Women's Tribunal: Gender and Climate Justice: TANZANIA
Date: November 2011
Location: Longido Hai, Moshi rural and Arumeru
Organizers: African Women's Economic & Political Network
Contact: Jovita Mlay, Executive Director, mlayjovita@yahoo.com
Tribunal Report: Tanzania
Background:
For more information, contact: Jovita Mlay, Executive Director, AWEPON - mlayjovita@yahoo.com or Rosa Lizarde, Global Coordinator, Feminist Task Force at rosaencasa@aol.com
Date: November 2011
Location: Longido Hai, Moshi rural and Arumeru
Organizers: African Women's Economic & Political Network
Contact: Jovita Mlay, Executive Director, mlayjovita@yahoo.com
Tribunal Report: Tanzania
The case of Tanzania brings together interesting elements into the context of a women’s tribunal. On the one hand, the receding glaciers of Mount Kilimanjaro, specific to this region and similarly receding glaciers in Nepal, compound the climate change impact in Tanzania. The frequent floods, droughts and poor harvests in recent years have been major issues of concern as these have brought some impacts to the local communities. These are becoming more than ever imminent evidence of climate change due to evident temperature increases caused by global warming.
Effects of Climate Change on Women
The women shared their experience of droughts, which have existed for about ten years in their area. One woman said that, “despite the existed power relations at household level and oppressions before experiencing climate change, women had a peaceful life as food for families was plenty in terms of milk, meat, natural vegetation provided easy access of vegetables, firewood and water could be accessed close to homes and men were actively involved in pasturing/feeding livestock. Cereal/grains and beans products were easily produced with less effort and abundant in local markets at affordable prices.”
Currently, women are very much stressed with a number of issues due to low production of farm produce, lack of food security, men loitering and excessive drinking (local brew produced mostly by women as their alternative income generating activity) as they could not opt to other economic activities having lost their economic base (livestock died because of the prolonged drought).
As a result, women are facing the following challenges:
— Increased burden of work load by doing multiple micro businesses to care for family needs
— Women are needing to walk a long distance walk to search for firewood and water
— Increased gender based violence as a result of excessive drinking by men
— Loss of family cohesion as a result of women moving out of the house frequently and putting in longer hours in day.
— Climate change condition retards efforts of women’s economic empowerment.
— Rainfall patterns in their areas have drastically changed.
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General impact of climate change:
Tanzania's economy highly depends on agriculture (including livestock), energy, wildlife, forestry, marine, coastal resources, and others. Agriculture is the dominant sector in Tanzanian economy, providing livelihood, income and employment to over 80% of the population which is around 40 million people and it accounts for around 50 percent of GDP and about 60 percent of export earnings. However, in recent years, the contribution of agricultural sector to GDP has dropped to 26% indicating signs of increasing vulnerability, including decreased production of different crops exacerbated by climatic variability and unpredictability of seasons, erosion of natural resource base and environmental degradation.
The receding glaciers of Mount Kilimanjaro, the frequent floods, droughts and poor harvests in recent years have been major issues of concern as these have brought some impacts to the local communities. These are becoming more than ever imminent evidence of climate change due to evident temperature increases caused by global warming. The frequency of extreme weather events such as El Nino floods in 1997/98 and the recent drought are few but important reminders of the deadly effects of climate change to Tanzania.
The most vulnerable areas/sectors impacted by the effects of climate change include:
• Agriculture - men’s and women’s economy as a result of low production and food security, particularly women as the agricultural farmer.
• Water -
• Energy
Media: The tribunal had a strong communications component through local and on-line media and online campaigning to disseminate information about the process and outcomes. A pre-Tribunal media effort (Nov. 3rd) was made to interview participants and to highlight public discussions on the issues. This added to the efforts of the partnership with InterPress Service media for the region and country.
The Tribunal
The Tribunal was held on 4th November 2011 and key event and issues of the tribunal were publicized from 7th November onwards at the local, national and international levels to foster gender sensitive adaptation and mitigation measures in the Northern Zone and Tanzania as a whole for women’s empowerment and the eradication of poverty.
Background:
Tanzania's economy highly depends on agriculture (including livestock), energy, wildlife, forestry, marine, coastal resources, and others. Agriculture is the dominant sector in Tanzanian economy, providing livelihood, income and employment to over 80% of the population which is around 40 million people and it accounts for around 50 percent of GDP and about 60 percent of export earnings. However, in recent years, the contribution of agricultural sector to GDP has dropped to 26% indicating signs of increasing vulnerability, including decreased production of different crops exacerbated by climatic variability and unpredictability of seasons, erosion of natural resource base and environmental degradation.
The receding glaciers of Mount Kilimanjaro, the frequent floods, droughts and poor harvests in recent years have been major issues of concern as these have brought some impacts to the local communities. These are becoming more than ever imminent evidence of climate change due to evident temperature increases caused by global warming. The frequency of extreme weather events such as El Nino floods in 1997/98 and the recent drought are few but important reminders of the deadly effects of climate change to Tanzania.
The most vulnerable areas/sectors impacted by the effects of climate change include:-
• Agriculture (men’s and women’s economy as a result of low production and food security)
• Water
• Energy
Effect of Climate Change on Women
The women (beneficiaries of WEEP Project) in Longido (a dominant pastoral community) bitterly shared their experience of droughts, which have existed for about ten years in their area. They say that, “despite the existed power relations at household level and oppressions before experiencing climate change, women had a peaceful life as food for families was plenty in terms of milk, meat, natural vegetation provided easy access of vegetables, firewood and water could be accessed close to homes and men were actively involved in pasturing/feeding livestock. Cereal/grains and beans products were easily produced with less effort and abundant in local markets at affordable prices.”
Currently, women are very much stressed with a number of issues due to low production of farm produce, lack of food security, men loitering and excessive drinking (local brew produced mostly by women as their alternative income generating activity) as they could not opt to other economic activities having lost their economic base (livestock died because of the prolonged drought). As a result of that, women are facing the following challenges:
· -- Increased burden of work load by doing multiple micro businesses to carter for family needs, long distance walk to search for firewood and water;
· -- Increased gender based violence as a result of excessive drinking by men;
· --Loss of family cohesion as a result of women moving out of the house frequently almost whole day.
There is more that can be said especially by rural women on the effect of climate change and measures that have been applied by themselves or different bodies to assist women to adapt to the situation as well as addressing the problem. For example, SASA Foundation is organizing Women’s Tribunal to have women representatives to flag and verbally express their grievance, for the local, national and international communities to act accordingly.
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