Three things scientists don’t know about women farmers and climate change but really should
Do agricultural climate change solutions really work for women? Read more.
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A gender-smart approach to agriculture for food security during crises
Women suffer disproportionately from food insecurity exacerbated by climate change and the global food crisis. Read more.
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Evidence, participation and policy inclusion key to making women agents of change in global climate responses
Improving women’s ability to tackle climate change requires data, research and evidence. Read more.
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A learning agenda on gender-responsive climate-smart agriculture
It points out gaps and sets research priorities for organizations working to ensure that women benefit equally from climate-smart agriculture. Read more.
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EnGendering Data: Lessons from using qualitative methods in the Project-Level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index
Combining quantitative surveys with qualitative findings provides better understanding of how to strengthen women’s empowerment. Read more.
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Spotlight: New hotspot mapping reveals where women are hit the hardest
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Identifying climate–agriculture–gender inequality hotspots, where climate hazards converge with large concentrations of women participating in food systems and significant structural gender inequalities, enables investors to allocate scarce resources to most-at-risk populations.
Read the evidence explainer or the CGIAR GENDER working paper: Effectively targeting climate investments: A methodology for mapping climate–agriculture–gender inequality hotspots.
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Gender research news from across CGIAR
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How to ensure equality in global crisis responses
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It is widely recognized that periods of crisis affect men and women differently. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, women in seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia reported greater food and water insecurity compared to men. Reflecting on similar disparities in aquatic food systems, researchers have stressed the need for sex-disaggregated data and gender data to reveal how women and men faired during lockdowns and to better shape future policies.
As with COVID-19, the ways women and men experience and can respond to the current global food crisis will vary considerably. CGIAR System Board Chair Marco Ferroni has pointed to systems thinking, including ensuring that new innovations are accessible and practical for women as well as men, as a necessary part of the solution to the crisis.
Others highlight climate-smart agriculture as the only way forward for food and nutrition security, but stress that it needs to be designed to work for women too. Researchers have proposed a roadmap to investors on how to mainstream gender-smart investing to scale climate-smart agriculture.
Extreme weather events also have gendered impacts: In the wake of a series of failed rainy seasons and food insecurity, East African pastoralists have begun to travel far and wide searching for pasture and water–a perilous enterprise for women. Along the same lines, a recent study indicates that heatwaves reduce the number of hours farmers work, although the reduction of hours is lessened by 40 percent if the farmers are women.
Understanding how women and men’s experiences of crises, shocks and stressors differ can help guide the development and implementation of gender-sensitive resilience interventions.
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Fostering opportunities in markets and value chains
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A recent study of informal milk trading in peri-urban Nairobi found that this activity is more lucrative for older men than for women and younger men. With the commercialization of the sweet potato value chain in Mozambique, men got higher yields, sold more and obtained better prices, but women nonetheless dominated the roots value chain and increased their participation in markets. In northern Uganda, rural youth’s participation in sweet potato production and agribusiness has been found to be a product of the intersection of broader contexts, individual circumstances as well as individual and collective agency.
In Telangana, India, women entrepreneurs are helping to close the gap between agriculture and nutrition, just as women in Zambia’s aquaculture sector and related supply chains are breaking barriers to increase the country’s food and nutrition security.
Meanwhile, in Bangladesh, a business development training for couples engaged in fish farming highlighted that obtaining a valid trade license and bank account for the women is critical for them to play active roles and to formalize the business. Addressing fisheries and aquaculture overall, experts have shared gender-sensitive approaches and innovations, including participatory action, that can support women to achieve empowerment.
Lastly, getting the proper private sector engagement is deemed key for Africa’s inclusive agricultural research and development.
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Designing crops and technologies
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In the Global South, livestock provide women with income and opportunities to expand their livelihood portfolios, including by providing protein-rich food for home consumption and sale, and can strengthen women’s decision-making power.
What’s more, in western Kenya, vaccination of chickens has been linked to better growth outcomes for both girls and boys. Likewise, in Bangladesh, one research project supported women engaged in Hilsa fisheries to participate in decision-making processes and to make nutritious diets more attainable for their children.
Using radio and SMS to reach farmers during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that gender-responsive digital extension can narrow the persistent information gap, increase the adoption of agricultural technologies and improve women’s decision-making. In general, many women farmers remain excluded from digital agro-services, but a new practical guide and toolkit helps researchers design gender-inclusive digital tools.
