What are the main challenges rural women and girls are facing today?
Some of the main challenges of rural women - which were already mentioned in the online discussion- remain time poverty (women’s disproportionate responsibility for domestic work and unpaid care) and lack of access to / control over financial resources and assets such as land. Recently WOCAN conducted an assessment of the Gender integration in REDD+ and ERPD in Nepal and concluded that rural women are still facing the following challenges:
- A high level of engagement in labor- intensive forest- related unpaid activities on a daily basis, but low level of engagement in decision-making processes.
- Women’s workloads within and outside the household is high and “time poverty” is a critical issue. Their traditional roles as family care givers and food producers are unpaid and under-valued, and take up most of women’s time and energy
- Women’s access to resources to improve their income and roles in decision-making is low.
http://www.wocan.org/news/final-sharing-workshop-assessment-gender-integration-redd-and-erpd-nepal
Some of the conditions that contribute to empower women as entrepreneurs include their access to trainings to build their skills in leadership, negotiation and business, and access to financial services; as well as their access to technologies that reduce their workloads and improve the productivity of their production; the capacity of women to organize in groups and cooperatives (or be active members in mixed cooperatives) can also facilitate their negotiation power and access to better inputs and markets.
Are we using the right approaches and policies to close the gender gap?
Beyond the lack of investment in women and women’s organizations, one element that is lacking is a robust means of measuring outcomes of projects, approaches, policies (going beyond outputs) to better understand what works and improve design and implementation.
WOCAN developed the W+ Standard to address those gaps (https://youtu.be/LGQ5KupYaKs). At this time, certification schemes and standards do not quantify benefits or outcomes to women of project communities; many refer only to gender and women in relation to their workplaces or social safeguards.
The W+ Standard measures progress in women’s empowerment in six areas: Time, Income & Assets, Health, Leadership, Education & Knowledge and Food Security. The measurement of progress in projects, which is verified by an independent auditor, results in W+ women-benefit units, that individuals, companies and investors can buy, and be confident that their investment is making a meaningful and measurable positive impact. A share of the sale of units goes back to women and women’s groups. Putting money directly into women’s hands has proven to be transformative for their lives, as they are more likely than men to reinvest this to meet needs of their families and communities.
By measuring results and putting money into the hands of women, the W+ Standard can contribute to incentivizing project developers and investors to invest in women and contribute simultaneously to SDG # 5 and other SDGs where women play a critical.
The W+ Standard was recognized by the UNFCCC and awarded the Women for Results award of the Momentum for Change in 2016. A video produced by the UNFCCC shows the application of the W+ Standard to a biogas project in Nepal (https://youtu.be/bm-hyVY7680)
Thank you for organizing this important forum!
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Maria Lee
Assistant Director | Regional Coordinator for Europe
WOCAN
Maria Lee