On 30 October 2024, UNODC and UNIDO, together with the Permanent Missions of Sweden, Finland, and Norway, hosted the 2024 Vienna Discussion Forum.
The Vienna Discussion Forum is an annual event to discuss gender equality and the empowerment of women in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals through the lens of the mandates of UNODC and UNIDO.
The 2024 edition “Why Waste It? Unlocking Opportunities for Environmental Protection and Gender Equality” explored the intersection of environmental sustainability and gender equality. The event focused on the gendered dimensions of waste trafficking and waste management, highlighting the opportunities for women’s inclusion in sustainable supply chains and the circular economy.
.
The triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss represents one of the greatest and most urgent challenges the world is facing. A comprehensive approach to tackle any environmental crisis needs to consider its diverse impact on women and men as well as how to best draw upon their experience and skills to tackle the urgent challenges it presents.
Environmental protection in connection with waste management, illegal waste traffic and waste crime has profound gendered impacts. In order to strengthen policies addressing waste management and waste crimes, our understanding of their gender dimensions must be enhanced, as men and women have different roles, opportunities, vulnerabilities, different financial realities and needs, which are also reflected in formal, informal and illegal waste management. In many contexts s, women are often found in the lower ranks in waste management, working as waste pickers and separating waste at landfill sites, exposing themselves to health risks while handling toxic substances without proper protection, knowledge and skills.Men are often found at higher-income and decision-making roles, whether as scrap dealers, repair shop workers, buying and reselling recyclables or trafficking waste.
Although women and girls play an important role in the global value chain of many products, their voices and contribution are often significantly less pronounced at the design stagebut over-represented at the manufacturing stage. A just and inclusive transition towards circularity calls for a stronger participation of women across the entire circular economy spectrum, and not only in activities associated with the informal sector and with low productivity levels and technology use. By empowering women with the skills, technology and resources needed to participate in sustainable supply chains and by ensuring their voices are heard, a socially just, environmentally sustainable, and economically inclusive participation into global value chainscan be fostered.
The Vienna Discussion Forum 2024 will highlight the gendered dimensions of waste trafficking, legal and illegal waste management, and the opportunities that sustainable supply chains and the circular economy represent for women’s inclusion. Informed by the work of UNIDO and UNODC, amongst others, the event aims at finding practical and innovative solutions to societal and systemic challenges by providing an understanding of the gendered dimensions of legal and illegal waste management and by showcasing good practices in the field.
H.E. Paulina Brandberg
Swedish Minister for Gender Equality and Working Life
Gerd Müller
Director General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
Ghada Waly
Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
The Vienna Discussion Forum is an annual event to discuss gender equality and the empowerment of women in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals.
