From DEBRA@OLN.comlink.apc.orgFri Sep 15 10:24:40 1995 Date: Thu, 14 Sep 1995 01:00:00 +0100 From: Debra Guzman Reply to: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org To: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org Subject: WCW: Elizabeth Dowdeswell at Beijing [The following text is in the "ISO-8859-1" character set] [Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set] [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly] ## Original in: /HRNET/WOMEN ## author : theearthtime@igc.apc.org ## date : 09.09.95 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Elizabeth Dowdeswell at Beijing By Vir Singh Earth Times News Service BEIJING--In the relative quiet of her temporary office suite in Beijing yesterday, Elizabeth Dowdeswell of Canada took a deep breath, adjusted her bright green shawl and willed a smile. It had been another hectic morning: In an address to nongovernmental organization delegates in Huairou, she had again emphasized that in all of the Beijing discussions about women's problems, "the environmental aspect of sustainable development is always at the table." It was a message that Dowdeswell had stressed repeatedly over the last week that she had been in China. Dowdeswell, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, strongly believes women's perspectives and experience "must be brought to bear" on environmental policy-making. The Beijing Platform for Action supports this goal and also calls for greater recognition of women's roles as guardians of environmental resources. However, entire paragraphs of the section of the section about women and the environment have yet to receive the blessings of the Main Committee. "It is incomprehensible that there is a section on the environment in brackets," Dowdeswell said. She noted that the brackets in the environment section represent a "negotiating tool." But despite the snags, Dowdeswell said the Beijing document already has much to commend itself. Dowdeswell places special importance on education of the girl child. "We know now that that's where we make a real impact," she said. She said the concept of education has grown from a narrow classroom-focused approach to one that educates people through the mass media. "Any organization that wants to bring about some change has to be able to use the media that most impacts people," Dowdeswell said. Recognizing the dominance of television as a news medium, UNEP helped launch London- based TVE as well as WETV, which distributes programs about various environmental and sustainable development issues. Dowdeswell stressed that UNEP, if it is to truly fulfill its mandate, cannot view itself solely as an intergovernmental organization. "If we can't do some reality checking with women in shambas, with refugees, then we don't really understand what matters." Dowdeswell emphasized that greater participation of women is not only a gender equality issue. She said women are the foremost practitioners of the "ethical approach" needed for sustainable development. In Beijing, she came across several leading environmentalists, including group of Egyptian delegates who originally organized to address a garbage problem but gradually learned they could impact national policy. The Beijing conference represents "a real consolidation of the role of civil society" in addressing the world's problems, Dowdeswell said. She added that the participatory approach emphasized at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and subsequent UN conferences are "a legacy which we cannot retreat from."