Gender research in One CGIAR: Where do we go from here?
To realize our ambitions for the GENDER Platform, we need to sharpen our gender research priorities. We now need to prioritize transdisciplinary and solution-oriented research to achieve tangible and substantive impact on social equity. The evidence we generate should be of practical value and help shape actions and investments in support of food systems transformation and gender equality. Read more.
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Nicoline de Haan appointed as Director of the CGIAR GENDER Platform
“We realize that we’re facing big challenges, but because GENDER builds on CGIAR’s wealth of research and expertise, we are also uniquely placed to gather the best evidence and inform the practices and policies of national, regional and global actors,” said de Haan. Read more.
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Why gender matters for COVID-19 responses
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Women have a critical role to play in avoiding a COVID-19 'food pandemic' in sub-Saharan Africa. South Asian women, who account for more than half the region’s agricultural workforce, are bearing the brunt of layoffs and job losses caused by COVID-19. The impact of the COVID-19 lockdown has hit low-income and women farmers hard.
In India, the pandemic opens an unknown chapter on rural women’s plight in the country’s migration saga. Also on India, dryland crops have helped women who are pregnant or breastfeeding meet nutritional requirements during lockdown. In the highlands of Madagascar, COVID-19 has not had much effect on rice cultivation, but women are still worried. In Nepal, the crisis is a wake-up call for strategic and inclusive WASH planning and financing; water is key to building resilience in a post-pandemic world.
Gender-sensitive social protection is important to the COVID-19 response in low- and middle-income countries, and strengthening women’s assets should be a priority.
Looking forward, preventing climate change and pandemics from further entrenching inequalities requires understanding gendered effects in the food system. Likewise, it has never been more important to attend to the quality of science by fully addressing the gendered dimensions of research. Insights from past research and practice can inform a gender-sensitive COVID-19 response.
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Gender news from across CGIAR
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Transforming food, land and water systems
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Tackling gender disparities requires transforming food systems under climate change. Equity also plays a role in securing a sustainable ocean economy, and women farmers have been called the unsung heroes of forest communities; rural women in Ethiopia have a deep relationship with forests.
Enabling women to participate and benefit equally in these systems can help meet today’s food security challenges. Women play a critical role in transforming the food system, and unless we empower women farmers, we may not have enough to feed the planet.
Gender equality in climate-smart agriculture requires the right framework, approaches and technologies. Women in Malawi are inspiring the next generation of smallholder farmers to adopt climate-smart technologies.
In Kenya, agroforestry ‘basins’ are stirring up big benefits for women; some Kenyan farmers have adopted new agroforestry strategies. Meanwhile forest tenure reforms in Indonesia could open the door to greater gender equality. Lessons from two Indian states can help 'unpack gender' in the country's Joint Forest Management Program.
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Driving change in social systems
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Engagement with local gender norms is essential for equitable, sustainable agricultural development. Collective actions by farmers and consumers are key to driving gender-inclusive transformation of food systems, and systems change is also required to deliver gender equality.
Complex and shifting social factors determine women's rights to harvest pods from valuable food trees in Burkina Faso, while little is known about the gender dynamics surrounding veterinary services in Ghana. Women and men in the 'Old and New Lands' of Egypt face different opportunities and constraints for ownership of land and other assets, while in Ghana, training and education can empower women and youth in land use decision-making. In Nepal, despite political empowerment, women find limited opportunities to shape water policy.
Experience shows that women-led producer enterprises can transform lives and usher greater self-reliance. In India, women are gradually innovating and influencing decision-making in wheat-based systems, and in Uganda, providing information empowers women in agriculture. Using a gender-inclusive approach when working with refugees and their host communities in Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia ensures sustainable use of resources.
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Designing crops and technologies
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Gender-specific research along the banana value chain can ensure that new cultivars are acceptable to both women and men farmers; similarly, gender-responsive breeding of cassava, sweetpotato and bean varieties improves the chance new varieties end up in the market. Consulting women enhances the usefulness of new crop varieties.
