MARCH 2022

EVERYONE ON BOARD
Promoting equal rights and opportunities
for women and men, girls and boys

The Rainforest Alliance is creating a more sustainable
world by using social and market forces to protect natureand improve the lives of farmers and forest communities.

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Photo: Kyagalanyi

Introduction

ternational Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 190
on workplace violence and harassment.6,7 Our objective
is to support women and men to create profitable andmore sustainable agricultural livelihoods, while protecting natural landscapes and the well-being of rural communities. But to achieve this objective, women and girls
must be free to engage equally in the rural economy.
This means changing mindsets, which is a complex undertaking because beliefs are deeply rooted in societal
norms and values, and in formal rules and regulations.

Women play a central role in the rural economy. According to UN Women, 64 percent of women in low-income countries and 42 percent in lower middle-income
countries work in agriculture.1 In many economies, theirlabor is essential to food production—both in paid workon commercial plantations and unpaid work on family
farms. But it is significantly less common for women to
receive a fair share of the associated resources and income—and they are even less likely to be in control ofthem. Globally, less than 15 percent of women are landowners2 and in 2021, women earned an average of 77
cents for every dollar earned by men.3 These trends arereflected in many of the world’s most popular commodity sectors. According to the International Coffee Organization (ICO), for example, women provide approximately
70 percent of labor in global coffee production, yet only
20 to 30 percent of coffee farms are female-operated.
A similarly low proportion of cooperative members are
women.4

Gender equality and human rights
The right to gender equality, and freedom fromdiscrimination, is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Specific rights are set out
in the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms ofDiscrimination Against Women (CEDAW):Right 1: Freedom from violence
Right 2: Gender equality in decision-making
Right 3: Equal property rights
Right 4: Freedom of thought, movement, andassociation
Right 5: Equal rights to work and leisureThis inequality gap is largely due to the social expectations that shape the roles and responsibilities of womenand men. From a young age, women and girls are expected to combine domestic work alongside economic
and community activities. Yet inequality means this triple
burden of responsibility decreases, rather than increases, their influence, rights, and opportunities. Women haveless access to the education, land, credit, training, anddecision-making power necessary for productive farming or work. They are also more likely to experience violence, or the threat of violence, both in the home andat work. Meanwhile, men and boys are expected to leadhouseholds and generate income for families and may
be ridiculed for performing domestic tasks. These roles
and responsibilities feed the power dynamics that perpetuate inequality, creating a vicious cycle. Tackling
gender inequality therefore involves changing social expectations about not only women and girls, but also men
and boys.

Our approach is to identify the root causes of gender inequality and understand the practical ways in which it
impacts women and girls in a specific landscape. Collaborating with relevant local stakeholders—farms, communities, companies, NGOs, and governments—we design and implement programs to create positive impacts
and tackle root causes simultaneously. We do this acrossour four strategic interventions: certification, landscapesmanagement, supply chain services, and advocacy.
The Rainforest Alliance’s gender transformative approach centers around addressing the main reasons forgender inequality, helping to build a more empowering
environment for women and girls to take control of theirown situation. By supporting them in forging their own
paths—from improved access to education to increased
representation in local decision-making bodies—our interventions have the power to change how people thinkof what women and girls “should” do. But change is only
achievable when men and women, and girls and boys
are engaged. Everyone must be on board.

At the Rainforest Alliance, we promote respect for human rights, including the principle that women andmen should enjoy equal rights and opportunities.5 This
promotes the operationalization of international frameworks on gender equality like the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, the Convention on the Eliminationof Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the InGENDER EQUALITY VS. GENDER

What is gender equality?

What is gender?

Gender equality refers to a situation where “men andwomen experience equal rights and opportunities andare free to develop their personal abilities and makechoices without limitations set by stereotypes, rigid
gender roles or prejudices.”

Gender is how a society understands relations between women and men, their roles and responsibilities,
and the opportunities and work open to them. Genderis socially constructed and changes across time andspace; this differentiates it from sex, which describes
the biological and physiological characteristics of men
and women.

Laven et al 2012. Challenging Chains to Change. Gender Equity

in Agricultural Value Chain Development. KIT, AgriProFocus and
IIRR.

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GENDER INTEGRATION IN PROGRAMS AND
PROJECTS

The following are examples of the impacts of gender inequality, many of which we address in our strategic interventions:

Various degrees of gender integration can exist withinprograms and projects. As the following infographic illustrates, “gender unequal” and “gender blind” interventions perpetuate inequalities by reinforcing existing gender roles and responsibilities. “Gender responsive” and“gender transformative” approaches, however, have thepower to challenge existing inequalities.

