NEW YORK – A senior official with the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) says climate change has a disproportional impact on women and girls.
John Hendra, Deputy Executive Director, Policy and Programme for UN Women, said on Monday in New York, that it had become imperative that any future climate change agenda had to recognise the role of women.
“Any future climate change agreement or Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) really have to have women as a major part of the strategy.
“To achieve this, UN Women is engaging political leaders and changing their outlook on climate change,’’ he added. [eap_ad_2] Hendra said that the agency was looking at much more understanding of how to not look at climate change as just an isolated issue.
“But really how gender equality and addressing inequality more broadly is important for effective action against climate change.’’
He cited the Sub-Saharan region of Africa as an example of a continent with natural resources but a growing disparity in land distribution.
“In Sub-Saharan Africa, women face high-levels of inequality,’’ he said.
Hendra said that Sub-Saharan Africa was particularly vulnerable to climate change because of its dependency on natural resources, high-levels of poverty and weak infrastructure.
He provided statistics of the most susceptible group-impoverished women in rural areas of the Sub-Saharan Africa.
“Three quarters of extreme poverty affect women in rural areas, more specifically, 65 per cent of rural livelihoods and small agricultural holders are women.
“Although women have a substantial role in rural agriculture, they only own 10 to 20 per cent of the farm land, and therefore, women need to have more land resources,” he added.
Hendra said that the next global agenda would focus more attention on women. (Xinhua/NAN) [eap_ad_3]