Enhancing opportunities for women and men in banana production is vital for promoting gender equity in sub-Saharan Africa. Seed systems are highly dynamic and must be closely examined to avoid widening gender gaps. Building the capacity of small-scale seed producers for certified seed production can increase availability of quality seed and empower women and men farmers. In Africa and India, small seed packs and farmer-centered seed innovation platforms have sparked change for women.
Understanding gender differences in adoption of drought-tolerant maize varieties is essential to equitable scaling of modern crop varieties. Gender also plays a role in adoption of orange sweetpotato in Uganda, just as considering gender in research on crop pests and diseases is increasingly important. A study from Malawi dismisses a clear dichotomy of men’s crops and women’s crops and supports a more nuanced view.
Agricultural mechanization in Tanzania has freed up women's time so they can tend to their other businesses. In Nepal, most existing farm mechanization technologies are either gender blind or gender neutral, to the detriment of women farmers.
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Creating opportunities in business, markets and value chains
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Women-led biofortified food businesses can advance nutrition and health. A program in Burkina Faso has increased women’s capacity and opportunity to engage in poultry value chain activities, whereas an all-women’s dairy cooperative in India has won numerous awards for its remarkable success.
A sheep fattening youth group in Ethiopia has created entrepreneurial opportunities, and farm animals help hundreds of millions of women accumulate wealth and provide nutritious food for their families. Collecting intertidal marine resources provides a reliable income for women in Timor Leste.
In Kenya, the introduction and commercialization of orange-fleshed sweetpotato has affected opportunities and constraints for smallholder sweetpotato farmers, particularly women. Most women and men in the abaca, coconut, seaweed and swine value chains in the Philippines are disempowered.
In Central Uganda, gender norms limit women in employing commercial activities in farming, which is also the case for women’s engagement in the green cooking banana value chain. When it comes to charcoal in sub-Saharan Africa, women's participation tends to be significantly higher in retail, but not in other parts of the value chain.
Women play a prominent role in fisheries and aquaculture economies around the world, but their work is unrecognized, which perpetuates inequalities. Gender transformative approaches can improve women's empowerment in capture fisheries in low-income settings.
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Improving research, methods and capacities
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Considering the growing recognition of gender issues in policy and research, gender should be integrated into each stage of the research process. New ways of thinking about gender can improve development outcomes.
A review of lessons learned shows how to integrate gender into potato research and development. Disaggregating data by gender can enhance our understanding of gender dynamics and opportunities to empower women in value chains. Evidence gaps and priority research questions ask how to achieve gender equality in social protection.
The project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) is the first comprehensive, standardized tool for measuring women’s empowerment in agriculture at the project level. Realizing inclusive, sustainable agricultural intensification hinges on customizing standard indicators to detect inequities.
A recent training manual provides guidance on gender analysis in farming systems and action research, and these four tools can help livestock systems transform to greater gender equality. In Malawi, a training course has empowered new veterinarians to incorporate gender and equity into their work, while in Guatemala, workshops have supported agricultural projects to integrate gender and climate change perspectives. Tools to help plant breeders pay more attention to gender are being validated in Nigeria and Kenya.
The CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry has released a new Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Agenda and Action Plan 2020-2021, and the International Water Management Institute has launched a new Gender and Inclusion Strategy.
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Follow the conversation on @CGIARgender and #GenderInAg.
Sign up for our online discussion group to participate in exchanges about GENDER and related resources and opportunities.
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Thank you
Thank you to CGIAR research centers, programs and platforms that contributed to this newsletter: AfricaRice, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), International Potato Center (CIP), International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), International Water Management Institute (IWMI), World Agroforestry (ICRAF), WorldFish. Also to the CGIAR Research Programs on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH); Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS); FISH; Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA); Livestock; Maize; Policies, Institutions and Markets (PIM); Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB); Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE); Wheat as well as Excellence in Breeding (EIB) and HarvestPlus.
Photo credits from the top: UN Women Asia and the Pacific; Vu Ngoc Dung/ILRI; Paul Karaimu/ILRI; Mokhamad Edliadi/CIFOR; Tom van Cakenberghe/IWMI; Excellence in Breeding; Douglas Varchol/ILRI; Milo Mitchell/IFPRI.
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