Across the world, women play an essential role in forest landscape management but are often excluded from the productive, income-generating activities that are part of sustainable forest management plans. This is due, in part, to prevailing gender norms inhibiting access to resources including financing, land tenure, and representation in decision-making processes.

To help address these issues, the World Bank recently launched a diagnostics toolkit, called the Behavioral Sciences Approach to Empowering Women in Forest Landscapes which was financed by the FCPF. The toolkit uses a comprehensive understanding of human decision making to identify and address gender gaps in sustainable forest management. The toolkit was developed by the Mind, Behavior, and Development Unit (eMBeD) of the World Bank, which is part of the Bank’s Poverty and Equity Global Practice.

“Toolkits informed by behavioral sciences, usually focus on solution design and provide limited guidance on understanding the roots of the problem to be solved,” explains Jorge Luis Castaneda, one of the toolkit project’s leads. “This public good is one of the few that aims to expand the understanding of barriers to behavior change, with an application to the case of gender gaps in forest management.”

Financed by the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), the toolkit consists of 10 analytical activities and nine research tools. These activities and tools are designed to help policymakers, World Bank task teams, and other practitioners diagnose factors contributing to gender gaps in sustainable forest management programs.

The toolkit was developed following a similar assessment, entitled Closing The Gender Gap In Natural Resource Management Programs In Mexico, which was led by ENB Mexico and eMBeD, and funded by the FCPF and CIF. 

Between March and April 2021, the study team tested the toolkit in two FCPF countries, Mozambique and Nepal, where well-established REDD+ programs were beginning to create gender assessments. In line with the toolkit, the team followed a two-step process. The first step sought to define the participation problem and understand the context through a documentation review, data analysis, and stakeholder and policy mapping. The second step explored behavioral barriers and validated them in the field through qualitative exercises such as focus group discussions, non-intrusive observations, and interviews.

Applying the toolkit produced valuable insights for enhancing women’s involvement in REDD+ program activities in Mozambique and Nepal, revealing similar barriers to women’s participation in REDD+ programs across both countries. For example, the team found that inaccessible information about registration and participation processes, and misconceptions about program benefits contributed to low enrolment among women. Other relevant factors were the lack of support from family and community members, the absence of role models, and women’s limiting beliefs on their sense of agency.

“Some challenges impeding women’s participation in NRM activities are systemic. However, many more arise from social and psychological dynamics and are, most of the time, invisible,” said Zeina Afif, a toolkit project co-lead.

The toolkit highlights main barriers to advancing women’s involvement, which in turn can help to design effective policies, programs, and interventions that address these constraints. It is being applied already in the Republic of Congo’s Emission Reductions Program. The potential for sustainable forest management to advance equitable development is vast. This behavioral approach to closing gender gaps will help ensure that women share equally in the opportunities and benefits of forest management programs.