••

Tackling the Root Causes of Gender
Inequality
In agricultural and forest communities, gender inequality
is rooted in social expectations or customs defining what
people can or cannot do. These can have an especiallynegative influence on the lives of women and girls. For
example, girls are less likely to access and complete asecondary school education than boys, while womenare less likely to be a member of a producer organization
than men. The outcome is that women have less control
over their lives than men and less capacity to make effective economic choices.

••

Tackling the practical impacts of inequality—like improving access to membership of producer organizations for
women—while influencing a change of mindsets enables
women and girls to access the knowledge, influence, opportunities, and resources necessary to be productive
farmers or workers.

•

Resources and inputs: Women are less likely thanmen to own land or trees, often because of landownership customs and laws. This means they lackcollateral to apply for financial credit, to join cooperatives, and to invest. They are less likely to attend
trainings because they are excluded or have notime, which exacerbates the skills gap.
Division of labor: Unequal sharing of household andcaring responsibilities results in women bearing a“triple burden of work”. This means less influenceand status, and less time to exploit opportunities totrain, learn and develop, and to take on higher paidroles.
Equal income, pay, and job opportunities: Women’s domestic labor is often under-estimated andunder-valued because it is unpaid family work. In
paid work, female workers typically earn a lower
wage than male counterparts, despite doing thesame job. They are often excluded from higher paidroles because of social norms, or lack of skills.
Decision-making: Women are unlikely to be included in community or workplace decision-making
and are seldom equally involved with men in shareddecision-making at household level, for example,
regarding children’s education, crop management,
spending, or investments.
Representation: Women may face more barriers toregister as members of a producers’ group or cooperative, or to join trade unions. They are unlikely to
be considered for election to decision-making rolesin these bodies.

What is a gender transformative approach?
“Gender transformation actively examines, questions, and changes rigid gender norms and imbalances of power that advantage boys and men over girls and women. It aspires to tackle the root causes of gender inequality
and reshape unequal power relations; it moves beyond individual self-improvement among girls and women
towards redressing the power dynamics and structures that serve to reinforce gendered inequalities.”
Reference: UNICEF, Technical note on gender transformative approaches

GENDER UNEQUAL

Builds on existing
gender gaps andperpetuates theme.g. Only men are invited
to Good Agricultural
Practices trainings
because they makedecisions on farms

GENDER BLIND

GENDER SENSITIVE

Ignores gender roles
and widens gender
gaps

Identifies genderinequalities andincludes steps to
involve all genders

e.g. All community
members are invited
to make use of a newphone app, but noarrangements are madeto ensure everyone has
the possibility to use ite.g. Income-generation
activities (e.g.
diversification) aredeveloped especially for
women as they are notconsidered to be real
farmers

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GENDERRESPONSIVE
Identifies genderinequalities andis designed torespond to genderdifferentiated needs

e.g. Local credit
institutions change
their requirements
to facilitate women’s
access to their services

GENDER
TRANSFORMATIVE
Identifies genderinequalities andaddresses their root
causes to unveil andtransform gender
relationse.g. Norms and values
that limit women’s participation in landscapemanagement are discussed at a communityand household level toenable their change•

Violence: Inequality creates situations where gender-based violence, workplace harassment, earlyand forced marriage, child labor, and sex trafficking are not tackled effectively, or are even tolerated—phenomena that have all worsened during the
COVID-19 pandemic.8 This affects all aspects of life,
such as health, confidence, freedom to work, andaccess to markets.
Maternal healthcare: Lack of access to reproductive healthcare, or poor safety protections at work,
put women at risk during pregnancy, childbirth, andnursing. The result can be debilitating conditions
that permanently affect their health, status, andability to work, and to care for children.
Secondary education: When girls are withdrawn
earlier than boys from secondary school because it
is too costly, perceived as unsafe, or due to work or
marriage, this creates an education gap that limits
their knowledge, confidence, and access to skilledwork. According to UNICEF, 42 percent of countries
have achieved gender parity in lower secondary
education, and 24 percent in upper secondary education.9
Socio-economic empowerment: In situations ofpoverty, the impacts of inequality are likely to be
more severe on women across all the above issues.
Socio-economic empowerment acts as a catalyst
for creating an enabling environment for change.

