Flagship: Gender analysis and research


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  • Toward a gender-responsive post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework

Toward a gender-responsive post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework


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As we progress towards establishing a post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and approach the halfway mark to the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the social and developmental aspects related to global biodiversity and climate challenges are ever more apparent. Gender dimensions are central to understanding and effectively responding to the world’s most pressing environmental challenges. With a draft Gender Plan of Action proposed for consideration by Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) alongside the post-2020 framework, it is an opportune time to bring attention and resources to ensuring a gender responsive approach to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from the utilization of genetic resources.

In the lead up to COP 15, experts from the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA), in close collaboration with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, have prepared some guidance on gender and inclusion to support the finalization of the Gender Plan of Action by COP 15, and its implementation in the coming years.  An infographic and accompanying brief have been developed to assist Parties and stakeholders engaged in natural resource management, providing an overview of linkages and practical strategies to address pervasive gender inequalities related to the use and conservation of biodiversity.

Informed by the knowledge and experience of diverse stakeholders, the work harnesses ideas and action plans detailed in Addressing Gender Issues and Actions in Biodiversity Objectives – a prominent CBD guide aimed at policymakers and other biodiversity stakeholders – as well as the report Towards a Gender-Responsive Implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity, published by the CBD Secretariat in advance of COP14, and to which FTA also contributed. These documents emphasise how resolving the challenge of social exclusion is critical for meeting local and global commitments related to restoration, biodiversity and climate change.

Download the Brief!

Highlighting the link between social identities and discrimination, the infographic and brief demonstrate how multiple intersecting identities (such as age, ethnicity, gender, marital status) have both a direct and indirect influence on the way individuals and groups are recognised, governed and, often, marginalised and discriminated against. Critically, these pieces also demonstrate how intersecting identities define roles, responsibilities and relationships with regard to natural resources and biodiversity restoration and conservation. They highlight the undervalued yet critical role that rural women and girls, Indigenous peoples, and other groups that experience systemic discrimination, play in biodiversity and natural resource management. Accelerating progress towards gender equality and CBD objectives thus requires the recognition of women and Indigenous groups as legitimate players in the use, management, restoration and conservation of biodiversity. It also requires recognizing women, girls and Indigenous peoples as agents of change, and honouring their priorities and capacities.

Enhancing gender equality and social inclusion cannot be achieved without addressing the barriers that exclude social groups, including women and girls, from accessing and controlling land and natural resources, as well as services, such as formal education, finance and information systems, that allow them to manage these resources sustainably and equitably. It further necessitates a fair distribution of biodiversity benefits and costs; the development of safeguards protecting the claims and decision-making powers of rightsholders; the integration of gender-specific knowledge; and the promotion of gender parity and an inclusive environment in national decision-making processes.

Download the Infographics!

As the infographic and brief demonstrate, transforming deep-rooted gender inequalities can support the sustainable use, management, and conservation of biodiversity, and contribute to the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from its use. COP15 provides a critical opportunity to integrate these considerations into the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and ensure that clear directions are put forward for progress in the new Gender Plan of Action. As we move into the implementation of the Framework, concrete actions to address gender inequalities are needed on multiple fronts to contribute to real gains for all people and for the planet.

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  • New partnership with Google Arts & Culture brings more visibility to trees

New partnership with Google Arts & Culture brings more visibility to trees


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Eight stunning digital exhibits to reduce humans’ “plant blindness” surrounding forests, trees and agroforestry

Forests and trees are allies in the fight to achieve the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, but it is not always easy to see their contributions to livelihoods, ecosystems, food security and nutrition. On Dec. 9, FTA launches its partnership with Google Arts & Culture to bring audiences eight visually-engaging exhibits for forests, trees and agroforestry. The prestigious collaboration makes 10 years of forest-based research and impact more accessible to global audiences.

“As scientists, we were pleased to create exhibits with Google Arts & Culture, a new way to bring our important message to global audiences: trees are drivers of sustainable development,” said FTA Director, Vincent Gitz, “they are the cornerstone of our future.”

