Category: project news

Report by Tatiana Fett

The First Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG1) under the Global Framework on Chemicals (GFC) – For a Planet Free of Harm from Chemicals and Waste – convened in Punta del Este, Uruguay from the 24^th to the 27^th of June 2025. This session marked a key milestone one and a half years after the adoption of the GFC and the Bonn Declaration at ICCM5 and reflected the growing momentum for integrating gender considerations across the chemicals and waste management framework.

A cornerstone of this progress was the presentation of the draft GFC Gender Action Plan (GFC-GAP), developed by the MSP Institute, namely Maria E. Gonzalez Anaya, the lead associate consultant, in close collaboration with the GFC Secretariat and UNEP under a Small-Scale Funding Agreement. The GFC-GAP responds directly to Resolution V/4, adopted at ICCM5, which requested “the Secretariat, with the participation of interested stakeholders, to develop a gender action plan… to advance towards full, equal and meaningful participation by all women in decision-making, and to promote gender-responsive policies and mainstreaming a gender perspective in the implementation of the framework.”

Development of the GAP

The draft GAP was developed through a three-phase process:

1. Review and Analysis of gender strategies and action plans across other multilateral agreements and UN agencies;
2. Multi-Stakeholder Consultations gathering inputs from governments, IGOs, NGOs, academia, and the private sector;
3. Presentation and Refinement at OEWG1, with input welcomed ahead of ICCM6.

The supporting document UNEP/GFC/OEWG.1/INF/6 emphasizes gender-differentiated risks related to chemical exposure, highlighting key focus areas such as setting gender equality goals within the Secretariats and among stakeholders, building capacity and raising awareness on gender policies, mobilizing financial resources, encouraging gender-balanced participation in decision-making, integrating gender considerations into national reporting and action plans, and creating mechanisms to monitor and evaluate progress. It calls for gender-responsive education, policy frameworks, and financial structures.

Broad Support for the Gender Action Plan

Throughout the week, the GFC-GAP garnered wide support from governments (including all governments from the African region and the European Union), UN agencies, civil society, youth groups, and workers’ organizations. Many praised the GAP’s structured approach, rooted in over twenty stakeholder submissions and informed by lessons from other multilateral environmental agreements (e.g., Minamata and BRS Conventions), as well as gender integration work led by WHO, ILO, UN Women, UNHRC, and others.

Key stakeholder inputs included:

• IPEN emphasized the importance of integrating gender into research efforts and advocated for gender-balanced participation across all GFC processes. They encouraged stakeholder involvement and targeted exposure to chemicals, such as household exposures and those affecting healthcare practitioners. IPEN also urged sustained financial support for women grassroots organizations and called for inclusive and meaningful participation of Indigenous Peoples, young workers, youth, and balanced gender representation.
• Costa Rica and Colombia emphasized the importance of sustained implementation of the GAP beyond OEWG1.
• Uruguay urged to address the disproportionate impact of chemicals on the most vulnerable populations and to ensure the resolution is effectively implemented.
• The Gambia, on behalf of the African Group, stressed the need for a participatory and inclusive approach, fully integrated into the GFC’s structures and activities.
• Brazil underlined the importance of sex-disaggregated data as the foundation for evidence-based policy development.
• OHCHR called for recognizing intersectional discrimination, including the exclusion of Indigenous women and women in vulnerable situations, and advocated for gender-responsive monitoring systems.
• Canada encouraged a more intersectional approach within the GAP, addressing socioeconomic status, Indigenous rights, and occupational exposure.
• The European Union welcomed the progress made and reaffirmed its strong support for gender-responsive implementation aligned with the Framework.
• Children and Youth Major Group reaffirmed their commitment to advancing gender equity within the GFC. The Children and Youth emphasized the need for youth leadership throughout GAP implementation, offering continued support to the MSP Institute and involved partners.
• Mexico called for a more just, inclusive, and coherent system to achieve sustainability, emphasizing the importance of intersectionality and recognizing differentiated impacts. It highlights the need for legislation, disaggregated and scientific data, and inclusive approaches from all perspectives to promote coherence in how products are developed.
• The Dominican Republic acknowledged and reaffirmed its commitment to gender equality as a core principle for effective and sustainable product management, recognizing women as agents of change.

Political Tensions and Pushback

Despite broad enthusiasm, OEWG1 exposed persistent political tensions around gender terminology. Notably, the United States objected to the use of the term “gender” and advocated for explicit references to “men, women, boys, and girls.” While Argentina called for the use of an inclusive perspective of vulnerability instead of the gender perspective. These interventions reflect broader global debates on gender language and highlight the need for ongoing dialogue.

