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Gibson Mhaka, Senior Features Reporter

WHILE most people are sleeping, mother of five, Ms Juliet Nkomazana (52) from Donda village in Tsholotsho, Matabeleland North province, gets up at around 4AM to fetch water from a river, five kilometres away.

Ms Nkomazana, who looks far too old to carry the water home, regularly repeats the journey up to three times a day – and after that she completes other household chores like fetching firewood, cooking, washing and even helping on the family farm.

Elsewhere in the country, under a giant tree in the remote area of Mberengwa, a group of 10 women talk about how their lives are affected by changing weather patterns. They joke and laugh about their plight, as if a sense of levity can somehow alleviate their workloads and quiet their hunger.

“Every day, I get up early in the morning to fetch water from a river which is about five kilometres away. It is an irksome journey as I walk often several times a day.

“Although it’s a physically demanding and time-consuming responsibility, I am managing it since it is one of the everyday jobs which fall to us women,” Ms Nkomazana said. 

She is really a woman in anguish.

Her gruelling daily ritual is one of the several million stories of women across Zimbabwe and in the Sadc region particularly those in the rural areas whose lives are inextricably tied to the use of environment for daily support and livelihood and as a result they are likely to suffer the most from negative alterations to the natural environment.

For example, climate change-induced weather variations, coupled with environmental degradation, require greater distance to be travelled to collect firewood and water from safe sources, thus diverting time that would otherwise be used for income-generating activities.

A recent United Nations report revealed that globally women spend a combined 40 billion hours a year collecting water, adversely affecting their efforts to engage in other productive activities.

Women and girls’ traditional responsibilities as food growers, water and fuel gatherers, and caregivers also connect them intimately to available natural resources, making them more vulnerable to environmental hardships.

This gender-specific role also has a severe impact on every aspect of their lives, from their health, social life to education and their ability to have a real say in the community.

Research on the relationship between gender and environment has shown that progress on women’s participation and representation in global environmental policies, programmes and projects has been slow and uneven.

This, however, calls for the need to expedite the participation of women in natural resource conservation since they are the worst affected people.

According to gender and environment experts, the active participation of women is however, essential for the holistic, multidisciplinary, and inter-sectoral approach that is needed to safeguard the environment for future generations.

It is also key to promoting the advancement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which provides for a shared global vision towards sustainable development for all.

Gender Links Zimbabwe manager, Ms Priscilla Maposa, believes that the existing social and economic inequalities between men and women often hold back prospects for sustainable development and undermine sound environmental management.

She said to develop meaningful solutions to environmental challenges or sustainable environmental management; efforts are needed on many fronts, including promoting an equal voice in planning and decision-making.

“It’s true that women are the most affected by gender dimensions of environmental hardships and climate change in Zimbabwe and in the region.

“It is sad to note that even though women are the most affected, they do not have access to information and decision making structures that deal with environment and climate change issues. If we look at committees set up to deal with environmental issues you will be surprised to note that it’s mostly men who are part of those committees,” Ms Maposa observed.

The Sadc Gender Protocol Barometer for 2018 also recognises that many law makers in the region have still not mainstreamed gender in Sadc sustainable development strategies.

Sufficient evidence also exists showing how women and men experience changes in the environment differently due to their socially constructed roles and responsibilities. 

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) which is committed to promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in the area of sustainable development acknowledges that women disproportionately suffer the impacts of climate change and other environmental hazards, especially in developing countries like Zimbabwe. 

Environmental expert Mr Liberty Dube acknowledged that environmental depletion and climate induced changes increased pressures on women’s time, income, health, nutrition and social support systems. 

He said it’s a problem made worse by women having less access to economic resources, education and legal rights.

“For sustainable development to become a reality, it is incumbent on policymakers to envision growth strategies that recognise and respond to the gender-based realities in the sphere of managing the environment and natural resources.

“Policymakers need to design strategies that enable women leaders to navigate their social milieu successfully to further the sustainable management of resources as well as drive towards gender empowerment and equality. 

“For this to happen, a shift is needed from a narrow focus on the participation of women to the recognition of women’s knowledge and capacities to manage environmental resources,” suggested Mr Dube.

According to Mr Dube’s observation, it is only through the full and meaningful participation of both women and men that the pressing environmental issues of our time be confronted.

A growing literature also supports the view that societies with greater gender equality may achieve better environmental outcomes and where gender inequality is high, forest depletion, air pollution and other measures of environmental degradation are also high.

While women’s involvement is important at all levels of decision-making, their participation is also critical in the successful transfer of technologies at the community and household levels, as this would have an immediate effect on their surrounding environment, and their health and livelihood.

Thus positive environmental outcomes for women are an important means to ensure sustainability for all. This is also in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls while tackling climate change and environmental protection. 

Commissioner Naome Chimbetete of the Zimbabwe Gender Commission (ZGC) who is also a renowned environmental expert said issues of equal ownership, access, and right to use of natural resources such as water and land by women has always presented a situation of inequality and pain to most women in Zimbabwe and in the region.

“The majority of women especially those who reside in the rural areas where they depend on natural resources for energy, food and water are being sidelined in activities or processes that can enhance their sustainable livelihoods,” said Commissioner Chimbetete. 

She said the ZGC was playing a critical role in promoting gender equality through monitoring compliance among stakeholders and mainstreaming it in all sectors. 

“In relation to environmental degradation, the Zimbabwe Gender Commission has established a Thematic Working Group on Gender, Environment and Climate Change which consists of experts from various organisations on environmental issues who provide technical assistance and capacity in dealing with gender and environment matters.

“The commission will also continue to engage communities through local leadership and educate them on environmental protection strategies for sustainable use. 

“It will also organise mobile campaigns to raise awareness and inform the public on impacts of environmental degradation on their livelihoods and ensuring that women are armed with information that promotes good practices for sustainable development,” she said.

Director for climate change in the Environment Ministry Washington Zhakata also acknowledged that women are still under-represented in environment and climate change de­cision-making bodies at both national and regional levels.

“Women are not equally repre­sented within committees, agencies and institu­tions relevant to environmental issues and climate change. Mitigation strategies are also not gender neutral. The Government and Zimbabwe Gender Commission are, however, doing a lot to ensure that women are part of environmental and climate change decision-making institutions.

“As a ministry, we have been mobilising resources to conduct awareness campaigns to sensitise women on how they can have access to and control of environmental resources, as well as on the effects and impacts of climate change and disasters. But that doesn’t mean that men are excluded,” said Mr Zhakata.

The Government’s commitment to gender equality and involvement of women in environmental management as a prerequisite for poverty reduction, and sustainable development is affirmed by its ratification and being a signatory to various international and regional protocols on gender equality.

For example, the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Protocol on Gender and Development which spells that men and women should have equal access to environmentally and socially sustainable agricultural inputs, markets and climate-resilient farming technologies and climate information.

In short, it can be pointed out that identifying and addressing women’s needs, as well as promoting them as decision makers are critical elements to ensure the success of environmental policy and programming in developing countries.

There is also no doubt that without proactively identifying and addressing relevant gender issues, environmental projects have the potential to not only perpetuate disparities, but may even widen the gap between men and women which is automatically a barrier to achieving environment and development objectives.