The activist Vandana Shiva receives the Ignacio Ellacuría Cooperation Award

The Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu delivered this afternoon the Ignacio Ellacuría Cooperation Award for Development 2022 to the doctor vandana shiva, a world leader in the international ecofeminist movement and in the fight to preserve biodiversity and build sustainable agricultural alternatives in the face of the climate crisis. The candidacy was proposed by the organization Calcutta Ondoan.

It should be noted that tomorrow at 18 o’clocks the activist will give a talk at the Carlos Santamaría Center (UPV/EHU) from Donostia. Admission will be free until full capacity is reached and there will be a simultaneous translation service (Basque and Spanish). That meeting can also be followed by streaming here: https://ehutb.ehu.eus/canal1.

Delivery

In the ruling, the jury wanted to highlight the figure of the winner “for ddedicate your life to saving people through non-violent agriculture that protects the life of the earth and people”, and added, “for being the speaker of the necessary messages, close and direct, about the enormous dimension of the problem of climate change and, above all, for offering affordable alternatives, scientifically proven and effective to achieve a balance with the environment, putting the value of women to lead them”.

In his speech, the Lehendakari recognized that this year the Ignacio Ellacuría Award is “a meeting place between the Himalayas and the Basque Countryuniversal and personal values, the local and global vision”, in reference to the common challenge of the climate emergency and the 2030 Agenda. “In the face of this global and planetary challenge, from Euskadi we claim the role of the closest in the search for solutions”, since, he stressed, “the governments closest to the territory and to the community have a special responsibility and we have an opportunity to explore solutions and put them into practice, using our own capacities”.

In line with the thought of Vandana Shiva, the Lehendakari recalled that “in the world it is women, especially the poorest and those who are most attached to the land, the first to suffer the consequences of climate change. It is women who are opening a new path”.

The Lehendakari concluded by thanking Dr. Vandana Shiva for accompanying the basque cooperationand “to the fight against climate change and for your vindication of the role of women in this fight.”

Fight for the climate crisis

Vandana Shiva spoke as a representative of the Navdanya Foundation for Scientific, Technological and Ecological Research (nine seeds), an NGO supported by eLankidetza-Basque Agency for Development Cooperation, and which promotes the conservation of biodiversity, seeds and rights of rural people, especially those of women. In her speech, she thanked the award and has claimed local economies as an alternative to face the current crises.

vandana shiva, physics with a PhD in quantum theoryhe changed the direction of his research work to dedicate himself to building alternatives to the chemical-based model of industrial agriculture and fighting for the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities.

Internationally Shiva has contributed from ecofeminism to global initiatives in favor of the rights of farmers and nature.

In 1998, the Diverse Women for Diversity movement began, with more than 10 million women to maintain their security and food sovereignty. For all this, Vandana Shiva has received the Right Livelihood Award –known as the alternative Nobel Prize− and she has written numerous books, including Staying Alive, which contributed to changing the perceptions of women in the countries of the South.