What is women’s empowerment, and how and why does it matter for women’s health? These are questions that the University of California Global Health Institute’s (UCGHI) Center of Expertise (COE) on Women’s Health, Gender, and Empowerment aimed to answer with this book. Since 2009 the COE has brought together a multidisciplinary network of experts from across the University of California (UC) campuses and departments, along with their global partners, to advance research and education on what has become a capstone theme in the global health and development agenda: women’s and girls’ empowerment and health. Women’s Empowerment and Global Health demonstrates the outcomes of COE's commitment to advance pedagogy and present the work of thought leaders in this domain.

Warrantage and FMNR are two farmer-led practices to help mitigate impacts of climate change on agriculture in the Sahel. In late 2016, the OASIS Initiative released two reports on these practices. The two comprehensive literature reviews were commissioned by USAID’s Sahel Resilience Learning Project. We are now disseminating the findings to local partners and organizations to assist them in making evidence-informed decisions based on the experiences of communities and experts in the region.

We are excited that the next phase of this effort will build on our “Sister School” partnership with the University Abdou Moumouni (UAM) in Niamey, Niger. Several graduate students from UAM will be focusing on these topics for their masters theses, providing them with valuable experience conducting community-level research as well as gathering and building the evidence base on perspectives of communities who are practicing Warrantage and FMNR in the region.