•

•

•

When women have equal access to knowledge, influence,resources, and decision-making, they farm productively,
innovate, diversify, and steward natural resources moresustainably. Female workers gain skills and higher-paidjobs. Farm yields improve, household income grows, foodinsecurity reduces, investment in children increases. The
family becomes more resilient to economic shock, suchas volatile prices, and adapts better to climate change
impacts, such as drought or flooding. Notably, according
to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), if women farmers were given the same access to resources(such as land and credit) as men, national agricultural
production could rise by 2.5 to 4 percent and the number of malnourished people could be reduced by 12 to 17
percent.10
By tackling the inequality impacts mentioned above, wehelp unlock women’s potential and facilitate their socio-economic empowerment. This allows women to become agents of change, demonstrating that everyone
benefits from gender equality in practice.

GENDER INEQUALITY IMPACTS
MAIN CAUSESIMPACT AREAS

IMPACTS

Gender equality in practice••••

An individual’s rights, responsibilities, and opportunities do not depend on whether they are male or female.
Women and men are equally represented in decision-making; the interests, needs and priorities of both aretaken into consideration, recognizing the diversity of different groups of women and men.
Gender equality concerns and engages men as well as women.
Equality between women and men is a human rights issue and a precondition for, and indicator of, peoplecentered, sustainable development.

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STRATEGIC PATHWAYS TOWARDS GENDER EQUALITY IN FARMING AND FOREST COMMUNITIES
Through our four strategic interventions (Certification, Landscapes management, Supply chain services, andAdvocacy) the Rainforest Alliance aims to achieve these outcomes:

Family level

Communitylevel

External level

Target group

Outcome

Women and girls

become agents of their own change through strategic interventions that tackle the root causes and impacts of genderinequality.

Men and boys

are actively engaged in supporting and facilitating women andgirls’ empowerment and see this as beneficial to the welfare of
the household and society.

Management, farmers, foresters,
and workers

understand that gender equality is a human right and key torespecting other human rights, as well as contributing to moreproductive and innovative farming and nature conservation.

Committee members andrepresentatives

have the knowledge, resources, and systems to identify andmitigate root causes of gender inequality, and to remediate
gender-based human rights impacts. Men and women are
equally represented in such groups.

Certification auditors, inspectors,
and trainers

have the knowledge and resources to evaluate the risk-based
approach to gender equality and are able to audit with agender perspective.

Civil society, local government, andfarm communities

engage in strategic interventions to understand risks related togender inequality, and to provide the services and resources,or legal reform, necessary to support women’s and girls’ empowerment.

Companies

understand and promote gender equality through the socioeconomic empowerment of women.

5The Rainforest Alliance Approach

Moreover, gender equality is mainstreamed throughmany other requirements in the Rainforest Alliance’s
Sustainable Agriculture Standard, notably our new Assess-and-Address approach to protecting and promoting human rights.12

The Rainforest Alliance considers gender equality a human right and a basic condition necessary for a diverse,
innovative, and productive working environment where
people feel safe and respected—a basic condition for
more sustainable, productive, and innovative agriculture.
We partner with diverse allies—rural producers, farmers,
foresters, workers, companies, NGOs, and governments—
to support women to be agents of their own change, inmany of the world’s critically important landscapes, liketropical forests.

Landscapes Management
Through our Landscapes Management program, theRainforest Alliance’s strives to drive change beyond individual production units (such as a farm or forest) toa far wider geographical area spanning tens of thousands to millions of hectares. Applying an Integrated
Landscape Management (ILM) approach, we bring together a diverse range of land-users and stakeholders—rural producers, companies, local communities andgovernments, NGOs—to discuss common interests anddetermine collective actions to tackle complex and inter-connected challenges that are too big to be solved
alone—from human rights and local livelihoods to stopping deforestation and managing ecosystem services.

We pursue these objectives through four main strategicinterventions: certification, landscapes management,
supply chain services, and advocacy. In each type of intervention, we tackle the root causes of gender inequality, and thus enable women to transform the norms, rules,
and beliefs that restrict their freedom to engage in therural economy.
In our own organization, we strive to integrate genderequality in our procedures, rules and regulations, andpractices. Through capacity building and integrating lessons learned after internal evaluation, we seek to createa working environment where all genders are respected
and treated in a fair and equal manner.

