Overview
The Global Platform Gender Inclusion Program aims to see every FOLUR project identifying and implementing activities that ensure all project participants effectively participate and benefit.
By sharing knowledge of practices that generate gender-responsive rural landscape and sustainable food system projects, programs and investments, the goal is to influence improved project and program design of gender-based “best” practices across FOLUR implemented by clients and partners, leading to inclusive projects with measurable improved equity impacts.
Projects in the 27 FOLUR projects encompass a broad range of diverse forest and agricultural landscapes.
Understanding how men and women access, use and manage natural resources within landscapes can shape effective policies, institutional arrangements and interventions to support sustainable food systems.
Men and women not only fill different roles across commodity value chains but their preferences for new technologies and approaches also differ.
These differences manifest as persistent gender gaps across all FOLUR countries in the way rural advisory services and markets are accessed. Other areas where significant gaps exist include inputs and value-addition, land and tree tenure, voice and agency, and in labor hiring practices.
However, the challenges and appropriate solutions vary across locations, which is why a gender analysis that identifies critical roles, preferences, access to resources, services and markets of all people involved - and associated opportunities for addressing these differences - at the project inception stage is so important.
Thus to enhance overall project effectiveness and impacts, FOLUR country projects undertook gender analyses during project design and identified specific gender-responsive activities to address gender gaps relevant to their projects.
FOLUR Global Platform’s Gender Inclusion Program aims to see every FOLUR project identifying and implementing activities that ensure all targeted project participants are effectively participating and receiving benefits from those actions.
By sharing knowledge of practices that are generating gender-responsive rural landscape and sustainable food system projects, programs and investments, the goal is to influence and see improved project and program design of gender-based “best” practices across FOLUR, and implemented by clients and partners, leading to projects that are more inclusive and able to measure improved equity impacts.
Approach
Women farmers during drought, Kenya. By Flore de Preneuf/World Bank
The FOLUR program takes a highly collaborative approach. It established a Gender Equality Working Group at the outset, with social development and gender specialists from all core FOLUR partners. This group later incorporated the wider Food and Agricultural Commodity Systems (FACS) community platform membership from FOLUR Country Projects (285 as of early 2025).
Now called the Gender Equality Community, it is designed for FOLUR Global Partners and country projects to collaborate on gender-related work, share knowledge, and coordinate actions. It allows members to exchange experiences, propose ideas, and access guidance and best practices. Additionally, users can seek advice, post project news, and explore approaches to engage food companies and private sector coalitions in gender-responsive actions.
Key activities and outputs of FOLUR’s Gender Equality Community
- Gender Resource Guide - synthesizes a selection of resources specifically related to gender equality in the context of food systems, land use and restoration[JM1] [PK2] , all published by FOLUR Global Platform Partners and other organizations in recent years. These resources are organized around four results areas and components of FOLUR country projects and available in different formats for ease of access. Guidelines, tools, learning briefs, reports and articles often include examples relevant for FOLUR country project teams and address multiple aspects of gender considerations in sustainable global food, land use and restoration.
- Gender Learning Programme (GLP) - GLP 1.0 consisted of four virtual events, which provided theoretical knowledge and practical tools and enabled interactive discussions between 178 participants from 58 countries (17 of them FOLUR countries) and 20 speakers and facilitators. In addition, experiences and case studies on gender integration were shared from Asia (2), Africa (4), Latin America (4) and global (7). All learning modules are openly available here. Participants of GLP 1.0 were interviewed and gave feedback towards the design of the next iteration of this programme, GLP 2.0 that will further tailor its sessions to regional and audience experience levels and include a Gender Learning Clinic providing technical assistance to country projects on demand.
- Gender-related events of FOLUR – FOLUR’s gender community has organized multiple webinars and participated in many global and regional events, sharing their knowledge and resources and highlighting FOLUR Country Project teams’ work in this area. As of early 2025, these include FOLUR’s in-person global meeting in Brazil (with 112 participants, including 47 women), and regional commodity-specific dialogues in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and Africa (together with over 220 participants, one-quarter female). The majority of the hundreds of participants in the virtual gender-focused webinars have been women.
- Briefs, Guidance and Practical Notes – The Program has produced a range of resources providing practical assistance and ideas to country project teams regarding activities that enhance inclusiveness, effectiveness and impacts. Measuring and rewarding efforts aimed at women’s empowerment using the W+ Standard approach as a potential gender-transformative activity for FOLUR project teams to test is explored. Strengthening women’s leadership in groups working together to improve their livelihoods, as well as in community, district, and national decision-making bodies affecting natural resource management is highlighted in the latest FOLUR Practical Note.
[Page updated April 12, 2024]
Women farmers plow their fields, Guinea. By © Dominic Chavez/World Bank
