Global Mechanism launches LDN and gender briefing note and manual to advance gender equality

6 September 2019
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New Delhi, India – The Global Mechanism (GM) of the UNCCD has just released a new briefing note that provides recommendations to advance gender equality in land degradation neutrality (LDN) interventions. The note informs policymakers and implementers at all levels on the role they can play in integrating gender equality into LDN-based initiatives.

The briefing note highlights the need for gender-equal participation in land and natural resource governance at the national and landscape levels and for strengthening legal protections for land rights of vulnerable groups including women. Equalizing the access, use and control over land, forests and natural resources and closing the gender gap to move toward evidence-based interventions will also ensure that initiatives do not perpetuate or deepen inequalities or marginalize women’s rights.

Together with UN-Women and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Global Mechanism also launched a Manual for gender-responsive LDN transformative projects and programmes to equip national-level project developers with specific guidance for mainstreaming gender perspectives across the lifecycle of LDN projects and programmes. The manual builds on work launched by the GM, UN Women, IUCN and UNDP in advising governments on how to integrate gender perspectives in the development of LDN projects and programmes as mandated by the UNCCD Gender Action Plan and the Science Policy Interface LDN Conceptual Framework.

The briefing note and the manual are now available for download on the UNCCD website. Both reports were officially launched at a side event that took place on 5 September during the UNCCD fourteenth Conference of the Parties in India (COP14). The side event was opened by M. af Hällström from the Government of Finland and showcased how the GM, together with UN-Women, IUCN and UNDP, supports country Parties in their efforts to pave a more systematic gender-responsive path to LDN interventions. Country representatives, gender and land experts, as well as community leaders and women farmers’ representatives, will share experiences of why gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in land-related sectors is key to achieving LDN.

For more information about the publications and the side event, please contact Aurélie Lhumeau and Sandrine Jauffret.