Gender Equity and Social Inclusion

152 years – that is how long it will take at the current pace to close the economic gap between women and men. Meanwhile between 2019 and 2022, almost 40 % of countries moved backward on gender equality, affecting over one billion women and girls. This isn’t just unfair – it is economically devastating: gender inequality costs the global economy up to $172 trillion in lost income annually. Yet closing these gaps could boost Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by more than 20 % – a massive untapped opportunity.

Without intentional action, these gaps will deepen, leaving economies and communities behind. Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI) approaches tackle these inequalities by addressing unequal power relationships through intersectional, socially inclusive approaches. It is important to recognize that gender inequality is not uniform but intersects with other forms of exclusion for many marginalized groups – such as indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, rural communities, and others – creating multiple compounded disadvantages.

Working towards fair and accessible agricultural supply chains for all, social inclusion is critical to driving deforestation-free production and protecting our planet’s forests, as many indigenous people and women are guardians of the forests and live the balance between production and protection.

Gender, Rights and Power in Agricultural Supply Chains

Women produce 50–80% of the world’s food but face systemic barriers to land, capital, and decision-making. Only about 15% of agricultural landholders are women, and they are less likely to hold legal titles or own large plots (FAO, 2018). Indigenous peoples and other marginalized groups, despite their key roles in food production and land stewardship, often lack formal land rights and face conflicts from large-scale agricultural or extractive projects. This challenge is mirrored by other marginalized groups, such as indigenous peoples, girls, and people with disabilities, who are also central to food production and land stewardship.

Without secure land ownership, these communities have limited access to credit and investment, restricting their ability to adopt sustainable and technological innovations. Excluding them from resources and power not only deepens inequality but also undermines land conservation and global food security.

This is not easy work. If it were easy work, it would have been done a long time ago. It's not easy because it requires intentionality to disrupt certain norms, practices and structures.

Former Ford Foundation President Darren Walker on how diversity and inclusion are essential for businesses to succeed, 2021

SAFE’s GESI Workstreams

Workpackage 1: Training of Trainers Module on Gender Equity and Social Inclusions and Intersectionality (GESI+) for Deforestation-free Value chains

SAFE has partnered with the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), to develop a Training of Trainers (ToT) on Gender Equity and Social Inclusion + Intersectionality (GESI+) within deforestation-free value chains. This initiative addresses a critical gap in the EUDR how to ensure transitions to deforestation-free agriculture are fair and just for the diversity of producers embedded in these value chains and affected communities in the sourcing areas.

The ToT introduces the GESI+ framework to move beyond simple regulatory compliance and reimagines a just transition that protects the livelihoods and resource rights of the most vulnerable smallholders while actively creating new opportunities.

The facilitation toolkit is designed to build the capacities of trainers working closest with smallholder producers, small-scale value-chain actors, and indigenous peoples and local communities who may be impacted by EUDR implementation. These trainers often act as bridges between operators and traders and the smallholders in their sourcing areas.

The module was tested in three countries, Brazil, Ecuador and Indonesia, adapted to local needs and learnings generated fed into the final product.

Key Workstreams

To move beyond theory into practice, a rigorous, iterative co-creation process was implemented to develop a set of learning materials and action planning tools. The outputs of this collaboration include information briefs, videos, and a facilitation guide.

By empowering the practitioners who support smallholder producers, the GESI+ approach equips trainers, producers, operators and traders to lead a socially just deforestation-free transition.
The toolkit is designed for flexible delivery with four Learning Units encompassing ten Learning Modules and 24 practical tools. It includes a Learning Plan template for trainers to select and design their own training curricula, and three participant evaluations for real-time and post-hoc feedback.
The toolkit was launched during a webinar of the Zero Deforestation Hub Learning Series.
[Link Webinar Recording and Final Toolkit]

You are currently viewing a placeholder content from Youtube. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.

More Information

Unblock content Accept required service and unblock content

A comprehensive desk review of the EUDR to analyse potential implications of the EUDR on marginalised communities and identify entry points to strengthen their rights.
Deep-dive country reviews (Brazil, Ecuador, and Indonesia) to analyse value chain dynamics for specific commodities in the target landscapes (cocoa, coffee, cattle) and policy map of national legislation which provides social safeguards for different social identity groups

Online workshops with SAFE country teams reflecting and iterating on learning curriculum, workshop activities, planning tools and participant evaluations.
ToT pilots conducted in Brazil, Ecuador, and Indonesia (April, August and September 2025), training over 80 representatives from government, civil society, and the private sector.
The “pilot-feedback-revision” cycle allowed the training to be further adapted after each in-country pilot, hence grounds the final toolkit in real-world application.
ToT Indonesia Video:

You are currently viewing a placeholder content from Youtube. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.