This work forms part of a larger Google collaboration with over 60 international organizations. Together, the partners aim to reduce “plant blindness” — the tendency for people to have difficulty empathizing with plants and the environment at risk.

Explore these eight exhibits from FTA and its strategic partners, featuring compelling images, Google Streetview, videos, key messages and infographics and find out more about our research!

A Global Partnership for Forests, Trees and Agroforestry

Learn more about FTA and the scope of its international work!

Access the story of FTA here!

The Forest Transition Curve

Explore the relationship between trees, humans and ecosystem services over time.

Learn about the Forest Transition Curve!

Trees on Farms

Find out how planting trees on farms (agroforestry) makes good business sense while also contributing to healthy ecosystems and food security and nutrition.

Read about the benefits of adding trees to farms!

Forest Landscape Restoration

Learn more about the 6 principles of FLR and the top 7 tree-planting misconceptions!

Did you know there are many ways to achieve FLR?

FTA Highlights of a Decade: From research to impact

This exhibit showcases FTA’s achievements over the past 10 years.

Access 10 years of research in a nutshell!

From Tree to Fork

Did you know that trees and forests are the key to the world’s future food security and nutrition? Learn more about how trees provide healthy foods, cultural traditions and jobs to people everywhere.

How many of these fruits have you tasted?

Ingenious Innovations

The tree sector is often perceived to be a low-tech world… time to change your opinions! Read up on these top 11 innovations that FTA and its partners have developed.

Innovations are at the core of forestry!

Roleplaying Agroecology

Play along as a smallholder farmer, policy maker and palm-oil plantation manager to learn more about the difficult decisions that we all need to make to protect our planet. What choices will you make?

Play along with us!

***

The full Google campaign with 60+ partner pages and curated exhibits will be released early next year, sensitizing more people to the vital role of trees for climate adaptation, biodiversity, food security and nutrition. Stay tuned for more!

This article was written by Daniella Silva.

This article was produced by the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA). FTA is the world’s largest research for development program to enhance the role of forests, trees and agroforestry in sustainable development and food security and to address climate change. CIFOR leads FTA in partnership with ICRAF, the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, CATIE, CIRAD, INBAR and TBI. FTA’s work is supported by the CGIAR Trust Fund.

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  • COVID-19 and what it means for wild meat

COVID-19 and what it means for wild meat


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Photo credit: ©Brent Stirton/Getty Images for FAO, CIFOR, CIRAD, WCS
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Webinar

16 April 2020 16.00-17.00 GMT+7
(convert to your timezone here)

The spreading of diseases from animals to humans—also called zoonotic—is a public health concern in light of the current pandemic. COVID-19 that has now spread to more than 100 countries worldwide is also suspected to be originated from pangolin or bat sold in market in Wuhan, China.

As the efforts to curb pandemic accelerate, many conservationists are welcoming China’s move to outlaw hunting and consumption of wild animals. And yet, the reality is not that simple. The ban may put millions of forest dwellers at risk of food insecurity, as Indigenous or rural communities often consume wild meat as their sole source of protein.

How do we address this challenge? Can we find the middle ground to this complex reality?

This webinar is organized with the support of the TRADE HUB, SWM, FTA projects and the Bushmeat Research Initiative of CIFOR.

Register here

For more detail about event click here.

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  • International Women's Day 2020 - Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights

International Women’s Day 2020 – Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights


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For the international day of women and girls in science (11 February) FTA sent out statements from our Flagship 1 Leader Ramni Jamnadass and Violet Chanza Black, a gender research assistant at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. Both stories talked about the struggle and ultimately the empowerment that these women obtained through education.

Ramni shared her experience being the first woman from her community to obtain a PhD, something unseen before. Ramni’s long-standing fight to include nutrition in research is also featured in CGIAR’s gender campaign.

Violet’s statement was somewhat more provoking. It highlighted her personal struggle against both her teachers and her parents in obtaining a fundamental right: her education!

Her story was so compelling that we decided to find out more, and we contacted her for an interviewe. A video is also available, to help disseminate Violet’s story, as well as her views on gender equality. There is a lot to learn! This is a story of success, despite the odds – unfortunately so many girls around the world are not so fortunate. We hope this will inspire them never to give up fighting for their fundamental rights, and of course adults to always support them, all over the world.

