Last week, whilst the CGIAR Research Program (CRPs) leaders were meeting with donors and partners to discuss progress and future directions for their programs, the gender specialists were also busy paving the way for the integration of gender research across the CRPs. Gender research is of growing importance in the progress reports presented by the CRPs and in guiding the future direction of their research programs.
Andrew Clayton from DFID was involved both in the Gender Network meetings and the donor meetings. He shared that “the overarching objective of our [DFID] support for CGIAR is its contribution to poverty reduction. So we would be looking for research programs that really are grappling with the realities of poverty and trying to improve the lives of poor women and men. I think clearly, from our point of view, you can’t do that unless you are really looking at gender as well.”
Dr. Clayton recommended that to build momentum on gender research within CGIAR, the CGIAR gender network should focus more on showcasing the progress of their work and advised the group to “be opportunistic.” There is great work going in individual CRPs on gender but we need to look for opportunities to integrate gender across the entire CRP portfolio.
Whilst determining the impact of gender research is going to take time, the sharing of progress can happen now, and it is an important step in the process. Progress is already underway –below are selected success stories that were highlighted during the meeting:
Participatory variety selection
Thelma Paris, a pioneer in gender in agriculture research from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), mainstreamed gender into participatory variety selection (PVS) using mother-baby trials for rice crops (the mother-trial is managed by researchers and the baby trial is managed by farmers). Initially, when mother-baby trials were conducted, only male farmers were invited to view rice crop varieties and indicate their preferences for different crop traits. Dr. Paris, recognizing the role of women in rice production as farmers and end users of rice, trained breeders to also include women in these trials. Women and men, she reported, have very different preferences in rice crops. Women are more concerned with the ability of rice to keep after it is cooked and with the easy of harvesting the crop than their male counterparts. Giving women the opportunity to voice their preferences allows rice breeders to incorporate such preferences in the production of new crop varieties.
GRiSP, the CGIAR Research Program on Rice led by IRRI, recently produced Gender in Motion, a report that highlights success stories from gender research within the program. It includes strategies used in mainstreaming gender in rice for technology development in collaboration with partners from the National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES) and NGOs and weaves through the existing socio-cultural norms, which constrain women from receiving equal access to assets and resources as men. The report will soon be available online. For more information contact Sophie Clayton at s.clayton(at)irri.org.
Collaborative forest management
Esther Mwangi, senior scientist at CIFOR, has been working in Nicaragua and Uganda for the past three years on a project that approaches gender mainstreaming in a very different manner. During the workshop, Esther presented progress over three years in Uganda where CIFOR is working closely with partners in nine randomly selected communities. The initial phase of the project determined that the Ugandan government has a number of policies, legal and institutional frameworks that support equality between men and women; but, while guidelines for involving communities in forest management exist, there are none on how to mainstream gender into programs and activities.
The research program is now focusing on collaborative forest management, which allows communities “to participate in decision making regarding the management of the forest reserve, receive benefits from the forest and take on some management responsibilities.” Esther’s team is working to understand how social structures influence forest management and is giving women and marginalized groups the opportunity to drive change.
The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index
Before the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) was released by IFPRI in 2012, the program was tested in three sites: Bangladesh, Guatemala and Uganda. During the workshop this week, Agnes Quisumbing from IFPRI presented some of the findings from these three preliminary locations. In Guatemala, the breakdown of each indicator used to determine the overall “disempowerment” score of men and women shows that “group membership” and “control over household income” are two of the areas that account for a major part in the disempowerment gap between men and women. Her presentation goes through similar breakdowns for Bangladesh and Uganda.
Agnes reminded us that when we use quantitative data like this, we must interpret the numbers in context. The study itself she says is best used as a diagnostic tool, looking at individual indicators can enable us to “diagnose” the problem and then determine where to focus our interventions.
Capacity Development
Kathleen Colverson, Senior Gender Scientist from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), emphasizes capacity development as one of the four outputs in the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish’s (Livestock and Fish) gender strategy. The Livestock and Fish gender working group works with internal and external partners to identify gaps in gender capacity and facilitate the use of gender analysis tools and approaches to increase gender equity within livestock and fish value chains. Dr. Colverson conducted gender mainstreaming workshops in multiple countries prior to joining ILRI, and has facilitated workshops for Livestock and Fish in Thailand, the Philippines and East Africa. Previous workshop participants included professionals working in agricultural research or as extension agents, and in some cases university professors. “Building awareness of how gender is involved in all aspects of the livestock production value chain is critical to ensuring gender equitable interventions as is integrating gender into projects from their inception,” says Dr. Colverson.
Gender transformative approach
The CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS) is in the process of rolling out its gender transformative research agenda. The first stage in this process involves collecting in depth information about the social and economic contexts of the communities with which AAS will work. The goal is to gain an understanding of how gender norms and practices influence rural livelihoods and adaptive capacities, how these norms are changing or not over time and why, and to use that information to foster dialogue in the communities around why these norms exist, and whether changes to some norms may be beneficial to livelihood security. The key to this process is ensuring that communities themselves define the type and pace of change.
Triggering critical reflection and dialogue is core means of catalyzing gender transformative change. Other approaches to be tested include targeting families instead of either men or women with new technologies. The “family approach,” Dr. Paula Kantor of WorldFish says, acknowledges the interdependency between men and women and provides a space to open dialogue within families about gender equality. Research teams also will engage with people in communities that have a wide influence on social norms, such as religious leaders. “In the places in which we work we have seen that people often associate gender norms and roles with religion,” says Dr. Ranjitha Puskur of WorldFish. The program also will look at ways of triggering discussions on gendered roles in schools and among young people.
More information:
This post is a report from Methods and Standards for Research on Gender and Agriculture Workshop which took place in Montpellier last week. We will publish more news and views from participants and presentations from this event. The #gender aspect to #LELP2013 #Ag4Dev (Listening Engaging Learning Progressing – LELP2013)
Featured image: Husking rice, Khulna, Bangladesh. Photo by Mike Lusmore, 2012.