CAMGEW Mobilizes Stakeholders in promotion of
women's socio economic and Environment rights advocacy
By
Francis Ekongang Nzante
An advocacy workshop on women's socio-economic and environmental rights organised by Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch (CAMGEW), took place at the Blue Pearl Hotel in Bamenda on Saturday March 26th 2022 within the framework of increasing the participation of women in forest conservation.
............
This workshop provided an
opportunity for participants to reflect on practices that act as barriers to
the economic empowerment of women. These practices hinge on culture, economic, social
and environmental activities. As a result, during the workshop, there were presentations on economic, social, environmental
and Cultural practices. These presentations threw more light on how these
practices act as barriers to the economic empowerment of the woman.
About fifty participants, mostly leaders from the Bamenda Highland Region, legal minds,
journalists and civil society actors, took part in the workshop. Participants also
included forest users, people living in forest communities and Forest Leaders.
Some traditional rulers present at the
Workshop sited some social practices observed
in their communities to include early and forced marriages, refusal to educate
the girl child and restriction of inheritance rights to male children. These
they said were some of the practices that reduce opportunities for women to
grow economically. Shufai Waa-bin, a traditional ruler from Nso in Bui Division
said he has committed himself to working with his fellow traditional rulers and
the youth in his community to promote efforts to delete these barriers.
Sevidzem
Ernestine Leikeki, CAMGEW Women Empowerment officer further explained that
sexual harassment, education disparity, widowhood challenges amongst others
constituted some of these barriers and appealed that time had come for women to be accompanied by everyone in the society
in fighting for their socio economic and Environment rights.
"We
cannot talk about environmental sustainability without livelihood and without
integration of women and youth in the process and without capacity building of
the women, youth and men. Working around the Kilum-Ijim forest we realised that
women are suffering when it comes to domestic violence, when it comes to issues
related to gender based violence and when it comes to issues about their sexual
rights. Consequently, we cannot have a healthy environment if women are not
first satisfied with themselves before protecting the environment. These rights
are pertinent if we need to build a harmonious environment” she said.
In
an effort to empower them with strategies to fight against these challenges,
CAMGEW has been working with women for years.
Sevidzem Ernestine feels that "with
their integration in environmental and forest conservation actions" there
is a need for policies that protect women and their rights. That’s why she has
called on policy makers to put women at the center of their actions.
"When
formulating policies, it is important for policy makers to take into consideration
the grudges, aspirations, efforts, dedication and passion of these women” She said.
CAMGEW
Director Wirsiy Emmanuel Binyuy expressed his appreciation to the various civil
society organisations including traditional leaders, legal experts, the media
amongst others who have formed a coalition with his organisation to support
women in a bid to improve upon society.
This
workshop comes in the wake of a CAMGEW-initiated petition which was carried by
a cross section of media outlets in Cameroon and had a strong presence on Social
Media. This petition was aimed at calling on governments around the world to renew
and increase their commitment to empowering women and girls to realise their environmental
rights, especially the indigenous women who are most climate-vulnerable.
Created
in 2007, CAMGEW has been working in and around the Kilum-Ijim forest area where
it promotes Inclusive Forest Regeneration with the planting of 104446 trees as
of 2021 and the training of over 2000 to benefit from non-timber forest
products especially in the honey and medicinal value chains. According to the
not-for-profit organisation, women have a strong motivation to conserve
biodiversity and the environment.
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