Still, many delegations strongly reaffirmed that progressive gender language is essential for legitimacy, inclusiveness, and ownership of the Framework. As Mexico noted, “leaving no one behind is the mandate.”

Looking Ahead to ICCM6

The draft GAP will undergo further refinement in the lead-up to ICCM6 (2026), where its formal adoption is anticipated. In the interim, stakeholders are encouraged to continue the implementation of resolution V/4 and to share with the secretariat the experiences and good practices derived from that process.

During the negotiations on a Global Framework on Chemicals at the 5th session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5), which took place from 25 – 29 September 2023 in Bonn, Germany, a new multi-stakeholder partnership was launched: the Gender and Chemicals Partnership (G&CP).  

For decades it has been clear that chemicals often have gendered impacts on human health, and that gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls can support the sound management of chemicals and waste. However, gender-responsive chemicals management has hardly been realised worldwide. Therefore, in recent months, interested stakeholders from the world of chemistry, including governments, international organizations, civil society, academic institutions, and industry players came together to develop the G&CP with the support of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) and Partnerships2030 – and to finally launch it at the ICCM5.

In Bonn, about 25 participants joined the evening launch event on 28 September in the colourful restaurant of the World Conference Center Bonn.

First, Minu Hemmati (MSP Institute) welcomed the participants and introduced the topic of gender and chemicals by showing a short information video about the gender lens produced by the MSP Institute. Anna Holthaus (MSP Institute) then gave a short presentation about the new partnership and introduced its objectives, initial activities and further development process of the G&CP: Together the partners aim to jointly promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in chemicals management to make future chemicals management gender-transformative. To start, the G&CP will first focus on the following three activities: collaborating with UN and other intergovernmental organizations, including the Secretariats of related chemicals conventions and processes to raise visibility of and bring attention to the gendered dimensions of chemicals and wastes; supporting gender data collection and disaggregation by science, industry, and (inter)national statistical institutes; and supporting knowledge sharing and training. Therefore, the G&CP plans to finalize its governance structure and to do fundraising in the coming months, to hold a first G&CP Assembly next year and to develop a two-year implementation plan.

In a subsequent panel discussion, the interim board members represented by HE State Secretary Christiane Rohleder from BMUV, Jorge Ocaña from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), María Eugenia González Anaya from the Foreign Office of Mexico, and Mariella Noto from Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) shared in their statements why gender equality in chemicals management is important to them, why they consider the new multi-stakeholder partnership as necessary and what they wish for the partnership in the next year. High Excellency State Secretary Christiane Rohleder underlined in her speech that “we cannot continue ignoring gender as we have so far. We know too little about how gender impacts chemicals management and what impacts chemicals have on people of all genders. There continues to be a lack of comprehensive, gender-specific data and research on chemical contamination as well as instruments and strategies to implement gender-responsive chemicals management locally – we are sailing in uncharted waters” and she called on the participants and partners “Let’s begin charting a course and integrate gender-specific dimensions in all of our efforts for chemicals management. This is the only way we can reduce the adverse impacts of chemical exposure in people of all genders.” All interim board members reaffirmed their future cooperation for an urgently needed gender-responsive chemicals management and thanked BMUV and Partnerships2030 for their support in the initial phase of the MSP.

In an open discussion, participants then discussed the lack of gender data and research in chemicals management, as well as tools and strategies for gender mainstreaming. In addition to the need for gender data from human biomonitoring studies, participants mentioned the need for data on women’s use of chemicals in the private sphere and in chemical industry sectors, the need for qualitative research and more research on the informal sector.

At the end of the event, partners and potential partners, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the BRS Secretariat, Canada, the Caribbean Poison Network of the University of Technology Jamaica (CARPIN), the Royal Society of Chemistry and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry shared in brief statements, why they want to join the G&CP and what they are looking forward to – and finally all partners and potential partners celebrated the official launch of the G&CP with music, balloons and streamers and invited other interested organizations to join the new partnership.

We thank all interim board members, partners, potential partners and interested stakeholders for this wonderful evening – and we look forward to the first joint steps and activities of the G&CP!

Would you like to know more about the G&CP? Are you interested in joining the new partnership? Contact us via email: anna.holthaus[at]msp-institute.org

Feb/March 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya

The resumed 4th meeting of the intersessional process for considering SAICM and the sound management of chemicals and waste beyond 2020 (IP4.2) took place in Nairobi, Kenya from February 27 to March 03, 2023 (SAICM, 2023).

Approximately 500 delegates from governments, intergovernmental organizations, industry, civil society organizations, unions, professional associations, women and gender experts and youth networks met at UNEP headquarters to continue the fourth meeting of the intersessional process that began in August 2022 in Bucharest, and to discuss further the details for a future international framework on the sound management of chemicals and waste in the following groups:

• Thematic group 1: vision, scope, principles and approaches, strategic objectives, targets, and indicators
• Thematic group 2: institutional arrangements, linkages with the future Science-Policy Panel, issues of concern, and mechanisms to support implementation
• Thematic group 3: mechanisms to support capacity building and financial considerations

The meeting made “substantial progress on implementation mechanisms for the new instrument, capacity building, stocktaking, measurability and modalities for considering new issues of concern” (ENB, 2023) and delegates also discussed resolutions to be adopted at the Fifth International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5) in Bonn, Germany, in September 2023 (ibid.). Nevertheless, agreement could not be reached on a range of topics, including targets and financial considerations, and important sections of the consolidated IP document will need further work before ICCM5 in order to achieve the necessary balance between the desired ambition of the new framework and the necessary resources to pursue this ambition successfully, including developing countries. Hence, it was decided during the closing plenary to adjourn IP4 again and resume the session two days before ICCM5.

A summary report by the ENB is available here.

Advocacy for a gender-responsive new framework

Together with other organizations interested in women’s and gender issues, Anna Holthaus from the MSP Institute participated in IP4.2 to advocate for the integration of gender into the new framework. The informal women and gender group actively participated in discussions, met with ICCM5 President Dr. Anita Breyer, and delivered a closing statement in plenary.

The group successfully advocated to include several text proposals on women and gender in the document:

Gender language in principles and approaches:         

[Groups in vulnerable situations] [Particularly impacted groups]
18. “Recognizing that exposure to chemicals and waste often disproportionately affects people in vulnerable situations, including children, youth, the elderly, persons with disabilities, women, workers, migrants, farmers, people living in poverty and Indigenous Peoples and local communities. The implementation of the framework should take these groups into consideration when protecting human health and the environment.

Gender equality
19. Women are agents of change and are vital to address the issues of chemicals and waste. The instrument/framework advances gender equality through their full and equal participation and gender inclusive approaches in all aspects of the implementation of the new instrument/framework, including in decision making [through the implementation of a Gender Action Plan].

Gender language in targets:

Target B3 on data:
“by [20XX] [2030]], [[Governments ][and relevant] [stakeholders to generate]] [require the generation of] [robust]] data on production [and consumption] of chemicals, releases and emissions of chemicals and waste to the environment [based on lifecycle approach] and [gender and age disaggregated on] [concentrations of chemicals in humans][, burden of human disease], biota, and environmental media is generated and [made] [publicly] available [at regional and global [all] levels] [and harmonized research protocols are developed and used to [promote] [ensure] coherence and comparability of this data].]

Target B5 on educational, training and public awareness programmes:
“by 20XX [gender responsive] educational, training and public awareness programmes on chemical safety, sustainability, safer alternatives and benefit of [reducing chemicals and waste risks] [chemicals] have been developed and implemented.” Additional bracketed wording from two CSO proposals on [access to training on chemical risk prevention and clinical environmental toxicology] are included after the target’s main statement, for future consideration.

Nevertheless, a lot of work still remains to ensure that text on women and gender will be taken out of brackets in the final agreement and that gender equality will be ensured in the implementation of the new framework.

We are looking forward to continue our work in the process towards ICCM5 and to strengthen our collaboration with other feminists and women and gender organizations as well as with youth delegates!

Project visit in Kenya: Gazi’s women tackle the triple planetary crisis

Being in Kenya for the SAICM IP4.2 meeting the MSP Institute used the opportunity to also visit some women actors of change. In the village of Gazi, near the Tanzanian border, a group of women is taking care of the mangrove forest to protect biodiversity and foster climate action. Since 2016, the group has been raising awareness through sustainable tourism and community outreach on their boardwalk in the mangroves. The activities are funded by several international and national organizations as well as local industry actors. However, the project has suffered setbacks in recent years, including the COVID-19 crisis as well as plastic pollution. Now, repairing the boardwalk should support recovery: the old rotten wood is currently being replaced with recycled plastic waste material. This will help to attract tourists and to ensure lasting mangrove restoration. The project demonstrates that women are critical to addressing the triple planetary crisis, and their engagement strengthens local communities. For more information about the Gazi women and their project work, watch a short video here.

The resumed first session of the ad hoc open-ended working group (OEWG) on a science-policy panel to contribute further to the sound management of chemicals and waste and to prevent pollution took place in Bangkok, Thailand, from January 30 to February 3, 2023 (UNEP, 2023).

