Can safeguards guarantee gender equity?: Lessons from research on women in early REDD+ implementation

Summary

Key messages:

Research suggests that women are not as informed about REDD+ or initiative activities as their male counterparts from the same village. When women are involved in REDD+ implementation, their participation is more superficial than men’s. Important gender gaps in information, knowledge and decision making are likely to affect the distribution of future benefits and burdens. Interventions that do not seek to address imbalances at the outset may be doomed to perpetuate them.

Read this brief if you want to ensure that REDD+ does not perpetuate gender inequities. You are designing safeguard policies. You want to understand why improving women’s participation alone is insufficient to protect women’s interests and needs. You want REDD+ to benefit women.​