CSD NGO Women's Caucus

ISSUES OF CSD 8, 2000

	Issues for CSD 8 in 2000
	Gender sensitive areas of upcoming CSD issues

Issues for CSD 8 in 2000

The issues to be discussed and negotiated at next year's CSD 8th Session are:

Integrated Planning and Management of Land Resources (sectoral theme)

Financial Resources / Trade and Investment / Economic Growth (cross-sectoral theme)

Sustainable Agriculture (economic sector / major group)

Forests

There will also be a "Day on Indigenous Peoples", involving several activities

In addition, the following issues will be on the agenda of CSD-8:

Freshwater, based on the decision at CSD-6 to review a report by the Secretary-General "on progress by the Subcommittee on Water Resources of the Administrative Committee on Coordination, as task manager of chapter 18 of Agenda 21" (see para 50 of CSD-6 decision);

Education, reviewing a report by UNESCO, as the relevant task manager of education for sustainable development;

2002, reviewing a paper on modalities and elements of preparations for the 10 year review of implementation of Agenda 21 in 2002, based on the CSD7 decision;

Voluntary initiatives, reviewing the work of the ongoing multi-stakeholder exploration of a review of voluntary initiatives, based on decisions at CSD-6 and CSD-7;

Tourism, reviewing the work of an ad hoc international multi-stakeholder working group on tourism (outcome of CSD-7) which met for the first time in January 2000 in Costa Rica.

Gender sensitive areas of upcoming CSD issues

The following is the result of women's caucus discussions at CSD-7 and via the list server over the summer of 1999, aiming to generate a list of gender-sensitive areas of the upcoming CSD-8 issues.

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

* Women's predominant role & knowledge in agriculture; their key role throughout the food chain, esp. in developing countries; their situation as competing with productivity and inputs under sustainable new strategies, therefore targeting women for value added agriculture

* Poor women farmers, eg as in women-headed households

* Biotechnology in agriculture / GMOs

* Women, environment & health issues, eg chemical contaminants and effects on women’s reproductive systems

* Traditional women's knowledge and intellectual property rights (IPR's); status of women

* Women and livestock

* Household food security and nutrition

* Female Efficiency, eg the use of limited agricultural resources to maximize desired human well-being outputs, such as, long life expectancy, low infant mortality, and high educational attainment)

LAND MANAGEMENT

* Right to land, inheritance, ownership; including security for indigenous women, women in ownership

* Land tenure

* Land management in rural & urban areas; including marketing and mobility (?)

* The role of women’s organisations

FORESTS

* Women's expert knowledge on forest management / women as forest managers

* Fuel-wood / improved stove programmes

* Forests as sources of food supply

* Participation of all community members at local and national levels

* Protection of the rights of indigenous peoples and women

* Health and education for forest communities

* Childcare and Health

FINANCIAL RESOURCES / TRADE & INVESTMENT / ECONOMIC GROWTH

* Gender-specific impacts of economic growth

* Gender-specific impacts of international trade agreements

* Globalization

* Financial resources for gender-specific capacity-building and technology transfer; the right to information and decision-making through local government bodies

* Gender-specific aspects of debt & debt relief

* Access to credit and control of the credit
eg women borrowing and paying back, men controlling the loan and using it for their concerns which can aggravate the situation that the credit was supposed to alleviate)
eg access to credit as a dowry requirement
eg abuse of women who are perceived as not bringing enough money through credit programmes

* Economic (in)security, independent of access to credit; eg where land and livestock ownership can only be in male hands

* Household economy and dynamics (eg who controls what and whom through what means?)

* Micro-credit

* Training in business and financial management

DAY OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

* Rights of indigenous peoples, rights of indigenous women

* Indigenous peoples & tourism development

* Advertising & marketing in tourism, eg exposure of indigenous women

FRESHWATER

* Women's predominant roles in water supply and water quality management,

* Women's expert knowledge in water supply & management

* Women's (meaningful) participation in sustainable water management; how to counter women’s perceived / prescribed role as implementers of male dominated water management systems

EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

* Role of women & mothers in education for sustainable development

* Women as environmental educators, communicators and information specialists

* Girl child education, women's education

* Documenting traditional wisdom (also as a basis of:)

* Environmental & developmental training and information: what is needed, what isn't?

VOLUNTARY INITIATIVES

* Social / economic / environmental aspects of certification / labelling criteria

* Voluntary initiatives for the advancement of women

* Role of women’s organisations and women’s issues in peasant organisations

TOURISM

* Sex tourism, girl child prostitution

* Trafficking in women and girls for sex tourism and as cheap captive labour

* Information and participation in tourism planning at the local and national level of all community members

* Gender-specific impacts of financial leakages / lack of benefits for local communities

* Vertical and horizontal gender segmentation of the tourism labour market

* Female part-time and seasonal work in tourism

* Women’s traditional role in food processing and supply to tourist service providers

EARTH SUMMIT III - 2002

* What do women want from the next Earth Summit ?

* What will our position and suggestions be regarding the modalities of a meeting / summit in 2002 (preparatory process, location, etc.)

OTHER ISSUES

* Sustainable Solid Waste Management systems, design and implementation
(Laila Iskandar from CID explained that her organisation is working on these issues; CID is ready to support our work where information about solid waste management is needed)

GENERAL COMMENTS

Some participants made general comments on our work and how to go about developing position papers:

* Many of the issues are inter-related; pointing out links and necessary common strategies to address the issues should be part of our input into the CSD.

* The overall thrust of the list of gender-sensitive areas was perceived as following the "women in development" framework. However, the general assumption of this framework, ie that "education, credit and foreign investment [would] solve the problems of status of women in the community and their access to resources and decision making" should be regarded critically.

* Arguing on the basis of "best practice" (or good practice) examples should be done carefully, not forgetting the problems of replicability and the need to evaluate examples over reasonably long periods of time.

* Linking the work in preparation for the CSD with what is happening at Beijing +5 (June 2000) and the review of implementation of the World Food Summit Plan of Action (commitments 1, 2, 5 & 7) (September 2000) is very important. Information & documents about the Food Summit and its follow-up process at www.fao.org

* Different perspectives from different groups of women should be reflected in position papers and other material the group will produce. Perspectives of indogenous women, elderly women etc. should be included; diversity should be reflected.