Gender equality and women’s empowerment can be theobjectives of such programs, as well as being integrated
within broader program goals, such as land stewardship,
climate resilience, and socio-economic empowerment.
We laid the foundations of our gender-specific programs
and gender mainstreaming in broader programming
through our Sector Partnership Program (2016-2020), thelearnings of which inform our current approach to gender equality.13

Our Certification Program
Over the last 30 years, certification has proven to be a
powerful tool in combination with landscape-level programs and advocacy efforts. Today, more than two million farmers follow our agriculture standards in 70 countries around the globe. In 2020, the Rainforest Alliancepublished a new certification program, based on our2020 Sustainable Agriculture Standard—an enhanced
set of practical, yet ambitious farm and supply chain requirements, developed over a two-year consultation period with farmers, companies, NGOs, governments, andresearchers around the world.

The following are methods applied in these programs
that enhance gender equality:

Gender equality is a key theme running throughout
the 2020 Certification Program. For example, all certified farms and processing facilities must collect gender-disaggregated data. Requirement 1.6 of our Sustainable Agriculture Standard incentivizes farmers andcompanies to understand the situation of women andgirls compared to men and boys through risk assessments, and to take action to address the root causesof gender inequality.11 They also must commit to promoting gender equality by sharing a statement withmembers or workers and by setting up a gender committee or appointing a responsible representative.
The committee/representative should:•
Raise awareness with management and staff•
Identify and tackle root causes of gender inequality
within the farm or group through a risk assessment•
Actively support remediation of cases of gender-based violence and discrimination according
to the remediation protocol

6•

Gender-disaggregated data, and planning, monitoring, evaluation, and learning (PMEL): We promote the collection of gender-disaggregated datato assess the potential impact of a program on maleand female farmers and workers. We have started to
do this through baseline assessments at the start ofthe program, and regular monitoring and evaluation assessments. This means that gender equality
targets can be integrated across all relevant strategic interventions and that gender-sensitive datacollection techniques are used.

•

Inclusive governance structures: We promote theinclusion of women in governance structures inlandscape programs, where local actors co-decide on the management of natural resources. Extra measures need to be taken to enable women toparticipate, including changing rules and regulations, raising awareness, and providing skills training. For example, in the Western Highlands of Cameroon, the Rainforest Alliance is working with local
women and youth to improve their participation in
the decision-making and leadership of community-based Landscape Management Boards.14

••Socio-economic empowerment of women: We ensure that landscape programs on climate change
or crop productivity include specific measures toimprove women’s access to land, trees, training,credit, and markets; by improving women’s socio-economic situation, they, their families, and theirlocal landscapes become more resilient. In Central
America, for instance, to improve equality and reduce violence against women, the Rainforest Alliance is delivering technical and leadership training
and facilitating access to credit and markets for
marginalized women.15 By supporting women, theRainforest Alliance helps them to strengthen theirrole in conservation.16

Advocacy: Influencing Government Policies
Tackling the root causes of gender inequality requires
governments to reform laws, and to adopt strategies
and policies to deliver the services and resources necessary to support the empowerment of women and girls.
The Rainforest Alliance supports this goal through advocacy in three ways:•
by equipping local organizations with the knowledge, skills, and data necessary to influence decision-makers•
by networking and influencing government directly•
by raising awareness in its external communicationby sharing women’s voices and stories, and concrete examples of programs to support the agenda
on gender transformation

Household approaches: We use practical tools tofacilitate shared decision-making by women andmen in a household to achieve more equal workloads. The purpose is to strengthen the overall
well-being of the household and all its members byenabling women to fully participate in, and benefit
from, socio-economic activities. For example, in Indonesia, the Rainforest Alliance has partnered with
ESCP (Equality for Sustainable Cocoa Production),
the national CSP (Cocoa Sustainability Partnership)
and Swisscontact to implement the Gender Action
Learning System (GALS) in cocoa communities.
GALS is a participatory process that helps change
mindsets about gender roles and responsibilities
within households and promotes improved family
incomes.17

For example, between 2016-2020, the Rainforest Alliancesupported advocacy projects in nine coffee-, cocoa-,and tea-producing countries, bringing together different
organizations and producers to advocate for issues including gender equality and female leadership.20

SDG 5 | Achieve genderequality and empower all
women and girls

1.
2.
3.

Supply Chain Services: Encouraging
Corporate Leadership

4.

Companies are uniquely positioned to ensure that gender equality is a pillar of responsible business. For example, they can help to put gender equality on the agenda
of decision makers, use their purchasing power to influence suppliers, pay prices that ensure producers have aliving income, and invest in promoting gender equality
throughout their own supply chains.

5.
6.

