Advancing Gender Equality through Agricultural and Environmental Research: Past, Present, and Future

The past decade has seen renewed, and more concerted and comprehensive interest in gender equality and women’s empowerment in the agricultural development sector. This momentum has created a unique opportunity to advance gender equality, and to institutionalize gender research within agricultural research for development (AR4D) organizations. A new book “Advancing Gender Equality through Agricultural and Environmental Research: Past, Present, and Future” is a part of this overall momentum and the growing body of evidence and ideas it is generating.

The book marks a shift away from a typical, instrumentalist outlook focused on how gender analysis can contribute to research objectives, such as improved productivity. Over 55 gender researchers who contributed to this book intentionally flip the question to ask: How does agricultural and environmental research and development contribute to gender equality and women’s empowerment?

The book highlights the history and wealth of gender knowledge that has been generated to date by researchers from CGIAR — an international partnership of agricultural and environmental research institutes — and beyond. For CGIAR, this is an opportune moment to take stock of progress and articulate a forward-looking agenda for future gender research with gender equality and women’s empowerment at the center.