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COPYRIGHT 2002 African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET)
The world Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), which took place in Johannesburg in August 2002 brought under the spotlight the interrelatedness of social, economic and environmental factors in achieving sustainable development. The women's caucus in Johannesburg worked hard to expose the negative impact of globalisation, linking the neoliberal economic model to widespread and growing poverty, violence and environmental degradation.
The caucus noted that African women bear the brunt of the impact of economic globalisation, which is driven by liberalised market forces increasing poverty, violence crime and environmental degradation. The result is that women have to juggle more work and household tasks with less income and less access to land. Women's economic inequities are further exacerbated by the failure of international institutions to formulate and evaluate financial and trade policies from a gender perspective, the failure of governments to address working conditions in the informal sector, wage inequities in the formal sector and the failure to integrate women's unpaid work into national accounting systems. There is a need for a new international regulatory framework which promotes sustainable development to challenge this.
Women should have the right to access and control land and other natural resources in order to create sustainable community livelihoods and reduce rural poverty. Legislative reforms are necessary to ensure that women have full and equal access to...
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