Ane Usandizaga, Press Corps 22
CSW, ECOSOCs — Member states at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women voice their innovative solutions aimed at mitigating the consequences of climate change on women.
Delegates of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) have congregated once more to discuss the challenges that women face in this global environment. Specifically, members are debating and devising reasonable solutions to the difficulties that women face due to the ramifications of climate change.
Solutions for these struggles presented included the programs Women on the Edge, FEARS Plan, PLANET Riptide, and GALS.
Delegations from the countries of Greece, Nicaragua, Denmark, and Haiti among others collaborated together to develop Women on the Edge, a directive that focuses on bringing attention to reinforcing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, reducing gender stereotypes, encouraging the use of clean energy, and assisting the creation of laws to protect and educate women.
“We started with the concept of creating a summit where we can include everyone’s personal opinions, their goals… and really taking into account each individual nation’s needs,” said the delegates of Nicaragua to The NAIMUN Daily on Feb.18. “Then we went on to focus on different topics like carbon emissions. We've even created educational programs and supported nonprofit organizations. We also focus on raising awareness, educational programs, and just promoting that sense of education for the women whose voices are not being heard.”
Other delegates from the countries of Australia, Burkina Faso, India, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, and Singapore among others also cooperated on the formation of FEARS Plan, an initiative that accentuates the need for different strategies to protect women’s entrepreneurial endeavors and educational initiatives in developing and rural regions, and the collection and analysis of data to respond and adapt to the ever-changing needs of women.
The delegate of Australia stated, “So the program really aims towards helping women who are affected by the negative effects of climate change. We really want to help women who are in the agricultural sector. We want to give them a voice… that they haven't had in the past.”
Representatives from Armenia, Senegal, Nigeria, and Albania among others also united to initiate PLANET Riptide, a program that highlights the urgency of implementing a gender perspective in policies and using online devices to educate women, particularly in rural areas.
“We know that oftentimes, women [in rural areas] have very difficult access to the internet, information, healthcare [and] education, so we're really trying to… incorporate technology and… utilize this tool to achieve our goal and part of our legislation,” explained the delegate of Albania.
Representatives from Sweden, France, Ireland, and Spain among others put forward GALS. This program stands for Green Agriculture Leadership Sustainability and underlines the necessity of the involvement of women as leaders of international conversations surrounding climate change and the integration of sustainable infrastructure to expand women’s access to resources.
“So our goal is to attack climate change as it affects women… Essentially, we're trying to work with governments, but on a regional level, to uplift the voices of women and give them more autonomy, especially when it comes to land ownership and agriculture production,” said the delegate of France.
All of these proposed working papers will be debated and deliberated upon in order to select the most effective and plausible programmes to aid women who are being negatively impacted by climate change.