Focus on Gender - March 2015 - Forests, Trees and Agroforestry

Dear friends and colleagues,

Welcome to the fourth edition of the FTA Gender Integration Team Newsletter: Focus on Gender.

This newsletter, which is published three times each year, is meant to serve as a mechanism for knowledge sharing, especially on good practices and lessons learned. It is a product of the collaboration between the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bioversity International, and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) as part of the CGIAR’s Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry.

Your knowledge, information and experiences are important to us. We invite you to share with us any gender-focused resources, tools or information you may have. Your comments and feedback on the newsletter are welcome and encouraged. To get in touch, please email Ana Maria Paez Valencia at ICRAF.

Thoughts on Gender: Tackling the structural roots of gender inequity

By Dr. Margaret Kroma, Assistant Director General for Parternships & Impact, World Agroforestry Centre

Rural and smallholder women face tremendous obstacles in agricultural production and strategically participating in crop value chains. But removing obstacles alone, or increasing women’s participation in tree product value chains is not enough if the ultimate goal is women’s transformation and empowerment. Read more.

Research update

This is a brief update on selected gender-related research that is ongoing within FTA.

Understanding the dynamics of decision making in communities with high temporary migration; and Understanding gender, space and security In Indonesia (contact: Delia Catacutan)

Gender-specific appreciation of landscape multi-functionality – A study conducted in Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Uganda, Malawi and Cameroon (contact: Delia Catacutan)

For more on these ICRAF projects, click here.

Gender norms and agency in Kyrgyzstan (contact: Marlène Elias)

For more on this project, click here.

Gender-equitable rights and access to forest and tree resources and benefits – a mixed methods approach in Uganda and Nicaragua (contact: Esther Mwangi; read more here.)

Gender, migration and forest governance – Lessons from Nepal (contact: Bimbika Sijapati Basnett; read more here)

For a list of all of CIFOR’s gender-related projects, please click here.

Featured Project & Researcher

Project: Bioversity’s Innovations for Forest Resources Management (InFoRM) Program

Researcher: Marlène Elias of Bioversity (below)

“I hope [this project] can achieve quite a lot in terms of engaging women of different backgrounds more fully in decision-making…”