Monday 7 March 2022

Empowered Women the Heart of Sustainable Development: IWD2022

The theme for 2022 International Women’s Day, observed globally on March 8, is spot on: 

“Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.”

As I was pondering over this post yesterday before I learnt about the theme, I thought up the title. Empowered women are the heart and at the heart of Sustainable Development and Gender Equality, SDG 5 is vital if the Global Goals are to be respectably reached by 2030.

Every sustainable development goal (SDG) becomes effective if it is gender just. It’s a theme I regularly harp on – educated girls and empowered women are the building blocks of a sustainable community. The crucial steps needed to offset the patriarchy which is the main stumbling block to sustainable development.

 

 

Even as I sat down to write this post, I received a mail from Black by ClearTax, the platform I use to file my IT returns, citing their data analysis of investment pattern which shows that against stereotype, women are investing 12.7% more than men on average. This statistic resonates with social media trends that’s replete with examples of posts, reels, short videos and viral content of women advising women on finance and investment putting financial security at the heart of women’s empowerment.

 


From women-majority Self Help Groups, women-led and women-majority panchayat institutions to women’s financial services such as Mahila Bank (e.g., Chetna Gala Sinha, who established the women's rural banking institutions, Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank) to women entrepreneurs–focused online platforms such as SHEROES, for women-by women angel investing, and initiatives such as Feminist Approach to Technology, feminist city planning and Feminist Foreign Policy being adopted by some nations can jumpstart gender equality in the micro and macro levels as well as locally and globally.

 

One of the low hanging fruits of international aid is packages for training and funding women entrepreneurs. It is as popular as educating girl children as a strategy for poverty alleviation and social upliftment through women’s empowerment. Yet access to funding and support to women-led initiatives is still unequal. Networks of women within institutions and MNCs, locally, nationally and internationally are helping close this gap, e.g., Sakhi (Accenture India), Wsquare, National Alliance of Women’s Organisations (NAWO, UK), Vital Voices, SHE Changes Climate, Lean In, Shevolve, etc. Crowdsourced maps and resources such as that of the Red Dot Foundation and the Red Elephant Foundation (the GBV Help map and the Saahas app) are equally vital is ensuring security and empowering women.

 

As mainstream media frenziedly covers the war in Ukraine ignoring and downgrading other vital issues, observances such as International Women’s Day, World Wildlife Day (March 3rd), World Water Day (March 22nd) will shift the narrative at least temporarily. The events of the 66th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW22) scheduled from March 14 to March 25, 2022, will also help keep the focus on gender mainstreaming and the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda.

 From poverty alleviation to tackling climate change and building the economy and strong institutions and international partnerships for progress all require a gender just and feminist approach.  

The 12 critical areas of concern of the Beijing Platform for Action along with Gender Just Sustainable Development are the perfect guideposts and milestones to aim for in the path to empowering women and achieving Gender Equality. They are as follows: 

  • Women and the environment
  • Women in power and decision making
  • The Girl Child
  • Women and the economy
  • Human rights of women
  • Education and training of women
  • Violence against women
  • Women and poverty
  • Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women
  • Women and health
  • Women and armed conflict
  • Women and the media.


Wednesday 2 February 2022

Takeaways from the ADB Healthy Oceans Forum: Innovations for WWD, Coastal & Ocean Resilience

 While participating online at the First Asian Development Bank (ADB) Healthy Oceans Tech & Finance Forum: Innovations Solutions for Asia and the Pacific I gained insights on many on paths to Coastal & Ocean Resilience, especially in Asia-Pacific. With Wetlands being a key ecosystem covered and with World Wetlands Day (WWD) being observed on February 2, 2022 with the theme 'Wetlands Action for People and Nature' it makes sense to highlight takeaways from the ADB Healthy Oceans Forum that focus on Wetlands and building coastal resilience. 

