----Dr.Debesh Bhowmik
The importance of gender
mainstreaming in environmental and poverty eradication policies has been
reflected in several forums and global agreements signed over the last 20 years.
Yet, despite this, gender has been unevenly integrated into international conventions
and implementation mechanisms. UNEP has a unique role in efforts to integrate
gender within the policies and activities of global decision making bodies.
Since 1993, successive UNEP Governing Council decisions have called upon UNEP
to integrate gender and women’s perspectives more closely in its activities and
policies. In 2006, UNEP called upon IUCN and WEDO to develop a strategic Gender Plan of Action
to work towards the full integration of gender issues and women’s perspectives,
UNEP’s Gender Plan of Action establishes strategies and targets and proposes instruments
to address gender concerns within the organization. A brief target of the four
core areas of the Plan of Action are given below.
[i] Secure high level commitment
towards gender equality and environment
[ii] Develop a gender policy for organization
[iii] Allocate sufficient
resources
[iv] Ensure that all new policies
are gender sensitive.
Preamble to the CBD recognizes
“the vital role that women play in the conservation and sustainable use of
biological diversity and affirm[s] the need for the[ir] full participation at
all levels of policy-making and implementation for biological diversity
conservation”. The Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological
Advice (SBSTTA) and various decisions of Conferences of the Parties (COP) also
highlight women’s practices, knowledge, and gender roles in food production.
However, while women’s participation in activities under the Convention is
identified as important, gender equality is not directly addressed. the
Secretariat of the CBD developed a CBD Gender Plan of Action (GPoA) in May
2008. Based on consultations with staff from the Convention,
the UN and other organizations, this Plan of Action seeks to define the role of
the CBD Secretariat in efforts, both in-house and with partners at the
national, regional and global levels, to overcome constraints and take advantage
of opportunities to promote gender equality. it has four strategic objectives:
to mainstream gender into implementation of the CBD and work of the
Secretariat; to promote gender equality in achieving the objectives of the CBD;
to demonstrate the benefits of gender mainstreaming in biodiversity
conservation, sustainable use and benefit-sharing from the use of genetic
resources; and to increase the effectiveness of the work of the CBD
Secretariat.
This
initiative enabled the development of the first roadmaps on Gender and REDD+.
An essential point of departure – and a central driving principle throughout –
was to ensure that both women and men are fully recognized as important forest
stakeholders: that they are afforded equal opportunity to learn about the
initiatives, build the required capacity, and that they are able to
meaningfully participate in-, contribute to-, and henceforth also benefit from
forestry and climate change policies, programs and funds.Women across the developing world are primary
users of forest resources and their sale of non-timber forest products is vital
to help cover household expenses and tide them through the leaner times of the
year. Their heavier dependence on forests also means that women have more at
stake than men when forests are degraded or forest access denied. Yet the needs
and concerns of women are often neglected and the ownership of forests and the
sale of valuable forest products are largely under the control of men.
Some of the targets are given below
under the broad themes.
Ensure equitable distribution of benefits:
1 Assess benefits sharing schemes
to identify opportunities and constrains for women
2. Adapt benefits sharing schemes
(or create new) to promote opportunities and address constrains for women
3. Train women on benefits sharing schemes
negotiation techniques
4. Prepare a gender sensitive
evaluation to determine revenue distribution, utilization and monitoring
fallouts. Ensure equitable distribution of benefits between women and men
To guarantee
that women’s access to funds:
1. Create a forest conservation
and women protection fund and secure resources (Tree Fund, private sector)
2. Train local women on fund
acquisition procedures
3. Reflect on options to make
fund acquisition process easy and affordable to women Ensure that women receive
compensation, incentives, benefits and revenues
To ensure that
gender considerations are fully integrated in forest sector and REDD+:
1. Institutionalize gender
sensitive benefit sharing schemes, MRV system, forest management, AF systems,
and information and communication system through: review lessons; taking note
of best practices; guide lines and criteria identified during pilot schemes;
where necessary, review policy and legislation; update monitoring and
evaluation schemes
To support the
establishment of a gender and forest task force:
1. Identify representatives from:
women NGOs; national level women networks; organizations working on specialized
topics (i.e. land tenure rights, domestic relations); national women mechanisms;
women parliamentarian; gender focal points of development partners
2. Appoint a full time
coordinator 3. Mobilize resources to support the activities of task force4.
Identify decision-making bodies and processes where women need to be
represented5. Advocate for women inclusion in decision-making bodies and
processes Capacity building for women and women’s organizations
To build and
strengthen women’s- and gender focused organization’s capacity on REDD+ issues:
1. Develop training materials on
sustainable management of forests and REDD+ accessible to women
2. Conduct a sensitization
campaign that pays special attention to women’s media preferences
3. Conduct trainings for local
women on forestry and REDD+ issues Meaningful consultation and effective
participation of women in design of REDD+
To ensure effective consultation and
participation of women in the design of the national strategy:
1.
Develop
a methodology that promotes the consultation and full and effective
participation of women which includes: assessment of barriers that limit
women’s participation; mapping of target groups; organization and support of
women platforms; actions that take into consideration community consultative
meetings
To
enhance participation through formal/informal education for women and girls in
forestry sector:
1.
Identify training institutions and conduct gender trainings for staff
2.
Identify/create REDD+ relevant courses
3.
Develop scholarship schemes and identify interested and qualified women4.
Motivate women to remain in the forestry sector Meaningful consultation and
effective participation of women in pilot projects
To
guarantee women’s participation in REDD+ demonstration activities (pilot projects):
1.
Identify good practices and actions to fully and effectively integrate women
and replicate in pilot projects
2.
Encourage the participation and involvement of women through the provision of
resources (e.g. per diem)
3.
Build the capacity of local women to participate and/or coordinate activities
of pilot project
4.
Provide women and men equal access and control over tools, equipment,
technology and resources Gender is mainstreamed in policies reforms associated
to REDD+
To
support the mainstreaming of gender considerations in current revisions of
policies:
1.
Identify current policies under revision
2.
Define mechanisms needed for women representatives to participate in these
revisions
3.
Facilitates consultations at the local and regional levels
4. Women
representatives disseminates revised policies to their constituencies
Collection of sex-disaggregated data and inclusion of gender analyses
To
conduct gender-sensitive baseline studies and monitoring, reporting and
verification (MRV):
1.
MRV system generates sex disaggregated data on ownership, use, management, and
access to resources
2.
Identify activities carried out by women that could contribute to the data
collection in MRV
3.
Capacity building sessions for women on MRV methodologies and tools
4. Involvement
of women in REDD+ MRV
5. Identify gender-sensitive practices and promote their
implementation at a broader scale.
