Women in less developed countries prone to hunger, disease

MANILA, Philippines - Women in less developed economies that are less able to cope with the impact of climate change are the most vulnerable to hunger and disease due to the difficult roles they assume in homes, farms and workplaces, according to the annual report of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

UNFPA Country Representative for the Philippines Suneeta Mukherjee presented yesterday the 2009 State of the World Population Report which focuses this year on population, women and climate change.

The report said women, particularly those in poor countries like the Philippines, will be affected differently than men.

They are among the most vulnerable to climate change, partly because in many countries they make up the larger share of the agricultural work force and partly because they tend to have access to fewer income-earning opportunities.

Increased vulnerability

“Women manage households and care for family members, which often limits their mobility and increases their vulnerability to sudden weather-related natural disasters,” the report said.

Girls drop out of school to help their mothers with these tasks. This cycle of deprivation, poverty and inequality undermines the social capital needed to deal effectively with climate change.

Mukherjee reiterated some findings in the report, which revealed that developed countries are the biggest contributors to the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

But poor economies, especially in Southeast Asia, suffer the worst effects of flooding, erratic weather patterns, droughts, storm surges, hurricanes and other natural calamities spawned by the heating up of the oceans, rising sea water levels and melting of glaciers.

She noted that the Philippines recently witnessed the devastating effects of the worst floods in decades.

Total dependence

The UNFPA report shows that a flawed notion of economic growth has been pressing peoples of the world to engage in activities powered by a total dependence on energy coming from the burning of fossil fuels.

It said that since 2000, human-caused carbon dioxide emissions have been increasing four times faster than the previous decades. But the capacity of the earth to absorb and break down heavy gasses has been reduced significantly.

According to the UNFPA report, population growth is among the factors influencing total emissions in industrialized and developing countries. Each additional person in a population will consume food and requiring housing, and ideally most will take advantage of transportation, which consumes energy, and may use fuel to heat homes and have access to electricity.

Additional population

The influence of additional population in increasing emissions, the report said, is logically greatest where average per capita energy and material consumption levels are highest in developed countries.

“Each birth results not only in the emissions attributable to that person in his or her lifetime, but also the emissions of all his or her descendants. Hence, the emissions savings from intended or planned births multiply with time,” the report said.

It said population growth, consumption patterns and fast economic expansion outpace the earth’s capacity to adjust, adding that failure of the world’s governments to manage these social and economic factors could push climate change to catastrophic proportions.