Women urged to participate at all levels of development
The Rhodesia Herald, February 7, 1989
AFRICAN women should regard themselves as managers of natural resources and should participate at all levels of sustainable development, a senior adviser of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), Ms Colette Dehlot, said in Harare yesterday.
Addressing the African Women’s Assembly on Sustainable Development, which started in Harare yesterday, Ms Dehlot said women should fully participate in development projects.
The IUCN had this year created a programme for population, women and sustainable development.
The programme aimed at establishing a sustainable development policy with emphasis on ecosystem protection based on the role of women.
“This includes preserving and encouraging small agricultural enterprises, taking heed of traditional cultivating methods and encouraging their application combined with modern nature-conscious technologies,” she said.
Ms Dehlot said human intervention was the prime factor of deforestation leading to soil erosion.
The use of wood as fuel, forest clearing for agriculture and overgrazing were the main causes of deforestation.
Ms Dehlot said it was observed that African housewives consumed far more energy in the form of wood than housewives from industrialised countries did in the form of gas or electricity.
“This stems from culinary habits which require longer cooking times and the enormous waste of energy caused by the traditional use of open stoves between three stones. Such a simple stove transmits only a very small part of the total energy actual cooking of to the food.”
Ms Dehlot said positive measures should be taken to fulfil the objectives of the United Nations Women and Development Decade by the year 2000.
She called upon assembly participants to come up with concrete ideas to preserve Africa’s natural resources.
The assembly, which is being chaired by the Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Cde Victoria Chitepo, will be officially opened today.
The assembly is expected to work out strategies to put into action the Cairo Plan of Action, which was devised by African environmental ministers meeting under the auspices of the United Nations Environmental Programme in Cairo, Egypt in 1985.
Committees were established at the Cairo meeting to look into deserts and arid lands, rivers and lake basins, forests and woodlands as well seas.
Among the participants are Lt Col Christine Debrah, the executive chairman of the Environmental Protection Council in Ghana, ministers and Members of Parliament as well as directors of various environmental organisations. Women from different African villages are also participating.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
◆ Women play a significant role in the development of economies across the whole world.
◆ Research has shown that women have a pivotal role in the labour force and contribute to the growth and development of businesses.
◆ Women have also been proven to be successful entrepreneurs and are starting their own businesses at a higher rate than men.
◆ Many countries, Zimbabwe included are taking major steps to ensure that women take their rightful place in terms of development. The Government is pushing for the empowerment of women in sectors that were hitherto considered as the preserve for men such as mining. The Government has also set up the Zimbabwe Women’s Microfinance Bank to enable women to access loans at reasonable terms.
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