Promoting EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY

Social and economic inequalities are pervasive across food systems. Inequality in decision-making and control of productive assets and resources has major consequences for food security. It is one driver of conflict, which in turn is a key driver of migration. Progress towards gender equality is patchy across the globe and in various sectors, including in agriculture. Vast differences in rights, conditions and recognition reflect serious gender inequalities and a marginalization of women in agriculture even as primary production is increasingly being “feminized”. Inequalities in access to land tenure remain a major challenge.

Call for Proposals for a CGIAR Gender Equality in Food Systems Research Platform

A Call is being made for Proposals for a CGIAR Gender Equality in Food Systems Research Platform, approved by the System Management Board. The deadline for proposals is Tuesday 2 July 2019. Details of the required elements of the proposal and the budget template can be found in the following documents:

Call for Proposal (PDF)
CGIAR Budget Template Guidance (PDF)
CGIAR Budget Template Gender Platform (XLS)

Achieving ‘Gender equality’, as well as diversity, is fundamental to CGIAR’s ability to achieve its goals and have greater impact.

CGIAR is working to embed and rapidly mature its approach to gender equality in all that it does – both research and in the workplace. The CGIAR Strategy and Results Framework (SRF) 2016-2030 makes an explicit commitment to tackle gender equality across CGIAR, including by ‘closing the gender gap in equitable access to resources, information and power in the agri-food system by 2030’.

“Achieving true gender and diversity transformation is not an easy task. With democratization rather than institutionalization of the gender agenda, and with committed leadership that believes it is important and is accountable for it, we will see change.”
Prof. Gebisa Ejeta, Distinguished Professor of Plant Breeding & Genetics and International Agriculture, and Executive Director of the Center for Global Food Security, Purdue University. 2009 World Food Prize winner. Member of the IWMI Board of Trustees.

Plans to strengthen CGIAR gender equality and diversity

With support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a plan to strengthen and prioritize gender equality in CGIAR implemented during August through December 2018 provides essential elements for strengthening CGIAR gender equality:

An overarching and high-level CGIAR Gender and Diversity Framework for gender and diversity in both research and the workplace, enshrining CGIAR’s commitment to ethical and aspirational conduct and principles;
Optimal organizational arrangements that can be put in place to move gender equality forward in both the workplace and research programming across CGIAR; and
A coordinated set of activities to be carried out as part of the CGIAR Business Plan during the first three-year cycle (2019-2021).

A Gender Equality and Diversity Reference Group co-chaired by the Gender Champions of the System Management Board, Geoff Hawtin and Claudia Sadoff, with members representing constituencies across the CGIAR System provides guidance to the workplan activities.

Gender in research

CGIAR’s goals are to ensure integration of high-quality gender research into the CGIAR’s research portfolio, and position CGIAR as a global leader for the science of gender equality in agriculture with an emphasis on closing gender evidence gaps and using that evidence to positively influence the global ecosystem of agricultural R&D.

Gender equality is an integral part of CGIAR’s research agenda and is guided by the Gender strategies developed and made publicly available by all CGIAR Research Programs.

The CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research aims to put gender equality in research on the map through its three objectives:

Raising the visibility of CGIAR gender research both inside and outside the system;
Developing capacities of scientists to raise the quality of CGIAR gender research across all programs; and
Assessing and progressing on cross-CGIAR gender research priorities.

Gender in the workplace

CGIAR is committed to fostering a work environment for the close to 10,000 staff employed by CGIAR Centers and System Entities in over 50 countries, that reflects gender equality and respect for diversity (including by nationality, age and other socio-cultural differences).