Gender Mainstreaming

Indigenous knowledge is widely recognized as body of knowledge comprising of practices and beliefs accumulated over a period of time and transmitted from one generation to another. The knowledge is essential for the maintenance of the land, water and agro- cultural resources upon which people depend. It involves decision making in the production, management, distribution and consumption of such resources in the communities. As the main subsistence producers and healthcare providers in most African local communities, women are the custodians of AIKS (Gutierrez-Montes et., 2012; Howard, 2003). In spite of this role, they tend to be marginalized in the ownership and control of production resources and processes (Mkabela, 2005). AIIKS has a gender mainstreaming strategy to ensure that there is effective participation and empowerment of women and girls in all the initiatives in the Action Plan.