The Report on the Study on Gender and Small Grant Programme
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DRAFT THE REPORT ON THE STUDY ON GENDER AND SMALL GRANT PROGRAMME UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME 2018 This backside of the front page is intentionally left blank The Report of the study on Gender and sixth cycle of Small Grant Programme of the Global Environment Facility and United Nation Development Programme, which was conducted during 2018, is prepared by a team of Independent Consultants, Dissanayake DMSB, PhD and Ranasignhe PR, as per the Terms of Reference of the assignment of the Small Grant Programme of the United Nations Development Programme. ISBN : Year : 2018 The opinions expressed in this Report are those of the writers, and do not necessarily represent the views of the United Nations Development Programme. © United Nations Development Programme This page is intentionally left blank ABBREVIATION AGD Age, Gender and Diversity AGDM Age, Gender and Diversity Mainstreaming DS Divisional Secretary DSD Divisional Secretariat Division EDO Economic Development Officer FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations GEF Global Environment Facility GN Grama Niladhari GND Grama Niladari Division KM Knowledge Management NBSAP National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan NSC National Steering Committee PWD Persons With Disabilities SGD Sustainable Development Goals SGP Small Grant Programme SWOT Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats TAG Technical Advisory Group UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNCBD Convention on Biodiversity UNCCD United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change This page is intentionally left blank TABLE OF CONTENT Page The Content No. ABBREVIATION 1 01 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 GEF Small Grant Programme 2 1.2 Small Grant Programme in Sri Lanka 3 1.3 Age, Gender and Diversity and Gender Equality 5 1.4 The Study on the SGP and Gender Equality 6 1.5 The Methodology of the Study 8 1.6 Data Gathering Methods 9 1.7 Limitation of the Study 10 1.8 Presentation of the Study Findings 11 02 AGE, GENDER AND DIVERSITY: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 11 2.1 Age, Gender and Diversity Mainstreaming 11 2.2 The SGP Design Document (ProDoc) 18 2.3 Landscape Management Strategies 22 2.4 Knowledge Management 24 2.5 Grantees and Projects 24 2.5.1 As Whom Community has been considered 33 2.5.2 Types of Community Groups Benefited 34 2.5.3 Community as a Strategy for Gender Equality 40 2.6 Community in Landscape 03 CONCLUDING REMARKS FOR CHANGE 04 PLAN OF ACTION 05 ANNEXURE Annexure ONE: Terms of Reference Annexure TWO: List of Documents Reviewed Annexure THREE: List of Key Informant Interviews/ Focus Group Discussions Held Annexure FOUR: Notes of KIIs and FGDs Annexure FIVE: Format of Details of Beneficiaries Annexure SIX: Format of details of Paddy farming and Home Gardening Annexure Seven: Case Stories ix THE LIST OF TABLES Page Table Description No. No. 7 1 Areas of Responsiveness on Gender and Social Inclusiveness 13 2 Gender Sensitivity of SGP Outputs, Targets and Activity 19 3 Gender Sensitivity of Knuckles Strategy 28 4 Allocation made for Monitoring and Evaluation by SLTCP THE LIST OF DIAGRAMS Page Diagram Description No. No. 6 1 Gender Equality Normative Framework 7 2 Conceptual Framework for Community Engagement in SGP 39 3 Three interconnected ways to narrow the Gender Gap Report on the Study on Gender and Small Grant Programme UNDP - 2018 01. INTRODUCTION 1.1. GEF Small Grant Programme 1. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) which was established following the agenda of Rio Earth Summit to tackle most pressing environmental problems, is expected through the Small Grant Programme (SGP) to promote community based innovation, capacity development, and empowerment through sustainable development projects of local civil society organizations on biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and adaptation, prevention of land degradation, etc., with special consideration for indigenous people, women and youth. 2. The Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) recognized that poverty is a major cause and effect of global environmental problems. The Support communities and civil society organizations to understand and practice sustainable development strategies that protect the global environment and learn from community level approaches that reduce threats to global environment are two of four objectives of, which are formed with the understanding of the critical linkages between the economic, environmental and social components of poverty and livelihoods. 