Global chemicals production is expected to double by 2030 (GCOII, 2019) but we still know little about the impacts of chemicals and hazardous waste and pollution on our health and the environment. That is why the need for a science-policy panel has been discussed for years under the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM). In 2021 and 2022 the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), in its resolution 5/8, finally decided that a science-policy panel should be established to contribute further to the sound management of chemicals and waste and to prevent pollution. This UNEA decision marks a historic point: soon all three areas of planetary environmental crisis will have their own science-policy interface. Climate change has the IPCC, biodiversity loss the IPBES, and the establishment of a new science-policy body on the pollution crisis is planned to be completed by the end of 2024.

An open-ended working group (OEWG) was established to prepare proposals for the new panel. The first session of the OEWG was held in two parts: The first part took place on 6 October 2022 in Nairobi in a hybrid format,; and the resumed first session (OEWG-1.2) was held in person at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok. The discussions focused on the scope and functions of the panel. A summary report by the ENB is available here.

Advocacy for a gender-responsive science-policy panel

Anna Holthaus from the MSP Institute attended OEWG-1.2 to work together with other women’s groups and feminists of the Women’s Major Group (WMG) to increase attention to the gender aspects of chemicals, waste and pollution and to the need for a gender-responsive panel. Gender-responsiveness means consciously incorporating gender considerations into the design, implementation, and outcomes of programs and policies – and the approach is used widely at the international policy level (e.g. by UNFCCC, CBD or WHO).

The Women’s Major Group submitted a written statement for OEWG1.2, our colleague Mrinalini Rai from Women4 Biodiversity delivered the WMG’s intervention in contact group 1 on function and scope of the panel, and Anna gave a closing statement in plenary on behalf of the WMG.

Fortunately, gender aspects were also immediately an issue in the discussions of this first session: delegates added the preparation of a gender policy and implementation plan to a list of possible documents to prepare, and decided that this shall be further discussed at the next session. “Activities to ensure (…) gender-responsive participation of scientists” was mentioned in a text proposal on capacity building by the GRULAC and African regions and will be also discussed further at the next meeting. In addition, several Member States like Mexico, Brazil and Chile as well as non-governmental organizations and Major Groups supported the need for a gender-responsive panel during the week.

Background: a massive lack of gender data and research

We believe that a gender-responsive science-policy panel can be an important driver in identifying and addressing gender inequities in chemicals, waste, and pollution prevention, which is urgently needed due to the lack of gender-specific data and research on chemicals, waste, and pollution, as stated below:

“Overall, there is limited data or hard numbers on how different gender roles differentially expose men and women to hazardous chemicals.” (SAICM, 2017)

SAICM/IPEN stated in 2020 that „gender-disaggregated data in labor statistics is unfortunately often lacking for occupational exposure to hazardous chemicals. This lack of data makes occupational epidemiology challenging in many cases.”

„It should be noted that exposure data from most developing countries and countries in transition is scarce and that sex- and gender-disaggregated data is largely missing for most of the [SAICM Emerging Policy Issues].” (ibid.)

Let’s learn from IPBES and IPCC’s gender activities

The need to acknowledge gender equality issues and to strengthen gender-disaggregated data has also been acknowledged by the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

IPBES Assessments are undertaken by a gender-balanced multidisciplinary group of independent experts. IPBES operating principles recognize the need for gender equity in its work.

IPCC adopted its Gender Policy and Implementation Plan in 2020, based on a report of the Task Group on Gender. The Plan aims to enhance gender equality in IPCC processes, to promote a gender-inclusive environment and to raise awareness of gender-related issues.

How to create a gender-responsive science-policy panel

To ensure that the new Science-Policy Panel promotes gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, we suggest that the OEWG should:

• Ensure gender parity among members of the science-policy panel
• Establish a gender-inclusive working environment[1]
• Involve gender experts and the expertise of women’s organizations
• Create a working group on gender
• Establish the collection and use of gender-disaggregated as a scientific standard
• Strengthen gender research (e.g. via a special report or special chapters in reports)

… and we are looking forward to working with all involved actors to make this happen!

For us, the week in Bangkok was a great opportunity to meet with wonderful feminists and organizations working in different MEAs and environmental policy areas to share experiences in gender advocacy and join forces, and to discuss the importance of gender data and research with the scientific sector, other civil society groups, and of course with governments.

---

[1] A gender-inclusive working environment means to provide the entire workforce with safe, inclusive, and healthy work and educational environments in which no one is, on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity, excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, or subjected to discrimination. The term is used by Universities (e.g. Harvard University Guidlines) and by the IPCC, among others.

After two and a half years of not meeting in person, delegates got together again from 27th of August until 2nd of September in Bucharest, Romania, for a workshop, technical briefings and the 4th Meeting of the Intersession Process considering the Strategic Approach and the Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste Beyond 2020 (IP4). Originally, the meeting had been scheduled to take place from 23-27 March 2020 but had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. More than 300 delegates attended, including representatives of governments, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, and industry.

