IIED focus on outstanding women in sustainable development

The increasingly prominent role of women's voices in policy circles is the subject of the first of a new IIED series of articles focusing on the role, influence and impact of women in the field of sustainable development.

The series, featuring a host of outstanding women who work in sustainable development, was launched on International Women's Day on 8 March with an interview with Fatima Denton, the director of the Special Initiatives Division at the UN Economic Commission for Africa.

She describes a shifting policy landscape where women are being increasingly heard, but explains why more work is needed if women are to see real change in their everyday lives.

The interview with Denton is just one of seven blogs and Q&As that will be published ahead of the 2018 Barbara Ward Lecture in June.

IIED's Barbara Ward Lecture series celebrates the institute's founder, a distinguished economist, journalist and policy advisor who was among the earliest advocates of sustainable development.

This year's lecture will be given by the first woman Prime Minister of Norway Gro Harlem Bruntland, who chaired the Brundtland Commission that presented the groundbreaking Brundtland Report on sustainable development.

Over the coming weeks, www.iied.org will feature articles from outstanding women such as Christiana Figueres, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim and Monica Araya.

The next interview will be with Philippine Sutz, senior researcher in IIED's Natural Resources research group. She will explore women and land rights issues ahead of the World Bank Land And Poverty Conference, which starts on 19 March.

Figueres, the former executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), will write about the links between sustainable development and climate change, and particularly the role of women in bringing the Paris Agreement to bear.

Ibrahim, the coordinator for the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad (AFPAT), will examine how to get the voices of indigenous women heard in the sustainable development debate, while Gama, the lead coordinator on gender equality for the Least Developed Countries Group of the UNFCCC, will discuss how women use and need input into technology to advance their sustainable development, focusing on examples in Mali. 

Beth Chitekwe, executive director of Zimbabwe NGO Dialogue on Shelter, will draw on lessons from 20 years working with the Zimbabwe Homeless Federation, while Araya, director of Costa Rican think tank Nivela, will examine the barriers to leadership faced by women.