Participation of Men and Women Critical to Climate Change Solutions

A gender champion can catalyze true and lasting change

September 30, 2014 - Inadequate attention to gender equity seriously limits the sustainability of solutions to climate change and other challenges affecting the forestry and land-use sector. Targeted, comprehensive and systematic capacity building is needed for gender integration in forest management and the emerging framework of climate change/REDD+, such as support for integrated planning mechanisms between forestry institutions and key women’s constituencies. 

To help address this challenge, the USAID LEAD program provided expert trainers and sponsored particpiants from Vietnam to participate in the regional workshop "Equality in Climate Change: Training for Practitioners" held September 23-26 in Vientiane, Laos. The workshop was the second in a series of training seminars organized by the USAID Lowering Emissions in Asia’s Forests (LEAF) program under its Asia-Pacific Leadership Program on Gender, Climate Change and REDD+ initiative.

The leadership program is training gender champions from five countries to strengthen their knowledge and ability to promote gender equality in REDD+ and improve their institutions' ability to implement sustainable solutions to climate change challenges.

The participants from Vietnam joined peers from Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea at the workshop, which was co-hosted by the Department of Forestry, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Laos.  Dr. Kinnalone Phommasack, Deputy Director of the Laos Department of Forestry, stressed that, “Men can be true advocates for women’s leadership and this Leadership Program empowers both men and women for transformative gender relations is a need for this time, both for our work and our lives”.

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