Gender Equality, Human Rights & Business

KIT brings long-standing expertise on gender and rights analysis and value chain development to pressing questions around gender equality, human rights and responsible business conduct.

We work with our clients and partners to better understand gendered risks along value chains and capitalise on opportunities to generate meaningful human rights and equality outcomes. This means explicitly identifying policies and practices that perpetuate gender inequalities, ensuring that both men and women equally benefit from their engagement in value chains, and transforming gender relations in markets, institutions, communities and households.

Related Services

We support clients and partners from government, civil society and private sector by:

Establishing a better understanding of gender and human rights risks and opportunities along specific value chains.
Helping stakeholders develop, implement and promote gender- responsive policies, strategies and tools – including for gender-responsive due diligence – to prevent or remedy human rights violations connected to business activities and promote women’s rights and empowerment.
Creating awareness and strengthening capacity for a range of strategies to promote gender equality and human rights in business activities. This includes demonstrating changes in outcomes when shifting from a focus on avoiding gender-related impacts to proactively promoting gender transformative change.
Facilitating multi-stakeholder dialogue to secure commitments from key stakeholders to take action and address women’s and girl’s rights concerns in sector-specific markets, institutions, and communities.

Related Publications

Gender Dynamics in Agricultural Value Chain Development – Foundations and Gaps

Authors: Pyburn, R. and F. Kruijssen

Year of Publication: 2021

A Social Relations of Gender Analysis of Artisanal and Small-scale Mining in Africa’s Great Lakes Region

Much research on gender and artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) has tended to focus on describing the different roles women undertake in mining, while there has been less attention to how gender relations are constructed, reinforced and challenged in and through ASM. Drawing from desk and field research in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, this paper presents a framework to analyse gender dynamics in ASM along four interrelated dimensions of gender relations: division of labour; access to and control over resources and benefits; decision-making; and gender norms.

Authors: K. Danielsen, J. Hinton

Year of Publication: 2020

Downloads: Download A social relations of gender analysis of artisanal and small scale mining in Africa s Great Lakes Region

A Guide for Governments, Companies & Practitioners to Support Women’s Rights and Mitigate Gender Risks During OECD Due Diligence Implementation

The development potential of conflict-free mineral supply chains is now firmly recognised, however, for this potential to be fully realised, men and women need to benefit equally from mineral production and trade. Women’s critical role – and the unique risks and challenges they face – need to be made visible to support more equitable development gains. This guide outlines 10 strategies to strengthen risk mitigation strategies during OECD Due Diligence Implementation.

Authors: Women's Rights and Mining

Year of Publication: 2019

Downloads: Download womens rights and mining_10dos_oct_2019_english

Energy Politics and Gender

Policy makers and scholars often assume gender to be irrelevant in energy politics. However, an increasing body of scholarship and development policies has focused on how gender discrimination has negative effects on women’s access to energy resources and equal contributions to decision-making processes that influence energy issues. This article evaluates four overarching and salient policy and research discourses that frame women’s and men’s positions in benefiting from and participating in decision-making about energy

Authors: Karin Standal, Tanja Winther, Katrine Danielsen

Year of Publication: 2018

Links: See the publication here

Downloads

Quick Scan: Key Actors in Gender and Mining in the Netherlands and Internationally

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in exploring and working on gender and mining issues in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) as well as in the formal larger-scale mining (LSM) sector. Many international stakeholders have become active in this field, such as the World Bank, and UN Women in particular via its East and Southern Africa Office in Kenya. Also Dutch and international civil society organizations are working on different projects and initiatives of which some are financed by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).

Authors: Katrine Danielsen , Jennifer Hinton , Chloe Vaast

Year of Publication: 2017

Links: Download the Quick Scan

Downloads: Download QUICK SCAN GENDER AND MINING

Gender Equality in Certified Agricultural Value Chains

Authors: Verhart, N. and R. Pyburn

Year of Publication: 2012

About KIT

KIT Royal Tropical Institute is an independent centre of expertise and education for sustainable development. We assist governments, NGOs and private corporations around the world to build inclusive and sustainable societies, while measuring their impact.

Guided by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, our work focuses on health, gender, economic development and intercultural cooperation.

Facts & figures

Countries in which we are active
50+

Sustainable Economic Development, Gender and Health Projects
196

Health Professionals trained at KIT
3,024

Nationalities of Participants
95

People trained by Intercultural Professionals
1,895

Events by Conferences & Events
1,925

The SDG house at KIT Royal Tropical Institute hosts a diverse range of forward-thinking entrepreneurs, NGOs and organisations all working towards achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through partnerships, co-creation and the exchange of ideas, we aim to maximise our collective impact.

About SDG House

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