Ridge to Reef Watershed Project : gender and social equity for sustainable watershed management : second report 2003 - 2004

The R2RW project is a five year activity contributing to improved quality of key natural resources in Jamaica in areas that are both environmentally and economically significant. This report focuses on the assistance provided to key organisations to support, co-ordinate, and expand watershed management efforts.
The project was in a transitional phase as it entered the second half of its fourth year (ending September 2004). This appears in at least two areas. One is the shift of methodology from nurturing and demonstrating environmental stewardship to communities and agencies, to training and preparing stakeholders for more independent watershed management. Another aspect of the transition is seen in the project expanding understanding of equity as affecting more than gender based groups, to other social groupings that may be marginalized from the project processes which affect their lives.
The conceptual difference in definition between equality and equity is not fully understood in theory or in practice by all team members interviewed. Male and female participants experience equality of access numerically, yet there is inequity of treatment or in power sharing opportunities. Conceptually R2RW understood gender equity as a process of not promoting one sex over the other, or placing one group at a disadvantage while benefiting another. The sentiments of the Resource Team are summarised, considering that although gender equity considerations were initiated by external development agencies, they were driven by local concerns, and that there was sufficient gender imbalance within the culture to justify this focus.