Fostering Gender-Transformative Change in Sustainable Forest Management | A Case Study of DGM Indonesia

The DGM Indonesia (DGM-I) country project focuses on improving clarity and security of land rights for Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs), as well as improving livelihood opportunities from sustainable forests and land. In implementation since March 2017, with 63 subprojects either in implementation or completed, there are ample opportunities for detailed examination of a particular DGM-I subproject. This can offer insight into whether and how DGM projects are influencing women’s participation and leadership on the ground, and can also provide an indication of the extent to which the project may be influencing broader social and gender norms in Indonesia. In turn, this case study informs the wider line of inquiry of the World Bank DGM & REDD+ Gender Study, which follows a conceptual framework of gender transformative change to analyze the contribution the DGM-I project is making to women's economic achievement, access to and control over productive assets, voice, and agency that support positive changes in women’s leadership and meaningful participation. The conceptual framework for this study follows a stepwise, yet flexible and dynamic, progression toward gender transformative change. The framework begins by assessing the inputs that the DGM project provides to beneficiaries, such as assets, information, skills, and capacity building. This assessment looks at what types of inputs are provided, as well as to whom and how they are provided. Next, we assess through the framework how those inputs have influenced women’s income and assets, and building on that, how women are gaining voice and agency. Next, we assess whether and how those changes in voice and agency are influencing gender norms, attitudes, and perceptions of women and men at multiple levels, from individual to household to community. Finally, we look at whether those shifts have the potential to be sustained beyond the lifetime of the project and influence more formal practices, rules, policies, and laws that treat women in an unequal way.