More Information

Unblock content Accept required service and unblock content

Brasil Novo, Pará, Brazil — 5 November 2025 — Participants walk through the cacao plantation, learning about harvesting, agroforestry integration and local production challenges. Photo: Alessandro Falco / GIZ

Brasil Novo, Pará, Brazil — 5 November 2025 — Group 2 participants take a group photo during the cacao processing visit at Kakao Blumenn. Photo: Alessandro Falco / GIZ

Brasil Novo, Pará, Brazil — 5 November 2025 — Portrait of João Almeida, owner of Fazenda João Meira, standing among the mahogany trees reforested on his property. Photo: Alessandro Falco / GIZ

Workpackage 2: Idea Accelerator for Local GESI Solutions

Gender and social inequalities shape who controls land, who accesses extension, who participates in decision-making, and whose practices are included or excluded from deforestation-free supply chains. Integrating a GESI lens strengthens traceability, legality, and sustainability, while unlocking innovation and resilience.

SAFE implements an Idea-to-Solution Accelerator in nine SAFE countries in collaboration with the South African-based consultancy Korumo Consulting. This initiative within the SAFE global project is designed to help country teams identify barriers to gender equality and social inclusion that hinder EUDR compliance and develop targeted, innovative solutions.

The GESI Sprint Framework

The initiative aims to advance GESI by implementing practical, locally-driven solutions in partnership with local actors to tackle high-leverage GESI barriers—such as lack of land documentation, exclusion from traceability systems, unsafe participation in value chains, or limited leadership of women and marginalized groups—and develop low-cost, high-impact solutions within their sphere of influence. Solutions are designed to be realistic within the one-year Sprint timeline while contributing to longer-term structural change and EUDR readiness. The Sprint combines analytical rigor with adaptive implementation and peer-learning, ensuring that solutions are both feasible and transformative.

Quadrants of Change: Designing for Transformation

All Sprint solutions are guided by the Quadrants of Change Framework, which addresses change across four interconnected domains:

Individual – self-belief, knowledge, skills, attitudes, and agency
Relationships – power relations, decision-making, and collaboration
Culture – social norms, values, and informal rules
Systems – policies, institutions, markets, and formal structures

To achieve sustainable and gender-transformative impact, interventions must operate in at least two quadrants. For example, a training may build individual capacity, but real impact depends on how participants apply this knowledge in households, producer organizations, communities, or formal systems such as traceability or land administration.

Country Level Approaches:

The initiative supported women’s participation, autonomy, and decision-making by addressing structural barriers and unequal power relations. Through gender-transformative actions and peer learning between the two value chains, the initiative promotes more inclusive working environments, challenges harmful norms, and helps unlock the economic potential of both sectors.

Activities:

2-day workshop with more than 30 women, men and youngster from the Transamazon and Xingu/PA region
Debates, capacity building on GTA and information exchange between the participants
Online mentoring process

The initiative strengthened the skills of young adults, women, and local technicians from cocoa and coffee organizations to use geospatial tools that enhance farm traceability and sustainable production. Bridging the digital and participation gaps of women and youth is key for rural organizations to meet international standards like the EUDR, which demands traceable products with geodata from the production plot. Managing their own data securely is key to smallholders' organizations in terms of information security and empowerment.

Activities:

Trainings to enable producer organizations to manage geographic information systems.
Promotion of data governance and sensitive information management by producers.
Development of new skills in women and young adults for rural employment opportunities.

In rural Zambia, Women often depend on their husbands or traditional leaders to allocate land, reflecting deep gender inequalities. Strengthening land tenure security for women is essential to overcome these barriers, enabling smallholder farmers to meet international standards like the EUDR and participate fully in global markets.

