4 February 2013: The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) released a brief, titled “Gender in the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry,” which introduces the gender strategy for the Research Program, including its aim to improve the quality and volume of gender-responsive research.

In presenting the rationale for the strategy, the brief notes the important role of women in the use and management of forests and highlights the ongoing obstacles to gender equity, including insecure property rights for women, a lack of participation in decision making and unequal access to resources such as technical assistance and financial resources.

The brief reports that the first stage of implementation will focus on building capacity for gender research in parallel to the collection of gender disaggregated data and the application of gender analysis methods. The brief also highlights the importance of building partnerships, knowledge sharing and adaptive learning and reports that additional financial resources will be allocated to gender research within the Research Program.

Finally, the brief outlines the monitoring and evaluation system to assess the strategy, including evaluating the effectiveness of gender integration, the extent of inclusion of gender research and gender-disaggregated data in proposals and outputs, and determining the extent to which research on gender contributes to the CGIAR strategic results. [Publication: Gender in the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry]