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Community Lifelines Programme
Interest in gender can be traced back to the Pacific Platform for Action for the Advancement of Women, adopted in 1994 by the 22 governments and administrations served by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) as part of the Noumea Declaration where the importance of women’s participation in national and regional development activities was formally recognised.
In the global context these activities are consistent with Principle 20 of the Rio Declaration and Chapter 24 of UN Resolution, Agenda 21, which stresses the vital role women play in the management of the environment and natural resources and calls for the full participation of women in sustainable development programmes. In addition, the recent outcomes of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) process reinforce the importance of the women proactive role and gender mainstreaming as mechanisms for poverty eradication.
The UN Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals, define the overarching aspirations of contemporary sustainable development thinking, and make unequivocal reference to the need for a gender perspective in all development activities as a key element in promoting sustainability of the environment, societies and economies. Millennium Development Goal 3 targets specifically the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. Although the goal is valuable in themselves, they are also central to achieving all the other Millennium Development Goals.
In the regional context, as a follow-up to the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Workshop, held in Perth, Western Australia in June/July 2001 and the Regional Energy Meeting held in Rarotonga, Cook Islands in 2002, the Secretariat of the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) acquitted the mandate to assist in coordinating initiatives related to the development and implementation of an action plan for women and energy.
To set the first milestone, SOPAC convened the regional workshop on “Gender, Energy and Sustainable Development" in Nadi, Fiji Islands from 4-8 August 2003. Recommendations resulting from the workshop included (i) mainstreaming gender into energy and policy planning, (ii) improving networking at national and regional level with relevant stakeholders, (iii) strengthening information dissemination in order to increase awareness of energy and gender issues, (iv) provision of technical assistance, (v) improved gender and energy training and (vi) capacity building at different levels on (a) fund raising and (b) analysing gender impact of the use of different energy sources and technical choices.
Among the identified actions, participants prioritised the establishment of a network through a coordinating “hub" and agreed that a body named “Pacific Energy and Gender (PEG) Network" be established and initially hosted by the SOPAC Secretariat.
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This PEG webpage has been produced with the financial assistance of CTA. The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of CTA and can therefore in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the Centre.
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For more information please contact:
Koin Etuati
Energy Project Officer
and
.