[Press-releases] SPC press release - Pacific voices heard on financial and climate change crises

[Tione Chinula]

SPC PRESS RELEASE

Pacific voices heard on financial and climate change crises

Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), New York, Wednesday 18 March
2009 - Addressing the emerging theme of the 53rd session of the United
Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW53) in New York last week
- Gender perspectives on the financial crisis - Pacific governments have
successfully called for greater recognition of issues relating to both
climate change and the global economic crisis in a region which faces
unique vulnerabilities to all global crises. 

As a result of climate change, the Pacific faces particular risks in
terms of rising sea levels and temperatures, floods and droughts, and
intensification of tropical cyclones, which could have serious impacts
on the capacity of the Pacific's formal and informal agricultural,
forestry and fisheries sectors to provide food security, livelihoods and
economic growth. These burdens are expected to have a disproportionate
impact on women, including in the context of care-giving - given the
anticipated health impacts from climate change. This makes the issue of
direct relevance to the main CSW53 theme of equal sharing of
responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the
context of HIV/AIDS.

Adding to this, the global economic crisis could result in reductions in
national budgets and donor funds, with spending on social services,
including health care, at greatest risk. This would not only put rights
to health at risk but would increase the existing domestic care-giving
burden on women even further.

These were the key messages delivered to the commission on behalf of the
Pacific Islands Forum countries by Dino Mas, Second Secretary of the
Permanent Mission of Papua New Guinea to the United Nations.

'Additional vulnerabilities of the financial crisis confront the large
numbers of migrant workers from the Pacific and their families,
particularly women who work in the care economy of developed countries,'
he added. 'The income of and critical remittances from such migrant
workers are at risk as discretionary spending is reduced or cut on
foreign care workers who have little or no social security. This also
increases the burden of women at home in the Pacific who will be
required to carry out additional tasks that remittance income is no
longer able to support.'

The Pacific group emphasised that women are not only disproportionately
impacted by these global crises, they are also key agents of change and
must participate actively and equally in developing and implementing
sustainable strategies at all levels: national, regional and
international. 

Dr Stephen Mafoa Kaimoko Homasi, Tuvalu's Director of Health, added in a
country statement that it is critical to incorporate the theme of
climate change into CSW53 negotiations due to its interconnection with
the human security realities of Pacific Island communities:

'Climate change is undoubtedly the most serious threat to global
security and survival of humankind. It is an issue of enormous concern
to a highly vulnerable small island state like Tuvalu. In this context
it is crucial that we integrate and mainstream climate change as a
cross-cutting and emerging issue in the existing international platforms
for women, especially in the framework of gender and HIV/AIDS, as part
of our ongoing global advocacy.'

The regional Pacific Islands Forum statement also noted that there is an
urgent need to increase Pacific women's economic equality, not only to
reduce their vulnerability to the effects of the global financial crisis
but also as part of the effort to support equality in other priority
areas including participation in all levels of decision-making and
elimination of violence against women.
 
With respect to both climate change and the financial crisis, the
statement added, policy interventions are needed that require the active
and equal participation of women and men, that fully integrate a gender
perspective, that take the needs and concerns of migrant workers and the
informal sector into account, and that ensure stimulus packages and
budgetary decisions keep social and human capital at the forefront of
priorities. 

During final negotiations on the Agreed Conclusions of CSW53, Minister
O'Love Jacobsen (Minister of Health, Women's Affairs, Public Works and
Energy in Niue and Chairperson of the Pacific Islands Forum delegation
to CSW53) called for formal recognition of the links between climate
change, health, care-giving and gender equality.

This resulted in the adoption of a recommendation urging all states to
'take all appropriate measures to integrate women, on an equal basis
with men, in decision-making regarding sustainable resource management
and the development of policies and programmes for sustainable
development, including to address the disproportionate impact of climate
change on women, including their displacement from income-generating
activities, which greatly adds to unremunerated work, such as
care-giving, and negatively impacts on their health, well-being and
quality of life, particularly those whose livelihoods and daily
subsistence depend directly on sustainable ecosystems.'   

An additional recommendation calls on the world's governments to 'adopt
appropriate measures to overcome negative impacts of the economic and
financial crisis, including on women and girls, and integrate a gender
perspective into these measures so that they equally benefit women and
men, while seeking to maintain whenever possible adequate levels of
funding for gender equality and the empowerment of women.'


For more information please contact Treva Braun, SPC Human Development
Adviser (Gender Equality) by email teab at spc.int or Tione Chinula, Human
Development Programme Advocacy and Communications Officer by phone +687
26 01 57 or email tionec at spc.int
<mailto:tionec at spc.int?subject=CSW%20-%20Pacific%20view%20press%20releas
e> .


Background notes
Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is a functional commission
of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), dedicated
exclusively to gender equality and the advancement of women. It is the
principal global policy-making body. Every year, representatives of
member states gather at United Nations headquarters in New York to
evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global
standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and
the advancement of women worldwide. 

This year's gathering is the 53rd session of CSW. It runs from 2 to 13
March with the theme The equal sharing of responsibilities between women
and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS
<http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/53sesspriorityhtm.htm> .

For more information on CSW53 visit
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/53sess.htm.



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