In Nepal, USAID’s Hariyo Ban Program aims to build ecosystem and community resilience in two large landscapes to conserve biodiversity and facilitate climate change adaptation for people and nature while improving the lives of forest-dependent people. It has cross-cutting themes of governance, and gender and social inclusion (GESI) that include activities to address GBV. Implemented by an NGO consortium of conservation and development organizations, the Program works closely with local communities, government, and other partners.
In Nepal, many rural women are very dependent on natural resources such as firewood, fodder, water, and traditional medicines, but they are often excluded from decision-making about their forests, and sometimes have difficulty accessing the resources they need. As part of its GESI work, the program realized it needed to tackle gender-based violence in order for women to participate more fully and safely in community forest management and sharing of forest benefits.
Please view the recording of a webinar hosted by AGENT’s Gender-Based Violence and Environment Linkages Center (GBV-ENV Center) for a short presentation and panel discussion about the activities, results, and challenges of this work, and what the prospects are for scaling up efforts to tackle GBV in community natural resource management in Nepal in the future through government and civil society action.
The recording above reflects the original languages and voices from this event in English. Please see other videos below for a recording of this video in French and Spanish.
