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The Missing Link: Why Local Women Leaders Don't Influence National Policy
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Key Message
The problem is not women’s lack of leadership.
It’s the system’s lack of recognition and access to pathways.
Despite these examples of leadership…
National policy dialogues often exclude grassroots (e.g. rural, community-level) women, especially those who do not speak dominant languages or lack formal education.
Women’s land rights are informal or non-existent, preventing them from being recognized as resource-rights holders.
Knowledge generated through FFS, mangrove committees, cooperatives, and local governance initiatives rarely travels upward into national planning.
National institutions favor technical, male-dominated, capital-city-based expertise, leaving out people with lived landscape knowledge.
The result
Local solutions flourish, but policy frameworks do not integrate them.