Violet now holds an MSc in Development Economics, majoring in Human Development and Food Security from the University of Roma Tre. You may read her Master thesis here.

Interview full text

FTA – For the international day of women and girls in science you made a very strong statement, based on your personal experience [Educating a girl should never be optional…] – could you tell us more about it?

Violet Chanza Black – my story starts from one Saturday afternoon, I was at home tasked with making tea for a guest, my dad’s friend and as I served him his tea he asked me if I was still in school to which I happily responded yes and he turned to my father and said:

 “If I had a daughter, I would never spend money on her school fees, because she is just going to get pregnant and then you waste all the money you spent on her school.”

I am a second born in a family of 8, four boys and four girls. I am the first daughter and that meant I was a “co-parent” when it comes to chores. Helping taking care of kids and cleaning, collecting water, firewood and cleaning. All of which had to be within my school day while my brother, even though he was older than me did not have to.

Primary school was fine, it was free, and the school provided us with free notebooks and pencils. All I needed was a school uniform.

I was selected to a public secondary school and I remember then I had to pay about 2$ per term and 6$ per year for my tuition fees. My brother went to a boarding school, which costed about 25 more times than my school and I remember he was never sent back home because he did not pay school fees, while I struggled to get my 2$. As a result, I would miss classes until well my father would give me the money to pay for school fees.

In school I remember one time my teacher wrote on my school report that “Violet likes hanging out with boys” which confirmed that theory that “she will just get pregnant and all the money would have been wasted and that made getting school fees even harder. I remember one of my teacher said to my friend “its good that you have pimples that way you will finish school.”

My message on the 11th of February was to shed some light on the power that teachers have to support students, also with their parents. Children who are in a similar situation as I was often face internal challenges within the household. Comments and general attitudes towards girls can really make them loose esteem or be encouraged.

FTA – When was the tipping point, when did your parents realize that you deserved the same education as your brother, despite what your teachers were saying?

VCB – My father always said go to school. It was until school wasn’t free that he was reluctant or unsure if he really wanted to spend that money on me. But when I didn’t go to school, he had me at home and I was nudging him… it was very annoying for him! Finally his reluctance was less strong than my determination!

FTA – What fueled your determination? It might be extremely hard to stand up to adult and community pressure, especially when you are so young?

My parents had separated by the time I went to secondary school and my mom was working for this woman who was working for Action Against Hunger. I looked up at her as a role model! That was a great source of inspiration for me. It made me realize that if I aspired at becoming like her, the only way I could achieve that was through education.

FTA – Well congratulations! Now you are the role model! How do you live up to this role?

VCB – Fom where I come the other issue is about poverty – so it’s not just about girls, it’s both girls and boys. How do you motivate a full community if no one is getting schooling, if they don’t have the basic needs? What I can do is to put myself in a place where they can talk to me, I reach out and I’m always there if they have questions. Another thing that is lacking is: information. You need to go to kids and tell them that education is possible, if they don’t see it as a possibility, they won’t desire it.

FTA- Did your personal experience bring you to focus on gender in your research?

VCB – I would say my personal experience is what keeps me going. I didn’t see any of my experience as it was happening that it was a gender issue. For me it was just happening. But my story allows me to relate to this topic and to the many people who are in a similar situation.

FTA – This year’s IWD theme is “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights” (or #GenerationEquality) and I think your story is strongly linked to this theme. Equality can be difficult however to define, because people are different, needs are different, contexts change, etc. There might be a thin line between equality and justice. What is your idea of equality?

When I hear the word equality, the first thing that should come to our mind is “equality of what?” Opportunities? Privileges? Different people are in different contexts, different situations. You cannot generalize. People are not homogeneous. I lend it from Amartya Sen’s Capabilities Approach: are people able to provide themselves food, shelter, clothing in a decent manner? I guess this is where we should all start from: Equality of access, equality of opportunities. It might be hard to achieve it, but there’s a lot we can do to help out someone else.

FTA- Any message you’d like to send out to all the women on this important day?

