From July 29 to August 2, the Gender and Social Inclusion Week (GESI) was held at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, located in Huntsville, Alabama (USA), to advance the integration of gender and social inclusion approaches in the SERVIR-Amazonia program projects.
The objective of the sessions was to carry out the analysis and review of the GESI tool, which involves organizations such as NASA, USAID and AST (Applied Sciences Team). In addition, strategic planning sessions were held with a focus on the future integration of GESI, including work with indigenous peoples.
Dr. Katie Tavenner and Sandra Terán, GESI leader at SERVIR-Amazonia, participated in the event. In the interventions, they led debates and activities designed to strengthen the application of GESI in SERVIR-Amazonia initiatives.
Dr Katie Tavenner, SME GESI, expressed her satisfaction with the visit to NASA’s Scientific Coordination Office (SCO), and highlighted that “many bridges were built during the week between biophysical and geospatial scientists and social sciences, particularly with applied gender research.”
One of the highlights of the presentation of the GESI analysis was the importance of adapting the GESI tools and methodological framework, as well as Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) to the local context. This approach is crucial for its effective application in specific projects such as AST. The need to go beyond the gender approach and understand how indigenous issues interrelate with SERVIR-Amazonia technologies and services, especially around carbon biomass maps, is understood.
Sandra Terán, GESI leader at SERVIRAmazonia, assured that “one of the main objectives of the working meeting was to analyze the results of the gender consultancy carried out in Brazil for the forest carbon service. In this same context, the communication area discussed what the strategy would be to position the gender proposal.”
On the other hand, the importance of identifying how stakeholders could interact with these maps was emphasized, which was essential to generate greater acceptance and understanding of the scientific team regarding the relevance of social and gender aspects.
GESI Week in Huntsville marks an important step towards the integration of the gender and social inclusion perspective in SERVIR-Amazonia projects, contributing to a more inclusive and equitable approach in applied science and technology.