On 24May2013, WOCAN Nepal organizedthe 5th Women’s Leadership Circle in Agriculture and NRM (WLCAN) in Lalitpur, Nepal.The technical inputs and facilitation of this meeting was done by The Himalayan Grassroots Women’s Natural Resource Management Association (HIMAWANTI), WOCAN Partnet, and Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation’s (MoFSC) Gender Focal Point, Ms. Madhu Ghimire.
The objectives of the meeting were:
- To inform and make aware the grassroots women leaders and women professionals/experts working in forestry and sustainable rural developmentsectors about the Government of Nepal (GoN)/MoFSC’s current Forest Sector Strategy (FSS) 2012-2022 preparation process and about the assessment of the MoFSC’s Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Strategy.
- To find effective and participatory ways and strategies to support the GoN/MoFSC in making the FSS process and the document, GESI sensitive.
25 women and men participated in the meeting. There were9 grassroots women leaders from 5 districts and 15 national level women professionals and experts from 11 different organizations.
Discussion focused on the need for effective regional and local levelconsulation to support the FSS preparation priocess from GESI perspective. Participants also emphasized the need for an indepth reviewand analysisthe GESI situation in the forest sectorto inform this process. Thus a preparation of position paper was proposed. All participants showed commitment to support the consultation and analysis process.