During the meeting, participants discussed the following key elements of potential recommendations to ICCM5 in three thematic groups:

• Thematic group 1: vision, scope, principles and approaches, strategic objectives, targets, and indicators
• Thematic group 2: institutional arrangements, linkages with the future Science-Policy Panel, issues of concern, and mechanisms to support implementation
• Thematic group 3: mechanisms to support capacity building and financial considerations

The resulting document “Co-Chairs Single Consolidated Text” was welcomed by participants in the closing plenary as “a significant achievement” (IISD 2022). Participants agreed to suspend IP4 and want to meet again early next year at IP4.2.

The MSP Institute participated in the meeting and, together with other NGOs working on women and gender issues (including, among others, CIEL, ForumUE, HejSupport, IPEN, PAN and WECF) advocated for the integration of gender in the resulting document. For this purpose, the MSP Institute coordinated an informal women and gender meeting and gave an opening statement on behalf of the group during the first plenary session. During the course of the week, the group developed joint text proposals and took an active role in thematic groups 1 and 2.

Together the group successfully advocated to include several text proposals on women and gender in the document:

• to highlight the aim “to protect human health including that of (…) women” in the introduction, in order to ensure that gender aspects are mentioned right in the beginning;
• to include several international agreements on gender and women’s rights into the principles and approaches of the future framework (especially with the support of Mexico), so that these international agreements are mentioned alongside others focusing on sustainable development, human rights, and others; and
• to include a text proposal to “Ensure gender equality, the recognition of women as agents of change and the inclusion of gender considerations in all relevant aspects of [the new instrument] through inter alia the development and implementation of a gender action plan“, in order to ensure that there are practical steps included in the work of SAICM and SAICM stakeholders after ICCM5.

As Ruth Spencer said on behalf of the group during the closing plenary, it was “good to see so many women as agents of change [at the conference] and to hear gender mentioned in many discussions. Nevertheless, women and non-binary people are still underrepresented in decision making positions in different fields. But recognizing their capacities and knowledge is urgently needed for meeting the 2030 sustainable development goals and to ensure that no one is left behind. Therefore, we need gender equality and gender mainstreaming instruments in the new framework (…) – otherwise, it remains outdated and stays behind all chemicals and waste conventions. The new framework / instrument could be a frontrunner in terms of gender equality by developing a gender action plan.”

Therefore, the text proposals on women and gender need to be discussed and gender considerations need to be integrated in the targets and indicators at IP4.2 and other possible activities between now and ICCM5, and agreed at ICCM5.

A lot of inspiring conversations with delegates, e.g. on our gender and chemicals road map for SAICM focal points, as well as being back at the table and advocating for a gender-just SAICM Beyond 2020 together with colleagues felt really good. It has energized us to continue the work and stay engaged in the process!

A final report and analysis of the meeting by IISD can be found at:
https://enb.iisd.org/saicm-intersessional-process-4-sound-management-chemicals-waste-beyond-2020-summary

The 3rd Meeting of the Intersessional Process Considering the Strategic Approach and the Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste Beyond 2020 (IP3, SAICM) took place from 30th September – 4th October 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand. More than 300 delegates attended, including representatives of governments, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, and industry.

During the meeting, participants discussed four critical aspects: 1) targets, milestones and indicators; 2) institutional arrangements; 3) mechanisms to support implementation; and 4) financial considerations. Participants “made a number of important advances in each area which will serve as an important contribution” (ENB 2019) towards the preparation of recommendations for ICCM5 in autumn next year, e.g. on criteria and mechanisms for adopting so-called issues of concern, ways to enhance multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder engagement and an enabling framework to encourage higher profile and ambition. However, participants couldn’t reach the major milestone of developing a ‘zero draft’ for IP4, which will take place in March 2020 (see ENB summary). This is now being prepared by the secretariat, which was requested to consolidate the outputs of IP3 into a draft for deliberation at IP4. A technical working group on targets, milestones and indicators was established to support further work in this area between now and IP4, and the Government of Germany offered to host a special workshop in January to discuss a possible enhanced enabling framework for beyond 2020.

Our policy demands and information booth #genderjusticeistherightchemistry

The MSP Institute was there, working to increase attention on gender issues, providing information and suggestions on how to integrate gender in a future framework on chemicals and waste:

With a small online campaign on twitter, we spread our main policy demands that new SAICM needs a gender action plan, a gender focal point and women’s full and equal participation. At our information booth, we shared policy suggestions, information material and our brochure about Gender and SAICM Beyond2020.

