Gender and Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Sustainable Development

Abstract

Environmental education is essential for promoting sustainable development practices and strategies. Potentially, it may affect the choices various stakeholders, policy makers and managers make that affect the environment. Further, it is important for enforcement of the law in that it could affect the decisions the police make about prosecuting and their efficiency. Similarly, the perspective of the court affects how they interpret the law and their sentencing practice.* 1 Sound policy, programme formulation processes, planning and managerial practice that are able to address the social, economic and environmental objectives of sustainable development are essential. It is important for environmental education initiatives to challenge views currently held by policy makers, planners and enforcement agencies as well as to complement their knowledge base so as to promote better planning and management. Both Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) and gender are sorely neglected factors in decision making and policy formulation. This may be attributed to many factors including Zimbabwe's political history, existing gender relations, the institutional framework and the planning and managerial framework. This paper examines the significance of gender and IKS in the creation of such strategies. It seeks to locate rural women in the development scenario and to specifically identify their interests and values. Thus, it explores the relationship of rural women to knowledge systems and defines them as critical stakeholders.