Spotlight on SDG 6: From commodity to common good: A feminist agenda to tackle the world’s water crisis
Publication year
Resource type
UNCCD Library
Material Type
ebook
This paper aims to review the state of gender equality in Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) and showcases how a gender perspective can inform and strengthen the discourse around SDG 6 acceleration. The paper emphasizes the need for a feminist approach to addressing the global water crisis, one that recognizes the important role women play in their communities as the main collectors, protectors, and managers of water.
The latest data and projections on the gender and water nexus presented in the paper reveal that the human rights to water and to sanitation are far from realized for many women and girls globally. The paper calls for women’s equal representation in leadership and decision-making and draws a clear connection between social justice, ecological rights, and women’s rights.
The case studies and examples throughout the paper reveal the essential role women have played in the global movement to transform indigenous values and local ecological knowledge into enforceable ecological rights. Pressing data gaps and measurement challenges, along with evidence-based, action-oriented policy recommendations, are also captured and discussed in the paper.
Page 15
Water scarcity, exacerbated by climate change, could cost some regions up to 6 per cent of gross domestic
product (GDP) by 2050 due to impacts on health and well-being as well as a surge in migration and conflict. 69
Recent projections show that the number of drought days could increase by more than 20 per cent in most of the
world by 2080, while the population exposed to this phenomenon could grow by around 9 to 17 per cent by 2030,
and by around 50 to 90 per cent by 2080. 70 (https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/aa3a35e0…)
Globally, 53 out of 191 countries and areas, home to 1.5 billion women and girls, or 37.2 per cent of the world’s
female population, face a high or very high exposure to droughts. 71 Women and girls in Namibia, Somalia and
Zimbabwe are at highest risk. (Authors’ calculations. Estimates are based on country-level assessments of physical exposure to droughts. Drought risk varies significantly within countries; therefore, the number of women exposed to droughts may be lower than estimates shown here. Medium-variant population projections are used.)
The latest data and projections on the gender and water nexus presented in the paper reveal that the human rights to water and to sanitation are far from realized for many women and girls globally. The paper calls for women’s equal representation in leadership and decision-making and draws a clear connection between social justice, ecological rights, and women’s rights.
The case studies and examples throughout the paper reveal the essential role women have played in the global movement to transform indigenous values and local ecological knowledge into enforceable ecological rights. Pressing data gaps and measurement challenges, along with evidence-based, action-oriented policy recommendations, are also captured and discussed in the paper.
Page 15
Water scarcity, exacerbated by climate change, could cost some regions up to 6 per cent of gross domestic
product (GDP) by 2050 due to impacts on health and well-being as well as a surge in migration and conflict. 69
Recent projections show that the number of drought days could increase by more than 20 per cent in most of the
world by 2080, while the population exposed to this phenomenon could grow by around 9 to 17 per cent by 2030,
and by around 50 to 90 per cent by 2080. 70 (https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/aa3a35e0…)
Globally, 53 out of 191 countries and areas, home to 1.5 billion women and girls, or 37.2 per cent of the world’s
female population, face a high or very high exposure to droughts. 71 Women and girls in Namibia, Somalia and
Zimbabwe are at highest risk. (Authors’ calculations. Estimates are based on country-level assessments of physical exposure to droughts. Drought risk varies significantly within countries; therefore, the number of women exposed to droughts may be lower than estimates shown here. Medium-variant population projections are used.)
Keywords
water scarcity
gender equality
facts and figures
water insecurity
floods
drought
disasters
sanitation
facts and figures
food security