Agroecology Gender

Gender Equality and Social Inclusion

Both women and men depend on forests, agroforestry and trees for their livelihoods, and play a critical role in managing them. However, inequalities persist in roles, rights and responsibilities of women and men, and shape the ways they participate in decision making, benefit from forest and tree resources, and experience changes in forest and tree-based landscapes. Gender biases in the wider policy environment and exclusionary social norms result in a gender gap in access to and control of assets and key resources, including land, labor, credit, information and extension services, with women facing disadvantages in several domains. These inequalities, embedded in formal and informal institutions and structures, hinder the change needed to support the sustainable and equitable development solutions that FTA seeks to deliver.

As FTA’s research agenda has evolved since the program’s inception, so too has the program’s portfolio of gender and social inclusion research. This revised research agenda and action plan draws on a tradition of quality gender work within FTA centers and complements FTA’s original Gender Strategy (2013). It reflects the evolution of the program, including thematic and methodological developments in gender research and praxis, and increases the focus on the nexus of gender and generation (including youth issues), and efforts to make FTA’s research increasingly transformative.

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