Although trade can be a catalyst for greater gender equality, the effects of trade liberalization and economic globalization on women have been mixed. While trade has provided new livelihoods and empowered women, the benefits that women have gained from trade liberalization have often been marginal, relatively lower than those accruing to men. In some cases, trade liberalization may have exacerbated gender inequalities and worsened women’s economic and social status.

IISD’s  Trade Knowledge Network has completed a multi-regional research project that attempts to provide better understanding on the trade-gender nexus across our three focus regions: South America, Southeast Asia and Southern Africa. The papers can be downloaded here:

• Beyond Barriers: The Gender Implications of Trade Liberalization in Southern Africa
  Paper: Sheila Kiratu, Suryapratim Roy, 2010
• Beyond Barriers: The Gender Implications of Trade Liberalization in Southeast Asia
  Paper: Alexander C. Chandra, Lucky A. Lontoh, Ani Margawati, 2010
• Beyond Barriers: The Gender Implications of Trade Liberalization in Latin America
  Paper: Vivianne Ventura-Dias, 2010

Please feel free to forward these papers to your networks.

The International Institute for Sustainable Development expects a full house at the Canadian Sustainability Indicators Network’s two-day conference on Accountability Through Measurement in Toronto, March 2 and 3.

Interest in accountability through measurement has been growing steadily, with government, business and community members in CSIN rising to 1,200 today, from just 350 members two years ago.

“We have seen interest rise with an increasing need to demonstrate accountability and progress towards sustainability goals,” said CSIN coordinator Christa Rust. “Indicators are being used at every level of government, business and community to better inform decision-making and strategic management.”

László Pintér, IISD director of measurement and assessment, said Canada’s interest in these developments is part of a global movement.

“Demand for increased accountability and tools that measure real progress is being driven by unprecedented and concurrent crises to climate, food, health, energy and the economy and the need to respond to even greater challenges ahead,” he said.

The 2nd National CSIN Conference follows OECD’s Charting Progress, Building Visions, Improving Life World Forum, held in South Korea in October 2009, which featured the launch of IISD’s BellagioSTAMP, a set of guiding principles to measure and assess progress towards sustainability.  -more-

The following is commentary by Karl Hansen of the Living Rainforest, who previously worked for the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development. 

By Karl Hansen

Following the Copenhagen Climate Summit which ended in stalemate last December, the President of Bolivia is seizing the initiative and hosting a People’s World Summit on Climate Change in Cochabamba this April. One of the key documents for discussion will be a Draft Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth. 

The political dynamic here is really interesting. For one thing, it’s the first time a self-identified indigenous leader is taking such a commanding role on the world stage. For another, Evo Morales revels in attacking the ‘global capitalist system’ which he says has dominated world affairs in the modern era and which he blames for the global ecological crisis.

This may not be altogether comfortable ground for those who prefer a more ’business as usual’ approach to conservation issues but at the very least, Morales is raising important questions about the future of our imperiled planet and the issues he raises deserve to be taken seriously.

It is also a further sign that power is shifting from the developed West to new players on the world stage like the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and ecological innovators like Bolivia, Costa Rica and Ecuador. -read more-

How to gauge progress towards social, economic and environmental sustainability is the main focus of the Canadian Sustainability Indicators Network’s two-day conference on Accountability Through Measurement, to be held at the Marriott Courtyard in Toronto, March 2 and 3, 2010.

CSIN is a one-of-a-kind Canadian network of 1,200 members with a mission to foster development of sustainability indicators and the effective use of these indicators in decision-making. The network is part of the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s measurement and assessment program.

Roy Romanow, chair of the Canadian Institute of Wellbeing, will be the keynote speaker at the gala dinner on March 3, talking about the importance of measuring what matters most to Canadians.

The 2nd National CSIN Conference follows OECD’s Charting Progress, Building Visions, Improving Life World Forum, held in South Korea in October 2009, which featured the launch of IISD’s BellagioSTAMP, a new set of guiding principles to measure and assess progress towards sustainability.

