Gender justice is a cross cutting objective of the RRI coalition. Women in collective tenure regimes and customary systems still face particular challenges in advancing their tenure and rights" and reform processes have not been effective in achieving gender justice in securing tenure" improving livelihoods and incomes. In parallel" national legal protections and gender advocacy programs have failed to advance women’s rights in customary regimes and legally pluralist systems. Women" especially indigenous women" have less awareness about their rights under statutory law and international conventions" facing double discrimination. Additionally" men are not often clear on how to advance the gender justice dimensions of realizing tenure rights.  Without properly ensuring that natural resource policies and legal frameworks address gender justice" RRI will not be successful in advancing forest and land tenure reforms and fully realizing Indigenous Peoples and forest communities’ tenure and rights. As one of RRI’s “New Directions” identified in 2012" this work aims to systematically increase progress towards gender justice in forest tenure and community rights.

RRI coalition members have agreed that engagement on gender justice should bring together analysis of experiences and lessons learned in the design and implementation of reforms advancing customary and collective tenure regimes; raising awareness of challenges and opportunities; and fostering dialogue among women and men in Indigenous Peoples’ territories" forest communities and other customary tenure regimes on means of achieving gender justice in land and resource governance.  The particular challenge is how to achieve scale both in advancing reforms and enhancing livelihoods and wellbeing for the communities at stake.

RRI convened a Gender Justice Scoping Meeting on November 7 - 8" 2013" with a small selection of experts with perse perspectives from Africa" Asia and Latin America to share best practices and provide tools for addressing gender justice in forest and land tenure" and determine their interest in further supporting RRI with specialized knowledge.  These experts will assist RRI in furthering our understanding of current issues in gender justice" and to work towards our goals of achieving gender justice and of realizing women’s and men’s forest and land tenure rights.

  

Objective:
 
To advance RRI’s understanding of relevant issues related to gender justice and women’s tenure rights" and identify gaps and opportunities for value addition to the Coalition’s ongoing work on these themes.
 

Inputs sought:

This meeting will provide inputs towards:
 
 1. Identifying the appropriate niche and priority areas for RRI engagement on  gender justice and collective property regimes (statutory and customary);

 2. Exploring various methodologies of analyses on the status of women’s rights in legal and statutory frameworks;

 3. Identifying key constituencies and women’s groups at the local" national" and international levels addressing land and forest tenure; and

 4. Connecting RRI with key government agencies" international institutions" and multilateral organizations to advocate for gender justice in land and forest tenure rights.

 

Expected results:

 1. Definition of modalities and focal areas for advancing the Coalition’s work on Gender Justice and women’s tenure rights; and

 2. Plan for continued collaboration and interest from participants in further supporting RRI with specialized knowledge related to current issues in gender justice.
 

Resources:

• Agenda (English) | (Spanish)
• Participant List (English)
• Participant Bios (English) | (Spanish)

Presentations

• Omaira Bolaños: Gender Justice Scoping Meeting: Why are we here?
• Carol Colfer: Theoretical Framework on Gender and Tenure

For more information" please contact Naomi Basik