My wish for for all the women on International Women’s Day 2020: Individual Collectivism – we are all parts of one, if one of us is broken, we cannot make it to be whole. We are not free until we are all free. I think we all need to share, uplift and support in ways that we can other women and girls. Leaving no one behind.

As Martin Luther King said: “No one is free until we are all free.”

 

By the FTA Communication Team.

This article was produced by the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA). FTA is the world’s largest research for development program to enhance the role of forests, trees and agroforestry in sustainable development and food security and to address climate change. CIFOR leads FTA in partnership with Bioversity International, CATIE, CIRAD, INBAR, ICRAF and TBI. FTA’s work is supported by the CGIAR Trust Fund.

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  • Access to education key to boosting number of women in science, scientist says

Access to education key to boosting number of women in science, scientist says


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Stibniati Atmadja, Scientist, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) speak on Panel discussion: 10 years of REDD+: what have we learned? Global Landscapes Forum, Katowice, Poland. Photo by GLF
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Originally posted on Forest News

For the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the United Nations is highlighting data that show fewer than 30 percent of researchers worldwide are women. The statistics also show that only about 30 percent of female students elect to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in institutes of higher learning.

Female enrollment in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector is also low: 3 percent in natural sciences; 5 percent in mathematics and statistics; and 8 percent in engineering, manufacturing and construction.

“To rise to the challenges of the 21st century, we need to harness our full potential,” said Antonio Guterres, U.N. secretary general. “That requires dismantling gender stereotypes. On this International Day of Women and Girls in Science, let’s pledge to end the gender imbalance in science.”

Each year on Feb. 11, which was adopted by a U.N. resolution in 2015, participants aim to highlight the need to achieve full and equal access and participation, gender equality and empowerment.

The challenges are steep. In the United States, for example, women earn about half of all doctorates in science and engineering, but make up only 21 percent of full science professors and 5 percent of engineering professors, according to an article in Science. On average, women earn only 82 percent of what male scientists earn.

In the European Union, women scientists earned an average of between 25 percent and 40 percent less than male scientists in the public sector in 2006, the article states.

Women also drop out of science careers early in disproportionate numbers. The research presented in the Science article shows that although 70 percent of first year women chemistry doctoral students said they planned a career in research, by third year, only 37 percent had met that goal, compared with 59 percent of men.

“Despite decades of research and intervention, female students receive fewer opportunities and less recognition than their male counterparts, and women are less likely than men to occupy leadership roles, or to work in mathematics-intensive fields such as physics and engineering,” say the authors of an article in Trends in Ecology & Evolution journal.

The number of women engaged in scientific pursuits for study or work, and the wages they earn, remain substantially lower in comparison to their male counterparts, the authors state, suggesting that part of the challenge of achieving equality relates to the way the term equality is defined. There is no single definition of success, and too narrow a focus on any one aspect of equality can have unintended consequences, they write.

Taking an intersectional analytical approach – factoring in a combination of influences affecting gender disparities can shed further light on some of the challenges girls and women face, experiences or opportunities they miss. In addition to gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, nationality, health, sexual orientation, age and physical location can disadvantage or empower.

A message from FTA’s Flagship 1 Leader on International Day of Women and Girls in Science

Shifting Landscape

In some arenas measurable change has occurred.

A 2018 paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal demonstrates that the proportion of female authors collaborating on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the global climate watchdog, has increased from 5 percent in 1990 to more than 20 percent in recent years.

For example, the landmark 2018 IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 C included 38 percent women authors, according to researchers.

Strong role models and access to formal education can make the difference for women, says Stibniati Atmadja, a scientist with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

Her career benefitted from growing up in a supportive household and the opportunities a good education opened up for her, she says, adding that she had no clear career goals as a child and fell into a career in forestry science almost by chance, her initial interest piqued by the many trees and insects in the leafy home in the outskirts of Jakarta where she grew up.

In girlhood, her scholastic pursuits were supported by her mother, a pathologist and her father, a geologist.

“I was fortunate to have parents who would then nurture that interest,” says Atmadja, who in Grade 3 considered becoming a geneticist or botanist.

