Shifting Sands: How a Simple Task Revealed Gender Imbalance in Indonesia
Table of Contents
- 1. Shifting Sands: How a Simple Task Revealed Gender Imbalance in Indonesia
- 2. Empowering women: A look at Gender Change in Development
- 3. Transforming Research: Gender Equality Takes Center Stage
- 4. Acknowledgements
- 5. Empowering women in Uganda: The Nubian Poplar Project
- 6. How can integrating GESI principles in research contribute to creating a more equitable and sustainable future, especially for women and girls?
Imagine a village in Indonesia where men and women have drastically different daily lives. While men spend five hours a day working in the fields, women shoulder twice the workload, tending to multiple responsibilities like cooking, collecting resources, caring for children, and managing crops. It might sound amazing, but this stark reality sparked a powerful shift in perceptions and attitudes within a community, offering a glimpse into the potential for broader societal change.
A team of researchers from the Center for international Forestry Research and world Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) led a groundbreaking exercise that illuminated this hidden truth. Through a simple assessment of daily tasks, men were confronted with the overwhelming burden carried by women. “This realization helped the men understand why women need equal opportunities,” explained Linda Yuliani, a scientist with CIFOR-ICRAF, during a recent workshop called “Gender, Equity and Social inclusion (GESI) in Forestry/Agroforestry Projects: Workshopping tools for change.”
The workshop, held as part of the Forests & livelihoods Assessment, Research, and Engagement (FLARE) annual meeting in Rome, focused on integrating gender-responsive and transformative approaches into forest and agroforest management. Yuliani shared insights from the Adaptive Collaborative Management (ACM) project on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, highlighting the crucial role of hands-on exercises in sparking critical conversations and challenging preconceived notions about gender roles.
The power of this simple task reveals a compelling truth: sometimes, all it takes is a clearer picture to see the need for change.
Empowering women: A look at Gender Change in Development
Three decades ago, the global development community committed to prioritizing gender equality in its efforts to improve lives worldwide. In 1995, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a landmark agreement, outlined the crucial role of gender equality in achieving enduring development and called for a paradigm shift towards greater inclusivity.
This approach, known as “gender mainstreaming,” emphasizes the need to integrate gender perspectives into all aspects of development policy and practice. The idea was to move beyond simply addressing women’s needs as a separate issue to recognizing and tackling the root causes of gender inequality that permeate all sectors of society.This commitment to gender transformation has sparked notable progress. The emphasis on women’s empowerment, education, and access to resources has led to tangible improvements in health, education, and economic opportunities for women in numerous countries. The impact, though, is not uniform.
The journey towards gender equality is far from complete. The complexities of diverse cultural contexts,socioeconomic disparities,and entrenched power structures create unique challenges for implementing these transformative approaches. It highlights the need for a nuanced and context-specific approach to gender transformation,recognizing that each society has its own set of historical,social,and cultural norms that shape gender relations.
As we move forward, it is indeed crucial to continue to invest in gender transformative programming, fostering greater understanding, inclusivity, and collaboration across sectors and communities. The goal is to create a world where women and girls have equal opportunities and rights to participate fully in all aspects of society.Driven by a commitment to equity and empowerment, the Collaborating to Operationalise Landscape Approaches for Nature, Development, and Sustainability (COLANDS) initiative is championing gender equality in natural resource management.Recognizing that true empowerment lies in choice and agency, Yuliani, a member of the COLANDS initiative, emphasizes that, “Empowering women must involve granting them the freedom to choose, and to act in ways that are not overburdening them.”
emily Gallagher, a CIFOR-ICRAF scientist specializing in sustainable value chains and investment, further underscores the importance of understanding existing gender roles within specific contexts. “Awareness of the existing roles and responsibilities for men and women in a particular context is the first step in transforming gender roles,” Gallagher explains.
she highlights the crucial need to consider the multifaceted nature of gender and inclusion, taking into account factors such as generation, religion, ethnicity, and socio-economic status. “Understanding how gender and inclusion intersect with other factors, from generation to religion, ethnicity and class, is essential to scaling up positive actions,” Gallagher emphasizes.Gallagher further underscores the importance of formal structures in driving systemic change. “That, in turn, is necessary to move from individual change to systemic change and from informal norms to formal measures, including the composition of decision-making bodies and establishing laws that respect women’s land and resource tenure rights.” She firmly states, “Equal access for women and men to formal decision-making arenas regarding individual and community land and resource rights is essential, as is secure land tenure that ensures women’s inheritance rights.”
Gallagher’s work extends beyond theory. She presented a project titled “Prioritizing Options for Women’s Empowerment and Resilience (POWER)” in Malawi, focusing on fruit tree value chains.This project sparked a discussion on effective tools for empowering both women and men within this context. Gallagher stresses the importance of community engagement, stating, “Families participated in the research only after agreeing to be involved.”
Restoring degraded landscapes and empowering communities go hand-in-hand. Initiatives like TOFI, a collaborative effort between USAID and India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, demonstrate this powerful synergy.TOFI’s aspiring goal: to revitalize 2.8 million hectares of degraded land through tree planting. But TOFI goes beyond simply planting trees; it’s deeply committed to ensuring equitable benefits for everyone involved.
“A gender and equity approach ensures women and under-represented social groups are meaningfully included in TOFI’s work,” emphasizes a spokesperson for the project. This commitment translates into tangible actions, empowering women and marginalized communities to actively participate in decision-making processes and benefit directly from TOFI’s initiatives.
Community engagement is another cornerstone of TOFI’s success. Local communities aren’t just recipients of aid; they are active partners in shaping the project’s direction.Their customary knowledge and understanding of the local environment are invaluable assets,ensuring that TOFI’s interventions are sustainable and culturally sensitive.
A prime example of community-driven restoration comes from Uganda’s National Oil Palm Project (NOPP). Communities surrounding Lake Victoria played a crucial role in identifying households ready to participate in oil palm production,aiming to improve rural livelihoods and combat poverty. Over time, NOPP integrated the Gender Action and Learning System (GALS) curriculum, empowering households to set economic goals, stabilize vulnerable families, and, importantly, engage men as allies in women’s economic empowerment.
“Communities around Lake Victoria nominated households to participate in efforts to improve rural development and reduce poverty through oil palm production,” explains Gallagher, highlighting the community’s ownership of the project. “Over time, NOPP has gradually adapted its approach to include the Gender Action and Learning System (GALS) curriculum to support households and communities in setting economic goals, stabilizing at-risk families and in particular, engaging men as allies for women’s economic empowerment,” Gallagher adds, emphasizing the transformative impact of incorporating gender-sensitive approaches.
Transforming Research: Gender Equality Takes Center Stage
A recent workshop focused a powerful spotlight on the critical need for integrating gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) principles into research on transformative forest landscapes. Hosted by the Collaborative on Land-Use & Social Transformation in Forests (COLANDS), the event brought together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to delve into how to make research practices more inclusive and impactful.
The workshop’s organizers emphasized the urgency of addressing gender-based inequities in the context of social-ecological systems. “The specific context of each landscape shapes weather exercises are conducted with single-sex or mixed groups,” explained Babita Bohra, a key figure in the Transforming Our Forests and Landscapes Initiative (TOFI).“The GESI approach ensures meaningful inclusion of women, under-represented social groups, and differently-abled individuals in TOFI activities,” she added.
Participants engaged in thought-provoking exercises that illustrated how language can frequently enough perpetuate harmful stereotypes. For example, James Reed, a COLANDS team leader and senior scientist at CIFOR-ICRAF, shared research on children playing with Lego bricks. He pointed out how boys’ creations were more frequently enough praised with words like “cool,” ”innovative,” or “clever,” while girls’ efforts were frequently labeled as “cute” or “pretty.” This highlighted the subtle ways social norms and expectations can influence perceptions and opportunities.
The workshop spurred a candid discussion about the impact of power dynamics on research and social inclusion. Participants recognized that factors like who is comfortable expressing themselves freely or laughing in a group setting can often marginalize women and girls. A key takeaway was the need for researchers to develop and utilize more elegant tools and methods to effectively address these inequities.
The organizers hope this workshop will be a catalyst for ongoing dialog and concrete action. Their vision is to foster a research environment that is not only more inclusive but also yields more equitable and sustainable outcomes for all.
Acknowledgements
COLANDS is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) and is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU). PhD research conducted as part of COLANDS is hosted at the Institute for social Science Research of the University of Amsterdam and the University of British Columbia. Learn more about COLANDS’ work by contacting James Reed at [email protected].
TOFI is a collaborative initiative between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (moefcc) of the Government of India. It is led by CIFOR-ICRAF. For inquiries, please contact Babita Bohra at [email protected].
POWER is a CIFOR-ICRAF project within the Gender Equality in a Low Carbon World (GLOW) program. https://glowprogramme.org/
Empowering women in Uganda: The Nubian Poplar Project
In the lush landscapes of Uganda, a ground-breaking project is transforming the lives of local women and communities by promoting sustainable forestry practices and empowering women through resource ownership. The Nubian Poplar Project (NPP), implemented in the eastern region of Uganda, focuses on fostering gender equality within the forestry sector.
This initiative is driven by the understanding that women play a crucial role in forest management and play vital roles in fuelwood, timber, and other non-timber forest product collection and utilization. Though, they frequently enough face challenges in accessing and controlling forest resources. Recognizing this gap, the NPP works to empower women by providing them with the knowledge, skills, and resources needed to manage and benefit from forest resources sustainably.
The project’s approach centers on ”gender transformative approaches,” a methodology that seeks to challenge existing gender norms and power imbalances that hinder women’s full participation in forest management. This involves creating safe spaces for women to voice their concerns, share their experiences, and contribute to decision-making processes related to forestry practices.
“It is about transforming mindsets and breaking down traditional barriers that limit women’s access to and control over natural resources,” says a key participant in the project.
Through training programs, the NPP equips women with practical skills in nursery establishment, tree planting, and forest management techniques. They are also provided with access to credit facilities, enabling them to invest in their own micro-enterprises related to forestry products. This economic empowerment not only improves their livelihoods but also strengthens their position within their communities.
The Nubian Poplar Project has achieved promising results in Uganda, demonstrating the positive impact of empowering women in forestry. By dismantling traditional barriers and equipping women with the necessary tools, the project is paving the way for a more equitable and sustainable future for Ugandan forests.
How can integrating GESI principles in research contribute to creating a more equitable and sustainable future, especially for women and girls?
Summary and Key Takeaways
The provided text discusses the importance of gender equality and inclusion in various sectors, with a particular focus on natural resource management and research practices. Here are the key takeaways:
- Gender Change: While there have been tangible improvements in health, education, and economic opportunities for women in many countries, the journey towards gender equality is far from complete.Each society has its own set of ancient, social, and cultural norms that shape gender relations, requiring a nuanced and context-specific approach.
- Empowering Women: Empowering women must involve granting them freedom to choose and act without overburdening them. Understanding existing gender roles within specific contexts is the first step in transforming them. ItS crucial to consider the multifaceted nature of gender and inclusion, intersecting factors such as generation, religion, ethnicity, and socio-economic status.
- inclusive Decision-Making and Resource Tenure: Ensuring equal access for women and men to formal decision-making arenas regarding individual and community land and resource rights, along with secure land tenure that ensures women’s inheritance rights, is essential for driving systemic change.
- community Engagement: Restoring degraded landscapes and empowering communities go hand-in-hand. Initiatives like TOFI and NOPP demonstrate the synergy between community engagement and successful landscape restoration projects. local communities should be active partners,and their customary knowledge should be valued for sustainable and culturally sensitive interventions.
- Integrating GESI Principles in research: A recent workshop emphasized the critical need to integrate gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) principles into research on transformative forest landscapes. Research practices should be more inclusive to yield equitable and sustainable outcomes for all.
- Catalyzing Change: The workshop was a catalyst for ongoing dialogue and concrete action, aiming to foster a more inclusive research surroundings. The ultimate goal is to create a world where women and girls have equal opportunities and rights to participate fully in all aspects of society.
- Funding and Support: The Collaborating to Operationalise Landscape Approaches for Nature, Progress, and Sustainability (COLANDS) initiative is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) and is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU). It is committed to championing gender equality in natural resource management.
