Measures to increase women’s contribution to sustainability innovations

In the researches done for WP2 Trend and Foresight Analysis, stakeholders identified 333 measures to increase women’s contribution to the selected sustainability innovations. Participating stakeholders were assessing measures through 3 different regional contexts: rural village, rural area close to city and remote rural area. Participants included local farmers and entrepreneurs, local policy makers, active citizens as well as representatives of various NGOs, development or advisory organisations, research and educational organisations, LEADER groups and representatives of regional or national administration. 

Measures to increase women’s contribution to sustainability innovations are found both in exploiting possibilities and by removing identified obstacles. 

The most common measure was the organisation of co-creation and co-operation platforms (16%). These platforms would foster for example support, knowledge exchange, new organisations and events. 

Second highest measure to involve women was to disseminate information about alternatives, examples and good practices. This can be done by raising awareness and education as well as through advertising campaigns about sustainability and alternative ways of living in rural areas.  

Measures to provide more education was also high up on the list of actions (10%). Specifically, by promoting education around new methods and practices: workshops in schools, cooperative learning actions, storytelling initiatives, intergenerational learning and lifelong learning. Also, more education is needed regarding sustainability, shedding stereotypes, entrepreneurship, project management and innovations.  

Measures could be divided in four different categories. Doing so, the most common measures fall under “networks” (35%). This means organisation of platforms for cooperation, adoption of equality, strengthening support networks, involvement of young people, provision of communal spaces and adoption of welcome policies. 

Second largest categories are “knowledge” (23%) and “prerequisites” (23%). “Knowledge” includes provision of information and education. “Prerequisites” includes vision-based policies, provision of local services and facilities, adoption of place-based policies, promotion of flexible work life, provision of development projects and simplification of bureaucracy.  

Lastly, “incentives” (18%) is the last category. It includes empowerment and encouragement, provision of incentives for entrepreneurship, provision of finance and subsidies as well as organisation of visibility platforms. Based on this, effective measures to promote women’s contribution to sustainability innovations are related to networks, knowledge, prerequisites and incentives.