NAIROBI, May 26, 2016: Minister of Environment and Forestry of RI Siti Nurbaya reiterated, “The Indonesian government is paying serious attention to the issue of women and the environment. Many government policies, programs and activities that have been launched related to environmental issues are initiated with a gender perspective.”

Minister Siti Nurbaya conveyed this message during a Breakfast Meeting of the Network of Women Ministers and Leaders for the Environment during the High Level Segment of the 2nd Session of UNEA. Attending the Breakfast Meeting were Iranian Vice President, Masoumeh Ebtekar, and various Ministers of Environment and women leaders from many countries.

Minister Siti Nurbaya conveyed her high appreciation to the Network of Women Ministers and Leaders for the Environment (known as NWMLE), and to the Ugandan Minister of Environment, Falvia Nabugere, who hosted the august meeting. The NWMLE is an international network introducing the idea of sustainable environmental management that is gender responsive at the regional and global levels, to increase women’s participation and representation as decisionmakers on all counts.

Indonesia has achieved much progress in gender and environment issues. Since 1976, the ratio of female education levels and the number of women in the workplace have greatly increased. Women have also made inroads into political and developmental fora, evident in the numbers of women currently appointed as mayors of several cities, woman in parliament, and female captains of industry. In the present Indonesian Ministerial Cabinet, eight of the 34 ministers are female, proving that women are increasingly holding decisionmaking positions. This paves the way for major opportunities to increase gender responsibility, and not mere gender sensibilities.

The country still faces many obstacles and challenges in its efforts to provide protection for women and girl-children related to social problems and safety issues. To this end, Minister Siti Nurbaya called on all the nations of the world to strengthen our commitment and implementation towards strong gender and environmental partnership. It is imperative that the strong communications already forged in this partnership be maintained, she said.