly plants operate. Recently, this zonehas begun to expand, largely as a result ofthe US-Mexico Free Trade Agreement. Themaquiladora is notorious for its public healthand environmental problems. Here, approx-imately 1,800 mainly US-owned TNCsemploy about 400,000 Mexicans (predomi-nantly women) in plants producing auto-motive and electrical goods, textiles, chemi-cals, furniture, and ceramics. This hascaused widespread environmental concernfrom such pressure groups as the NationalWildlife Federation, the National ToxicsCampaign and el Grupo de los Cien. In 1988researchers at Mexico's El Colegio de laFrontera Norte found that:

20 out of 76maquiladora operations sur-veyed in the city of Mexicali cited weak-er environmental laws in Mexico as amain or im portant factor for their reloca-tion3Eastman Kodak, US high-tech chemicaland electronics manufacturers, ranked in1988 among the top 20 worst emitters ofair-borne toxins in the US in 1988, nowoperates in Mexico.4 GTE Lenkurt, the UScompany mentioned above, has been inMexico since 1983. Some environmentalistsfear that increased competition from theremoval of trade barriers will force USindustry to cut corners and lower stan-da rds . A Mexican Government reportpoints to the same potential danger:

If it is possible to save money by improp-erly disposing of dangerous wastes,industry will probably do it ... Industri-alists are reluctant to spend their moneyon proper waste management. The rea-son could partly me ignorance, but themain motive is probably economic.5

In 1990 the total budget of the Mexican

environmental agency, SEDUE, was $US3.1million, comparing dismally to the figureof $US50 million spent annually by theState of Texas to protect air and water.Despite Mexico's recent efforts to tightenup its environmental legislation, and toincrease dramatically the budget allocatedto SEDUE, environmentalists and labourorganisers remain sceptical that theseimprovem ents will be effective.Cleaning upHow do workers, community activists andenvironmenta l is ts counter the profitmotive of an enormous multi-million dollarindustry, willing to sacrifice the long-termhealth of its workers and the environmentfor short-term financial gain?Organising for piecemeal improvementsis a tactic employed by women in theSignetics Union in Thailand, for example.They successfully established the right ofwomen workers to be tested for chemicallevels in the body. Signetics, the employer,now pays for workers with unacceptablyhigh levels to have purifying injections.6Another tactic, used by the Silicon ValleyToxics Coalition, was to lobby for strictercontrols and higher penalties for offendingcompanies. The Coalition is an example ofunited action between worker organisa-tions and community and environmentalpressure groups. Where the link betweenenvironmental hazards and health andsafety in the workplace is clear, strongerlocal links between labour organisers andenvironmentalists could strengthen thehand of both parties.

Clinical researchers, such as those at theResearch-Action G roup at the U niversity ofQuebec in Montreal who have carried outextensive work with women employeesand ex-employees in the micro-electronicsindustry, work with union and communityparticipation. Researchers at the AsiaMonitor Resource Center in Hong Kongcontinue to study the situation of women


31/68

High-tech hazards 27workers in the industry.In Malaysia, an international conferenceon health and safety in the micro-electron-ics industry has been held to look at cur-rent research and how occupational healthproblems in this industry are dealt with indifferent countries.If companies organise transnationally,then international collaboration and jointaction are also required of researchers,labour and environmental groups. Almostall monitoring and research available onthe environmental impact of micro-elec-tronics has been done in industrialisedcountries. Support for research in the Southis necessary, as is making the data alreadycompiled in the North available towomen 's , labour and environmenta lgroups in the South. This informationcould be a crucial factor for women organ-ising to improve local conditions, bothinside and outside the factory gates.

References1 Fox, S (1991) Toxic Work: Women Workersat GTE Lenkurt, Temple University Press,Philadelphia.

