By Ivan Amanigaruhanga

Today, March 8, the world celebrates International Women’s Day. On this special day, we uphold women's achievements, recognize challenges, and focus greater attention on women's rights and the gender-based roles that facilitate a functioning social ecosystem.

The shrinking environmental quality and natural assets in Uganda as manifested in over 50% loss of wetlands between 1994 and 2021, the threat of total forest loss by 2050, the 90% pollution of air in Kampala, the disastrous flooding and droughts, among others have serious implications for the well-being of not just those who depend on their environment for basic needs, but for all humanity. As we encroach upon and destroy habitats and the species that inhabit them, we are essentially destroying our first line of defence that healthy ecosystems provide. Women in many parts of the world are among the first to experience the devastating impact of a degraded natural environment. They also disproportionately suffer the negative consequences of reduced productivity of nature by virtue of their gender roles – travel longer distances for wood energy, spend more time collecting water, find it harder to access raw material for the production of nature-based products for sale and have to deal with the reality of reduced business opportunities for the illiterate and semi-literate that dominate natural resource host communities.

In the NGO-led intervention model, women are uncelebrated heroines that have made a significant contribution to environmental management and wise natural resource stewardship in their communities. In many cases, they have proven that whatever a man can do, a woman will do – even better. While their potential to spur transformative change is well demonstrated, women lack an equal seat at the decision-making table on conservation matters. Like many fields dominated by men such as engineering and governance, women are also underrepresented in the conservation space. This is especially so at the grassroots level, where natural resource exploitation takes place primarily.

As we implement the Parish Development Model (PDM), we must be intentional in covering this gap. We must prioritize enhancing the participation and engagement of women and girls. The PDM is an opportunity to implement corrective action to reverse the escalating trends in wetland degradation, forest estate loss, air pollution, and poor waste management practices, among other environmental evils. The PDM comes at a time when more women (than men) are organized at village and parish levels in their savings and self-help groups. The PDM should leverage this existing organization to make inroads on conservation impact delivery. It is an opportunity to deploy these members of society who interact with natural resources on a daily basis, to spread the gospel according to sustainable development.

With this approach, Uganda will proudly report against targets of the PDM, National Development Plan III, Vision 2040, and the Sustainable Development Goals.

The writer works with Uganda Biodiversity Trust Fund