[sustran] FW: [transport-csd] Gender Perspectives Workshop Jan 2001: Co-Cha irs Summary

[Paul Barter]

This will be of interest to many sustran-discussers
I have forwarded only the plain text email here.. not the Word attachment
that is mentioned below.
Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: Minush at aol.com [mailto:Minush at aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, 30 January 2001 11:48
To: transport-csd at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [transport-csd] Gender Perspectives Workshop Jan 2001:
Co-Chairs Summary


Dear friends and colleagues,

please find enclosed and attached the co-chair's summary by Minu Hemmati 
(UNED Forum) and Barbara Schaefer (German Ministry forthe  Environment, 
Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety). It aims to summarise the discussions 
an drecommendations from the International Workshop "Gender Perspectives for

Earth Summit 2002 - Energy; Transport; Information for Decision-Making",
held 
in Berlin, 10-12 January 2001.

We have attached the document as a WORD DOC file, and also copied it into 
this mail (see below) for those of you who may have problems opening DOC 
files. 
The summary will also be downloadable from the workshop website at 
www.earthsummit2002.org/workshop (in txt and pdf format). This website also 
has all the background papers, participants list, CSD and 2002 infos, etc.

Our thanks go to all the participants at the workshop who contributed their 
expertise and put a lot of effort into the work at the various sessions!.


We hope you will find the summary useful for your work.
Please disseminate it to your networks as you see fit.

A full workshop report will be available in February. 
Findings and recommendations from the workshop will be discussed at a Side 
Event at the CSD Intersessional meeting in New York in March.

Best regards, 
 
Minu Hemmati & Jasmin Enayati 
UNED Forum  

______________________________________

International Conference "Gender Perspectives for Earth Summit 2002 -
Energy; 
Transport; Information for Decision-Making

Berlin, 10-12 January 2001

Co-Chair's Summary of the Discussions 

Conference hosts: German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature 
Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Berlin, and the Heinrich Boell Foundation, 
Berlin
Substantive coordination: UNED Forum, London

Conference Co-Chairs: Minu Hemmati, UNED Forum; and Barbara Schaefer, German

Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety

55 participants from 12 countries, including 13 representatives from 
Developing Countries and Coun-tries in Transition, brought together a wealth

of knowledge and expertise from various backgrounds - women's organisations,

grass roots activists, professionals, academics, policy-makers.

The conference was part of the preparatory process towards CSD-9 and the 
World Summit on Sus-tainable Development, to be held in Johannesburg, South 
Africa, in 2002 (Earth Summit 2002). It focussed on 
·   Three of the CSD-9 topics - energy, transport, information for decision 
making - as regards their gender aspects (see background papers at the 
workshop website);
·   Preparations for Earth Summit 2002 with regard to women's priorities and

activities.

The conference was opened by high-level representatives: Gila Altmann, 
Parliamentary State Secre-tary from the German Federal Ministry for 
Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety; Dr Uschi Eid, 
Parliamentary State Secretary from the German Federal Ministry for Economic 
Co-operation and Development; and Dr. Renate Augstein from the German
Federal 
Ministry for Family Affairs, Senor Citizens, Women and Youth.
The present co-chairs' summary will serve as an input to both these UN 
processes. A full report will be made available in February 2001.


Over-arching Themes
Several fundamental questions and challenges were brought into the fore at 
various points:

There is a need to develop a concrete and lively common vision of
sustainable 
development and gender justice, based on a shared set of values; an issue 
which is also concerning the relationship between the three pillars of 
sustainability.

Arguing on the basis of various theoretical approaches as well as concerns 
about uncontrolled globalisation, participants expressed the need for 
developing new economic models which would serve to overcome women's
poverty, 
where women would not be marginalised and social and environmental costs 
would not be externalised.

Many participants expressed the need to contribute their expertise in an 
enlarged framework of policy-making. Current policy-making is based within 
the dominating paradigm of neoclassical economics - "all that counts is what

can be counted in monetary terms" -, and the prevalence of analytic rather 
than holistic approaches to policy. This paradigm is seen to have 
significantly contributed to the current environmental, social and economic 
crises all over the world. However, a dual approach seems to be prudent: 
arguing for a different framework as well as working for change within the 
present framework.