3. In achieving of GEF 2020 vision, mobilizing local (and global) stakeholders as a key priority area, it is expected to focus on gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment. The recognizes that failure to understand and address gender dimensions within environment projects risks wasted development resources and negative effects on household welfare, women’s equality and environment sustainability. Thus, gender is one of the mandatory cross-cutting requirements of SGP. As GEF sees that gender equality is equal treatment of women and men in laws and policies, and equal access to resources and services within families, communities, and society at large, it promotes a two – pronged approach of gender mainstreaming; the systemically analysing and addressing in all initiatives the needs of both women and men, and targeted interventions to enable women and men to participate in and benefit equally from development efforts. 4. The GEF Policy on Gender Mainstreaming 2012, while highlighting the relationship between gender equality and environmental sustainability, seek to mainstream gender in its policies, programmes and operations. In addition to that, the Policy emphasize the sensitivity of project monitoring with both quantitative and qualitative data on the gender relevance of the work. 5. SGP considers gender equality and empowerment as essential elements for achieving sustainable development and environmental benefits. Therefore, (1) promotion of gender mainstreaming at the earliest stages of the project cycle, (2) conducting needs assessment at the project development phase to define the roles of women and men (3) document the contribution of women to project activities (e.g., biodiversity management, in situ conservation of agro-biodiversity, conservation of medicinal plants, etc.), (4) employ gender sensitive checklist and criteria by the National Steering Committees to assess and screen projects, and also to develop gender guidelines, (5) increases of receiving of proposals from women and marginalized groups, (6) encouraging of women stand-alone projects, (7) incorporate gender based indicators in monitoring and evaluation, (8) providing of gender focused training for grantees, 2 are some of the key features gender strategy of 1. 6. According to the Country Programme Action Plan, UNDP promotes the socio-economic capacities of vulnerable communities particularly in the lagging regions of the country, especially focusing on the inclusion of women, female-headed households, youth, and groups of persons with disabilities. Accordingly, integration2 of gender in all programmes has been identified as a primary objective. 7. The SGP is expected implement through integrating and adopting of approach of Community Development and Knowledge Management for the Satoyama Initiative (COMDEKS). The COMDEKS approach, by carrying the concept of community based landscape management for conservation of biodiversity as the core principle, is to empower communities by engaging them to enhance and sustain the ecological, economical and social resilience of the landscape and communities where they live and work3. 1.2. Small Grant Programme in Sri Lanka 8. The project is in implementation inn three landscapes, which have been selected by the National Steering Committee, namely the Knuckles Conservation Forest (KCF) and its buffer zone, the coastal region from Mannar Island up to Jaffna and the Urban Wetlands of Colombo. The Project has been designed based on an in-depth socioeconomic and environmental assessment and multi stakeholder consultation. The assessment and consultation has resulted to identify the biodiversity values as well as natural and anthropogenic threats available at three landscapes. 9. Later, three separate studies have been done by contracted subject matter experts and three landscape management strategies have been developed by showing the cause – impact relationship of degradation of biodiversity in selected areas of three landscapes, while recommending appropriate interventions. 10. As it is planned in the project document, three landscapes management committees have been established and now are in function. The National Steering Committee (NSC) is in function as the decision making body while the Technical Advisory Group is working responsible for providing of technical guidance for implementation of the Project. 11. The has obtained the services of three technically qualified Knowledge Management Firms, who had experiences in GEF in previous cycle as a Knowledge Management 1 https://sgp.undp.org, the official website of the Small Grant Project. 2 Activities like the assurance of resource allocations for gender equality, economic development and social protection assistance for women, and improving women’s involvement in all decision-making processes at all levels were expected to be implemented by the UNDP for gender equality. 3 Community based approach to landscape management, Selvemini. D, & Remple. N, 2014, pp 37. Report on the Study on Gender