Activities:

Empowering communities by enhancing land tenure security for women, fostering sustainable development and social equity in Zambia through social norms campaigns and community training.
Delivering innovative land documentation solutions (ParcelCert) for secure land ownership
Aiming for lasting impact by targeting over 1,200 community members and securing land rights for at least 50 women

The initiative supports women rubber plantation owners to strengthen their role in sustainable production, leadership, and decision-making. Although women are key contributors to the local rubber economy, they face barriers to advanced farming practices, finance, and compliance with emerging standards. Building on the SAFE Challenge and collaboration with Olam Agri, the intervention enhances women’s capacity to meet EUDR requirements while promoting economic empowerment and resilience.

Activities:

Gender Action Learning System (GALS) workshops to strengthen leadership, decision-making, and community action
Establishment and strengthening of women farmer groups to improve business processes and compliance
Documentation and sharing of best practices to inform inclusive approaches and scale successful models.

- Implementation started -

In Son La and Gia Lai, this initiative strengthens a gender-equitable, deforestation-free coffee supply chain by improving women’s recognition, skills, and participation in decision-making. Using the Gender Action Learning System (GALS), it helps women and men address challenges - especially around land use rights - and promote shared decision-making within households, farmer groups, and cooperatives, with attention to ethnic minority contexts.

Activities:

GALS-based coaching for gender-responsive EUDR-aligned production
Capacity-building to enhance women’s participation and skills across the value chain
Engagement with decision-makers to integrate gender and social inclusion into policies for a sustainable coffee sector.

This initiative promotes the inclusion of women and indigenous peoples in the coffee supply chain as a pathway to livelihoods and forest protection around Kahuzi-Biega National Park. By creating income opportunities that do not depend on land ownership, the project aims to reduce pressure on forest resources while strengthening skills, participation, and economic resilience.

Activities:

Training and capacity-building for women nursery operators to manage large-scale coffee seedling production
Producing and selling seedlings from pilot nurseries
Supporting women’s involvement in coffee processing and market access, including engagement with Fair Trade opportunities

The initiative strengthens gender equality and social inclusion in coffee and cocoa cooperatives by addressing barriers that limit women’s, youth’, and indigenous peoples’ access to resources, leadership, and economic opportunities. These inequalities reduce productivity and hinder compliance with EUDR requirements.

Activities:

Building women’s leadership through training, mentoring, and participation in cooperative decision-making
Mapping and supporting women-led enterprises with tailored business training and mentorship
Fostering strategic alliances with public institutions and regional platforms to promote gender-responsive policies and expand economic opportunities across the value chain.

In Uganda, this initiative promotes gender-equitable and climate-smart coffee production by addressing barriers that limit women’s access to land, resources, training, and decision-making. Despite their central role in the sector, women remain underrepresented and earn significantly less, affecting productivity and household welfare. The project applies a gender-transformative, couple-based training approach aligned with national policies and EUDR requirements.

Activities:

Training for community-based facilitators (CBF) to deliver inclusive, climate-smart agriculture and land rights awareness
Household dialogues to strengthen joint planning, decision-making, and equitable benefit-sharing
Capacity building of cooperatives and local stakeholders to sustain gender-responsive practices and improve productivity and resilience in coffee-growing communities

In Mintom, southern Cameroon, this initiative promotes inclusive governance in cocoa cooperatives by addressing the structural exclusion of women and indigenous Baka communities from leadership, resources, and economic opportunities. Strengthening inclusion is key to improving cooperative sustainability and supporting EUDR compliance.

Activities:

Social norm campaigns to raise awareness and challenge stereotypes about women’s and Baka participation in cooperative governance,
Community training to strengthen leadership skills and access to technical information
Participatory institutional reforms to revise cooperative statutes and embed commitments to gender equality and ethnic inclusion.

Key Concepts

Gender Equity (vs. Equality)

Addressing the different needs, priorities, and structural disadvantages of women and marginalized groups, to ensure fairness of outcomes, rather than simply treating everyone the same.

Intersectionality

Recognizing that individuals experience exclusion and discrimination based on the overlapping of various social identities (e.g., gender, race, class, disability, and ethnicity). Addressing these interconnected disadvantages is key to effective interventions.

The Economic and Development Imperative

Moving beyond simply addressing symptoms (e.g., unequal income) to challenging and changing the underlying power dynamics, discriminatory social norms, and institutional structures that perpetuate inequality.

The Economic and Development Imperative

Acknowledging that closing the gender gap is not only a human rights imperative but also a massive economic opportunity, boosting global GDP and leading to improved productivity, food security, and environmental stewardship (e.g., forest area per capita).