Now, ADB has committed to raise funds to restore wetlands in the Asia-Pacific. In India, Maharashtra's wetlands as well as rural connectivity is being funded by ADB projects in collaboration with the state government. Previously ADB has helped bring back beaches, restore shorelines and revitalize the coastal zone in Ullal, Karnataka, through sustainable costal protection and management. 



This project in itself and efforts to restore wetlands are big wins for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Also by building in Gender Equality into the framework of the ADB Blue Loans and Blue Bonds funded Blue Future, more women entrepreneurs and women-led initiatives are being offered funding for projects to improve ocean and coastal resilience and mainstream Blue Foods and sustainable aquaculture to boost the economy and ecology.

Wetlands include marsh, swamp and mire (bog and fen). A mangrove is a tide-influenced wetland complex and are bio-diverse carbon-fixing ecosystems at the borders of land and oceans. Thus restoring wetlands and building up coastal resilience by funding and empowering farmers, SMEs and the government can ensure climate action as well as all the other Global Goals. While forests are referred to as the lungs of the planet, wetlands are called the kidneys of planet. But both are vital organs essential for the health of the planets and its inhabitants.



I covered the Plastics-Free Oceans spotlight of the ADB Healthy Oceans in the January 2022 RE-plastic blog post. I have also covered the importance of Wetlands and WWD before (2021 & February 2020) in posts blogs. Revitalizing and restoring wetlands, which are being drained and destroyed faster than forests enables sequestering lots more carbon dioxide than just in forests (SDG13). If forests are slashed for farmland, wetlands are "reclaimed" to expand cities and enable the urban sprawl. Most of the world's capitals, metros and megacities are built on wetlands. Examples span from Washington, DC to Venice to Mumbai and Chennai. Be it South America's Pantanal or South Asia's Sunderbans as well as the mangroves and wetlands along major rivers or the confluence of rivers and great urban centres, these biodiverse wetlands that are our main defense from climate catastrophes are most at risk. They are being destroyed much faster than forests. At the threshold of life on land (SDG15) and life below water (SDG14), their revitalization can revitalize the economy and empower the marginalized faster than most other efforts. The Coastal Resilience, Blue Foods and Ocean Finance streams of the ADB forum showcased many such restoration examples and experts. ADB's 5 billion dollar Healthy Oceans Action Plan launched in May 2019 is a great beginning.


The Regenerative Blue Economy model powered by renewable energy (SDG 7) for Just Transition is a great path to sustainable development and climate resilience. Women-led mangrove re-planting and lake and flood-plains reclamation have had more community participation than purely government or corporate restoration projects. For People and Planet we need action for wetlands. And the designation of many wetland as Ramsar sites is a great step forward.






Wednesday 19 January 2022

Sustainable Development and the Circular Economy: Hopes for 2022

 It's a new year, and as Lord Alfred Tennyson put it "Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, 'It will be happier'." Even as the Omicron variant of the pandemic that has plagued us from the beginning of this decade brings the world to its knees, hope persists that this year will be better for people and the planet and equally importantly for the planet's flora and fauna (biodiversity). Sustainable development and a circular economy approach is vital to revive the global economy battered by Covid and the Climate Crises in a sustainable manner. 


The path to sustainable development is through adopting the circular economy model and closing the wasteful Take-Make-Waste production model. In a Circular Economy, systems are regenerative and integrative. The waste of one product becomes the raw material for another to close the loop. To adopt it and make the current requires systems thinking change as well as a change the operating system of the global economy and make it less wasteful.

To allow climate action and if we are to achieve the net-zero ambitions anytime, let alone by 2050, SDG12 - responsible production and consumption - must be top priority. This allows for processes to cut their carbon emission and reduce the ecological footprint of products and industries to avoid Earth Overshoot and keep within the planetary boundaries.

You can get a fuller explanation of Circular Economy from this Systems Innovation video: 


There is an urgent need to stay within planetary boundaries of resources to avoid extinction level events and biodiversity  loss. Beyond personal carbon footprint to community, industry, regional and national footprints as building blocks to keep within planetary boundaries. Already new estimates and studies indicate that we have already passed the safe limit for chemical pollution and plastics production, consumption and waste after single use are major culprits.