On Oct 2^nd, the MSP Institute facilitated the second informal meeting on women and gender, which was open to all interested stakeholders. Fifteen delegates attended and exchanged experiences, informed each other about gender projects and activities and discussed how to integrate gender into SAICM Beyond 2020. After the meeting, several participants submitted a first joint position paper on “Gender and the sound management of chemicals and waste beyond 2020” to the SAICM Secretariat, which was prepared by the ‘Women and Gender @ SAICM’- mailing list in advance and further fine-tuned at the meeting.

During the week at IP3, we had a lot of inspiring conversations with delegates and we are pleased that the issue of gender and chemicals is attracting increasing attention – for example by ChemicalWatch and their article “UN should consider how chemicals affect genders differently, say NGOs”. However, merely talking about gender equality is not enough – at IP4, it will be most relevant to mainstream gender into all recommendations for a post-2020 platform.

There is not much time left – let’s integrate gender now!

Upcoming international meetings include:

• IP4 – 23rd – 26th March 2020 in Bucharest, Romania
• ICCM5 – 5th – 9th October 2020 in Bonn, Germany

If you want to be part of the mailing list “Women and Gender @ SAICM” please send an email to anna.holthaus[at]msp-institute.org. The mailing list is open to everyone working in the SAICM Process and interested in women and gender topics.

Thank you and best regards,
Anna and Minu from the MSP Institute

Preparations starting for IP3

The third meeting of the intersessional process (IP3) will be held at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok, Thailand, from 1 to 4 October 2019 – and the MSP Institute will participate to advocate for the integration of gender in SAICM Beyond 2020. Together with the new “Women and Gender@SAICM”-Group we are now starting to develop a position paper on women’s and gender issues in relation to the sound management of chemicals and waste. In addition, we are preparing an interactive join-in campaign for the meeting.

Stakeholder input – SAICM Beyond 2020

We submitted an input on SAICM and the sound management of chemicals and waste beyond 2020 to the SAICM Secretariat in June, hoping to support the preparations for IP3. Our submission makes policy recommendations regarding mechanisms to support implementation; measures to achieve multisectoral engagement; issues of concern and “Principles and Approaches”. You can find our input here: Stakeholderinput-SAICM_MSPInstitute.

Gender and Chemicals at ISC3 Stakeholder Forum

We participated at the 1^st ISC3 Stakeholder Forum (ISC3 – International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre) and are further engaged in the dialogue on the emerging concept of sustainable chemistry. It is argued that Sustainable Chemistry is a holistic approach addressing all three dimensions of sustainable development and therefore much broader than Green Chemistry. We will continue to advocate for gender equality; human rights and poverty reduction to be at the heart of the concept.

Upcoming events: Beijing +25 – Generation Equality Campaign

In 2020, the global community will mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995). The Beijing Platform for Action is the most visionary agenda for the empowerment of women and girls everywhere around the globe. It was adopted by 189 governments committed to taking strategic, bold action in 12 critical areas of concern: poverty, education and training, health, violence, armed conflict, economy, power and decision-making, institutional mechanisms, human rights, media, environment, and the girl child. 2020 is therefore a pivotal year for the accelerated realization of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. UN Women’s new, multigenerational campaign marking the anniversary and the need to intensify action, is already starting now: “Generation Equality: Realizing women’s rights for an equal future”.

Informative Publication: Gender in Multi-Stakeholder-Partnerships

SAICM is a big multi-stakeholder process (MSP), where gender matters at different levels. We invite you to have a look at the new giz publications about gender in multi-stakeholder partnerships. They provide guidance on how to fully integrate gender in MSPs by offering concrete, systematic support. In a step-by-step manner, difficulties are pointed out, valuable tools are offered and concrete examples are given.

Gender in other global multilateral environmental agreements and the SDG Process

BRS Conventions: The Gender Action Plan of the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions was updated with indicators for monitoring in March 2019 and submitted to the 2019 COPs. In addition, the BRS Secretariat, together with GRID-Arendal, developed a Pocket Guide to the BRS Gender Action Plan, which was launched at the 2019 BRS COPs.

UNFCCC: At the Bonn Climate Change Conference (SB50) from 17^th-27^th June 2019, parties spent 4 days reviewing was has been achieved under the UNFCCC Gender Action Plan so far. In a workshop organized by the UNFCCC Secretariat Gender Team, success stories were shared and organizations like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Climate Technology Centre & Network and the Green Climate Fund reported on their gender actions.

High-Level Political Forum (HLPF): At this year’s HLPF, SDGs 4,8,10,13,16 and 17 will be reviewed under the theme “Empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality”. Especially for women and girls, the 2019 HLPF is critical because “the goals under review speak to some of the most pressing structural challenges the world faces” (Women’s Major Group (WMG) 2019). See the WMG full position paper here.

