Gender-Transformative Approaches
Empower all Women and Girls
“Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls,” as stated in Goal 5 of the 2030 Agenda, is a fundamental requirement for sustainable development.
Yet while gender is central to rural development in Africa and Asia, little attention has been paid to women’s empowerment as a critical success factor.
However, the sustainable development agenda will only succeed if the discriminatory barriers that prevent women and girls (e.g. land rights, access to finance, digital divide) from realizing their full potential are also addressed.
So, let’s ask ourselves: Do we take these challenges into account and do our rural development projects reach, benefit AND empower women?
Gender-Transformative Approaches in Rural Development
To really get there, there is still a lot for us as development practitioners to discover, create and develop.
Therefore, we must become courageous and respectful changemakers to contribute to empowerment of women in rural development projects.
The aim of this working group is to accompany and drive this process so that we move from gender sensitivity to a gender-transformative approach in our work.
The objective of gender-transformative approaches is to contribute to sustainable social and economic empowerment of women, by addressing social norms and structural differences that contribute to gender inequality.
Milestones and Way Forward
Gender-transformative approaches in rural development have only gained momentum in the last few years, and we are committed to mainstreaming this subject through a vibrant GIZ Sector Network for Rural Development.
The working group on gender-transformative approaches was officially launched in late November 2020 and since then, the number of members and interested colleagues has been steadily increasing.
A participatory kick-off meeting in January 2021 encouraged us to become active in the following areas:
Our channel on MS Teams is the main point of contact for mutual exchange and information.
Join us!
Our ambition is to open the working group to all colleagues who are interested in the topic and want to commit themselves to go one step further.
If you want to get involved, please join us on MS Teams or IDA. You can also use the MS Teams code: 682dx8f.
Let’s work together and do things differently. Together we can be and make the change that we want to see.
UPDATES
VIDEOS
The New ValueLinks 2.0: What Does It Offer and How Can It Be Used?
The webinar had a look at selected topics of the new ValueLinks 2.0 manual. Participants were invited to suggest areas for a close-up at the upcoming series of webinars on agricultural value chains
Leveraging ICT to Attract Unemployed Youths to Agribusinesses — Webinar Recording
Ken Lohento presented concrete options for agriculture development projects to make proper use of ICTs to create thought-after employment along agri-value chains in rural areas
The Science-Policy Interface for Climate-Smart Agriculture in Action: What Are the Lessons Learned?
Gerd Fleischer describes the direction of agricultural research and policy advise provided by GIZ to ministries in Germany and developing countries
The Most Pressing Issue in Rural Development — Ousmane Djibo
Each year 20m youths will be entering African labour market in the coming decades, while only 3m are expected to be able to find jobs. In this in-depth interview the manager of the sector project Agricultural Policy and Food Security, calls for more innovative initiative to ensure that these generations will have an opportunity for a better life.
The Most Pressing Issue in Rural Development — Okenye Mambo
Why is Cameroon importing rice when it has suitable land to grow it? To find employment youths shouldn't specialise in trading rice but be supported growing it.
Drought Resilience and Social Protection — What the Experts Had to Say
The experts who participated in the event in Bonn speak about the importance of social protection schemes for development cooperation
