UNU-GEST receives two grants from Icelandic Gender Equality Fund
Iceland celebrates women´s right and suffrage each year on 19th of June. In 1915, 19 June, all women over the age of 40 in Iceland were given the right to vote — a right extended to all adult women in 1920.
Þorsteinn Víglundsson Minister of Welfare and Gender Equality awarded grants from the Icelandic Gender Equality Fund at a ceremony in Harpa Conference Hall. Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson delivered opening remarks, stressing the importance of achieving full gender equality in Iceland.
Dr. Pétur Waldorff, senior researcher at UNU-GEST received a grant for the research-based project Gender Focused Value Chain Development of Aquaculture in Gaza Province, Mozambique. The proposed project is an applied research project set out to design a value chain for an aquaculture initiative in Gaza, rural Mozambique. This aquaculture initiative takes place in a geologically infertile area that has been dubbed “Terra Morta” (Land of Death) due to the earth’s high salinity levels which do not allow for agricultural production. However, research has indicated the area as ideal for Tilapia aquaculture, promising an economic use of an area that hitherto has been seen as dead, both agriculturally and economically.
Erla Hlín Hjálmarsdóttir, UNU-GEST Head of Research received a grant for a Short Course on Gender and Climate Change in Uganda. The short course is based on previous short courses developed and carried out 2011-2013 in collaboration with development partners in Uganda and the Icelandic Development Agency. The primary goal of the project is to build gender-sensitive capacity for climate change adoptation and mitigation at the district level and among civil society partners. The project primarily supports efforts to achieve sustainable development goal number 5 on gender equality and the 13th on climate action.