We collaborate with businesses to tackle the impactsof gender inequality and promote women’s socio-economic empowerment in their supply chains. To illustrate,
in a two-year collaboration in Guatemala, the Rainforest
Alliance, Lidl, CARE (an organization focused on eradicating poverty) and the UGK Foundation (a local farmer
federation) are improving women’s livelihoods throughclimate-smart agricultural training and promoting leadership through socio-economic empowerment.18
In addition to these tailored services, the Rainforest Alliance promotes the Accountability Framework19 as a freely accessible set of norms and guidance that supports
companies in improving their sustainability performanceand meet their commitments to gender equality (andmany other areas) across their operations and supply
chains. The Accountability Framework takes a due diligence approach: it supports companies in developing
interventions in their supply chain that are informed by
the real risks posed by their interventions and tailored tothe context.

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End discrimination against all women and girls
Eliminate violence against all women and girls
Eliminate all harmful practices such as childmarriage
Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic
work
Ensure women’s participation and leadership indecision-making
Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights

Conclusion

aim to open up spaces for women and men to gain theknowledge, access, voice, and respect necessary to findtheir own pathways to sustainable livelihoods. This is agender transformative agenda.

For the Rainforest Alliance, promoting gender equality is
critical to respecting human rights and to our vision of
improving rural livelihoods for everyone, while protecting
natural landscapes.

But no single organization can tackle the root causes of gender inequality alone. Collaboration with allactors involved is essential—from local governments,
who can adjust and implement more gender-sensitive laws and regulations, to local civil society organizations that support rural communities to create more
opportunities for women and girls, and companies
that invest in gender equality and ensure fair prices for
women and men. Only by working together can sustainable and positive change towards a more genderequal world be achieved. We need everyone on board.

When women have the same access as men to
knowledge, inputs, resources, and decision-making,farms are more productive, workers’ livelihoods improve,
incomes rise, and land stewardship is more sustainable.
Households become more resilient to climate change
and less vulnerable to poverty and economic shock. In
short: Everyone benefits.
The most powerful agents of change are the women andgirls, and men and boys in the communities where wework. Our root-cause strategic interventions therefore

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ENDNOTES

11
Rainforest Alliance, What’s in our 2020 Certification Program? Gender equality. Available athttps://www.rainforest-alliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2020-program-gender-equality.pdf

1
https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/multimedia/2018/2/infographic-rural-women

12
https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/resource-item/whats-in-our-2020-certification-program-assess-and-address/

2
FAO. 2018b. The gender gap in land rights. http://
www.fao.org/3/i8796en/I8796EN.pdf

13
https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/resource-item/the-sector-partnerships-program/
andhttps://youtu.be/-HBcfrRvTQo

3
https://interactive.unwomen.org/multimedia/
infographic/changingworldofwork/en/index.html
4
ICO, 2018, Gender Equality in the Coffee Sector.
Available at https://www.ico.org/documents/cy2017-18/
icc-122-11e-gender-equality.pdf

14
Rainforest Alliance, 2020, Project Profile: Advancing women’s rights through community-led landscape management in Mount Bamboutos. Available athttps://www.rainforest-alliance.org/in-the-field/women-in-cobalam-project/

5
There are also many non-binary (those whose
gender does not fall strictly within the conventional categories of male or female) farmers and workers involvedin agricultural production. We aim to help make farms
and companies more gender inclusive so that all genders in agricultural supply chains have equal rights andopportunities. Supporting the empowerment of women
specifically is one of the main focuses of our certification
program since women represent the largest marginalized gender group.

15
Rainforest Alliance, 2021, Project Profile: Supporting Women to Thrive Economically in Mesoamerica
16
https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/insights/
the-future-of-conservation-is-female/17
https://www.swisscontact.org/en/news/nowi-am-a-different-woman

6
https://sdgs.un.org/goals, https://www.un.org/
womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw.htm

18
Rainforest Alliance Annual Report 2020. Available at https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/in-the-field/
how-a-two-year-project-used-climate-smart-agriculture-to-uplift-womens-leadership-in-coffee/

7
https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/
en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C19019
https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/
wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Accountability-Framework-one-sheet.pdf

8
UN Women, 2021, From Insights to Action. Available at https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2020/09/gender-equality-in-the-wakeof-covid-19#view
9cation20
https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/inthe-field/making-indonesias-cocoa-policy-a-reality-through-advocacy/

https://www.unicef.org/education/girls-edu-

10
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations (FAO), The State of Food and Agriculture: Closing
the Gender Gap for Development (Rome: FAO, 2011a).

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rainforest-alliance.org
email: info@ra.org

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Photo: Giuseppe Cipriani