UNCCD COP15 Gender Caucus statement by Ibrahim Thiaw

In Pursuit of Gender Equality for Strong Land Stewardship

S.E. Mme Dominique Ouattara, Première Dame de Côte d’Ivoire; merci de votre leadership et votre intérêt manifeste à ce Caucus Genre.

S.E Dr Mariam Mint Mohamed Vadel Ould Dah, Première Dame de Mauritanie. Merci madame, d’être venue, particulièrement, pour cet événement,  

S.E Mr Abdulla Shahid, President de l’Assemblée Générale des Nations Unies. Merci aussi, monsieur le Président, d’avoir tenu à participer à cet événement.     

S.E. Mme Amina Mohamed, Vice-Secrétaire Générale des Nations-Unies. Merci madame, pour votre vision et votre courage.              

Je salue également tous mes collègues ici présents: Chefs d’Agence des Nations-Unies et représentants d’Organisations Internationales.

Distingués invités,

Mesdames et messieurs,

J’éprouve un immense plaisir à vous souhaiter la cordiale bienvenue à cet événement de haut-niveau sur le genre, organisé au premier jour de la Conférence des Parties de la Convention des Nations Unies sur la Lutte contre la Désertification (UNCCD).

Je savoure d’autant plus ce plaisir que nous sommes de nouveau en mesure de nous retrouver dans cette salle, après une longue et difficile période de restrictions sanitaires.

Permettez-moi avant tout, d’exprimer toute ma gratitude à nos généreux hôtes à savoir le peuple et le Gouvernement de Côte d’Ivoire. Nos remerciements s’adressent en particulier à vous, madame la Première Dame, Dominique Ouattara. L’enthousiasme avec lequel vous présidez à cet événement et votre soutien sans faille, sont notés avec une grande satisfaction.

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The negotiations on land degradation and drought at this COP are the most important in the UNCCD’s history and they can only succeed if they are built on balanced foundations, which must include gender equality.

The conclusions of the study we’re presenting today are sobering. The study demonstrates that women and girls are particularly vulnerable to impacts of land degradation and droughts.   

For example, when drought hits a region, food and water become naturally scarce. This affects the way food is distributed within a family. Women, the study found, tend to eat smaller portions or skip meals. They give priority to members of their family, starting with young children. 

In least developed countries, agriculture is the main livelihood for nearly 80% of employed women. Yet, more often than not, they do not own the land – only 23% in Central Asia and the Caucasus, and just 4% in the Middle East and North Africa.

Think about it: if we bring 100 people from that region with land titles to this room, only 4 of them will be women.

And limited rights mean limited access to loans, credits, services and training, stacking the odds against the very people working the land and perpetuating poverty.

Nothing stable can be built  with half the foundation missing, so there will be no sustainable development if half of humanity and half of our producers are left on the sidelines.

This vicious cycle of poverty must be turned into a virtuous one of prosperity by unleashing the transformative power of women and girls to heal land and soil. They are achieving many of the land restoration successes, often with little support or recognition.

In West Africa for example, women are involved in major land restoration initiatives such as the Great Green Wall.  

In the Middle East and North Africa, they undertake land conservation and restoration initiatives that bring food security.

Where water is scarce, they find innovative or traditional solutions like as fog harvesting, which we have seen in Morocco.

Examples are plentiful from around the world where women and girl exercise their leadership on land restoration. Unnoticed and unpaid.

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen, Colleagues,

Now is the time for action with inclusion and solidarity. To halt climate change and reverse biodiversity loss and land degradation we cannot ignore half of the population.

This is a decisive decade, where we need to:

• ·      Change our mindsets
• ·      Invest heavily in education, training and access to sustainable technologies for millions of women and girls
• ·      Facilitate the inclusion of women into the financial system
• ·      Dismantle all barriers and eliminate laws and practices that prevent women and girls from accessing and using land

Our UNCCD Convention is about the people and the planet. Healthy land for healthy people and healthy economies. All people. Not just half of them.

With that in mind, I invite you to join « The Abidjan Declaration on Achieving Gender Equality for Successful Land Restoration".

I also invite you to commit and act to improve the lives and dignity of women and girls facing the formidable daily challenges of drought, land degradation and desertification.

Thank you.