Evaluation of women's participation and empowerment in community land rehabilitation programs: Lesson drawn from Wera District, Southern Ethiopia

Local people's socio-economic and natural resources, especially forest resources, have been affected by land degradation in Ethiopia in the past years. To combat this problem, rehabilitation of community-based degraded land has been performed since 1979. Rehabilitation of degraded land (RDL) is important for forest management strategy regarding the regeneration of degraded forests and related resources through women's empowerment. Because empowered women are key users and managers of resources from rehabilitated land such as forest resources, which leads to sustainable utilization of forest products. The aim of the study was to evaluate women's participation and empowerment in decision-making regarding the rehabilitation intervention. A total of 120 women households (60 user and 60 non-user women) were selected using a stratified random sampling method. Data were collected using a household survey, focus group discussion and key informant interviews. The results revealed that there is a significant difference between user and non-user women in fetching water and fuelwood collection time. Furthermore, RDL contributes to improving user women's economic status and social relationships such as livelihood opportunity, social network, build-up of trust and changes in social assets. The result also indicated that women able to participate in forest-related meetings, land use management, use and control of assets, decision-making, and in soil and water conservation measures. Further, user women had greater awareness compared to non-users due to participation in different meetings and other decision-making activities. The findings suggest that consideration of women's participation in decision-making regarding the community land rehabilitation program is important to empower women equally with men.