You can read the full Twitter thread on the planetary boundary for chemical pollution (and the plastic effect) here. Food waste co-existing with millions of hungry people is another symptom of our wasteful economic system and it has to be addressed urgently to end world hunger (SDG 2), food-related lifestyle diseases, and provide the necessary nutrition for good health and well-being (SDG 3). Ensuring SDG12 and circular economy in the agricultural-agribusiness-food sector also ensures that this major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation is put in check ensuring climate action now (SDG 13). The catchy and information filled Food Waste Song from Australian Tik-Toker and comedian Benny Davis shows the way.

There is wastefulness everywhere and the current system churns out emissions and pollution at every stage. Even as individuals and concerned consumers and citizens take action to reduce their personal carbon footprint, we hear of the sheer wastefulness from certain sectors and the super-rich and the powers-that-be. Take for example: Fast fashion trash is piling up in Chile's Atacama Desert where it is disposed and luxury brands are burning and shredding product rather then sell it cheap. They all continue to manufacture products unchecked but control supply and create artificial scarcity by wasteful methods to increase prices and the desire for the perceived "exclusive" products among their super-rich and wanna-be [rich] customers. Another example is news of airlines flying empty flights (ghost flights), emitting tons of emission without benefitting any traveler just to maintain their airport slots during the pandemic caused international flight bans. The sheer carelessness of the sector when the climate conscious are cutting down their use of flights (flygskam - flight shaming) and even giving up flying as a mode of travel. When you hear such news about ghost flights, world leaders and business leaders summit hopping in private jets, and billionaire space races, one feels flygskam aimed at the average citizen is a bit of a scam. 

This is the time of the year for the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos, where the movers and shakers of the world rub shoulder and maintain the status quo by setting and shaping the world to suit their agenda. This year, for the second time consecutively because of the pandemic WEF is being held virtually thus cutting the event's carbon footprint. This crisp review of the book Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World also spreads the blame to the millions of consumers who fund the billionaire lifestyles. We are trapped and manipulated by convenience and brain-washing into choosing to make them richer exceeding our personal budgets and planetary boundaries for resources. 

Yet there is power is personal choice and collective action. Consumer and citizen power collective action all about personal choices can offset billionaire effect so act to reduce your personal carbon footprint and get others to do the same. Let us not allow what happens in Don't Look Up to become our permanent reality vis-à-vis the climate crisis. Give the Global Goals a chance to bolster the future outlook. Truly build back better. An opportunity to survive and thrive amid the existential pandemic threat. that is pressurizing us now. 

Tracking and cutting your personal carbon footprint and getting others to do it too and adopt a sustainable lifestyle can make a huge difference.


In this the second year of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) buffeted by COVID and Climate Catastrophe, there is an urgent need to Invest in our Planet. Perhaps it is apt that this [Invest in Our Planet] is the theme for Earth Day 2022 (April 22).  The need for an Earthshot (named after another world-changing project - the Apollo Moon landings, nicknamed Moonshot. They helped advance mankind's technological achievements and ... help improve life for everyone).

Sustainable habits, citizen action to make communities sustainable (SDG 11: sustainable cities and communities), grassroots approach to ensure sustainable development and circular economy is the path to climate action and economic recovery (SDG 8) in our current reality (COVID-19 + Climate Change).

Composting, homesteading, buying local and direct from farms and gardens, promoting regenerative systems and agriculture, choosing energy independence through renewable energy sources, rain water harvesting and grey-water recycling for water security at family, community and city levels, building community gardens and food forests, saving the soil and seeds thus building a community of active citizens who work to bring forth climate-friendly and eco-friendly policies and politicians is a great continuum for planet- and people-friendly change. Using personal consumer, citizen and community power to invest in the planet is my hope for 2022 and beyond. It is an expressway to the global goals and achievement of sustainable development through creation of circular economies.