Gender blogs

LDC women in world climate talks: building a cohort of champions

The Least Developed Countries Group will be at the table when next week's UN climate conference plans how to step up its 'gender agenda'.

Women in the poorest countries lack leadership opportunities in the UN

Achala Abeysinghe walked out of an event after challenging the lack of women among 17 male speakers. The legal expert highlights why women's leadership is needed in global climate change negotiations

Monitoring and evaluation in a local context

Assessing how climate change adaptation and development investments can strengthen local people's resilience to climate extremes

Enhancing women's role in land management decisions

Large-scale agricultural investments impact upon men and women in different ways, yet women's voices and interests are not always heard in decisions about land. An IIED webinar examined how this could be changed

Can mining dig rural women out of poverty in Ghana?

An IIED dialogue with small-scale mining communities discovered women see mining as a source of hope – but that their dreams are seldom realised

Women pay heavier price for big dams

On International Women's Day, we look at how relocating to make way for big dams in West Africa has particular impacts on women

What women want

What would women in sub-Saharan Africa propose this leap year? IIED's legal tools team asked what women would like to happen when their communities are affected by land deals

Why women's empowerment is essential for sustainable development

Is women's empowerment just the 'right thing to do'? A new book argues that there are deeper connections between gender equality and genuinely sustainable development

Getting to the root of gender equal land governance

A workshop in Senegal revealed that issues over equal access to land for men and women may not be as simple as they at first seem

Does gender balance improve forestry and fishery management?

A new project aims to map the evidence on gender, natural resource governance and biodiversity conservation. And we're looking for your help

Gender lens: putting on the spectacles

As part of IIED's gender review and audit, Kate Lines asks if other organisations have advice or suggestions on improvements that we can make

Gender in the workplace: do families always have to lose out?

This year International Day of Families is focusing on gender equality. As IIED embarks on our own gender audit, Isilda Nhantumbo looks at the importance of gender and family roles within the workplace

Recognising the concerns of women and girls can improve the effectiveness of climate change adaptation

Including the perspectives and experiences of women and girls in monitoring and evaluation can lead to better outcomes for climate change adaptation measures, IIED research has found

How can we finance sustainable energy for all?

Leading politicians and thinkers are being urged to make sustainable energy available to all. Achieving this goal requires research in how people and communities use energy and how sustainable energy can be financed

Women's land rights and Africa's development conundrum – which way forward?

In many African countries women lose out from patriarchal legal and cultural traditions. How can these practices be changed to benefit everyone?

Ebola – what must we learn?

The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) is launching an unprecedented appeal in response to the Ebola crisis, but what lessons must we learn if we are to effectively and equitably tackle future shocks of this scale?

Making gender equality a global and local reality

The UNFCCC has taken significant steps to promote women's increased participation in the global climate change negotiations process. It's a gain for gender equality, but gaps remain

REDD+: 3 things to consider so men and women share the benefits

Linking commodities that drive deforestation with gender offers great opportunities that capitalise on the advantages of different actors

Challenging inequality is at the heart of climate change adaptation

People won’t become more resilient to the impacts of climate change unless the underlying causes of their vulnerability are analysed and addressed.

When pigs fly: Why is including women in managing forests still so unusual?

Women are routinely excluded from REDD decision-making processes, but if they’re excluded then they can’t benefit equally from its work.

Agricultural development: business as usual is not an option

Following the 2008 global food price hikes and riots, national governments and transnational corporations are increasingly interested in investing in large-scale African agricultural projects. While these land acquisitions gather pace, 925 million people remain undernourished worldwide, with 239 million living in sub-Saharan Africa. In this new context, the question is not only how sustainable large-scale industrial agriculture is, but also what model of food production and farming is most effective in addressing the question of hunger – and for whom.

Sourcing gender

Designing business models that reach and benefit poor women working in agriculture can be a challenge for businesses.

But is that surprising?