Gaining Momentum for Women

Bioversity International and the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry consider how their gender agenda is gaining momentum with the launch of a Gender Research Fellowship Program. The program includes 5 research fellows from Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, and South and Southeast Asia. Each will collaborate with local partners to study gender differences affecting smallholder farming systems and forest communities.

The International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is paying tribute to the women who succeed in the face of staggering odds. They feature the story of a woman from Zambia, who, despite living with HIV/AIDS and being abandoned by her husband, has turned her life around thanks to an IITA project called MIRACLE. It has helped her not only to improve her crop yields and nutrition, but given her a new lease on life as a respected member of her community.

Bas Bouman, director of the Global Rice Science Partnership (GRISP – the CGIAR Research Program on Rice) offers a blog reflecting on, “Gender and rice research: Why should we take this seriously?” He considers the disparities affecting women’s and men’s participation in rice production and suggests areas in which research could promote pro-women technologies, alternatives, and solutions.

Declaring that for them “every day is women’s day”, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) continues to spearhead ongoing research with the Gender, Agriculture, and Assets Project, the Climate Change, Collective Action, and Women’s Assets project , and the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index to study and measure how agricultural development programs can reduce gender disparities in access resources, control over assets, and adaptation to climate change.

The CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees, and Agroforestry is celebrating with several blogs and a video highlighting research for change regarding issues of gender and women in forests. One blog targets policymakers and what they should know about gender analysis in forestry research. Another highlights a research report that offers guidance from a review of 40 years of literature, along with input from experts, on how to incorporate gender in forestry research and management. The third looks at the case of Nicaragua, where indigenous communities are beginning to receive rights to land titles and land management. But the question remains how to find effective mechanisms for incorporating the views and preferences of women, and making them count. Photo: Gemma Taylor/flickr

The CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land, and Ecosystems (WLE) has a special edition of it’s Agriculture and Ecosystems Blog ‘Friday Links’ dedicated to gender issues. It includes numerous links to different stories, starting with a blog entry from Andrew Noble, Interim Director of WLE reflecting on the importance of female leadership in agricultural change. He describes how he learned that the research and conservation course was far more effective if it started with conversations with the women of the community. 

CCAFS, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security explores how women do not have equal access to information as men, as highlighted in a recent CCAFS working paper titled, Using a gender lens to explore farmers’ adaptation option in the face of climate change: Results of a pilot study in Uganda.  Another story illustrates a project that was supported by CCAFS, and led by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) Nepal Office. The project taught Nepalese women to record their own videos, showcasing how they deal with climate variability and how environmental change has affected their livelihoods.

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) is celebrating with an artistic flare. Their researchers across Africa and Asia have assembled nearly 100 images from artwork depicting Women in Livestock Development (WILD). You can enjoy the full gallery here. Last year’s gallery displays 100+ women from ILRI and partner organizations working to make a difference through livestock-related work.

Photo: Musée National Message Biblique Marc Chagall, Wikipaintings

The International Rice Research Institute is celebrating International Women’s Day with an album of photos and texts featuring some of the incredible women working in rice research and production around the world. It is available on Facebook.  IRRI also featured a story explaining that by planting flowers around their rice paddies, women farmers in Vietnam are saving 42% in insect control costs, see “women restore balance in rice fields with flowers“

The Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) offers a story of hope. It features, Espérance Zossou, a young woman scientist from Benin whose first name means “hope”, and whose vision is to show how video and rural radio can be used to enhance rural learning, linkages, and institutions for rice farmers. Ms Zossou is a young PhD scholar at the AfricaRice. She has received several science awards, including that of the “Most Promising Young Scientist,” which she received at the Africa Rice Congress in 2010.

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has a special slide show on Women in Agriculture, along with numerous blog features dedicated to topics such as: how women are driving change in agriculture in Africa, how a transformative approach is needed to change gender power relations, and more.  In one interview, Dr. Nicole Mason, Assistant Professor at Michigan State University and co-author of a study on ‘Wheat Consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa: Trends, Drivers, and Policy Implications’ explains how the rising labor force participation by women in Africa has a significant, positive effect on country-level wheat consumption. The authors  suspect that this is because wheat products (bread, pasta, chapati, etc.) take less time to prepare than many other popular staple carbohydrates