The third Meeting of the Open-Ended Working Group for the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (OEWG3, SAICM) took place from 2-4 April 2019 in Montevideo, Uruguay. Approximately 350 delegates attended, including representatives of governments, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, and industry. The MSP Institute was there, working to increase attention on gender issues, providing information and suggestions on how to integrate gender in a future framework on chemicals and waste.

During the meeting, OEWG3 participants assessed SAICM’ progress and activities regarding the emerging policy issues and other issues of concern, discussed the sound management of chemicals and waste beyond 2020, prepared for ICCM5 and considered the planned activities and draft budget of SAICM secretariat (see ENB summary here).

We presented our new brochure “Gender & SAICM Beyond 2020. How to create a gender-just healthy planet” at our information booth, as well as other information material and policy suggestions. We were very pleased to see that all our material was picked up, and we had a lot of inspiring conversations.

On the second day of OEWG3, we invited all interested stakeholders to a first informal meeting on women and gender. The goal was to get to know each other, exchange experiences and to think about how we can create a gender-just healthy planet. Seventeen interested SAICM stakeholders from governments, NGOs and IGOs attended the meeting. We had a fruitful discussion and brainstorming on the necessity of the integration of gender in SAICM. We also collected concrete ideas on what we can do to make SAICM Beyond 2020 more gender-sensitive, e.g. organizing side-events, publishing publications, compiling information on gender/women stories at country levels or working with the network of women environment ministers.  The group agreed that there should be a next women and gender meeting at IP3 in Bangkok in September/October and created a new mailing list to stay in touch and continue discussions. We are very happy that so many delegates are interested to work together on gender and we hope that this work will help to achieve the full integration of gender in SAICM Beyond 2020.

The new mailing list “Women and Gender @ SAICM” is open to everyone working in the SAICM Process and interested in women and gender topics. If you want to be part of it, please send an email to: anna.holthaus[at]msp-institute.org 

There is not much time left until 2020 – let’s integrate gender now!

Upcoming international meetings include:

• IP3 – 30^th Sept – 4^th Oct 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand
• IP4 – Spring 2020 in Bucharest, Romania
• ICCM5 – 5^th – 9^th October 2020 in Berlin, Germany

Thank you and best regards,
Anna and Minu from the MSP Institute

 

The fourth session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-4) was held from 11-15 March 2019 in Nairobi, Kenya. Under the motto “Innovative Solutions for Environmental Challenges and Sustainable Consumption and Production”, UNEA-4 addressed environmental challenges related to poverty and natural resources management, including sustainable food systems, food security and halting biodiversity loss, life-cycle approaches to resource efficiency, energy, chemicals and waste management and innovative sustainable business development at a time of rapid technological change (UNEP 2019a). Tragically, the assembly was overshadowed by the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash on March 10. We grieve with the global community for the 157 people and colleagues who perished while en route to Nairobi.

Anna from the MSP Institute attended UNEA-4 to work together with other women’s groups and feminists of the Women’s Major Group (WMG) to increase attention, inter alia, to gender and chemicals issues.

At UNEA-4, many side-events discussed the challenges of chemicals, waste and pollution. The new synthesis report of the second edition of the Global Chemicals Outlook (GCO-II) was being launched. It underlines the importance of a sound management of chemicals and waste: The global goal to minimize adverse impacts of chemicals and waste will not be achieved by 2020; the World Health Organization estimated the burden of disease from selected chemicals at 1.6 million lives in 2016; and moreover, the chemicals industry will double by 2030. Therefore, more ambitious worldwide action by all stakeholders is urgently required (UNEP 2019b). The High Ambition Alliance on Chemicals and Waste, led by Sweden and Uruguay, met for the second time and the German government and the BRS Conventions Secretariat held a side event on “Advancing the sustainability of chemicals throughout the life cycle”. The issue of gender and chemicals was taken up in particular by the BRS Secretariat: Executive Secretary Rolph Payet met with the Women’s Major Group, and a lounge area installation by the Geneva Chemicals and Waste Cluster addressed, inter alia, the interlinkages between gender and chemicals.

Important meeting at #UNEA4 today for the BRS Secretariat as @UN #Detox chief @rolphpayet & colleagues meet with the Womens Major Group delegates: a strong group of inspiring women working all over the world to #SolveDifferent for a #CleanPlanetHealthyPeople @WECF_INT @GENetwork pic.twitter.com/6DYuS54R8o

— BRS Conventions (@brsmeas) 12. März 2019

The UN Environmental Assembly adopted a first ever resolution on “Promoting gender equality and the human rights and empowerment of women and girls in environmental governance”. This is an important step towards strengthening gender equality and women’s rights in the area of international, regional and national policy making on climate change and environmental issues as a key to Sustainable Development and the 2030Agenda. The resolution specifically invites member states to establish gender criteria for national environmental projects and programs, to recognize gender equality and the role of women and girls as sustainability change agents, and to support capacity-building to enhance women’s active and meaningful participation in decision-making. However, states could not agree on the importance of protecting women’s human rights and environmental defenders, despite this having been articulated throughout the negotiations.  In addition, the United States refused to include any reference to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in the adopted resolution (Women’s Major Group 2019, see the full press release of the Women’s Major Group here).

