Experts meet to improve gender-related knowledge

Since its inception, the UNCCD has held a firm mandate on the involvement of women in policy planning and decision-making at the local, national, and regional levels. The Convention stresses the importance of ensuring the full participation of both men and women at all levels in programs to combat desertification and to mitigate the effects of drought.

There is increasing recognition that efforts to combat and address land degradation, desertification, and droughts require a more thorough understanding of human rights and gender equality considerations. Bearing this in mind, the UNCCD secretariat launched a call for case studies and started collecting promising practices, to later integrate them into comprehensive policy research on key gender issues that affect the implementation of the Convention.

As the UNCCD prepares for its next Conference of Parties COP15 scheduled of May 2022 in Cote d’Ivoire, experts and practitioners frepresenting the UN entities, civil society, youth and women’s organizations, gathered for an virtual workshop to discuss the issues affecting women and men as they combat desertification, land degradation and drought and to put forth recommendations for the key stakeholders.

The event from 1 to 3 February highlighted the findings of the study and enabled discussion on how to improve gender-specific data and ensure that it combines gender, socio-economic and environmental indicators. The participants also discussed how to bring about change regarding women’s land rights and economic empowerment through land restoration and building strategic partnerships and alliances.

UNCCD acknowledges that strengthening gender-related knowledge is essential to support the mainstreaming gender issues. Assessing different dimensions of an individual’s identity, such as age, ethnicity, gender and class can bring the necessary detail to the analysis of differentiated impacts and support actions that address land degradation and desertification while reducing inequalities.

To improve gender-related knowledge, the study led to the creation of five new datasets which assess the level of inclusion of gender considerations in the UNCCD country Performance Review and Implementation System (PRAIS) reports, Land Degradation Neutrality  country profiles, and National Drought Plans. The research also includes a metric related to the inclusion of land degradation and desertification in countries’ national reports to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and information concerning women's participation in COP14 by country and by region.

Read more:

• WOCAT and UNCCD review gender-responsive SLM technologies assessment tool
• UNCCD Gender Action Plan
• Land tenure and governance
• PRAIS4 reporting platform
• UNCCD COP15

Photo: Assisted Natural Regeneration in Bangladesh with the Forest Department and the Institute of Forestry and Environmental Science, University of Chittagong (c) Tania Akter