This publication explores how legal empowerment work can account for gender and power dynamics when advancing land, environmental, and climate (LEC) justice. The strategies and stories within are drawn from a learning exchange that brought together 15 organizations from around the world — all members of the Grassroots Justice Network. The learning exchange was co-hosted by Namati, the Grassroots Justice Network, and the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA). Over the course of 4 months, our group met in four virtual sessions and one week-long in-person gathering in Zimbabwe.
Together, we unpacked what gender transformative approaches look like in the context of our work — helping communities to know, use, and shape the law to defend their land and environmental rights. We came together in solidarity, excited to share our experiences. We left with a set of collectively-sourced tools that will help us dismantle and reimagine the systems that perpetuate gender inequality, both in our societies and in our responses to LEC justice challenges.
In this publication, we invite you to explore the ideas presented, and reflect on how to apply these practices within your own contexts and organizations. In the spirit of collective learning, the publication offers thoughtful questions and exercises to facilitate growth and understanding. Our intention is to offer a call to action: what would it look like to approach land, environmental, and climate justice through a gender transformative, legal empowerment lens?