BONN, MARCH 07 (IPS) – Writer-Editor-in-Chief, Landscape News The following opinion piece is part of a series celebrating International Women’s Day, March 8. When I was a teenager a young girl, me and a friend spent the summer building a tree house. We built it because our brothers are building it and won’t let us help them. So we asked our parents to support us through shopping for basic tools, collecting scrap wood from the local homeware store, picking a tree, then day after day. to sort beams and planks together into a structure that only our small-sized people can fit.
Our brothers often expand the scope of our progress, refusing to believe we’ve managed some architectural feat on our own, but we don’t mind their judgments. It’s solid, it’s ours, and it’s perfect.
Even though we’ve grown more than a treehouse now too, I still visit it from time to time, recalling the seasons spent among the branches building our humble stronghold – and building our own. we. Those summers have taught me that even with the least amount of support, there is nothing I can do with hard work, resourcefulness, teamwork, and friendship.
I share this story today, ahead of International Women’s Day, March 8, 2022, because I believe every woman has such a story – it can be a story involving many difficulties. had to overcome more than the simple things and privileges of my youth. In fact, statistics on gender equality in the context of sustainable development continue to be astounding.
When Exact percentage is debatedMany people agree that women make up the majority of the world’s poor. 80% of people displaced by climate change are women and girls, and sixty percent of the world’s food insecure people are women and girls. And almost all pre-existing gender inequalities have been aggravated by COVID-19.
But what’s even more amazing are the stories of women triumphing over obstacles – when they turn others’ doubts into opportunities, when the fruits of their tireless labor bring results. The result was unbelievable, when they were given a penny and built a castle.
This deserves reflection and recognition, which is why the Global Landscape Forum celebrates such leaders and agents of change in our annual 16 Women Restoring the Earth campaign. I. This list brings together women from across five continents, three generations and all sectors who are using their efforts, resources, relationships, and self-construction to help create a reality. better economy – and future reality – for all others.
This is our third year edition 16 Women Restoring the Earth (see here) Year 2020 and Year 2021), and in each iteration it has been a tremendous privilege to learn about the lives of such extraordinary women and work with them to create and share this feature.
On this year’s list, we have a Grammy nominated artist and songwriter who has captured the struggles and joys of women in Africa through song; a Pulitzer Prize-winning politician who helped negotiate relationships between major global powers while raising children; a young Indian activist filed a lawsuit against her government at the age of 9 for not doing enough to protect her future from climate change; a scientist who has been tracking Amazon’s greenhouse gas emissions for decades so we can see the health of the world’s most important forest; and a courageous philanthropist finding new ways to send money to local communities, just to name a few.
The phrase “Earth Restoration”, as one may notice, is used in the broadest sense, to encompass the diverse ways in which women are using their minds, bodies, time, and resources. their gift to restore harmony on this planet. What the women we talked about had in common was their level of integrity, determination, resilience, and a sense of humour.
‘s mission Global Landscape Forum, in essence, is to help usher in new relationships between communities and ecosystems to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The women we select for the 16 Women Restoring the Earth campaign have all joined our organization in some form or fashion during our nine years of existence, whether they have grown speak at one of our events, support us through a partnership or simply believe in our mission and play an active role in our global community.
It’s a tough selection process each year, but a selection process filled with gratitude for the contributions so many women have made to help build our treehouse, can say so.
So this campaign is a vehicle to gently remind us of the many forms of inequality that exist on this planet, some of which can be quantified numerically but many are simply told. through words, stories and life experiences. It’s about presenting a diverse set of role models that anyone can look at and think, “If she can do it, so can I.” It is a gathering of light in challenging times to honor the many reasons for optimism and hope that persist.
Above all, we hope it will be a pause, a moment for you to think about what it is building and how you are contributing to the restoration of our Earth, whatever that means. like for you.
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