Bamboo is not typically the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about gender equality. However, its unique attributes as a sustainable resource that grows abundantly across the Global South allow it to play a critical role in contributing to UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

STRENGTHENING LIVELIHOODS

Bamboo’s characteristics as a lightweight, flexible and easy-to-process plant provide equal opportunities for women to participate in a range of economic activities such as farming, processing, value addition and more. These activities:

• enable women’s broad economic participation;
• create job opportunities;
• diversify income-generating opportunities;
• reduce overall income inequality; and
• foster women’s access to leadership positions within the community.

One of INBAR’s flagship projects, the Dutch-Sino-East Africa Bamboo Development Programme, is a trilateral cooperation initiative that has made strides in inclusive bamboo value chain development, strengthening the livelihoods of thousands of women with training on bamboo charcoal, cooking stoves, sustainable management practices and more—testament to the real-world impact of incorporating gender considerations into project design.

Through targeted training and capacity building activities, women can acquire specific skills that enhance their employment opportunities and earning potential. This is especially true because bamboo supports diverse value chains for women participation, such as nurseries, crafts and intangible heritage. In addition, given bamboo’s culinary, fodder and energy applications, women can play a major role in utilizing the resource for livelihoods. especially in rural communities.

INBAR has partnered with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to strengthen culture-oriented innovation and inclusive socio-economic development as part of the Bamboo for Carbon Neutrality in Rural Areas project in Chishui, China. This has led to hundreds of women benefiting from trainings and workshops on how to utilize traditional woven bamboo skills to make exquisite handicrafts with modern design aesthetics. Chishui’s woven bamboo sector is now home to an increasing number of female entrepreneurs, who are creating high-quality products and securing good income for women in the rural community, while helping transmit intangible local heritage.

PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT

The environment also benefits from women working with bamboo, as its cultivation and sustainable management can:

• improve soil health;
• bind topsoil, preventing erosion;
• sequester more carbon than some tree species;
• act as shelter belts; and
• support a range of biodiversity.

Bamboo can also be transformed into a range of handicrafts and low-carbon goods. In one Amazon community, INBAR is working with Indigenous women to design and produce bamboo jewelry, fusing ecological stewardship with sustainable economic development while encouraging the growth of a women’s cooperative. This project entwines the health of the local environment with economic outcomes. The Bambuzonía project engaged thousands of women across Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to help diversity the bamboo production systems of smallholders facing the realities of climate change in the region while protecting Amazonian forest land.

These efforts are contributing to elevating women around the world, particularly those in the Global South. They also intersect with a number of other pressing issues, including poverty alleviation, climate change mitigation and preserving intangible cultural heritage. By leveraging bamboo’s versatility and sustainability, efforts to empower women can intersect with ecological and economic development, providing a holistic approach to achieving gender equality under SDG 5.

For more information, please refer to Volume 5, Issue 2 of INBAR’s quarterly magazine, the Bamboo and Rattan Update, which features three articles examining the potential of bamboo to contribute to gender equality around the world.