Gender Inclusion in Sustainable Land Management

The Land Degradation Neutrality Fund (herein “the Fund”) and Technical Assistance Facility (TAF) have been operational for close to six years, engaging with more than 100 project developers. The Fund has invested in 13 projects while the TAF has supported over 29 project partners, including the Fund’s investees, with technical assistance in a variety of geographies and value chains.

Within the sustainable land management ecosystem, some project developers are new to integrating gender into their business models, while others have progressed significantly and are actively promoting gender equality. The Fund has embedded gender considerations throughout its investment lifecycle, establishing specific gender criteria and KPIs for its investees. However, project developers may face challenges in integrating these gender criteria due to limited resources for gender-specific initiatives andthe need to balance multiple priorities.

The TAF as per its objectives provided pre and post-investment TA to 29 project developers through the course of its operation. These include the TA which were utilized for driving change toward gender equality.

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• Integrate gender considerations into the larger TA project design: 

In 2021, the Fund and TAF seeked to mobilize projects with strong gender equality ambitions by publishing a Request for Proposals (RfP). This RfP sought projects that not only contribute to sustainable land management but also have business models inherently designed to empower women and/or have strong female representation in leadership positions. Additionally, these projects were required to have an ambitious gender action plan and, with TAF’s support, aspire to become gender transformative. While some of the submitted proposals were promising, most project developers lacked commercial business models needed to attract private investment, and struggled to demonstrate the potential for significant sustainable land management impact at scale. While in principle the TAF was open to work with projects at a relatively earlier stage in their investment readiness trajectory, the TAF recognised that addressing these challenges would require more budget and time than what TAF would be able to provide as per its mandate.

Recognising that the overarching objective of the TA and investments is to improve the overall sustainable land management ecosystem, the TAF and the Fund pivoted their approach on integrating gender considerations into the TA and investment project design. This approach has resulted in including dedicated gender components in most projects, proving to be more effective in achieving positive gender impacts along with the achieving the overall goals of sustainable land management. 

• Customize TA interventions to align with specific regions, their cultural contexts, value chains to effectively integrate gender:

 Women in agroforestry and cooperative projects face challenges such as cultural biases where women are discouraged to work on the field, time constraints due to caregiving responsibilities, and limited land ownership, often hindering participation. Empowering women requires a proactive approach to addressing the unique barriers they face.

To overcome these barriers TAF and the Fund recognised the need for local context and consultations through third party local gender experts. The gender experts through the extensive local experience were able to effectively address and integrate gender dynamics and opportunities into gender action plans. Additionally, fostering partnerships with local organizations to support women's empowerment and creating platforms for women's voices in decision-making processes was also identified as a means of increasing their participation and contribution to the projects. Through such interventions, project developers in rural settings demonstrate integrating gender considerations into their operations and strategies, setting a strong example for other project developers. 

• Advancing engagement and knowledge sharing with Investees: 

A continuous knowledge sharing initiative was launched in 2022 together with the LDN Fund: the ‘Investee Knowledge Exchange’. This initiative consists of informal virtual workshops focused on learning, sharing successes and challenges and exchanging best practices on targeted themes. It is an opportunity for the LDN Fund Investees to share best practices with other investees, ask questions and address practical matters that arise in their businesses.

One of the sessions focused specifically on gender equality, highlighting the Fund’s gender data collection requirements and availability of TAF support for gender central TA with inspiring project examples. Following the session, engagement between the TAF and investees on gender TA accelerated and materialized into 6 new gender central TA activities. A Fund and TAF joining forces to communicate the importance of gender equality, with inspiring examples and available support, can effectively enhance a project developers' commitment.