“When I was a high school student in Jakarta and later a first-year university student in Manila, all I could see was pollution and the poor state of the environment”, she said, explaining how she ultimately wound up studying the interrelationships between environment and economics. “My interest resulted from economic reasons – the environment was not being valued properly.”

Transferred from Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, she subsequently earned two undergraduate degrees at Australia’s Murdoch University in economics and environmental science, and a master’s and a doctoral degree in natural resource economics in the United States at North Carolina State University. Afterwards, she lived and worked in Indonesia, Ethiopia and currently resides in France.

“I had a huge choice of programs I could take,” she said, adding that overseas travel opened her to wider curriculums and alternative social structures, a contrast which raised her awareness of limitations that can hold women back in a given place or in certain circumstances.

“I’m blind to the fact that I’m a woman in a scientific career,” said Atmadja, who joined CIFOR in 2008 and whose research focus is on gathering data and writing about forests and climate change.

Her work involved travelling, often alone or as the only woman on a team, for weeks at a time, in remote villages to understand how people use and manage their forests. She saw how expectations about the kinds of people doing this research work could filter out young women.

“There were so many beliefs that cast women as either the target or conjurer of bad spirits, and limitations on how women travel and interact with places, people, topics and occupations,” she said.

“Villagers would look at me, wondering how I ended up with such a job – following fisher folks, deer hunters, bird trappers deep in the forest, and doing interviews with such a wide variety of people. I, on the other hand, never thought my work was particularly strange for a female or any gender for that matter.”

Reflecting on why she was blind to such gender biases and could pursue activities she loved without feeling constrained by gender norms, she said that in girlhood she was never told there were limits on what she could do.

“I don’t recall my parents telling me ‘girls should do this and can’t do that’ — ever. I grew up assuming that women can do what men can do because I saw that was exactly what my mother did,” Atmadja explained.

Her mother was among the few Indonesian women in her field of pathology, then she led a large national non-governmental organization focused on planned parenthood. Her work gave her the opportunity to travel to every corner of the country and to talk to many people from all walks of life – from sex workers and street kids to ministers and celebrities. She moved on to work in a multilateral development bank, a dynamic environment which introduced her to a greater number of interesting places and people.

“I saw opportunities by being female, not limitations,” Atmadja added. “It formed my expectation of what jobs I could do.”

This experience has led her to believe that parents play an important role in increasing the presence of more women in science, especially in the Global South.

“I’m now a mom. I have a girl and a boy,” she said. “My husband and I try to give both kids equal opportunities by letting them see and act on opportunities without being constrained by gendered expectations.

“To parents, I would say, think about the gender awareness you put on your kids because it will reflect on how they see the world, how they see themselves in the world and how they would see the opportunities that come to them. There are social norms based on gender that parents and kids need to be aware of. We can support our kids by helping them achieve their potential despite these norms.”

Atmadja also credits her luck in pursuing a career she loves to the educational privileges she had that many others may not have: she not only grew up in a household with formally educated parents, but she attended school in developed countries and benefited from travel experiences in many countries.

“Women interested in science need to know their skills and should not be afraid to say: ‘I’m not good at that, but I’m good at this.’ Then try and find a path that is feasible for them to pursue whatever they are good at and open up to options. Talk to women in the field. Even if the options in the context seemingly are not fit for women, it’s OK. You can do it.”

Take my advice with a grain of salt because it reflects my privileged perspective, she added.

By Julie Mollines, Communication Specialist

FTA is the world’s largest research for development program to enhance the role of forests, trees and agroforestry in sustainable development and food security and to address climate change. CIFOR leads FTA in partnership with Bioversity International, CATIE, CIRAD, INBAR, ICRAF and TBI. FTA’s work is supported by the CGIAR Trust Fund.

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  • ICRAF and FTA host first technical discussion on the development of a gender-responsive post-2020 global biodiversity framework

ICRAF and FTA host first technical discussion on the development of a gender-responsive post-2020 global biodiversity framework


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Farmers, from left, Nigna Latifa (26), Dadjan Wassinatou (34) and Nacro Rainatou (31) separate the seeds from the fiber of freshly harvested cotton, under a tree in the Zorro village, Burkina Faso. Photo by Ollivier Girard/CIFOR.
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The unprecedented and accelerating loss of biodiversity is one of the greatest crises of our time. Biodiversity is the invisible infrastructure that supports the healthy functioning of our food systems, economies and communities—and it’s deteriorating at an alarming rate: 1 million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction.

