Gender
President of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), Csaba Kőrösi, has called on the Member States to recognize women’s contributions to the sustainable management of land and the broader achievement of the 2030 Agenda.
Kőrösi made the call on Friday in New York at an event held by Member States in observance of World Day to Combat Desertification.
The World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is celebrated each year by the United Nations on June 17.
Its purpose is to raise awareness of the presence of desertification and drought, highlighting methods of preventing desertification and recovering from drought.
Kőrösi also urged Member States to promote laws and policies that would ensure no one was left behind.
“We cannot let this foundational promise dry out.
“In this field, too, we should do our best to remove the barriers to women’s participation in decision-making.
“The 2030 Agenda recognises that gender-equal access to land rights is integral to the achievement of all our global goals of sustainable development.
“All 17 goals – from achieving gender equality, to ending poverty and hunger, and to sustaining life on land,” he said.
According to him, this understanding of the integrated nature of both crises and solutions must have pride of place at the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Summit in September.
Similarly, UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, in his message to mark the Day, urged all governments to eliminate legal barriers to women owning land, and to involve them in policy making.
“We depend on land for our survival, yet we treat it like dirt.
“Women make up nearly half of the world’s agricultural workforce, yet discriminatory practices related to land tenure, credit access, equal pay, and decision-making often impede their active participation in sustaining land health.
“Today, less than one in five landholders worldwide are women, according to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD),” the UN chief said.
He said unsustainable farming was eroding soil 100 times faster than natural process could restore them.
He added that up to 40 per cent of the planet’s land had been degraded, imperiling food production, threatening biodiversity, and compounding the climate crisis.
“This hits women and girls the hardest. They suffer disproportionately from the lack of food, water scarcity, and forced migration that result from our mistreatment of land, yet they have the least control,” he said.
He can’t lled for support for women and girls to play their part in protecting “our most precious resource; together let’s stop land degradation by 2030.”
Ahead of the international day, UNCCD launched the #HerLand campaign to raise awareness about women making a difference now and the challenges ahead.
When given equal access, women and girls can increase agricultural productivity, restore land, and build resilience to drought, according to UNCCD.
High-level speakers, women leaders, renowned scientists, land activists, and youth representatives agreed that much had been done but more efforts were needed to level the land ownership playing field.
Tarja Halonen, former President of Finland and UNCCD Land Ambassador, said action was needed now.
“Solving gender inequalities is not just the right thing to do.
“If we ensure that women are fully able to use their abilities, knowledge, talents, and leadership potential our societies are simply better off,” he said. (NAN)
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Tags: Antonio Guterres Csaba Kőrösi UN Secretary-General
