Arne Hoel/World Bank
Oceans and seas are home to vast biodiversity. A woman in Entebbe, is photographed on the shores of Lake Victoria, Uganda.
8 June 2019
SDGs
Women are engaged in all aspects of interaction with our ocean, yet their voices are often missing at the decision-making level, the head of the United Nations cultural agency said on World Oceans Day, emphasizing that “we must ensure diversity and gender inclusiveness at all levels” to set a balanced course for humanity and foster innovative solutions for the ocean.
“We need to empower each and every citizen to take care of the ocean and enable all women to play transformative and ambitious roles in understanding, exploring, protecting and sustainably managing our ocean”, said Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, pointing out that this year’s “special edition” of World Oceans Day links the themes of gender equality and ocean preservation.
Women engage in all aspects of ocean interaction, yet in many parts of the world, women’s contribution, both towards ocean-based livelihoods like fishing, and conservation efforts, are invisible and, gender inequality persists “from the marine industry to the field of ocean science”.
The UN says there is also very little data and research on these issues, and a concerted action towards gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is still needed in all ocean-related sectors to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5).
Not only is the ocean an increasingly important battleground for achieving gender equality, Ms. Azoulay said, “but building a more gender equal society also means empowering women and girls to be the actors of positive ocean change”.
Citing UNESCO’s Global Ocean Science Report, Ms. Azoulay highlighted that women represent only 38 per cent of all ocean scientists. And while women make up 50 per cent of the marine and coastal industries workforce, “their wages continue to be lower than those of men”.
“Mainstreaming gender equality throughout the Ocean Science Decade will help ensure that, by 2030, women as much as men are driving ocean science and management, helping to deliver the ocean we need for a prosperous, sustainable and environmentally secure future”, stressed the UNESCO chief.
Pointing out that it is the source of the world’s fresh water, she recalled in her message on Saturday that the ocean “produces half of the oxygen we breathe, and powerfully affects our climate”.
“Yet the ocean is endangered”, she lamented, saying that global warming, acidification, pollution, dead zones, harmful algal blooms and ecosystem degradation “reveal how far human activities have impacted on our oceans”.
UN Women/UNEP/GWA/WWF/UNESCO
World Oceans Day
https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/06/1040091
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