Unveiling factors influencing women’s inclusivity in the beekeeping sector in the African Great Lakes Region: a systematic review and synthesis

This review article examines the roles of women in the beekeeping sector in the African Great Lakes Region (AGLR). The review thus aimed to harmonize the fragmented and segmented understanding of the role of women in the beekeeping sector in the AGLR. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) Model was used to select relevant and current online literature published between the years 2010 and 2025, where only 28 documents met all the requirements to be selected as the sample size for this review. The Aggregative Synthesis Approach (ASA) was deductively coded based on the developed and aggregated themes. The study found that women’s involvement in honey production, harvesting, and primary processing was lower compared to their male counterparts. Nevertheless, access to and ownership of bee resources and income remained male-dominated. It was concluded that women face barriers such as restrictive cultural norms, limited access to bee resources, education, technical know-how, technology, and the related risks. The review recommends policy-based interventions in beekeepers’ education, technology, women-focused beekeeper associations/cooperatives, and women-based sensitive policies to enhance negotiation of the trade-off between preserving patriarchal systems and advocating women’s inclusiveness in the beekeeping sector.