The loss of biodiversity affects us all, but pervasive gender inequalities and differentiated gender norms mean that men and women experience the impacts of biodiversity loss differently. Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), in recognition of this disparity, have committed to integrating gender considerations into the post-2020 global biodiversity framework.

An Open-Ended Intersessional Working Group is charged with the development of a new framework and strategic plan that will replace the existing Strategic Plan for Biodiversity when it lapses in 2020. The first meeting of the Working Group was held at the UN Environment headquarters in Nairobi on 27-30 August 2019.

Verona Collantes, Intergovernmental Specialist at UN Women. Photo: World Agroforestry/Sheila Murithi

Prior to the event, select participants met at the World Agroforestry (ICRAF) campus for a full-day technical discussion to build consensus around the key elements of the new gender-responsive framework. The workshop, organized by UN Women and the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA), was attended by 12 representatives from national governments, civil society organizations and movements, UN agencies and other international organizations.

The workshop featured two initial presentations by Verona Collantes, Intergovernmental Specialist at UN Women, and Ana Maria Paez Valencia, ICRAF’s Social Scientist and Gender Specialist. They touched on the gender dimensions of biodiversity management and the process of integrating these considerations into the post-2020 global biodiversity framework.

Following the presentations, the hosts led a discussion that focused on defining the gender considerations that needed to be reflected and considered in the post-2020 biodiversity framework in terms of goals, targets and indicators, accountability mechanisms, enabling conditions and capacities.

“Waiting until there is an established structure on gender won’t work. We have the opportunity to brainstorm key messages and ideas that could be brought to attention during the upcoming discussion to engage the Working Group, and ensure the meaningful integration of gender considerations into the new framework from the start.” Verona Collantes Intergovernmental Specialist at UN Women

The discussion led to a consensus on several key messages that were presented to the Open-Ended Intersessional Working Group at the First Meeting. These key messages are summarized below.

The post-2020 global biodiversity framework must be underpinned by gender-responsive goals, targets and indicators.

Participants reviewed and discussed possible options for targets and indicators for measuring the level of gender responsiveness within the new biodiversity framework. It was agreed that specific gender-related indicators should be mainstreamed across all sets of thematic targets, in addition to the inclusion of a target that is particularly centred around gender equality:

“By 2030, governments and other relevant stakeholders (academia, private sector, international organizations and implementing entities, etc.) have put in place instruments and mechanisms to ensure, monitor and report on: i) women and girls’ engagement in decision-making in biodiversity conservation and sustainable use; ii) fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the utilization of genetic resources; and iii) differential impacts of biodiversity loss.”

Participants emphasized the need to develop gender-specific indicators that align with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators and with the three objectives of the CBD. Gender-disaggregated data collection and reporting within the framework will allow for more responsive adaptive learning throughout implementation.

There is a need to strengthen accountability when it comes to integrating gender considerations in the CBD process. 1

During the CBD’s 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CBD COP14), all Parties agreed to the decisions from COP14, which referenced guidelines for the development of gender-responsive post-2020 biodiversity framework and included the approval of a Gender Action Plan (GAP). Participants of the workshop agreed that because this was an official COP decision, it should be used as a starting point for holding Parties accountable.

Ana Maria Paez Valencia, Social Scientist and Gender Specialist, ICRAF

The workshop discussed possible mechanisms such as including gender responsiveness, or progress on gender relevant indicators as part of the voluntary peer-review process that assesses the development and implementation of national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs).

The inclusion of gender-responsive indicators for each target within the new framework should be linked to data collection and reporting mechanisms, with requirements for the inclusion of sex-disaggregated data and gender considerations in reporting templates. Moreover, participants agreed that compliance mechanisms should be facilitative, meaning that Parties who are unable or need support in implementing monitoring requirements will receive training and support.