The CSIN conference features presentations by renowned experts including:

• Scott Vaughan, Canada’s Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development
• Johanne Gélinas, Partner and Leader of Deloitte Canada’s Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Group
• Enrico Giovannini, President of the Italian National Statistics Institute (ISTAT)
• Hazel Henderson, Founder of Ethical Markets Media – author, futurist and syndicated columnist 

The conference offers several optional workshops as well as plenary sessions. Themes include:

Strengthening Sustainable Development Governance through Measurement

• Getting the Message Across – Innovation in the Visualization of Indicators
• From Information to Influence–Incorporating Indicators into Decision-Making
• Experiences and Best Practices
• The Business of Sustainability Indicators.

Please register online.

For more information, please contact:
Sue Barkman at the conference: Phone: +1-(204)-958-7738, Cell: +1-(204)-795-5898

The following is IISD’s submission to the Internet Governance Forum for public consultations taking place in Geneva Feb 9-10, 2010

Proposals from the International Institute for Sustainable Development 

The IGF has been concerned throughout its first term with both the internal governance of the Internet and the interface between the Internet and aspects of culture and society, economy and policy.

During the last four years, the Internet has grown enormously in scale and scope, having an increasing impact on culture and society, economy and policy worldwide. Its impact on these will continue to increase as the Internet’s reach extends to more people, businesses and organizations; as an ever increasing number of Internet services become more and more widely available, predominant or ubiquitous; and as the Internet plays an increasing part in all aspects of society, from entertainment to politics, commerce to criminality. Many of those who are involved in the IGF believe that it will have a fundamental, transformative effect on the way in which society works, both nationally and globally.

One result of society’s increasing dependence on the Internet is that Internet policy and governance, nationally and internationally, is of increasing importance – not just for Internet specialists and for the range of organizations and other entities that are directly concerned with it, but for other governance bodies, national and international, and for those whose lives are governed, in different ways, by them.

Even technical governance issues such as standards and Internet coordination are important outside the Internet community in terms of their impact on society – for example, on access, on the availability of (online and offline) services, on competition, or on the environment. But developments on the Internet that interface extensively with other aspects of culture and society, economy and policy are even more important to the wider world.

IISD believes that the IGF needs to develop its role in order to respond to the Internet’s growing importance. If the IGF is to contribute meaningfully to debate and policy development in areas such as economic development, global governance and the environment, with which the Internet now intersects, it cannot do so in isolation. It can only contribute meaningfully through dialogue with communities, organizations and fora that are primarily concerned with those other aspects of culture and society, economy and policy. Dialogue in this context is as much about learning from other domains as it is about promoting the values and potentials of the Internet.

To achieve dialogue of this kind requires some evolution in the way the IGF works and engages with the world community. IISD has two proposals to put forward.

The first concerns the further development of multistakeholder participation in the IGF. The IGF has established an innovative and, in many ways, successful, model of multistakeholder engagement. It has achieved positive and collaborative participation from those in governments, the private sector and civil society who are strongly interested in the Internet and its governance.

This is an important platform on which to build, however, rather than a complete achievement. Even among those who are strongly interested in the Internet and its governance, the extent of participation varies. IISD shares the desire of many to make participation of those who are interested in the Internet and its governance more inclusive, particularly by gender and geography.

However, IISD believes the IGF must go much further than this if it is to fulfill its potential contribution to the Internet and to the world at large. It needs to be more than a meeting place for those who are interested specifically in Internet governance. It needs to be a meeting place between those concerned with Internet governance and those who are concerned with the impact of the Internet on other aspects of culture and society, economy and policy.

Although the IGF has succeeded in bringing together participants from government, business and civil society, there are major gaps in its participation. Not enough governments take part. Most business participation comes from ICT-related firms, not from major users of the Internet such as the financial service industry. Participating civil society is largely made up of individuals. There are few civil society organizations involved, including few of the major international NGOs that play such an important part in civil society in other policy domains. Stakeholders such as these need to be involved in the IGF as well if it is to truly fulfill its multistakholder objectives.

IISD believes therefore that the IGF should actively seek to bring into the debate about the future of the Internet actors, from across the stakeholder communities, whose primary interests and responsibilities lie elsewhere, particularly in domains – from development to the environment, from crime and policing to financial services – which are being fundamentally affected by the Internet. It needs to reach out to these stakeholders and engage them in its work, and it needs to listen to what they have to say about their priorities, their challenges and their concerns.

