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Women of South Asia and the Green Economyby Uchita de Zoysa

During the past twenty years, Sustainable Development has come to the forefront of global issues. In

many ways, the challenge of convincing the different sectors and groups that sustainable development

is the best potential model for prosperity has become easier. Even the business and industry sector now

talks about sustainable development and it appears that sustainable development is a concept already

sold. Yet, sustainability and sustainable development continue to be far away from reality.

Rio+20 Summit in 2012

Twenty years ago, in 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, also

called the Rio Earth Summit, created a central, global focus on sustainable development. At that time,

civil society was anxious about the outcome of the conference. Many us who were there were frustratedby the lack of sensitivity displayed by the developed nations and the ignorance of the rich towards

making commitment towards a better world. Twenty years later, the same United Nations Organization

is convening the Rio+20 Summit, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. Now civil

society is not just anxious or frustrated. We are simply petrified from our fear the Conference will make

a complete mockery of the concept of sustainable development. A concept that has well evolved during

the past four decades and smartly designed with a plethora of global policy tools is now under the

threat of being diverted towards serving and saving a fallen greed-based economic model and its

champions.

Replacing the Greed Economy

The current greed-based world economic system that has kept half of the global people in poverty andcreated a potential climate catastrophe needs to be replaced. The alternative, then, needs to replace

the flaws of the prevailing economic model; it needs to block those corporations that take away breast

milk of poor mothers and feed the children infant formulas of diary; it needs to suppress those

irresponsible companies who carelessly damage ecosystems through oil spills; it needs to reject those

business tycoons who mindlessly construct thirty five storied homes for their extreme consumption

lifestyles while millions of people in the surrounding vicinity are living in slums under trying conditions; it

needs to refuse celebrating those few women who enjoy highest leadership in corporations while

billions of women across the developing and developed countries suffer every day from meeting the

basic needs of their families.

South Asian Women and the Economy

South Asia is a region that will be hard hit by both climate change and poverty, and women will be most

affected with the success or failures of an emerging Green Economy. Women account for 70 percent of

the worlds population living in povertyeven though they make up 45 percent of the worlds

workforce. South Asia is home to over 40% of the world's poorest people, most of whom are women

and girls.60% or more of women workers in the developing world are in informal employment outside

agriculture.

Therefore, any economic alternative benefiting South Asian women should focus on the aspects such as

opportunity, inclusivity, sensitivity and diversity; fair and equitable opportunities to engage in Green

Economy activities of a Sustainable Economy; integrated and embedded in the system and not simply

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engaging; respecting the sensitivities and designing the system to include those sensitivities; flourishing

in diversity and not exclusivity or monopoly.

Greening the Brown Economy?

Can the proposed Green Economy provide us that alternative? Can it replace the greed-based economic

order and help us face the challenge of climate change and poverty? Some environmental and social

activists and thinkers suspect that this is an attempt to green the brown economy; an attempt to

green wash the wasteful, pollutive and exploitative economic model. A green technology-based market-

monopoly is feared. In the emerging climate regulatory era, a brown economic model based on dirty

technology will be redundant. Therefore, the same corporate elements would be targeting a monopoly

on the green technology to dominate a green growth-based economy. The rich would continue to grow

and the poor would continue to suffer in such a transfer from brown to green economy.

Green Economy or Sustainable Economy?

Defining a Green Economy is still a process in progress. The UNEP Green Economy Report 2011states;a green economy is one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly

reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. A green economy can be thought of as one which

is low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive. In a green economy, growth in income and

employment should be driven by public and private investments that reduce carbon emissions and

pollution, enhance energy and resource efficiency, and prevent the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem

services.

While the definition is attractive and strategically includes some key words echoed by the different

interests of the world, its also noticeable that they continue to forge growth and efficiency as the way

forward. This makes us pause and wonder: Are the same people and institutions responsible for the

suffering of the worlds poor behind defining the green economy? A Green Economy should be to

replace the current economic order of inequity, destruction and greed! Sustainable Economy (or a true

Green Economy) should be an economic system that ensures social equity, protects the ecological

balance and creates economic sufficiency. The core idea of a Green Economy should be to enforce

Sustainability, specifically the wellbeing of all people and the biodiversity of Earths ecosystems.

Foundations of a Sustainable Economy

So, what are the foundations for a Sustainable Economy? At the centre of any emerging economic

model should be the vision of an equity based world order. Equality for all should be the aspiration,

and not the luxury of the twenty percent of the worlds people who enjoy the exploitation of eighty

percent of the resources.

Such a system should rejects unsustainable consumption and production habits and promotessustainable lifestyles and livelihoods. Efficiency paradigms continue to justify the current consumption

levels that are unsustainable and proposes less waste as a solution. That is no longer acceptable. We

need to move from a mere efficiency focus to sufficiency-based sustainable development paradigms.

Just because the resources are harder to acquire for those rich-country consumers, efficiency will not

be an adequate exercise. They need to cut down on their unsustainable consumption patterns and start

looking for futures based on sufficiency. Sufficiency should be noted as an approach towards self-

reliance and contentment.

The growth-based economic model has long served the greedy needs of the rich. This growth- and

greed-based economic development model should be replaced with the sharing-caring-flourishing

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economic mindset. If growth had been a viable model to eradicate poverty on Earth, poverty would

have ceased to exist long ago. For example, no Indian should go hungry at any given moment as they as

a nation produce a surplus of grain. Prominent ecologist Dr. Vandana Shiva says, The gain in yields of

industrially produced crops is based on a theft of food from other species and the rural poor in the Third

World. That is why, as more grain is produced and traded globally, more people go hungry in the Third

World. .

Conclusions

Our commitment in an emerging green economy should be towards creating wellbeing & happiness for

all, not for a few. Capital growth without distribution will not serve humanity, face climate change and

eradicate poverty, or achieve sustainable development. For this to happen, we need to cultivate

mindfulness not greed. Women in South Asia in general provide the ingredients of leading such a green

economy in driving sustainable development; they are sensitive towards the needs of others; they care

about the wellbeing of others; they strive for peace; they are content with staying within the resources

of their surroundings. The diversity, simplicity, sensitivity of South Asian women need to be integrated inan emerging green economy. Such a green economy that is inclusive of the active engagement of

women of South Asia can lead us towards sustainable development.

(The above is adapted from a speech made at the Third Annual Conference of SWAN - South Asia Womens

Network - from 2-3rd July 2011 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Uchita de Zoysa is author of It has to be CLIMATE

SUSTAINABILITY and Executive Director of the Centre for Environment Development. He can be reached at

uchita@sltnet.lk)