Women’s dataset of the Global Comparative Study on REDD+ (GCS REDD+) Module 2

The Global Comparative Study on REDD+ (GCS REDD+) was launched in 2009 by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) to ensure that policy-makers and practitioner communities have access to – and use – the information, analyses and tools they need to: design and implement REDD+ and other forest-based mitigation strategies in effective, efficient and equitable ways that also promote social and environmental co-benefits; and rigorously assess to what degree REDD+ has delivered. Module 2 (Subnational REDD+ and low emissions development initiatives) focuses on assessing the performance of subnational REDD+ and other low-emission development initiatives, including subnational jurisdictional programmes and local-level projects. Module 2 evaluated the impacts of 23 REDD+ project and program sites in six countries: Brazil, Cameroon, Indonesia, Peru, Tanzania and Vietnam. The research uses a before–after/control–intervention (BACI) approach. In this approach, identical data are collected both before and after the initiative starts, and in an ‘intervention’ area (that is, the location that is impacted by the REDD+ initiative) and a ‘control’ area (that is, a location that has similar characteristics to the intervention area, but is not impacted by the REDD+ initiative). Data collection for the ‘before’ period was carried out in 2010/11 (hereafter referred as ‘Phase 1’), and for the ‘after’ period in 2013/14 (hereafter referred as ‘Phase 2’). At each site, four intervention villages and four control villages were surveyed. In each village, three types of data collection instruments were implemented in Phase 1 and Phase 2: a Household Questionnaire; a Village Questionnaire; and a Women’s Questionnaire. The Women’s dataset corresponds to the Women’s Questionnaire, which has three main goals. First, it is an instrument that enables women to have a voice as respondents in GCS REDD+. Second, it is a way to obtain data that are specific to the experience and knowledge of women in the study villages. Third, it supplies information that compares the livelihood activities and outlooks of women and men in the study villages. The Women’s Questionnaire is composed of four main sections: 1. Women’s livelihoods in the village and change over time; and tenure; 2. women’s participation in village and household decisions; 3. perception of changes in women’s well-being; 4. women’s involvement in and assessment of forest interventions. The Women’s Questionnaire was applied through focus group interviews with around 10 women, aged 16 and older, who represent all (or the vast majority) of the different types of women’s livelihoods in the village. The women dataset includes 190 villages in Phase 1 (121 intervention and 69 control villages) and 149 in Phase 2 (87 intervention and 62 control villages). Variables from Phase 1 start with P1W_section&question number, and variables from Phase 2 start with P2W_section&question number . The research design and methods are further described in Sunderlin et al. (2016) as well as in several GCS REDD+ publications (see ‘Related publications’).