2 G as ser t , T (1985) Health Hazards inElectronics: A Handbook, As ia M o n i to rResource Centre, Hong Kong.3 An on (1991) 'Green s Talk Tr ade ', NationalJournal, 13 April.4 Na tional Wildlife Federation (1991) Tradeand Environment Information Packet,Washington.5 ibid.6 W o m e n W o r k i n g W o r l d w i d e ( 19 91 )Comm on Interests: Wom en Organising inGlobal Electronics, London.see also:Me rgler, D et al (1991) 'Visua l DysfunctionAmong Former Micro-electronics AssemblyWorke rs ' , Archives of Environmental Health,46:6.Huel, G et al (1990) 'Evidence for adversereproductive outcomes among womenmicroelectronic assembly workers', BritishJournal of Industrial Medicine, 47:400-404.A bibliography on the subject of women workingin micro-electronics is currently being compiled.For further information please write to WomenWorking Worldwide, Box 92,190 Upper Street,London Nl IRQ, UK.

Air an d water pollution is an increasing problem as Southern countries industrialise. This photographwas taken in India, but smoking chimneys are a health hazard wherever they are. RAJENDRASHAW/OXFAM


32/68

Finding a voiceVisanthi ArumugamThis article has been drawn from Victims Without Voice: A Study of Women Pest ic ideWorkers in Malaysia, published in 1992 by Tenaganita, Selangor; an d Pesticide Action NetworkAsia and the Pacific, Penang, Malaysia.

I N THE PAST women's role in agriculturewas grossly underestimated. Althoughtoday the role of women in subsistenceand small-scale agriculture is more widelyrecognised, their position in large-scale andplantation farming rarely is. As a result, thehealth problems they face in this type ofagricultural work have been a neglectedarea of study and action.'Development' packages, including high-yield varieties of seed, fertilisers, pesti-cides, irrigation and tractors, have intensi-fied the already acute problems of landscarcity and tenure, and have transformedagricultural methods in order to accommo-date the weeding, spraying and transplant-ing needed for high-yield crops. This formof high-tech, high-input agriculture hasbeen thoroughly criticised by environmen-talists for the damage it causes to the soiland w ater supplies.

On plantations in Malaysia, as elsewhere,women's labour is still used for the mostback-breaking and tedious work, all forvery little reward the average earningsof the women who do these jobs are lessthan m en's, and if the seeds are grown on awoman's own family land, the chances arethat the woman will have to do all thatextra work without pay herself. In addi-tion, women agricultural workers are now

faced with the grim fact that their healthcan be seriously damaged through theunregulated use of pesticides. Pesticidetoxicity can also reach unborn children, thedamage having been done before the moth-er realises she is pregnant.Joint study on MalaysiaIn early 1991, Tenaganita1 and PAN Asiaand the Pacific2 collaborated on a study ofthe impact of pesticides on women workerson the plantations in Malaysia. This wasthe first part of a seven-country study onthe subject to be undertaken by PAN Asiaand the Pacific.

In Malaysia about 40 per cent of the eco-nomically-active female population isinvolved in the agricultural sector. Of the50,000 field and general workers, 80 to 90per cent are women. In the plantation sec-tor alone 30,000 women work as pesticidesprayers. Complaints of sore eyes, skinrashes, burnt fingernails, and disruption ofmenstrual periods are disturbingly com-mon.

In 1988 the Malaysian Minister of Healthattributed incidents of pesticide poisoningto unsafe working practices, such as mix-ing pesticides with bare hands, blowing thenozzle of the sprayer with the mouth to

Focus on Gender Vol. l.No.l, 1993


33/68

Invisible farmers find a voice 29

remove blockages, and carrying out spray-ing operations without regard to basic safe-ty precautions in handling toxic pesticides.He advised estate managers to pay moreattention to workers' health, particularlythe preventive health aspects. Yet the plan-tation products of palm oil, rubber andcocoa continue to be a major source of for-eign exchange for Malaysia and a majorcontribution to the fortunes of the owners,while the estate labour force lives in pover-ty, amid exposure to toxic chemicals.

The study was undertaken to documentthe extent of the problem in the planta-tions. It is an attempt to give a voice to thewomen workers, to record and publicisetheir plight. Researchers from Tenaganitaconducted the survey throughout themonths of January to March 1991, living inthe community and participating fully incommunity life, keeping detailed notes onwhat they heard, saw or felt about thewomen working with pesticides. Adetailed look at the women's socio-eco-nomic problems provided a clear under-standing of the issues involved. PAN Asiaand the Pacific analysed the findings anddid the research into the health effects andavailable legislation on pesticides.

