Overview

The writers of the Report of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization believe that the process of globalization needs to have a strong social dimension based on universally shared values, respect for human rights and individual dignity. The process must be fair, inclusive, democratically governed and provide opportunities and benefits for all people in all countries. In calling for sustainable development the Report states that “the quest for a fair globalization must be underpinned by the interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars of:

• Economic development,
• Social development and
• Environmental protection at local, national and global levels.”

If humanity is to survive many generations to come, both the natural and the built environments must be given special attention. In recent times we have witnessed extreme degradation of natural environmental resources as their misuse and over-utilisation, without proper care for replenishment, have brought the world to the precipice of endangering environmental sustainability. Excessive development of built environments is also creating problems with pollution, overcrowding and slums, inadequate sanitation and waste disposal.

The following trends require urgent action to avoid disastrous outcomes such as ill health and disease, climate change, floods, drought and famine, failed agricultural production and poverty and unemployment.

• The diminution, pollution and wastage of lakes, rivers and fresh water resources
• Deforestation affecting rain systems
• A shortage of drinking water and water wastage
• Increased production of green house gases and pollution of the atmosphere
• Demand for energy sources, often from non-renewable sources
• Loss of productive land.

Climate Change

Climate change is of particular concern and will affect all of us. A recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, entitled The Physical Science Basis of Climate Change, provides scientific evidence of the affects of human activity on the world’s climate.

The global increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change, while those of methane and nitrous oxide are primarily due to agriculture. Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from:

• Observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures,
• Widespread melting of snow and ice,
• Rising global average sea level.

"The impact of climate change is immediately to affect human rights..."

Climate change will affect people, countries and regions disproportionately. As Mary Robinson has stated:

"The impact of climate change is immediately to affect human rights - the right to food, the right to safe water and education. The wider reason is that it is the industrialized countries who are responsible for greenhouse gases but the impact is in the poor countries. Their capacity to implement human rights reforms is then undermined by climate change - there are droughts, women have to walk further to get water, and it is this chain of effects that is damaging their human and social rights."

"It is not sufficient to have debt cancellation, aid raised to 0.7% of GDP and fair trade if you also have global warming and environmental degradation," Mary Robinson told an audience at the Dynamic Earth centre. "We have to mobilise to make sure climate change is on the same front burner in people's minds as the other issues."

Global Energy Future

Associated with the need for urgent action on climate change is a growing awareness on the imperatives for a global energy future that focuses on:

• Existing renewable energy technologies
• Greater efforts at energy efficiency
• Dissemination of decentralized energy technologies and options.

For more information, read the Energy [R]evolution: a Sustainable World Energy Outlook Report from the European Renewable Energy Council.

Sustainable Human Settlements

A third area calling for urgent and on-going action is sustainable human settlements. Urbanization is closely integrated with economic development, which, if it is to be sustainable, is dependent on:

• Innovative urban economic development
• Better urban governance
• Safer and cleaner cities
• Cities with no slums where people have access to shelter, water, sanitation and other basic needs

Some Interventions have been designed to alleviate some of the repercussions of the abuse of the natural and built environments. The United Nations' Billion Tree Campaign is a case in point.

Women & Children

As has been noted by Mary Robinson, when the environment degenerates the first to feel the unsavoury impact are women and children. UN reports show that most of the world's low-income workers who till the soil, tend the trees, labour in the factories and inhale the fumes are women.

The sensational Chipko Women's movement is a good example of a protest against this trend.

The Millennium Village Project uses immunization campaigns, mass distribution of bed nets, countrywide de-worming, vitamin supplementation, voucher-based provision of seeds and fertilizers, treadle pumps for irrigation, elimination of user fees for schools and clinics and mass training of community health workers – all ‘tools’ that can bring about a dramatic surge in productivity that raises incomes and initiates self-sustaining economic growth.

As stated by the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, not only is it is mandatory that the world strike a balance between the maintenance of a sustainable environment and the propagation of economic policies, but that it also promote a fair and inclusive globalization through productive and decent employment for all. Economic policies are needed that are not only are environment-friendly, but also wealth producing, especially for women who have been marginalized. For more on this issue you can download the United Nations University Report, Gender and the Distribution of Wealth in Developing Countries.

If women are to be part of global economic futures it is essential to fulfil Strategic Objective F.1 of the Beijing Platform for Action: "Promote women’s economic rights and independence, including access to employment, appropriate working conditions and economic resources". This points to the need to place employment at the centre of social and economic policies and a need to tailor intervention, in the world of work for women, to their specific needs.

In recognition of these facts the Commission on the Status of Women in 2008 will focus on: Financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women.

At the 23rd special session of the General Assembly it was noted that the realization and achievement of the goals of gender equality, development and peace needed to be supported by human, financial and material resources for specific and targeted activities at local, national and regional levels. This implies a need for gender budgeting processes, identification of best practices and recommendations for future action.

The right to:
- Work
- Just and favourable conditions of work
- Social security
- An adequate standard of living including adequate food, clothing and housing are rights under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Productive and decent employment is critical to lift people out of poverty. As women constitute 70% of the world’s absolute poor and 60% of the working poor, equality of opportunity for women that also takes account of their local, economic opportunities, their cultural identity and respects the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples is key to achieving a just society.

Quoting again from the Report of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization , “priorities must be given to policies that:

• Meet the aspirations of both women and men for decent work
• Raise the productivity of the informal market
• Integrate the informal market into the mainstream economy
• Enhance the competitiveness of enterprises and economies”

Other important considerations are:

• Maternity leave for working mothers
• The provision of affordable and accessible childcare so that women can seek and remain in employment and develop their careers
• Recognition of the voluntary and caring work in the community mainly carried out by women
• Removal of discrimination against retired people that puts them into a position of dependency.

Graduate women, as agents for change in building sustainable futures, have a responsibility to educate citizens and policy makers about the benefits of responsible land use, advocating for healthy communities and protection of economic, cultural and natural resources.