This study investigates women’s participation and opportunities for empowerment within this context of complex dryland governance. The research was commissioned by the UNDP Global Policy Centre on Resilient Ecosystems and Desertification (GPC-Nairobi) and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), in order to explore issues of dryland women’s governance. It is a series of reports on Dryland women which includes Land Rights (Thematic Paper 1), Governance (Thematic Paper 2) and Resilience (Thematic Paper 3).
Dryland women face additional constraints to participat in governance due to their dual spatial and gender marginalization. Their needs and interests can often be overlooked in policy making, and in the provision of state services. Despite various challenges, there are a number of opportunities emerging exist for facilitating women’s empowerment in dryland governance. This includes tackling inadequate representation and recognition of women in dryland governance and a redistribution of resources, in the broader context of supporting processes of democratic governance and the associated values of participation, representation, accountability, transparency,
responsiveness, efficiency and equity.
