The UNCCD Advocacy Policy Framework (APF) on gender, approved by the COP10 (Decision 9), demonstrates the benefits of mainstreaming gender in Desertification/Land Degradation and Drought (DDLD)/ Sustainable Land Management (SLM) actions at national and local levels. The framework recognizes that gender mainstreaming has to take place at various levels involving multiple stakeholders. It is through the full participation of local people, especially women, that the efforts efforts to combat desertification can be most effective.

The year 2012 marks the twentieth anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit, which resulted in the establishment of the three Rio Conventions: the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD ) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC ).

The range of measures often emphasized in gendered efforts to reverse desertification and land degradation and mitigate the effects of drought (DLDD) include improving the participation of women in decision-making, building the capacity of women’s organizations, eliminating illiteracy among women, minimizing the heavy workload on women and eliminating gender disparities in employment and in the access to and ownership of resources. This fact sheet draws attention to the complex and evolving nature of gender issues pertaining to drylands women.

Parmi l’éventail des mesures souvent mises en avant dans l’approche genre dans le cadre de la lutte contre la désertification, la dégradation des terres et de l’atténuation des effets de la sécheresse, figurent l’amélioration de la participation des femmes à la prise de décision, le renforcement des capacités des organisations féminines, l’élimination de l’illettrisme féminin, l’allègement de la charge de travail des femmes et l’élimination des disparités hommes-femmes au travail, dans l’accès aux ressources et à la propriété.

El conjunto de medidas a menudo señaladas desde la perspectiva de género para revocar la desertificación y la degradación de las tierras y atenuar los efectos de la sequía (DLDD) incluye: la mejora de la participación de las mujeres en la toma de decisiones, la creación de capacidad de las organizaciones de mujeres, la erradicación del analfabetismo femenino, la disminución de su carga de trabajo y la desaparición de las disparidades de género, tanto en el trabajo como en el acceso y posesión de recursos.

The brief describes development planning consultations, locally known as musrenbang, conducted in stages through different levels of governance: village, sub-district and district. The brief then documents lessons from experience catalyzing collective action among local community goups (in particular women’s groups) to engage in this development process and to help articulate the women’s aspirations in such a way that they could be heard by district decision makers.

The brief illustrates two communities’ efforts through collective action to secure property rights over their land. As conflict over natural resources and the need for sufficient farm land continue to increase, both men’s and women’s groups tried to negotiate their rights to manage natural resources to maintain their livelihoods. The groups also tried various governmental schemes and other approaches to secure their rights over land.

This paper will first explain briefly why gendered relations around property rights are an important development and welfare issue. Then it will explore what has happened to women’s rights under agrarian reforms, titling and registration programmes, and land privatization programmes in general. The paper will then briefly describe how women have attempted to respond to threats on their rights. The final section will explore the relation between property rights and access to factor markets, a crucial relation in agricultural production for the market.

This Backgrounder is the first in a multi-authored series on Cultivating Gender Justice. In this series, we seek to uncover the structural foundations of sexism in the food system and highlight the ways people, communities, organizations, and social movements are dismantling the attitudes, institutions, and structures that hold patriarchy in place. To end hunger and malnutrition, we must end injustices in the food and agriculture system.

Interventions aimed at increasing water availability for livelihood and domestic activities have great potential to improve various determinants of undernutrition, such as the quantity and diversity of foods consumed within the household, income generation, and women’s empowerment. However, current evidence on the topic is diluted across many different publications. This paper aims to connect the dots and review the literature available on the linkages between irrigation and food security, improved nutrition, and health.

A sample survey of 648 households was conducted in 54 villages in the humid forest zone of Cameroon to understand the effect of the economic crisis (dating from 1986) and the 1994 currency devaluation on the practices of small farmers, and the effect of these practices on forest cover change. Four hypotheses were tested concerning: the balance between plantation crop and food crop production; the degree of market-orientation of food crop production; the gender division of labour; and the degree of dependence on non-timber forest products (NTFPs).