UNEP just launched the first comprehensive, integrated and global assessment about gender and the environment in a new report, Global Gender and Environment Outlook.
The Global Gender and Environment Outlook (GGEO) is a collaborative project between the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and strategic partners to bring gender issues to the heart of environmental assessment and decision-making.
The GGEO provides an overview of current knowledge and gives a first set of answers to the following key policy-relevant questions:
- What social forces are producing the changes seen in the environment, and are they gender-dependent?
- What are the large-scale consequences of ongoing environmental changes for social systems and human security, and are these consequences gender-differentiated?
- What do future projections and outlooks look like, are they gender-differentiated, and will there be different outcomes for women and men?
- What actions could be taken for a more sustainable future that would position women and men as equal agents in taking such actions, and which socio-economic factors could shape different outcomes and responses for women and men?
WHY A GGEO
Everywhere in the world, men and women occupy different positions in relationship to the environment. They experience the impact of environmental changes differently. Gender roles often create differences in the ways men and women act in relation to the environment, and in the ways men and women are enabled or prevented from acting as agents of environmental change.
Everyone, women and men alike, have an important role to play in moving towards environmental sustainability. Recognizing women as part of the solution is therefore not only a human right in itself, but also provides a unique opportunity to address the often deep-rooted inequalities in society that impact negatively on the urban and rural environment.
An impressive body of work since the 1980s makes clear that environmental analysis is sharpened, enhanced, and transformed by a gender-sensitive lens.
While some knowledge on gender-environment linkages is already available, it is rather scattered and represents diverse sectors, geographic scales and periods of time. Therefore, it is a challenge to develop comprehensive regional and global insights.
By exploring future sustainability pathways from a gender perspective, we have the opportunity to envisage the future we can have and make a tangible difference in the lives of people around the world, while taking care of the environment.
Visit the UNEP Global Gender and Environment Outlook project site here.
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