Dialogue of this kind would help the Internet community to understand better the complexities, challenges and priorities of those dealing with issues such as economic recovery, social development, health and education, environmental protection and disaster management, which the Internet is affecting or where it has a role to play. Equally, it would help those concerned with these other domains – from whatever stakeholder group they come – to understand better the complexities, potentialities and challenges posed by the Internet.

IISD’s second concern is with the relationship between the IGF and other international fora.

In IISD’s experience, one of the major shortcomings of WSIS was its failure to engage with other international fora, particularly with the Millennium Review Summit in 2005. Similarly, there was little or no interaction between the IGF and last year’s UN Conference of the Parties on climate change. If the Internet is fundamentally important to every aspect of our planet’s future, discussion of the Internet should not be absent from these debates. There should be some potential within the UN system for interaction between the IGF and other international fora.

IISD is not recommending specific steps for action here, because we believe that the way to move forward on these issues needs to emerge from discussions between stakeholders within and beyond the IGF community. IISD does, however, believe that these issues are fundamentally important for the future of the IGF, and urges the Secretariat and all stakeholder communities to consider them in the run-up to this year’s meeting in Lithuania so that they can be brought forward during the coming year.

In its first five years, the IGF has been able to develop a valuable forum about the Internet for the Internet community. If it is to fulfill its potential in the next five years, assuming that its mandate is renewed, it should seek to build on that initial platform a forum about the Internet that is as valuable for the world community as a whole.

Respectfully submitted by

Heather Creech, Director, Global Connectivity, IISD, with

David Souter, IISD Associate

Ben Akoh, Project Manager, IISD

And the Global Connectivity team at IISD

IISD’s Oli Brown will moderate an online discussion on ‘Peacekeeping and Natural Resource Management’ as part of the five-day online Security Jam, which begins February 4 and runs to February 9, 2010

Security Jam is organized by a group of the world’s leading think tanks and with the official support of the European Commission and NATO. The event will gather practical ideas for concrete solutions to the challenges facing the international community.

It is designed to allow several thousand representatives and experts from around the globe take part in an online debate on key issues that govern our safety and development.

The discussion forums are designed around pressing security challenges and will bring together experts and practitioners from the entire spectrum of the international community to brainstorm on a variety of issues, including the environment and security.

Brown will moderate the forum discsussions on Monday, February 8, between 1 and 3 p.m. CET/7 and 9a.m. EST.

IISD’s Mark Halle will be speaking on the topic of sustainable development and its failure at University Club, UC Irvine: University of California Irvine-University Club, in Irvine California, Tuesday February 9, 2010, from 7-8:30 p.m. local time.

Halle will offer solutions on how to adapt economic policies and share current economic crises and environmental climate summons that need urgent action.

The University’s 2010 Sustainability Seminar Series is designed to help foster dialogue between social and natural scientists on the challenges of sustainability in the 21st century.

IISD’s supply chain analysis of China’s cotton industry is making news as environmentally aware consumers take a closer look at the choices they make.

Miller-McCune Magazine’s cover story: Can China Turn Cotton Green?, by Chris Wood looks at how the production of cotton clothing is a huge and filthy global business that will be difficult to clean up.

Using IISD’s research, Wood looks at how global cotton industry is contributing to pollution in China and elsewhere.

“That “all-natural” cotton T-shirt in your closet? The one with the eco-friendly message brightly printed on the front? Ounce for ounce, it could be the most environmentally toxic item of clothing you own,” Wood writes.

The article has been picked up by about a dozen blogs across the United States, and touted as a “great primer on cotton and the cotton trade”.  The research was also the focus of a recent special report on Textiles and the Environment (page6), published by U.K.-based World Textiles Publications.

IISD’s report on China’s cotton sector also looked at the supply chain management of forestry and e-products. The work was supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and carried out in cooperation with the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).

As one of the world’s leading policy research institutes, the IISD has been involved with China for many years through the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED). The CCICED is a high-level advisory body that makes recommendations to the Chinese government on environment and development issues.

