Why Women Will Save the Planet by Friends of the Earth

Author:Friends of the Earth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zed Books
Published: 2015-03-12T04:00:00+00:00

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SHUKRI HAJI ISMAIL BANDARE and FATIMA JIBRELL

NGO leaders

Women, conflict and the environment in Somali society

Somali women have been at the forefront of environmental activism since the early 1990s. Two of these inspirational leaders are Shukri Ismail Bandare and Fatima Jibrell. They have both founded non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to help local communities protect their environment and use natural resources more sustainably. The vital role of women and gender equality in environmental protection has been at the core of their work. In the face of civil war, a fragile arid/semi-arid environment, poverty and a traditional patriarchal society, the achievements of these women and their colleagues are immense. In interviews in late 2014 and early 2015 for Friends of the Earth, they contributed their experiences and ideas on gender equality and environmental sustainability.

Shukri Haji Ismail Bandare has served as the minister for environment of Somaliland1 since 2013. Previous to her political appointment, she was an active campaigner on environmental issues and founded a local NGO, Candlelight for Health, Education and Environment. The charity continues to deliver training, education and healthcare programmes with communities across Somaliland. Shukri served six years on the first Election Commission in Somaliland as the only woman and participated in three successful elections when Somaliland was moving from a clan-based system to a multiparty system. She explains her motivations for her work:

‘The charity was born in 1995; we saw there was a real need. The Somaliland people were in the midst of war – having suffered the onslaught of the [Siad] Barre forces they were now experiencing a period of great instability involving inter-clan wars. There were no schools for children of internally displaced people (IDPs) and they were growing up with so much fear and hostilities, we didn’t want another generation lost to the war.

‘We set up a school. With education, we soon realised there was a dire need for a health awareness campaign and so we decided to run campaigns including the dangers involved with FGM [female genital mutilation]. The conditions of the camp made us see how important sanitation was – and the environment as a whole – and so began our work on environmental hazards. I had a lot of help from people and the charity was by no means a one-woman show. The charity is one the biggest NGOs in Somaliland and its focus continues to be on the environment.’

Fatima Jibrell is the founder of the international NGO Adeso: African Development Solutions (previously known as Horn Relief), whose mission is to work with communities to create environments in which Africans can thrive. In 2014 Fatima received the Champions of Earth award from the UN Environment Programme for her outstanding contribution to conservation. She talks about her experiences as a child in Somalia and returning as an adult:

‘I was born to a pastoral nomadic family in Somalia in 1947 and until I was seven years old I lived in an area that was savannah-like, with lions, leopards, all kinds of wildlife. I first visited Somalia again

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