Gender and sustainable development A new paradigm : Reflecting on experience in Latin America and the Caribbean

The concept of sustainable development, which has transformed the international and national development agenda throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, owes its power to the energetic and effective alliance between the women's movement and the environmental movement in those regions. Inspired by the UN Conference on Environmental Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, women organized at all levels throughout the three preparatory years, during the conference itself and the negotiation of the final document, Agenda 21, and in the years following the conference. Their efforts have united women's and environmental organization in a movement that not only endures but continues to grow. As a result, the very definition of sustainable development depends in large part on its ability to accommodate the active participation of women and their demands for sustainable livelihoods. Throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, women have organized to integrate the concept of gender sensitive sustainable development projects. The articles in this book offer practical examples of this work. The projects they describe represent strategic interventions by UNIFEM to bring about the empowerment of women, enabling them to participate and inform the process of decision-making that affects not only their own lives and that of their families and communities but the environment in which we all live. They reflect UNIFEM's role as an ally of the gender sensitive sustainable development.