Recommendations developed by the WEGO-ITN network.
- Environmental problems are very complex and concrete. They are related to conflicting interests at local and national level and it leads to a fragmentation of policy making. Therefore, more integration and coordination among different levels of environmental governance is needed, with particular attention to the consultation of local communities and authorities.
- Free, prior and informed consent of affected populations should always be sought before implementing projects and building new infrastructures that have a strong impact on the environment and the life of communities.
- Women are the first to notice when there is damage to the environment, listening to their demands is fundamental and women’s actions of resistance and change in their territories and their creativity in responding to the climate challenge should be valued.
- Policy makers should identify political figures working on the environment who work in a gender perspective to build mainstream gendered environmental policy.
- Policy makers should collect data and develop researches on heavily contaminated areas and ensure these data are publicly available and disaggregated by gender and age
- Accountability for environmental crimes with serious consequences for the health of people and the environment is insufficient. It is necessary to update the legal framework in which economic activities are developed, to better protect the environment. The protection of the environment should be at the centre of policies relating to business and human rights and an effective and continuous monitoring of the work of polluting companies must be carried out.
- States should facilitate collaboration among institutions to better protect the environment and people’s health, including women’s sexual and reproductive health, and ensure that national health policies be designed paying attention to the social and environmental determinants of health and gender.
- States must stop investing in infrastructure for the exploitation of fossil fuels
- Policy makers should promote training courses on environmental issues, especially in the territories most affected by pollution and climate change
- States should identify local weaknesses, such as, for example, the strength of organised crime and its ability to deeply damage the environment and the health of people and strengthen their actions to address them.