An enabling environment is essential for mainstreaming gender considerations into the post-2020 framework.

Fundamental to the success of the post-2020 framework is the availability of sustained finance for implementation. Workshop participants underscored the importance of earmarking financial flows for gender-responsive activities and, specifically, for implementation of the CBD’s Gender Action Plan. They agreed that the plan should be revised to reflect updates within the post-2020 framework. If equipped with meaningful requirements for monitoring and reporting, the revised Gender Action Plan has the potential to become a powerful tool to guide action and hold Parties accountable.

The workshop also underscored the importance of capacity building and funding for the development of appropriate methodologies and approaches for the integration of gender considerations into relevant policy, strategy, and monitoring and evaluation frameworks. The need for capacity building applies not only to CBD processes and strategies, but to broader governmental directives, policies and strategic plans on biodiversity, at all levels of governance and implementation.

Originally published at World Agroforestry (ICRAF).

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World Agroforestry (ICRAF) is a centre of scientific and development excellence that harnesses the benefits of trees for people and the environment. Knowledge produced by ICRAF enables governments, development agencies and farmers to utilize the power of trees to make farming and livelihoods more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable at multiple scales.

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  • Beyond trees: Land restoration to enhance gender equality in Burkina Faso

Beyond trees: Land restoration to enhance gender equality in Burkina Faso


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A woman descaling fish. Africa. Photo by Daniel Tiveau/CIFOR.
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Not all farmers are able to adopt or benefit from landscape restoration practices equally. A research initiative highlights how inclusive initiatives have the potential to improve both the environment and the lives of women and their communities.

Gender disparity in landscape restoration 

Amid degradation of their natural resources, farmers in Burkina Faso’s Oubritenga province, in the country’s central Plateau, are adopting various practices to restore their lands. Landscape restoration enhances soil fertility and facilitates the establishment of trees that can provide benefits for human well-being as well as the environment. The techniques include the creation of stone barriers to slow water flow and prevent runoff, agroforestry techniques, assisted natural regeneration of valued trees in fields, and the creation of small zaï pits to retain water and soil nutrients for crop growth. The problem is that not all farmers are able to adopt or benefit from these practices equally. New research conducted by Master’s students from the University of Ouagadougou co-supervised by Bioversity International and other partners from Burkina Faso*, considers the various barriers women face in restoring their lands and landscapes to support their equitable participation in restoration initiatives for the benefit of the entire community.

Entrenched gender norms make it difficult for women to obtain the same opportunities as men to implement restoration practices. Gender plays an important role in determining who does what, who makes decisions, and who has access to resources and other assets, including benefits from restoration initiatives. Gender, however, is not the sole factor that determines who will implement and potentially benefit from landscape restoration practices. Whether a woman is married, where her husband resides, whether her husband has allocated her plots that are large enough to adopt agroforestry practices, and even whether the woman has adult male children can all greatly influence the probability of a woman implementing restoration practices and gaining some of the benefits.

In the study sites, farmers need to vouch for each other and women tend not to be considered eligible participants. Yet, not all women face the same exclusions. Women farmers who have a male head present in their household may be considered eligible, and can obtain access to material and financial resources, as well as training to apply restoration practices. This means that, unless they have an adult son, widows and wives of migrated husbands are particularly disadvantaged.

Read more at Bioversity International.

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Land restoration to enhance gender equality in Burkina Faso


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A farmer collects cobat fruit in Sorobouly village near Boromo, Burkina Faso. Photo by O. Girard/CIFOR
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Widows who are members of a women’s self-help group have been allocated collective land to improve their livelihoods. Photo by Marlène Elias/Bioversity International

Not all farmers are able to adopt or benefit from landscape restoration practices equally. A research initiative highlights how inclusive initiatives have the potential to improve both the environment and the lives of women and their communities.

Gender disparity in landscape restoration 

Amid degradation of their natural resources, farmers in Burkina Faso’s Oubritenga province, in the country’s central Plateau, are adopting various practices to restore their lands. Landscape restoration enhances soil fertility and facilitates the establishment of trees that can provide benefits for human well-being as well as the environment.

