It is increasingly evident that women’s involvement and leadership in environmental solutions has often been overlooked and that more must be done to empower women to help deliver successful and long-lasting results for the environment.

This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is “transforming women’s lives”, and we also need to consider the transformative role that women play in steering our planet towards a sustainable future.

Whether protecting biodiversity and ecosystems or adopting new practices to combat land degradation and pollution, women are advocating for innovative solutions to environmental problems. Investing in these women and supporting their equal participation and leadership is critical to addressing the environmental challenges that our world faces today.

One thing that the Global Environment Facility (GEF) has learned over the years is not to assume that environmental projects are gender neutral. When the GEF started to require gender analysis as part of the project planning, we realized that many projects perceived to be gender neutral were, in fact, gender blind. These projects failed not only to consider their differentiated impact on women and men, but also to explore opportunities to creating opportunities for both women and men to develop and support sustainable practices.

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