Social Development Direct (SDDirect) and the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (the Integrity Council) and have signed a new partnership agreement to support knowledge-sharing and communications activities that advance gender-responsive approaches and safeguarding in high-integrity carbon markets.
The partnership will focus on exploring how carbon markets can support the development of gender-responsive practices through collaborative thought leadership, stakeholder engagement and knowledge exchange. As part of the agreement, the two organisations will work together on a series of activities focused on promoting gender-responsiveness and safeguarding within high-integrity carbon markets.
The collaboration reflects the Integrity Council's commitment to working with a broad range of stakeholders to strengthen trust, transparency and continuous improvement across carbon markets. It will bring together the Integrity Council's expertise in setting and maintaining a global threshold for high-integrity carbon credits through the Core Carbon Principles (CCPs), alongside SDDirect's expertise in gender equality, disability and social inclusion, focusing particularly on advancing GEDSI-responsive approaches and safeguarding within climate action and bringing Global South perspectives to the carbon markets.
Under this partnership, the organisations will collaborate on a gender-focused blog series, which will be accompanied by other engagement activities such as webinars and in-person events, to support knowledge exchange and encourage discussion on the approaches that can help strengthen gender integrity and impact within the carbon markets.
The blog series will explore pressing gender and safeguarding-related issues in carbon markets, including the benefits of inclusion, what addressing gender and safeguarding-related risks looks like in practice, and the importance of collecting and using disaggregated data. Overall, the series aims to take a deeper and more practical look at how stronger consideration of gender and safeguarding can help improve the integrity, effectiveness, and equity of carbon markets, while ensuring that climate finance delivers meaningful benefits for women and people from other underrepresented groups.
High-integrity carbon markets can help unlock finance for climate action that would otherwise not be deployed, and gender is a fundamental component of this. Ensuring gender-responsive practices are embedded into the design, reporting and monitoring of project activities, enables a high integrity market that delivers real, lasting outcomes, while supporting sustainable development and providing benefits for both people and nature.
Our partnership brings together diverse expertise and perspectives to help strengthen market practices and support the continued evolution of high-integrity carbon markets.