Update: WeCaN and MEV-CAM collaborate to further South-South knowledge exchange

23/12/2022

The last three months have been busy for the WeCaN Nurturing Community of Knowledge Practice for Women in dryland forests and agrosilvopastoral systems! We have held several training sessions and webinars to engage the WeCaN community and broader public on dryland resilience issues and facilitate South-South knowledge exchange.

WeCaN held a joint training session with MEV-CAM on how to integrate a gender lens into participatory video (PV), one of MEV-CAM’s knowledge process documentation tools. PV is used to document the process of behavioural change, the new practices that develop from this change, and disseminate these outcomes to stimulate a dialogue. The session discussed how to make PVs more gender-responsive, covering gender roles and gender approaches and strategies to be adopted to guarantee the meaningful participation of people during the PV process and during project implementation. PV is a vital participatory tool that not only ensures that local voices are heard and needs addressed, but that can also contribute to gender mainstreaming approaches with special consideration on the cultural context.

WeCaN also contributed to MEVCAM’s latest baseline Participatory Video from Mozambique. In 2020 Mozambique produced their baseline practices to be monitored during the DSL-IP implementation, and WeCaN has since been working with the World Bank and other DSL-IP partners to implement the project with a special focus on strengthening women’s participation in restoration. The new PV from Mozambique highlights the impact of strengthening women’s education to increase restoration knowledge, and the video speaks with team members, as well as young women and girls, to highlight women's education as a way of combatting further degradation in forests. WeCaN has offered a gender lens on the video which serves as a gender baseline assessment of girls’ access to education and will continue their work on this alongside MEV-CAM in 2023.

In December WeCaN held a Forestry Technical Network webinar which brought together seven WeCaN members from diverse dryland forest regions who had the chance to attend UNFCCC's 27th Conference of the Parties (COP) in November. In a group discussion, they shared their key takeaways with an audience of 80+ people - part of WeCaN’s mission to create a space for women’s voices and mutual learning between the southern countries to strengthen their role in protecting dryland areas, not just at major events like COP, but all the time.

The event was moderated by Michela Baratelli, Programme Officer and Communication Expert for the South-South and Triangular Cooperation Division and closed by Miriam Medel Garcìa, Chief of Global Policy Advocacy and Regional Coordination at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) who gave inspiring closing remarks and urged WeCaN members to continue their important contributions to high-level events. She highlighted WeCaN’s link with UNCCD’s work and the role of women’s knowledge in leading the fight against drought.

Looking ahead to 2023, WeCaN are currently working on an Advocacy Plan ahead of the first global gathering of WeCaN members. WeCaN will also help test a gender tool designed by WOCAT (World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies) and UNCCD that aims to improve gender- responsiveness of Sustainable Land Management practices and identify areas for improvement.