1 December 2013: The UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation (UN-REDD) released a guidance note highlighting steps to ensure that REDD+ actions are gender sensitive.

The guidance note is intended to support those who are implementing REDD+ actions to realize the benefits of gender sensitive REDD+ including capturing the knowledge and experiences of all forest users, including women, promoting equitable benefit sharing from REDD+ investments, and supporting a human rights based approach to development.

The note emphasizes five key steps: establishing a gender baseline; mobilizing gender expertise and building relevant partnerships; ensuring the effective participation of women in project design, planning and implementation; ensuring gender sensitive REDD+ governance, benefit sharing and monitoring framework; and monitoring and reporting on gender mainstreaming.

For each step, the note highlights the benefits that gender sensitive REDD+ can deliver, presents case studies and good practice examples, outlines a set of suggested actions and emphasizes the important of supporting actions at the national, regional and international levels. [Publication: Guidance Note on Gender Sensitive REDD+]