Despite this landmark resolution, any real mainstreaming of gender was missing. Resolutions relevant to chemicals include a call to governments, international organisations, industry, civil society and the scientific communities to improve the information on chemicals in products in consumer goods as well as throughout the supply chain; to establish programmes that provide consumers and the general public with information on the risks from chemicals; to strengthen the science-policy interface; and to pursue an improved framework for the sound management of chemicals and waste after 2020 (ChemicalWatch 2019) – but none of these resolutions include any direct references to gender nor any substantive information on how gender mainstreaming could be implemented in the respective areas of work or action plans.

For us, UNEA-4 was a great opportunity to make quite a few new contacts, engage in intense discussions with colleagues, and share information about gender in chemicals and waste management with many governments and stakeholders from around the world in advance of the SAICM third meeting of the Open-ended Working Group (OEWG3).

References

UNEP (2019a): Innovative solutions for environmental challenges and sustainable consumption and production. The fourth session of the UN Environment Assembly will gather in Nairobi, Kenya from 11 – 15 March 2019. Online at: http://web.unep.org/environmentassembly/.

Women’s Major Group (2019): About us. Online at: http://www.womenmajorgroup.org/.

UNEP (2019b): The second edition of the Global Chemicals Outlook. Online at: https://www.unenvironment.org/explore-topics/chemicals-waste/what-we-do/policy-and-governance/global-chemicals-outlook.

United Nations Environment Assembly (2019): Promoting gender equality and the human rights and empowerment of women and girls in environmental governance. Online at: https://papersmart.unon.org/resolution/uploads/k1900914.pdf.

CIEL/Women’s Major Group: Feminists at UNEA-4 Continue the Call for the Right to a Healthy and Sustainable Environment. Online at: https://www.ciel.org/news/feminists-at-unea-4-continue-the-call-for-the-right-to-a-healthy-and-sustainable-environment/.

ChemicalWatch (2019): Unea4 adopts resolutions to push forward sound management of chemicals. Online at: https://chemicalwatch.com/75338/unea4-adopts-resolutions-to-push-forward-sound-management-of-chemicals.

by Anna Holthaus, MSP Institute

The HLPF  is United Nations platform for follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This year’s theme was ‘Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies’. SDG 12 “Responsible Consumption and Production”, dealing explicitly with the management of chemicals and waste, was among the individual SDGs under review this year. That’s why the MSP Institute attended HLPF2018 to work together with other women’s groups and feminists of the Womens Major Group (WMG) to increase attention, inter alia, to gender and chemicals issues.

The WMG was created at the 1992 Earth Summit and is an official participant in the United Nations processes on Sustainable Development. With over 600 members it is responsible for facilitating women’s active participation, information sharing and input into the policy discussions at the United Nations. 180 WMG members attended HLPF 2018, meeting daily and advocating for feminist positions (see the WMG Position Paper, with a special section on SDG 12, p12). In addition, we took part in the daily WMGs social media campaign #FEMINISTDEMAND (see our tweets) and special protest actions against the killing of environmental defenders in Colombia.

There was a lot going on regarding chemicals and waste at HLPF: The goal of creating a global circular economy was a significant topic in the review of SDG 12 (see ENB Report), the European Commission presented the first European strategy for plastics, the German government held a side event on SAICM Beyond 2020 and Sweden launched the high ambition alliance on chemicals and waste. So it seems that things are moving – yet the interlinkages with gender issues received little or no attention, presumably often due to a lack of awareness. There is a long way to go to increase awareness of gender aspects of chemicals and waste management, and we hope that the SAICM Beyond 2020 process can contribute to laying foundations for gender justice in chemicals and waste management in the future.

The HLPF itself concluded by adopting a negotiated, but not legally binding, Ministerial Declaration. This reaffirms Member States’ commitment to realizing the 2030 Agenda and leaving no one behind – but did not move beyond already agreed language. Quite the contrary, Russia called for a vote on a paragraph affirming gender equality, aiming to weaken language there, and the US and Israel declined the Ministerial Declaration as a whole. These instances illustrate how the global consensus on the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda can be undermined in times of globalizing nationalism.

For us, the trip to HLPF was still worth it: we made quite a few new contacts, had intense discussions with colleagues, and shared information about gender in chemicals and waste management with many governments and stakeholders from around the world.