In April, 2013 Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (WOCAN) launched the Women’s Carbon Standard (WCS), a set of project design and implementation requirements that complement existing compliance or voluntary carbon standards. The Women’s Carbon Standard – the first women-specific complementary standard measuring social benefits – will be formally re-named the W+ Standard on November 19th, 2013 at the WOCAN Side Event at the 19th United Nations Conference of Parties (COP 19) in Warsaw on the occasion of Gender Day.
The name change reflects the recent indications of interest from donors and companies to support non-carbon related delivered impacts (co-benefits) that follow the principle methods of carbon asset development based on delivered, verified results.
The W+ standard includes six specific categories to integrate and measure women’s empowerment gained in relation to: Leadership, Health, Food Security, Time, Income & Assets, and Education & Knowledge. Just as the Fair Trade label has revolutionized consumer buying habits, WOCAN sees the potential to drive investments to projects that support women’s empowerment and provide women with recognition and compensation for their contributions. Premium projects that include social co-benefits – such as those of the W+ – are more valued in the marketplace. Corporate carbon buyers – those companies who pay for offsets to reduce their environmental impacts or to enhance their brand image – are willing to pay more for credits that are generated from projects that have compelling human interest stories.’ There is evidence that other premium carbon products are able to command a better price. Buyers can be a big driver for use of the W+ standard if they demand carbon credits with the W+ designation.
The W+ Standard is designed to be implemented with existing or new carbon or non-carbon projects in ways that are flexible, yet measureable and verifiable. W+ leverages the well-established global carbon market, including project development, verification, carbon credit registries and marketing channels. It also capitalizes on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) interests seeking verified results. The W+ certification accompanying carbon credits from WCS-implementing projects will generate benefits and revenues primarily directed back to women in project communities.
W+ recognizes the potential catalyzing role of companies as investors or purchasers of W+ certified and premium-priced carbon credits. Women’s empowerment is gaining ground as a priority issue for companies, and some are making high profile commitments supporting women’s inclusion and economic empowerment. But these companies run a major risk if they are unable to track progress and transparently show how they have contributed to women’s empowerment. Existing CSR related instruments and standards fall short of providing a reliable framework for program design and verified results.
The private sector can also play a much larger role in supporting women’s empowerment, both as implementers of the W+ standard into their own carbon offset projects, and through the use of the W+ six domains as a framework for design and measurement of women’s empowerment initiatives. The W+ standard provides a vetted and complete framework for designing women’s empowerment projects and measuring results.
The W+ website is: www.wplus.org. A link is also available on the WOCAN website: www.wocan.org.
Media inquiries or for more information, please contact:
Jeannette Gurung, Executive Director, WOCAN jeannettegurung@wocan.org or
Nisha Onta, Knowledge Management Coordinator, nishaonta@wocan.org