Who’s Behind the W+ Standard
A Team of Experts
The W+ Standard was developed in 2014 by WOCAN (Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management), a women-led global membership organization, whose mission is to advance women’s empowerment and collective action to tackle climate change, poverty and food insecurity.
Jeannette is a forester and gender and development expert whose career has focused on leading organizational change for gender equality within agriculture and natural resource management organizations in Asia and Africa. She is the innovator and team leader for the W+ Standard ™ program. For her the W+ Standard is a transformative mechanism that credibly measures the impacts of women’s empowerment, and provides a channel to direct money to women and their organization at the local level.
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Sheena Patel is a Marketing and Communications Consultant with a background in architecture and international development. With 15 years of experience working with rural communities and livelihoods, she specializes in strategic storytelling for women-led climate action. At WOCAN, she amplifies W+ Standard projects through creative content, market engagement, and strategic partnerships to elevate visibility and credibility.
Larissa Dominguez is a gender specialist with extensive experience in governance of natural resources, rural development and public policy. She has provided technical support and capacity development for stakeholders ranging from government officials to grassroots organizations and women’s groups.
She is currently the focal point for the implementation of Pillar 3 – gender equality in family farming – of the United Nations Decade of Family Farming in FAO.
W+ Advisory Council
. The W+ Standard is managed by a team that brings together professionals with diverse sectoral backgrounds and expertise in gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment, results-based finance, and an understanding of environmental markets. Members of the W+ Standard Committee provide expertise, guidance and decisions on standard revisions, methodology approval, rule changes and appeals.
Lorena is a cross-sectional professional with over 12 years of experience. As Senior Manager of Sustainable Development (SD), Program Development, and Innovation at Verra, Lorena manages and coordinates the evolution of safeguards, stakeholder engagement, and SD requirements of the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) and Verra's benefits programs, including the Sustainable Development Verified Impact Standard (SD VISta) and the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Standards (CCBS).
Before joining Verra, Lorena was Data Manager and Results Monitoring Officer of the Resident Coordinator’s Office at the United Nations in Mexico, in charge of coordinating high-level and technical results of the 27 agencies in the country, including strategic planning, monitoring, reporting, communicating results, and impact evaluation of joint United Nations System programming and projects for internal and external partners.
W+ Experts
With over 10 years of experience in conducting W+ assessments around the world, WOCAN's Team of W+ Experts can provide technical assistance to enable projects and companies to effectively use the W+ Standard.
Sustainable development, forest restoration, and M&E specialist
with over 15 years of experience in project design,
implementation, and evaluation, particularly in
forest conservation, community development, and
social economy initiatives. Has led numerous
participatory monitoring processes in rural and
Indigenous communities, and provided technical
leadership and backstopping to multi-stakeholder
projects at national and regional levels.
Larissa Dominguez is a gender specialist with extensive experience in governance of natural resources, rural development and public policy. She has provided technical support and capacity development for stakeholders ranging from government officials to grassroots organizations and women’s groups.
She is currently the focal point for the implementation of Pillar 3 – gender equality in family farming – of the United Nations Decade of Family Farming in FAO.