Building the institutional capacities for gender justice and sustainability 
was also perceived as an important tool towards change: Gender mainstreaming

policies and procedural rules need to be integrated into the work of all 
government departments, and adequate monitoring mechanisms should be 
established.

Gender mainstreaming and gender justice is an integral part of all
dimensions 
of sustainable development - ecology, economy, society and institutional 
structures. Therefore, policy-making within all these areas need to 
explicitly reflect gender issues.

As laid down in numerous international agreements - declarations of
political 
as well as legally binding instruments - women need to be increasingly 
involved in decision-making processes in sustainable development. 
Creating opportunities for meaningful participation and increasing the 
effectiveness of women's involvement is an important goal. Participants 
raised the need to learn from the various strategies of advocacy to identify

more clearly what can work toward change. 


Energy
Participants raised a number of key issues, which were reflected in their 
recommendations for future action:
·   Develop a gender analysis of all international energy-related processes 
and develop a gender analysis for the Climate Change Convention process, G8 
and world energy reports. Immediate steps are to organize a Women and
Climate 
Change Forum at COP-6 (resumed) and at sub-sequent COPs as well as a
workshop 
on women and energy politics during the NGO forum parallel to the G8 meeting

in Genoa, July 2001;
·   Develop a North South critique of the energy industry, analysing 
distorting influences of the Northern-dominated energy industry on energy 
development in the South, based on work currently being done by NGOs and a 
comprehensive sustainability perspective.
·   Develop guidelines for investment policies in the energy sector from a 
gender perspective;
·   Seek commitment from shareholders of all Multilateral Development Banks 
to ensure gender mainstreaming in energy policies, programmes and projects
so 
as to achieve sustainable energy development;
·   Analyse the missing gender analysis in NGOs and campaigns on energy and 
develop strategies to promote them;
·   Ensure that all energy-related research includes a gender and
sustainable 
development analysis produced by gender-balanced teams, for example:
o   testing assumptions on gender differences regarding energy needs, use, 
planning and policy;
o   analysing cultural differences towards energy issues;
o   developing gender specific strategies towards behavioural changes in 
energy use;
o   Analysing current energy production and consumption models;
o   Analysing impacts of energy-related projects on women's and local 
communities' control over their land and water resources;
o   Analysing effectiveness of renewable energy policies and projects in the

South;
·   Develop advocacy tools to link poverty, energy and gender;
·   The idea of an international tribunal at the Summit in 2002, organised
by 
Women's groups and NGOs, was discussed, providing testimonies from victims
of 
large energy projects and showcasing successful gender and sustainable 
development projects;
·   Request additional resources for national and regional processes to 
implement the above recommendations;


Transport
Participants raised a number of key issues:
Equity vs. environmental protection: Does creating gender equity mean to 
create the same mobility conditions for women as there are for men? Does 
global equity mean to close the gaps between developing and developed 
countries by increasing mobility in the South through introducing 
'traditional', developed countries systems? The number of cars in the 
developed countries is increasing at a higher rate than population in the 
developing countries. 

Therefore, addressing problems of mobility will require not only to ask how 
to increase access for the under-privileged but how to decrease consumption 
of the over-privileged. 

It will also mean to significantly reduce the need to travel. Sustainable 
development of transport and mobility requires developing pro-active
policies 
towards reintegration of space / time / caring work. This requires policy 
shifts within all government departments at national and local levels, a 
shift away from the dominating technological paradigms of development and of

mobility which corresponds to men's rationality and men's values.

Gender mainstreaming should mean not only to bring a gender perspective into

the mainstream and fit women in or adjust them to the mainstream, but imply 
questioning of the mainstream from a gender perspective.

Addressing gender dimensions within the framework of mobility is
particularly 
important with regard to economic policy: the 'caring economy' needs to be 
integrated into economic analysis and policy-making as a core component, not

an add-on. Women's unpaid caring activities form a crucial basis of what is 
currently regarded as 'economic activities proper', yet they need to be a 
starting point of analysis. 

Women have different (part-time, less paid) and fewer employment options. 
This is largely due to  the sexual division of labour at the household level

which affects their economic position and thus their access to transport. 

Participants suggested the following recommendations for CSD-9:
·   The definition and understanding of mobility needs to be revised aiming 
to reflect women's lives and responsibilities - i.e. diverse patterns of a 
multitude of tasks and related trips such as transporting loads for sale; 
accompanying children and elderly, etc. - and enable authorities to design 
appropriate transport systems;
·   In general, measures are necessary which reduce transport burdens and 
transport expenditures of women and men while creating equitable access and 
ensuring women's increased opportunities and participation;
·   All transport system development should be informed by the lived 
experience of women; gov-ernments should integrate experts on 
gender-sensitive transport system planning and decision-making in their 
planning structures;
·   Gender Impact Assessments (GIA) should be integrated into EIAs which 
would contribute to creating Sustainability Impact Assessments. 
Sustainability Audits should include Gender Audits addressing the 
androcentric perspectives reflected in current policies (prioritising men's 
lives and needs) and Caring Economy Audits;
·   Gender budget analyses are an important tool of engendering 
macro-economic analysis; they should be conducted to provide information 
about how much women- & men-power, institutional and financial resources,
and 
research funding goes into furthering women's vs. men's interests regarding 
transport;
·   Investigate changes in transport infrastructure for all countries with a

gender perspective;
·   Governments should introduce participatory, inclusive transport planning

methodologies in order to be able to incorporate the social / gender divide 
of transport and travel needs;
·   Governments should commit themselves to guarantee sustainable, 
gender-sensitive transport systems. If privatisation is an option, 
governments have to define appropriate conditions;
·   Governments, donor agencies and International Financial Institutions 
(GEF, World Bank, UNDP) should support:
o   research on women's strategies to cope with transport needs, incl. 
e-commerce / virtual shopping; community taxis; etc;
o   infra-structure for non-motorised transport and pedestrians;
o   initiatives providing more bicycles for women, especially in developing 
countries;
o   sustainable, local, small-scale transport development;
·   Governments and relevant agencies should conduct improved transport 
surveys, including gender relevant research and gender sensitive 
methodologies, including gender sensitive inter-viewing; analysing daily 
realities of female transport users, women's latent demands and their 
will-ingness to pay for better transport; documenting transport sharing 
models at local levels; gender sensitive stakeholder consultation;
·   Governments, relevant agencies and research institutions should provide 
statistics on gender differentiated mobility, including data differentiated 
by length of trip rather than number of trips; by reasons to travel (men
have 
more choice than women); car drivers vs. passengers; accounting for journeys

on foot which are women's; accounting for typical times of travel (rush 
hours, i.e. men's travel, vs. non-rush hours, i.e. school run); providing 
figures on health issues, e.g. transport poverty (being marooned in rural 
areas links with increased use of anti-depressants);
·   Governments and donor agencies should support networks addressing
working 
on gender and sustainable transport to develop concrete strategies towards 
integrating sustainable, gender-equitable development into transport systems

development, particularly as part of the prepara-tions towards the Summit in

2002;
·   NGOs and women's organisations should
o   Create a formalised dialogue amongst gender & environment researchers, 
women's organisa-tions and transport NGOs;
o   Create a West/East European network on gender & transport issues, e.g.
as 
a component of the global NGO transport network of the CSD NGO Transport 
Caucus.


Indicators and Information For Decision-Making
Participants identified three priority areas which need further work with 
regard to gender considerations:

1. Science and information for decision making:
·   Due to the global digital divide there are significant knowledge gaps, 
particularly between North and South and between women and men. The UNDP 
Human Development Report 1999, for example, is outlining strategies designed

to bridge these gaps. Governments and donor agencies should support projects

related to these strategies;
·   Gender expertise needs to be integrated into research; scientific 
advisory bodies; and environ-mental impact assessments (EIAs); for example:
o   Women and women's NGOs must participate in the development of 
social-environmental in-formation systems;
o   Social monitoring must be integrated into environmental monitoring; 
institutions involved in designing environmental monitoring should 
collaborate with social scientists and gender ex-perts to further such 
integration;
·   The dominating world-view is comparably science-based and 
technology-oriented. While this paradigm provides an important tool in order

to understand environmental, economic and social inter-linkages, it was felt

that this needs to be complemented by the 'human factor', reflecting the 
diversity of human experiences, e.g. through using quantitative as well as 
qualitative indicators.

