Gender mainstreaming is a critical issue in environmental conservation activities, from the project writing to the  actual execution. Nevertheless, achieving this is difficult, and gender experts play a critical role in ensuring that adequate gender considerations are taken at all times. A capacity building workshop on gender mainstreaming was held from September 6-7, 2017 at the Global Environment Outreach Center (GEOC) in Tokyo, Japan. This training on gender mainstreaming examined among other things, gender terminology, gender concerns in natural resource management, how to respond to gender differences, implications in fundraising, incorporating gender in project design and developing of gender action plans.

 

The facilitator was Ms. Whitney Anderson, who is the Senior Program Coordinator for the Coral Triangle Initiative Program as well as the Gender Focal Point for CI’s Asia Pacific Field Division. She received her Master’s degree in International Environmental Policy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and has over ten years of experience working in development and natural resource management in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific.

 

Objectives:
●     Develop gender mainstreaming capacity for persons involved in the implementation of the GEF-Satoyama Project
●     Develop gender mainstreaming capacity for Civil Society Organizations in Japan

 

Participants

A total of 20 persons participated from a wide range of organizations, namely, Birdlife International, Conservation International, Gender Action Platform (GAP), the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES),  International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Japan Women’s Watch (JWW), and United Nations University – Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS).

 

Feedback

● Participants were particularly enthused with the differentiation between transformative and normative.

● Participants found the analysis of resource use chains on the basis of gender involvement useful for the design of project activities.

● Participants made commitments to apply the knowledge gained in their work and even in their personal lives.

 

Photos