Gender Assessment and Action Plan

The report assesses gender inequalities in Brazil, specifically within the context of forest conservation and REDD+ implementation. It identifies significant gaps in women's political representation, land ownership, and decision-making power in forest management, despite advances in education and health. The document recommends a gender-responsive Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA), the establishment of quotas for the Floresta+ Pilot Program, and the hiring of a gender specialist to ensure equitable benefit-sharing and participation in climate funding activities.

• Brazil shows high equality in Human Development Index (HDI) achievements, but significant gaps persist in political empowerment and economic participation. In 2016, Brazil ranked 1st globally in health and survival but 86th in political empowerment according to the Global Gender Gap Index.
• Women in Brazil outperform men in education, with a gender gap in favor of girls in secondary (1.11 ratio) and tertiary (1.29 ratio) education. However, racial disparities exist, as white women report 9.1 years of schooling compared to 7.7 years for black or parda women.
• Women's political representation remains weak; in 2017, women occupied 11.3% of National Congress seats. Despite a requirement that 30% of party candidates be women, leadership roles at the state and local levels remain male-dominated.
• Female labor force participation is characterized by occupational segregation and a heavy burden of unpaid domestic work. Women spend an average of 22.7 hours per week on domestic work compared to 5.5 hours for men, and employed women work about 55.4 hours a week, which is eight hours more than men.
• Land ownership for women in Brazil is very low, partly due to cultural practices and historical resistance from the Land Reform Institute (INCRA) to joint titling. While the 1988 Constitution allowed joint titling, female ownership was only 12.6% in the mid-1990s.
• In the Brazilian Amazon, a gendered division of labor exists where men are associated with timber and women with multi-use, small-scale, informal activities. Women possess specialized knowledge of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and phototherapeutics used for family health care.
• The Floresta+ Pilot Program faces challenges in integrating a gender perspective because the National Rural Environmental Registry System (CAR) does not publicly display the sex of property owners, making it difficult to assess the gender of landholders.
• Brazil's National Strategy for REDD+ (ENREDD+) identifies women as a group to be engaged but fails to incorporate principles of gender equality or women's empowerment within its objectives, governance, or action lines.
• Early REDD+ implementation in Brazil showed negative trends for women's subjective wellbeing. A study found that more women in REDD+ villages perceived their wellbeing had decreased compared to those in non-REDD+ villages, often due to restricted forest access.
• The document recommends several actions to mainstream gender, including hiring a gender specialist, establishing quotas for Floresta+, developing a gender-responsive ESIA, and building the capacity of the Ministry of Environment's (MMA) Gender Committee.

APA

Green Climate Fund (2019). Gender Assessment and Action Plan. https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/gender-assessment-fp100-undp-brazil.pdf

Chicago

Green Climate Fund. Gender Assessment and Action Plan. 2019. https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/gender-assessment-fp100-undp-brazil.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Green Climate Fund |title=Gender Assessment and Action Plan |date=3 May 2019 |url=https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/gender-assessment-fp100-undp-brazil.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greenclimatefund2019gender, author = {{Green Climate Fund}}, title = {{Gender Assessment and Action Plan}}, institution = {Green Climate Fund}, year = {2019}, month = may, url = {https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/gender-assessment-fp100-undp-brazil.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }