How we can best promote gender equality and biodiversity.
With the development of post 2020 global diversity framework and new 2020 plan of action, there is a real opportunity to set ambitious goals for biodiversity and gender equality.
There has been alot of focus on the means through which gender issue should be adressed. A focus on women's participation can obscure what is meant to be achieved by them being on the table making it difficult to measure progress in terms of action plan.
The three key priorities outlined in the post 2020 gender action plan include;
1. Women's equal acess, control and ownership in relation to biodiversity, ecosystem services. Women are responsible for more than 60% food production in developing countries yet rarely own the land they work on thereby having limited decision making power on how to use the land or its outputs. Rights to land tenure has been closely linked to sustainable land practices. Women's economic empowerment is essential in promoting equality between women and men. Women's unequal acess to land and property is a key obstacle in their economic empowerment.
2.Ensure women benefit equally from efforts to conserve and sustainably manage biodiversity. This includes benefitting from employment opportunities in biodiversity related sections. In order for the initiaves to be successful in the long term, social-economic benefits from conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity must ve equally shared.
3.Biodiversity, policy planning and programming decisions to adress the needs of women and girls and to ensure the decisions reflects the needs of women and girls as well as men and boys. This necessitates inclusive decision making process in which women are able to participate effectively and equally to men.
These three priorities are the basis for bring transformative change for biodiversity thats both sustainable and equitable.
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