IISD is a founding member of CCICED’s Working Group on Trade and Environment, established in 1995. IISD has helped to assess the environmental consequences of China’s WTO accession, particularly on the environment and development, and contributes to the debates concerning the transformation of China’s economy and its impact on sustainable development. IISD continues to be involved in the China Council through the work of IISD’s Distinguished Fellow and former President, Arthur Hanson, and others.

By Oli Brown

Leaders from the African Union, the EU, NATO and the UN have agreed unanimously that climate change threatens international peace and security, and urged that the time is now for action.

Five prominent participants, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Secretary General of NATO, Jean Ping, the Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, and Helen Clark, the Administrator of the UNDP were joined by Carl Bildt and Per Stig Møller, Foreign Ministers of Sweden and Denmark respectively, to take part in a remarkable public panel discussion organized by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the second week of the Copenhagen climate talks. 

The leaders agreed climate change could hold serious implications for international security, both as a ‘threat multiplier’ of existing problems and, as the cause of conflict, under certain conditions. 

Møller suggested there is evidence that higher temperatures in Africa could be directly linked to increases in conflict. Ping emphasised that African emissions make up only 3.8 per cent of the climate problem, though Africa will likely suffer some of its most serious impacts. Rasmussen warned of the dangers of territorial disputes over the Arctic as the sea ice recedes. Clark said: “We need to stop the worst from happening.”

While there was broad agreement on the seriousness of the challenge, the participants differed as to what should be done. Responding to a question from the audience, Bildt of Sweden argued that Europe should not necessarily throw open its doors to climate refugees, but that the bloc needed to help countries deal with climate change so people can stay at home. Clark argued that enlightened migration policy could meet two sets of needs: reversing declining populations in the North while providing a destination for unemployed workers from the South.

Rasmussen said there is much the military can do to reduce the use of fossil fuels. He noted that 170 casualties in Afghanistan in 2009 have been associated with the delivery of fuel. There is no contradiction, he argued, between military efficiency and energy efficiency.

However, the real significance of the event lay not in what the participants said, but that they were there to say it at all.

There are not many issues that can gather the heads of the AU, NATO and the UNDP on the same platform alongside the Foreign Ministers of Sweden and Denmark. This event proved that climate change has become a core concern of international policy makers. 

The only way to tackle global problems, as Ping argued, is to find global solutions. And a clear understanding of the potentially devastating security implications of climate change might be one way to bring about those global solutions. 

“We are all in the same ship, and if that ship sinks, we will all drown,” he said.

By Stefan Jungcurt
IISD Project Officer Climate Change and Energy

As negotiators at UNFCCC COP 15 in Copenhagen are working hard to reach agreement on an international mechanism to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD), experts are addressing the next challenge: how to broaden the scope of such a mechanism to include other land uses and ensure that REDD will deliver benefits to all countries?

Experts from international research institutes discussed this question with country representatives at the IISD organized panel–REDD and development: ensuring the Integrity of greenhouse gas reductions and development benefits.

Panelists argued that including agriculture in the scope of REDD is essential to make REDD attractive for many poor countries and to guarantee its effectiveness. Including agriculture would roughly double the potential for emissions reductions and address one of the key drivers of deforestation: the conversion of forest land for agriculture due to increased demand through population growth and growing incomes and pressures from climate change.

REDD projects and implementation plans should therefore be coherent with agricultural development strategies, address both mitigation and adaptation needs, and take into account food security concerns and sustainable delivery of environmental services. The key challenge is the design of a coherent framework for monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of emissions reductions from all land uses to ensure the integrity of emissions reductions while promoting the delivery of social and environmental co-benefits.

Substantial progress has been made for MRV in the forest sector, however significant investments are still needed to develop MRV systems for agriculture. Panelists therefore concluded that COP 15 should adopt a REDD+ mechanism focusing on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of carbon stocks; as well as a work program on agriculture with a view to integrating agriculture at the earliest possible time after COP15.

For further information see: IISD Reporting Services coverage of Development and Climate Days or contact Stefan Jungcurt.