Blogs & Opinions

To Give Peace a Chance in Colombia, It's Time to Protect Women Land Defenders

Nov 4, 2019 | Carmen Sanchez Cumming

More than three years have passed since the government of Colombia signed a peace agreement with FARC rebels that promised to end the longest internal armed…

To Give Peace a Chance in Colombia, It's Time to Protect Women Land Defenders

Nov 4, 2019 | Carmen Sanchez Cumming

More than three years have passed since the government of Colombia signed a peace agreement with FARC rebels that promised to end the longest internal armed…

The Road to Women's Economic Empowerment: Do Women (and Men) Prefer On or Off the Farm?

Nov 1, 2019 | Berber Kramer and Isabel Lambrecht

Improving women’s economic empowerment continues to be the focus of a wide range of development projects, ranging from vocational trainings to microcredit to cash and…

Women Pastoralists Feel the Heat of Climate Change

Nov 1, 2019 | Sharon Birch-Jeffrey

For many people, climate change is about shrinking glaciers, rising sea levels, longer and more intense heatwaves, and other extreme and unpredictable weather patterns. But…

Language Matters: The Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Japan and South Korea

Oct 31, 2019 | Yeonju Jung and Ayako Tsujisaka

Nineteen years ago today, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1325—a foundational resolution to the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda. Since the…

Men Sweeping? Women Inheriting? Kenya Shakes Up Gender Roles

Oct 30, 2019 | Caroline Wambui

It’s early morning and Moses Njiru 43, has an array of household chores lined up before heading to his job as a cattle broker. 

Dressed in…

Tanzania's Female Parliamentarians to Mainstream Gender in Climate Adaptation

Oct 30, 2019 | Shakwaanande Natai, Madaka Tumbo, Winifred Masiko, and Henry Mahoo

Climate change has been described as a wicked problem, with complexities, feedback loops and tipping points that can cause damage in the most undeserving of…

Want to Empower Women in Agricultural Systems? Engaging Men Is Part of the Equation

Oct 25, 2019 | Kate Doyle

Women’s experiences of gender-based violence, as well as imbalances of power between men and women, have a profound impact on women’s ability to participate in…

Climate Change Reinforces the World's Inequalities

Oct 25, 2019 | Irene Banos Ruiz

As drought, flooding and fires lay claim to headlines and landscapes across the world, and as countries and cities grapple with the cost of it…

Privatization of War: A New Challenge for the Women, Peace and Security Agenda

Oct 24, 2019 | Marta Bautista Forcada

Since the end of the Cold War, the outsourcing of military and security by armed forces activities has shifted from the exception to the rule.…

Rural Women Building Resilience to Face the Climate Crisis

Oct 19, 2019

Women living in rural and poor communities are resilient, resourceful and hard-working. They play an invaluable role in supporting their families, building resilience to face…

The Paradox of Plenty and Its Impact on Gendered Policy

Oct 17, 2019 | Eliana Cusato

Access to and distribution of natural resources are often at the root of violent conflict. Yet it is only over the last few decades that…

Coming Out! Gender Diversity in the Food System

Oct 16, 2019 | Paula Gioia

In the current global context, discrimination is used as a tool to preserve and support authoritarian and far-right political movements. Immigrants and refugees are denied…

Letter from Buganda: Let Us Rise Together and Stand for Her Land

Oct 16, 2019 | Cizzy N. Kiyaga

Buganda is a major subnational kingdom in central Uganda. While over 10 million people live and work on land owned by the kingdom, the land…

Women Help Feed the World. Why Can't They Own Land?

Oct 15, 2019 | Karol Boudreaux

In rural areas around the world, the face of a farmer is increasingly a woman’s. 

From the paddy terraces of Asia to the maize fields of…

From Poor Harvests to a Lack of Property Rights: The Struggles of Sindhi Rural Women

Oct 15, 2019 | Shiza Malik

Celebrated on the 15th of October every year, International Rural Women’s Day often goes unnoticed in Pakistan, just as the voices of the millions of…

Around the World, Young People Are Driving Climate Innovation

Oct 14, 2019 | Climate Justice Resilience Fund

2019 will be remembered as the year young people took to the streets around the world to fight for their future.

Inspired by Greta Thunberg and…

Why Women Farmers Deserve the Right to Identity

Oct 14, 2019 | Shipra Deo

In a workshop with a group of agronomists who work in agriculture extension in India, I ask the participants to draw the picture of a…

From Rajasthan to Mexico: Why Gender Matters at the Heart of The Energy Transition

Oct 13, 2019 | Costanza Burstin, Mouna Chambon, Morgane Ollier, and Cécile Spanu

In 2013, the climate negotiations (COP19) culminated with a promising consensus for women across the world: gender was voted as an independent agenda item in…

The Next Big Opportunity for Gender Equality?

Oct 11, 2019 | Ewa Lewandowska

The movement for a circular economy has focused on the environmental and business impacts of circularity, with far less interest (from researchers and policymakers) dedicated…

Climate-Justice and Gender-Justice Have to Go Hand-in-Hand

Oct 11, 2019

“We demand that the new European Commission secures equal rights for everyone – and that they work hard to smash the gender-gap, both inside and…

Fishing for Equality and Sustainability

Oct 9, 2019 | Jamie Wen-Besson and Catherine Wahlen

In a wooden boat on the estuary of the Densu River in Ghana, Cecila dips a salinator into the water and declares that the salinity…

Liberia: Denied for Decades, Women Lead Land Rights Campaign in Bong

Oct 8, 2019 | Mae Azango

Gormah Mulbah and her five children were thrown out of their home last year after her husband died. Her late husband’s family was angry she…

Empowering Africa's Women Farmers

Oct 7, 2019 | Ruth Meinzen-Dick

More than 60% of all employed women in Africa south of the Sahara work in agriculture. Yet the region’s women farmers often reap a meager…

Land Reform Has Failed the Women of South Africa

Oct 7, 2019 | Sobantu Mzwakali

The government’s plan to combat the plight of women’s landlessness has been shown to have borne little fruit thus far, when the report of the…

For Bosnian Women, No Justice—and No Seats

Oct 3, 2019 | Riada Asimovic Akyol

Both men and women suffer the consequences of wars, but conflicts and humanitarian disasters around the world tend to disproportionately affect women and children. Additionally,…

Custom, Caste System Deny Land Rights to Asian Women, Indigenous People

Oct 2, 2019 | Rina Chandran

Women, lower-caste and indigenous people across Asia are failing to benefit from land reform laws because of custom and deep-rooted social biases, land rights activists…

The Hidden Work of Post-Conflict Recovery

Oct 2, 2019 | Jay Lingham and Melissa Johnston

Sri Lanka 2011. It is two years since a brutal civil war ended, with the UN reporting tens of thousands of civilians killed in the final…

This October on Agrilinks: The Role of Gender in Agriculture

Oct 1, 2019 | Krista Jacobs

Gender influences which crops are grown, which animals are raised, and which technologies are used. It influences how households earn a livelihood and manage risk,…

Taking SDG 5 (Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment) Seriously in the Forestry Sector

Sep 30, 2019 | Carol Colfer and Dominique Lyons

In the lead-up to the 25th IUFRO World Congress being held in Curitiba, Brazil from 29 Sept. to 6 Oct., a group of scientists from around…