Key drivers for achieving sustainable development in Africa

 

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Empower women for Africa’s sustainable development

Empowered women are more vital in shaping environmental management.

Sam Otieno

Promoting active participation of women in environmental management could be one of the much needed key drivers for achieving sustainable development in Africa.

That was one of the prime issues from the discourses that characterised the 2nd session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA 2) meeting in Kenya this week (23-27 May), that I attended at the Nairobi-headquartered United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Of concern to me was that environmental changes have different impacts on women and men. However, due to long-standing inequalities that silence women’s voices and neglect their needs, particularly poor women, they are disproportionately impacted by the increasingly longer droughts, more severe storms and flooding, biodiversity species depletion, soil degradation, deforestation and other negative environmental challenges

Experts at the meeting emphasised that women are not only victims ofclimate change and environmental degradation but also possess the necessary knowledge and skills critical to finding context-specific solutions to the environmental challenges.

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