By empowering women, the world would see triple benefits for sustainable development – social, economic and environmental – according to an EU Summit.
The Sustainable Energy For All Summit, hosted by the European Commission, is aimed at addressing the barriers to universal access to energy ahead of the Rio+20 Earth Summit in June.
With one of the key focuses of the afternoon turning on gender equality, Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director UN Women said that focusing on women’s empowerment was “not only the right thing to do but the smart thing to do”.
Many acknowledge the brunt that women bear when it comes to both climate change and the lack of access to energy – for many poor rural women in Guinea, as many as 35 hours a week are spent cooking and washing within the home, an arduous task without the modern appliances the western world take for granted.
Kandeh K. Yumkella, Chair of UN-Energy, and Director-General, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation said: “If you look at an OECD country. Just imagine what the washing machine, the dishwasher etc did for women. It opened them up to go out into the workforce.”
However, less focus is still given to capacity for women to drive change in these areas.
Winnie Byanyima, Director of the UNDP Gender Team said that by empowering women could provide the “triple wins” for sustainable development.
“If we are going to succeed on addressing climate change and fighting poverty,” she said. “We must link them together and we must link them to gender equality.
“Sustainable [...]
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