NEWS

14 October 2009

WORKSHOP ON MAINSTREAMING HUMAN AND GENDER DIMENSIONS INTO RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT HELD IN BISHKEK

12 October 2009, a workshop “Mainstreaming Human and Gender Dimensions into Radioactive Waste Management” was held at the conference -hall of the Public Policy Institute in Bishkek. The workshop was organized with support of the UNDP Environment and Democratic Governance programmes.

The aim of the workshop, which is a part of the joint action plan of two projects: UNDP “Assessment of Radioactive Waste Management Capabilities of Kyrgyzstan in Transboundary Context” and “Strengthening Gender Perspectives in the Activity of National Partners”, is to build capacity of state bodies, expert community, UNDP , civil society and private sector representatives in providing equal opportunities and equal rights for men and women in Kyrgyzstan in such areas as environment protection, disaster management, and public health.

This workshop’s uniqueness is that its participants tried to identify the gender components and human dimensions in traditionally technological development projects such as uranium tailings management.

The workshop is held within frameworks of the mission of international consultant Ms. Billur Gungoren, who has 16 years' experience in gender mainstreaming into development projects. The aim of the mission is to provide expert support to the UNDP Country Office and its national partners in using tools of human dimension and gender analysis in radioactive waste management in the Kyrgyz Republic. It should be noted that the workshop is based on the analysis of the field visits made by international consultant to Mailuu-Suu, her meetings with local people and their voices. One of the strongest impressions of this mission were the meetings with local residents of Mailuu-Suu. Here are some of the quotes from express-interviews of Ms. Billur Gungoren with residents of Mailuu-Suu.

• To get rid of radiation, you need to drink vodka.
• We are barely alive!
• Are we monkeys& They say they do not die, so let us continue our work.
• More women took up drinking nowadays.
• Oh, do not worry about her. She can alkso join our men-only meeting; her husband is invalid for many years, she is half woman, half man already.
• We have so many families without husbands. Men go abroad to work, now women also follow the same path and leave their children behind.
• Many live on their parents’ pension around here.
• Оur children are dying like cockroaches.
• Authorities do what they (donors) want, they do not consult us.
• At public hearings, we told them (population) what we will do.
• We made a mistake with the removal of waste dumps, people do not believe us anymore.
• I do not believe that they (population) are sick. Half come drunk to our meetings and the other half are unemployed.
• What made us mad was the dust; no chemical pool was used for tyres of trucks. They did not even move the people away from the dust.
• They gave us socks to collect signatures for our consents. They got the money into their pockets. We will not give the permission to dig anymore.
• Everyone sends their children to Russian schools here, not to the Kyrgyz schools. Because they want their children to leave this place. We have no hope for future.
• We feel cheated.

The participants of the workshops were the deputies of Jogorku Kenesh of KR Orzubek Nazarov and Bumayram Mamaseitova; representatives of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Ministry of Healthcare, State Agency on Environment Protection and Forestry, experts of medical and academic community, civil society, private sector and international organizations. Organizers invited a wide circle of stakeholders to identify the priority problems based on the existing expertise of specialists in different areas that concern the lives of people living in the territories, where radioactive wastes are dumped, who took joint attempts to find the ways of solution.

R. Tuhvatshin, Doctor of Medicine, Head of the Department of Pathological Department, Kyrgyz State Medical Academy:

“There is urgent need for updating and differentiation of national statistics due to the absence of more specific indicators and data for comparative analysis to get more precise and specilaised picture of the situation at the uranium tailings territories".

The workshop results have shown the obviousness and importance of linkages between such factors as ineffective management, environmental pollution, poverty, violence and inequality, high mortality rate. Also participants learned to distinguish practical gender needs from strategic ones in access to environmental resources.

The workshop was the first experience targeted at more effective practical application of gender mainstreaming to address specific environmental and social problems. The main product of the workshop was the development of a concept for the project proposal on mainstreaming human and gender dimensions in radioactive waste management. Thus, a serious contribution has been made into the decision and Resolution of the international Forum of Donors in Geneva in June 2009, which was initiated by the President of the KR Mr. Bakiev K.S. and supported by UNDP in KR.

Source: CARNet