Gender and the Environment

"Women ... play an essential role in the management of natural resources, including soil, water, forests and energy ... and often have a profound traditional and contemporary knowledge of the natural world around them" - World Bank

BRIDGE (briefings on development and gender) is an information analysis service specialising in gender and development issues. BRIDGE's aim is to assist development professionals in government and non-government organisations to integrate gender concerns into their work. Based at the Institute of Development Studies, in the UK, BRIDGE was set up with financial assistance from OECD-DAC agencies. ODA funded this trial issue of Development and Gender in brief.

Development and Gender in brief is a new publication providing concise, up-to-date briefings on key gender and development themes. In this issue, we ask whether recent changes in environmental policy have produced real benefits for women. Evidence suggests that many projects - in water and sanitation and social forestry, for example - fail to promote women's interests. The same is true of responses to environmental disasters such as the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone; women's needs were neglected leading to higher mortality among women than men. We also review the World Bank's new water resources management policy, which advocates water pricing to promote sustainable use. But can women pay? Currents, a special column on the back page, airs opinion on a different issue: the 'feminisation of poverty'.