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Centuries of challenges and women breaking barriers have led us to a time where participatory approaches are now possible and ever more needed. This year’s International Women’s Day on the 8th March 2021 highlights the role of women in leadership and the key roles they fulfil at various levels (“as health care workers, caregivers, innovators, community organizers and as some of the most exemplary national leaders” UN Women, 2021) in tackling the global COVID-19 crisis. In a similar vein, women are important stakeholders and crucial innovators in the fight against land degradation processes in dryland regions, both before and during the pandemic. The International Women’s Day thus represents the perfect opportunity to reflect on the important and manifold contributions women make in managing and protecting natural resources in arid regions. To this end, FAO’s Dryland Forestry Team evaluated some of the challenges and successes experienced by women within the GEF-7 Sustainable Forest Management Drylands Sustainable Landscape Impact Programs (SFM-DSL IP). 

An initiative like Making every voice count for adaptive management highlights the importance of participation at all levels, in all contexts – locally, nationally and internationally. In this initiative we see women’s involvement at all stages that ensure change is brought and impact is made. Across the drylands, “women are key players in land, livestock, and pasture management” says Tselmeg Chaluunbaatar, FAO Communication Coordinator in Mongolia. Women’s roles are highly varied, endowing them with extensive knowledge. As part of the participatory video initiative Making every voice count for adaptive management, for instance, footage from Ntechu in central Malawi shows Edah Mabalani presenting her conservation agriculture practice of zero tillage for improved soil health. Similarly, vetiver farmer Zaina Anodi explains some of the benefits of hedgerow planting, for instance to reduce soil erosion. 

“Women in the villages are selling fast food at cucashops and they take care of the next generation and men. Women also go collect firewood from the forest and carry it on top of their heads” explains Natalia Iipinge from Uukolokadhi Community Forest in the Omusati Region of Namibia. Ana Muaku from the Mpupa community in Angola describes her responsibility of “receiving the various vegetable seeds which are delivered to us”, illustrating the key position women hold as guardians of local food security and as managers of high-quality seeds, which form the foundation of enhancing production and nutrition. 

Women are being confronted with increasing challenges related to land degradation and the out-migration of community members to urban areas: “What makes us suffer the most here is the lack of rain that falls only occasionally. We go to the fields and, for lack of ploughs, our work is manual and when the rain falls, once a year, crops, mainly maize, end up dying,” describes Ana Muaku. Women in drylands are involved in most stages of agricultural production and are thus highly vulnerable to climate-related shocks. 

However, she remains hopeful: “My appeal and desire is that our children have access to school so that in the future they can better direct our community.” 

Decision-making at the community level – women’s long overdue seat at the table  

Unfortunately, while playing a key role in implementation on the ground, women remain underrepresented in the decision-making structures at the community level. As Priscah Munthali, FAO Coordination Officer in Malawi, points out, regarding land stewardship and land management activities in arid regions, “women are involved with fewer benefits, less training, and less involvement in decision-making”.  

However, land degradation and concomitant social phenomena such as migration and market forces are beginning to rupture the glass ceiling, and women are increasingly inserting themselves in combatting land degradation and ongoing desertification at all levels.  

Gulbarshyn Mekilova is head of the peasant farm enterprise “Zhasulan” in the Kopa village, Khromtau District of Kazakhstan. She describes her responsibility to oversee the care for many heads of cattle, the use of the land and the response to growing water shortages and land degradation: “Land is degrading due to little rainfall in summer and snowfall in winter, so grass preparation is becoming more difficult.” Because of this, women acknowledge the necessity to implement and scale up measures like the sowing of perennial leguminous crops, fodder crops, and rotational pastureland to improve the health of the land their livelihoods depend on. 

Female ministers in the government working to lift struggling women on the ground 

“A female minister would have been unheard of some years ago, but as of last year, there she is at the head of the ministry” states Priscah Munthali, FAO Coordination Officer in Malawi, regarding Nancy Tembo who serves as Minister of Forestry and Natural Resources in the Government of Malawi. Progress of this magnitude inevitably causes a ripple effect uplifting the position of women at all levels. “Female ministers and members of parliament know how women struggle, walking long distances to fetch water and firewood”. Struggles of this nature, faced primarily by the female gender, is precisely why it is imperative that women sit amongst the decision-makers.   

Growing numbers of women in important decision-making positions signals not only the mounting male recognition of the importance of listening to the concerns and visions of their female counterparts, but also a shift in the mindset of women themselves. As Towela Munthali, Senior FAO Communications Officer in Malawi, points out, it has been inculcated upon women for a long time that decision-making is best left to men. By increasingly aiming for influential positions, women are displaying their growing confidence that they, too, provide invaluable knowledge, experiences, and ideas in support of tackling national challenges. 

This is one reason why Priscah Munthali is looking forward to the female-focussed aspects of ongoing projects: There is a growing focus to provide women with training, enhance their economic empowerment, and get them involved in decision-making – “I want to see those barriers being broken.” The ultimate aim is to show to all women – and men – what is already clear to Natalia Iipinge in Uganda: “Women are very strong and they can do any work.” 

Throughout the lifetime of the GEF-7 Impact Programme, women will hold a solid seat at the table that is rightfully theirs and that ensures them ownership of the decisions being made, bringing impact that reflects on the resilience of livelihoods in drylands.