2. Linking information to people and politics
·   Equal access by women to information technology and its application in 
interactive decision-making for sustainable development need to be ensured;
·   Public interest groups need to be empowered by funding and capacity 
building to serve as inter-mediaries of relevant information on gender and 
sustainable development policies;

3. Developing indicators and indicator systems
·   Gender disaggregated data need to be generated on all levels;
·   A gender perspective should be integrated into all indicators within the

CSD indicator system, where appropriate;
·   The CSD indicator system needs to take into account the research done by

UNIFEM and other  relevant organisations;
·   To achieve the above, the CSD should, in consultation with the Women's 
caucus, conduct a gen-der review of the current CSD set of indicators and 
produce a revised version. This should build on existing analysis (see 
workshop background paper) and existing gender sensitive indicators designed

for various areas of sustainable development;
·	Apart from gender sensitive indicators with regard to issues such as
freshwater, human settlements, etc., key issues that need to be integrated
into sustainability indicator systems are :
o	proportion and participation of women in decision-making bodies
related to sustainable development;
o	the gender division of labour (including paid and unpaid work);
o	budget allocation to gender related issues in the field of
sustainable development;
o	women's health and the environment;
·	It was suggested to hold a side event at CSD-9 on gender aspects of
sustainable development indicators.


Strategies Towards Earth Summit 2002
Participants were presented with a list of thoughts and ideas on how to
organize the future work before the Summit which had been collected in
conversations with organisations and individuals beforehand, within the CSD
Women's Caucus and at the Berlin Conference itself. Topics ranged from the
need for an overall global vision as well as ensuring representation of
different views from the regions; learning from previous experiences to
identify successful strategies; women's involvement in government (and NGO?)
reporting reviewing implementation of Agenda 21; involvement in
multi-stakeholder processes towards the Summit; media work; and activities
in the host country and region.

Options for developing the initial collection of ideas and thoughts into a
structured strategy were discussed aiming to cluster the ideas so that
responsibilities can be assigned. Women's strategies towards Earth Summit
2002 could be facilitated by a small coordinating team of experienced
organisations, including the CSD NGO Women's Caucus, with a broader forum of
all interested groups around the coordinating team to facilitate effective
communication and concerted efforts. Task Forces for certain areas should be
formed. The meeting agreed to continue discussions on the basis of the
following initial structure of task forces and their proposed activities:
Advocacy task force: developing concrete, action-oriented recommendations
for policy makers; ensuring that decisions include time-bound targets and
monitoring mechanisms; considering women's involvement in government and NGO
reporting; working on the Women's Action Agenda for a Healthy Planet (REDEH
/ WEDO with a small co-ordinating team); forming issue task forces as teams
with expertise on the issues, tapping into existing issue specific networks;
ensuring women's involvement in multi-stakeholder processes towards the
Summit; introducing a multi-stakeholder approach to selected areas of our
work; disseminating information & networking.

Parallel event task force: working on the Women's Action Agenda for a
Healthy Planet; presenting work on women & Local Agenda 21 (WEDO with
ICLEI); disseminating information & networking.

Host country task force: possibly to be created by host country women's
networks (discussions underway); organisations outside South Africa to
support women's organisations in SA & the region in their preparations upon
request; ensuring that women in the host country & region benefit from the
Summit being held in SA; lobbying Northern governments to support South
Africa, other African countries and developing countries in general in their
efforts to prepare for the Summit, incl. women's organisations & NGOs.

Media & communication task force: developing an effective media strategy to
ensure clear communication and increased understanding of gender issues;
sharing media activities & products; using women's media to provide
information & skills training material for women to be effective in the
process

Resource task force: sharing information about possible funding sources;
joint fund raising depending on possible joint efforts

Each of the task forces should look into ways to learn from previous
experiences and successful strategies. Each of the task forces should work
to ensure a global approach, networking and transparency and at the same
time ensure appropriate reflection of regional specifics.

The conference concluded that this initial structure should be further
developed by WEDO and UNED Forum who co-coordinate the women's caucus at
this point. Further developments of the strategy shall include information
about who is doing what, and shall be published via the women's caucus list
serve and all conference participants' networks  to ensure transparency,
generate opportunities for collaboration and allow for input and involvement
from all interested organisations.

Discussions also addressed the pro's and con's of operating separately as
women's groups or focus on working within the NGO activities, including with
regard to events being held around the Summit.

It was suggested that the CSD Women's Caucus should convene joint meetings
with other NGO caucuses, such as energy and transport, to ensure gender
mainstreaming of their work. Finally, conference participants agreed to
continue their networking and should aim to become active participants in
existing NGO networks on these issues.