Poverty, environment, socialdevelopment, and gender are important cross-cutting themesof the World Bank and government investment programs,especially within the Sustainable Development Network (SDN).For developing sectoral strategies and programs, economic,environment and social assessments are undertaken, however,these are usually done separately, and most often genderissues are not included. This is a missed opportunity,because joint assessments can map the links between gender,environment, and poverty and help identify approaches thatcan accelerate the positive synergy and bettersocial/gender, environment, and poverty outcomes; otherwise,the existing negative relationships may slow the developmentprocess, and can even lead to unintended results. A jointanalysis will also reduce cost of project preparation. Thisstudy was undertaken to analyze the links between gender,environment, and poverty; identify approaches; and providepractical suggestions for fostering positive synergies forbetter outcomes. The analytical framework for this studydraws on the World Bank's three pillars of sustainabledevelopment: social inclusion, economic growth andenvironmental sustainability, and from political ecologyliterature, which highlights how decision-making processes,power relationships, and social conditions influenceenvironmental policies and development outcomes. Thefollowing four propositions derived from political ecologyliterature guide the analysis: i) socioeconomicmarginalization and natural resource degradation aremutually reinforcing processes; ii) protected areaconservation and external control of natural resources candisrupt household and community production and socialorganization; iii) competing environmental interests shapeenvironmental change; and iv) collective action andresilience can help mitigate negative impacts. The study isbased on in-depth analysis of two sub-Saharan Africancountries Ethiopia and Ghana. The research methodology wasqualitative, and included a series of interrelated analyses:a political ecology literature review, country-specificreviews of literature and data sets, good-practice projectcase studies in both countries, and participatory appraisalsof grassroots perceptions of gender-poverty-environmentlinks. Study sites were selected to include the major agroecological zones and rural livelihood systems in eachcountry. National and sub regional participatory forums wereconducted to 'ground truth' the findings andelicit policy and project recommendations. A seven-weekonline discussion explored the broader applicability of theframework and study findings.
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