CCAFS: The gender outcome challengePatti Kristjanson

Linking Knowledge with Action Research Theme LeaderOctober, 2013

CCAFS’s Gender Outcome

CCAFS’s gender Intermediate Development Outcome (IDO) is based on diverse research results showing that when communities increase the equity and participation of groups vulnerable to exclusion from the development process, particularly women, overall food security, poverty and health improve

CCAFS Gender Theory of ChangeAssumptions:– Women as a group are vulnerable to climate change– Women are powerful agents of change, and often have

unrealized solutions for adaptation and mitigation– Gender norms do change, and can change quickly; this is

key part of the ‘transformative change’ we support– Targeting women and other vulnerable groups in

agricultural development increases the likelihood of achieving not just our gender IDO, but the others also

– In fact, gender norms must be addressed in order to achieve the outcomes CCAFS is seeking

Strengthening reg/nat’l farmers orgs voice in CCAFS policies

Inclusive local forward planning (e.g. using climate analogues)

Policy champions & capacity in foresight analyses

Agricultural business ‘hubs’Learning alliances/platforms

Strategic partnerships (e.g. FAO) & comms efforts re: LED/mitigation by &

for women

Learning re: inst’s with local partners (PES and LED strategies)

Co-strategy development with food aid community (e.g. WFP)

Equitable partic. research with met services and NARES

Action research with NGO’s taking gender transformative actions

(e.g. CARE, PROLINNOVA)

Gender dissag. data &

analyses, gender-cc tools & local partner

capacity strengthening,

innovative approaches -participatory

video, TV, Radio Mobiles,

integr. tools, open access K

sharing,Foresight/scenarios

analyses co-devel. with

PPP’s

Climate-smart practices

Climate info services & Climate-informed

safety nets

Low Emissions Agricultural

Development

Policies and Institutions for resilient food

systems

Increased access to and control over productive

assets, inputs,

information, food and markets;

strengthened participation in decision-

making processes

CCAFS Big Outcomes Flagships (What?)

Outcome Pathway Gender Outcome

(IDO)

Partnerships and strategies to achieve outcomes (how & with whom?)

Empowerment of women and marginalised

groups

(Overarching)

Research implications• Conducting research on whether increased

levels of access, control and participation leads to improved climate change adaptation and mitigation is not the priority! We already know that it does.

• We need hypothesis-driven research focused on how best to increase the equity and participation of vulnerable groups in a changing climate so as to achieve widespread smallholder adaptation and mitigation that positively influences overall food security, poverty, health and natural resources.

Our strategies are the key

Overall Strategy:– In order to achieve the greatest impact, we need to

take what we’ve learned from documentation and diagnostic research, and use it to formulate research aimed at informing, catalyzing and targeting adaptation and mitigation solutions to women and other vulnerable groups

– When we identify and ‘co-create’ successful options and climate change solutions together with partners with a will and proven capacity for gender and social differentiation, we will achieve scale

Changing the way we do business in CCAFS

Traditional research question: How can we increase maize production in drought prone areas?

– Outputs: Improved drought-tolerant maize variety(ies), best management practices, training, technology transfer, distribution

Building on this, we can ask: How can we target these outputs to vulnerable groups so we achieve the greatest impact?

• Management: What practices are best suited for supporting women who produce this variety?

• Training: What training and extension packages are most effective for women producing this variety?

• Technology transfer: How can our research partners, especially NARS, best target their outputs to women?

• Distribution: What products through which distribution networks, are best suited to the needs of women?

New business model research question

But, we are then still being largely ‘Supply-Driven’

If we start by working with vulnerable groups (with local partners), we ask different questions:• What are your capacities, needs and demands? (e.g.

what seed characteristics meet your adaptation and mitigation needs?) – here, we are testing new crowdsourcing approaches

• What strategies, tools and approaches will help us better meet those needs?

What is needed in order to follow the new business model?

• Very diverse research teams (many institutions; farmers, practitioners as researchers too!)

• A systems focus within a geographic area (this could be local, national, regional, global)

• The right local partners (K users), with whom you identify the research questions, partnership engagement, capacity strengthening, communication and M&E-related strategies for achieving joint outcomes

So what are we already doing? e.g. gender-focused strategies in East Africa

• Participatory Action Research in our sites with women’s & mixed groups from around 10 villages working together under new umbrella institutions (e.g. FOKO in Nyando)

• Partnering with NGO’s and programs applying gender-sensitive approaches: (e.g. CARE, World Neighbours, Vi Agroforestry, IFAD, IDRC, USAID, etc.)

• Including local gender experts (e.g. Universities, NARS)• Targeting commodities desired/controlled by women:

bees, goats, sheep, poultry, beans, horticulture, agroforestry

Gender-focused strategies in EA, Cont’d• Evaluation of varieties disaggregated by gender • Household & intra-hh gender-disaggregated tools &

data analyses • Qualitative gender-focused participatory

approaches• Gender strategies for farmer-to-farmer exchanges,

participatory farmer videos • Mobile phone- based agricultural services tested

with female and male farmers • Farm reality TV show (‘shamba shape-up’) targeting

EA women, men and youths and highlighting climate resilient agricultural and NRM practices

Focus of CCAFS gender-related research (many CG centers)

There are 5 main areas this research has been focusing on:• roles in decision-making• climate perceptions• risk and vulnerability• adaptation and adoption• access to technology and information

Goal in 2014: overall synthesis of the findings of all these studies

Participatory gender CC approaches

• FAO/CCAFS jointly developed participatory gender tools that were implemented in CCAFS sites in Uganda, Ghana and Bangladesh

• CCAFS Gender & Social Learning

expert has been refining and testing these methods and materials to be more useful to our development partners

Capacity Strengthening

• Training of gender partners (plus AWARD trainers) from all 5 regions and joint action planning, in Oct at ICRAF in Nairobi

• ICRAF – recent gender methods training in SE Asia• CIFOR – manual on incorporating gender in proposals• ILRI – ‘Closing the gender gap in agriculture:

A trainer’s manual’

‘Closing the gender gap in agriculture... could increase yields on farms by 20–30% which... could raise total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5–4% which... could reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 12–17%.’ State of Food and Agriculture (FAO 2011)

CCAFS Gender-related Resources

www.ccafs.cgiar.org/gender