Workshops for womenAs part of its Women and Pesticides pro-g ra mme , PAN Asia and the Pacific isorganising a series of training workshopsduring 1991-3, with a special focus onwom en's groups in Asia. In June 1991 PANworked closely with Tenaganita in organis-in g the first workshop in Serdang,Malaysia. Twenty participants from tenlocal organisations attended the five-dayevent . Two resource persons fromIndonesia and a participant from Thailandcame to share their experiences and cam-paign successes in their own countries.During the workshop, the participantsdevised strategies for action. Their recom-mendations were compiled in the SerdangDeclaration, the first of its kind to addressthe hazards facing women working inmodern agriculture.1 Tenaganita stands for Kumpulan Tenagapadu Wanita Action Group of Women Workers an organisation inMalaysia supporting women workers and carrying outaction and research to promote the interests of workingwomen.2 PAN Asia and the Pacific is a regional centre of thePesticide Action Network (PAN), a worldwide networkwhich carries out action and research on the hazards asso-ciated with pesticides, their causes and their solutions.

Women harvesting cabbages,Malaysia. Growing vegeta-bles commercially requiresheavy use of pesticudes.

DAV ID BULL /OXFAM


34/68

3 0 Focus on gender

The Serdang DeclarationWe citizens and representatives of people's organisations from Malaysia,Indonesia and Thailand met to address the issues surrounding pesticideuse and abuse, in particular the impact of pesticides on women. We havelooked at available alternatives to pesticides and worked out actionstrategies with clear objectives and recomm endations.The realitiesWe have been confronted with cases of women suffering from pesticidepoisoning including skin damage, nasal bleeding, cracking of fingernails,and problems with the reproductive organs. Over 30,000 womensprayers in Malaysia are daily exposed to pesticides and have very littlechance of treatment, cure or even basic first aid. Due to the absence ofmedical monitoring and the sad state of the health-care system in theplantations, the extent of the impact of pesticides on women, especiallyon their reproductive health, and the effect on the foetus are unknown.Being women and thus subordinate in the family and community, theycontinue to suffer silently. Unfortunately, the trade union movement hasnot effectively taken up their cause, and women workers continue towork in harsh and hazardous conditions.

It is common for women sprayers to use pesticides without the neces-sary precautions. Many do not use protective clothing when mixing andapplying pesticides. The high temperatures and humidity in Malaysiamake protective clothing inappropriate and very uncomfortable. The stor-age and disposal of pesticides is also haphazard. W orse still, the pesticideindustry promotes pesticides giving very little information on their dan-gers.Similarly, in the farming sector, information on pesticides is merelypromotional and persuasive rather than for informed choice. Andwomen farmers share similar problems with their sisters in the planta-tion sector. Their role as farmers is only recently being recognised andthey rarely make decisions on pesticide use on their farms.At present, there is no comprehensive piece of legislation to protectagricultural workers from unsafe and hazardous working conditions.There are studies to show that the International Code of Conduct on theDistribution and Use of Pesticides (FAO Code) regulations laid down inthe Pesticides Act (1974) of Malaysia have been violated.Vital informationWe also recognise that farmers, sprayers, consumers and citizens' groupslack information on and awareness of the hazards of pesticides and theirimpact on users, especially women, and the environment mainlybecause:


35/68

The Serdang declaration 31 There is a lack of reliable information. Independent and continuous

research and monitoring of the health of users and of the dangers ofusing pesticides is lacking.

The key source of information is from the pesticide industry. When the-health and safety data is generated solely by the industry that has avested interest in the outcome, then misrepresentation becomes possi-ble. In the past, there have been a number of documented cases wheresuch information has been manipulated.

Information available on health and safety of pesticides and researchon hazards is classified confidential. The confidentiality of the informa-

tion has only helped the pesticide industry, not the users nor the peo-ple who are exposed to pesticides directly and indirectly throughresidues in the food, water and the environment.

As consumers, we are concerned about the lack of information about thelevels of residues in our food although we have a laboratory monitoringthe situation. In fact, Malaysian consumers came to know there was aproblem with pesticide residues only when a neighbouring countryrejected our vegetables because of high pesticide residues.

We are also concerned about the use of highly toxic pesticides in thecountry especially when our farmers and sprayers are not properlytrained in their use. Pesticides banned or severely restri

Women and the Environment

Documents

Transcript of Women and the Environment