CGIAR institutions and partners have generated new evidence and co-designed innovative solutions to enhance gender equality and boost climate resilience in food, land and water systems (FLWS) in low- and middle-income countries. With an eye toward how they can shape future research agendas, this gender equality and inclusion themed side event will showcase a selection of recent research centered around 1) Gender, climate change, and resilience; 2) gender transformative approaches that challenge restrictive gender norms; and 3) women’s leadership and influence in governance of FLWS. These examples will form an entry point for in-depth conversations with key partners and the audience about the relevance, the value and transformative potential of these approaches and scaling potentials; as well as the difference these make for women (not excluding men and young) farmers, their household and their communities.
In her opening remarks Susan Kaaria (Director of African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD)) will highlight the importance of innovative, gender-transformative interventions and multidimensional programs in overcoming structural barriers to gender equality in agrifood systems, particularly amid climate change.
The first session on Gender, Climate Change, and resilience will set the stage for set the stage by emphasizing the importance of the gender, climate change and resilience nexus and gender-responsive climate-smart agriculture (CSA). It will then showcase an interactive map of how vulnerability hotspots exacerbate gender inequalities in multiple countries in the global South. It would also provide evidence on how such information can be a great decision-making support tool for designing and implementing climate risk assessment program and policies across multiple countries as the climate keeps changing. We will also share how integrating socio-technical innovation bundles (STIBs) in our projects in Kenya, Ethiopia and India have built resilience, empowerment and food security of men, women and young farmers. We will share the processes, guidelines, tools and frameworks that other partners and science programs can use to integrate and scale these innovations. We will also explain how these innovations can guide partners prioritize their investments for a more equitable, sustainable and fair agrifood system.
In the second session we will highlight gender transformative approaches (GTAs). First, we will showcase how the Gender Action Learning System supported conservation agriculture adoption in East and Southern Africa. and how HER+, the CGIAR Initiative on Gender Equality, co-designed GTAs to address restrictive gender norms across cassava, fisheries, and poultry value chains in Tanzania and Nigeria. We will share results from a GT intervention enhancing rural women’s political participation in southwest Nigeria (HER+). We will discuss GTAs for securing women’s resource rights in Africa and lessons from implementing both GTAs and gender accommodative approaches in the livestock sector in Northern Ghana. Finally, an IDRC Senior Program Officer will share insights on GTAs and their relevance to IDRC’s strategies and work.
The third and last session on women’s leadership and governance will highlight on the approach and lessons of the NEXUS Gains’ Innovation on the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) nexus leadership in Nepal, which supported emerging women leaders to develop their capacities on WEFE nexus concepts, tools, analytics, advocacy and negotiation skills to drive transformative change for managing FLWS holistically. Next, we will have a discussion with key partners about the work on climate change and the livelihoods of the fisher communities in the Lake Victoria Zone Region, which led to women’s empowerment through the provision of climate-smart fish handling, processing and preservation equipment and the adoption of a gender sensitive lens in the Homa-Bay fisheries and aquaculture policy. AWARD’s director will share AWARD’s experiences of AWARD in supporting women’s leadership in AR4D and training AWARD fellows in the use of the Women’s Empowerment in Agrifood Governance (WEAGov) Assessment Framework, developed by HER+, in policy innovation projects.
In each of the three sessions, the research and innovations will be showcased through brief presentations, fireside chats and field videos and followed with discussions and interaction with the audience (Q&A).
