Summary of the Online Discussion on Linking Gender, Poverty, and Environment for Sustainable Development (May 2 - June 17, 2011)

Abstract

Gender-poverty-environment links: a focus on the links between gender disparity, poverty and environmental degradation is increasingly recognized as a key strategy for improving the lives of poor women and men. Acknowledging the ways in which relationships between the environment, society and the economy are gendered opens space for new approaches to poverty reduction, environmental conservation and gender equality. The Social Development Department (SDV) of the World Bank conducted in-depth studies in Ethiopia and Ghana to advance understanding of the dynamics underlying negative spirals of poverty, environmental degradation, and gender inequality, and how to foster a positive synergy in the sustainable development sector e.g. energy, agriculture, natural resource management, water, urban development, and transport. An important component of the study design was an online discussion within and outside World Bank on findings from the country case studies to ground truth the potential for wider application in other countries; and to collect and share additional good practice cases that address gender-environment-poverty-links from as broad a range of countries as possible.