A study in Ethiopia indicated that strengthening the capacity of women chickpea producers is likely to result in significant gains in production efficiency and yield levels. Meanwhile, working with smallholders in rural Senegal to improve biological nitrogen fixation in groundnut can help reverse soil damage and strengthen their climate resilience. More generally, rice-based technological and institutional innovations have impacted the livelihoods of African women and contributed to improving food safety and security. Finally, designer crops of the future must be better tailored for women in agriculture.
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Changing norms and institutions
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In Kenya, designing programs to provide equal access to climate-smart crop insurance and stress-tolerant seeds for both women and men could change gender norms and create new opportunities for women. Along the same lines, in Nigeria, a new program is helping break through religious and cultural barriers that may prevent some women from gaining access to life-improving knowledge and resources. In Egypt, a cash transfer program targeting women did not the produce expected gains for women’s decision-making, but nevertheless women perceived the choice to give transfers to women positively.
As migration increases, many migrants, particularly women migrating along the South-to-West Asia corridor, face precarious situations that put them at risk of forced labor and trafficking. In Uzbekistan, the outmigration of men has been shown to 'feminize' agricultural labor and management, increasing women’s (often unpaid) work, while maintaining their traditional roles in the household.
A study in India used storytelling to reveal who does what in wheat farming and support the design of gender-responsive interventions in the region. Elsewhere in India, in Odisha, engaging vulnerable landless women farmers in collective action increased their yields, incomes and knowledge.
Scientists, researchers and policymakers—both women and men—must play equal roles in finding solutions to make communities more resilient in the face of climate change, but the agricultural research system has an ongoing problem of recruitment, retention and advancement of women.
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Understanding gender in landscapes
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For agroecology to achieve its espoused twin aims of social and ecological well-being, women and other historically marginalized stakeholders must be empowered and centered as the movement’s protagonists.
To change the way multi-stakeholder platforms perform – and seriously account for equality, empowerment and justice – there needs to be greater strategic attention to how marginalized groups perceive their participation in multi-stakeholder processes; fostering ‘counter power’ can help ensure accountability. This is important because getting the engagement right at the beginning is fundamental for the likely success of an activity.
A group of rural women from Odisha have come up with a revenue-generating model as they found a solution to the nagging problem of water hyacinth plaguing water bodies across the country. Meanwhile, a project promoting nature-based solutions for land restoration offers options for how counties in Kenya can incorporate gender-responsive action in restoration efforts.
A new paper and guide provide tips to promote inclusive facilitation of participatory environmental management processes, while this recently published handbook provides a comprehensive overview and cutting-edge assessment of community forestry. These 10 select reads spotlight the strides and opportunities for women across the globe to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, in particularly as relating to biodiversity.
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GENDER webinar: Project-level experiences in addressing gender-based violence in agriculture
August 18, 2022, 09:00-10:30 EDT
CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform and the Feed the Future Advancing Women’s Empowerment (AWE) Program have the pleasure to invite you to our upcoming webinar, “Project level experiences in addressing Gender-Based Violence in Agriculture.”
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More CGIAR GENDER conversations
GENDER's virtual discussion group will soon be expanding to include separate spaces and mailing lists dedicated to communities of practice, such as the Women’s Empowerment Measurement Validation Community of Practice. Stay tuned for updates on how to join.
As always, we invite you to join the conversation on Facebook and via @CGIARgender and #GenderInAg.
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Thank you
Thank you to CGIAR centers, initiatives and platforms as well as CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform partners who contributed to this newsletter: AfricaRice, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, HarvestPlus, International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), International Potato Center (CIP), WorldFish. Also thank you to the CGIAR initiatives HER+, NATURE+ and One Health. CGIAR GENDER Platform partners Accelerating the Impact of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA); African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD); International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT); and World Agroforestry (ICRAF) also kindly contributed.
Photo credits from the top: Axel Fassio/CIFOR-ICRAF; Joe Saade/UN Women; P. Lowe/CIMMYT; Mahmudul Karim/UN Women; Vivian Atakos/GENDER; P. Lowe/CIMMYT; C Schubert/CCAFS; IFPRI; Agness Chileya/WorldFish; ICARDA; Emad Abd ElHady/World Bank; Marlon del Aguila/CIFOR.
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