The techniques include the creation of stone barriers to slow water flow and prevent runoff, agroforestry techniques, assisted natural regeneration of valued trees in fields, and the creation of small zaï pits to retain water and soil nutrients for crop growth. The problem is that not all farmers are able to adopt or benefit from these practices equally.

New research conducted by Master’s students from the University of Ouagadougou cosupervised by Bioversity International and other partners from Burkina Faso considers the various barriers women face in restoring their lands and landscapes to support their equitable participation in restoration initiatives for the benefit of the entire community.

Entrenched gender norms make it difficult for women to obtain the same opportunities as men to implement restoration practices. Gender plays an important role in determining who does what, who makes decisions, and who has access to resources and other assets, including benefits from restoration initiatives. Gender, however, is not the sole factor that determines who will implement and potentially benefit from landscape restoration practices. Whether a woman is married, where her husband resides, whether her husband has allocated her plots that are large enough to adopt agroforestry practices, and even whether the woman has adult male children can all greatly influence the probability of a woman implementing restoration practices and gaining some of the benefits.

In the study sites, farmers need to vouch for each other and women tend not to be considered eligible participants. Yet, not all women face the same exclusions. Women farmers who have a male head present in their household may be considered eligible, and can obtain access to material and financial resources, as well as training to apply restoration practices. This means that, unless they have an adult son, widows and wives of migrated husbands are particularly disadvantaged.

Read more: Gender at the center of Bioversity International’s research

Zai pits are dug to improve soil fertility and water retention. Credit: Adidjata Ouédraogo/Université de Ouagadougou

Inclusive initiatives go beyond trees

By studying the approach of Association Tiipaalga – an NGO that has been supporting restoration in the country since 2006 – Master’s students from the University of Ouagadougou are identifying good practices from restoration initiatives trying to promote gender equality. The NGO is working to secure access to land for women’s self-help groups, composed primarily of widows and young women. It is helping these groups fence off their land to promote natural regeneration and plant certain species of trees and crops that can offer the women income-generating opportunities.

Moreover, it is organizing exposure visits for women and men farmers to visit villages in other parts of the country where restoration practices are being implemented, allowing farmers to learn from each other. The initiative is also supporting women in building improved cookstoves that require less fuelwood – saving women’s time collecting the fuelwood and reducing forest degradation – and to access microcredit to pursue income-generating activities such as trade, horticulture, and processing of non-timber forest products. Most importantly, collectively having access to land is enabling women to strengthen their social ties, cultivate vegetables and increase their incomes.

In addition to material gains, women have also built greater confidence and have become more vocal when it comes to accessing or managing natural resources in their village. During village meetings, for example, they are stating their opinions, and may even express ideas that contradict those of the men – which was something unheard of in the past. Women are also reporting having a greater say within their household on what to grow and what agricultural techniques to adopt in their fields as a result of their participation in restoration initiatives. Moreover, the provision of tools and equipment has freed up some of the energy and time, which the women can now invest in activities that foster their personal development. Many have chosen to learn to read, others are learning about family planning, sanitation and keeping their households healthy.

As one of the participants, Ms Kabore Minata puts it, “Thanks to these efforts, we women were able to have land, even if only on loan, and tools to cultivate crops. Were it not for these interventions, this would be only a dream because [as a woman having married into this village] I am considered a stranger here. Aside from a small parcel of land for growing condiments, what else could a woman like me have had otherwise?”

This article was originally published by Bioversity International. 

The University of Ouagadougou, Association Tiipaalga, and Burkina Faso’s National Tree Seed Center partnered with Bioversity International on this initiative.

This research was carried out by Adidjata Ouédraogo and Safietou Tiendrebeogo, Master’s students at Université de Ouagadougou, in the context of the project ‘Nutrition‐sensitive forest restoration to enhance adaptive capacity of rural communities in Burkina Faso’, led by Bioversity International. This research component has also received the support of Association Tiipaalga and the Centre National de Semences Forestières. The project is funded by the Austrian Development Agency.

This resesarch was conducted as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry, and is supported by contributors to the CGIAR Trust Fund.

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