Toward a Sustainable and Inclusive Society of Coexistence: Gender Perspectives

Twenty-seven years have passed since the United Nations' World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) presented the concept of sustainable development in its report Our Common Future. The report stated that as the Earth's natural system is the basis of all human activities and survival, consuming natural resources faster than they can be replenished threatens sustainability. The concept of sustainable development emerged at the same time as other new approaches to development, such as to human development and gender and development.

A society that prioritizes profitability, productivity, and efficiency tends to disadvantage women, who take on the burdens of pregnancy, childrearing, housework, and even aged care. Moreover, the sexual division of labor becomes entrenched. Conversely, a sustainable society is based on protecting the environment, conserving biodiversity and ecosystem diversity, ensuring reasonable economic satisfaction while discouraging rapid consumption, and providing fair and equal opportunities in economic participation. A radical change in values and behavior is a prerequisite for the creation of such a society. A sustainable society also paves the way for gender equality because it respects the diversity of the lifestyles and work styles of both men and women. This is arguably the ideal direction for us today, in the face of threats to global sustainability posed by climate change and natural disasters.

The environmental conditions of developing countries are said to have worsened since they embarked on development. In the Asian countries that I visited through my work with UNESCO, I have seen serious cases of air and water pollution. I have heard of farmers who overused chemical fertilizers owing to their illiteracy, and of women who were suffering from skin disease after washing their husbands' pesticide-covered work clothes. Women are aware of the health risks of water pollution and chemicals in their daily lives, and they sometimes even raise their voices in protest. For example, women of the Chipko movement have tied themselves to trees to prevent forests from being destroyed in India. However, the voices and actions of women tend to be ignored as the emotional outbursts or reactions of ignorant, uneducated people. The low education and high illiteracy rates of women, as well as stereotypes about women being unsuited to science, make it difficult for them to contribute to the creation of a sustainable society. Furthermore, according to a UNESCO report, EFA-ESD Dialogue: Educating for a Sustainable World (2008), in comparison to Education for All (EFA), Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) does not address poverty reduction and gender empowerment. In order to increase sustainability on a global scale, we need an education of empowerment that will nurture the future agents of change, including women and other socially disadvantaged people. Education is indeed a crucial key to achieving sustainability.

In the lead-up to the UNESCO World Conference on ESD 2014, which will take place from November 10 to 12 in Nagoya, the international symposium "Sustainability and Gender" will be held on November 1 at United Nations University in collaboration with Ochanomizu University. The objective of the symposium is to develop ESD strategies and actions for building a sustainable society of coexistence with a gender equality perspective, seeing education as a process of empowerment and lifelong learning. It is expected that the outcomes of the symposium will also contribute to discussions of post-2015 global development. I hope that the debates in this field will be further deepened and carried on by the next generation of researchers and specialists in Japan as well.