Gender Book Chapters

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A Review of Evidence on Gender Equality, Women's Empowerment, and Food Systems
(Book Chapter, 2023-01) Njuki, Jemimah; Eissler, Sarah; Malapit, Hazel J.; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.; Bryan, Elizabeth; Quisumbing, Agnes R.
Achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment in food systems can result in greater food security and better nutrition, as well as more just, resilient and sustainable food systems for all. This chapter uses a scoping review to assess the current evidence on pathways between gender equality, women’s empowerment and food systems. The chapter uses an adaptation of the food system framework to organize the evidence and identify where evidence is strong, and where gaps remain. Results show strong evidence on women’s differing access to resources, shaped and reinforced by contextual social gender norms, and on links between women’s empowerment and maternal education and important outcomes, such as nutrition and dietary diversity. However, evidence is limited on issues such as gender considerations in food systems for women in urban areas and in aquaculture value chains, best practices and effective pathways for engaging men in the process of women’s empowerment in food systems, and how to address issues related to migration, crises and indigenous food systems. While there are gender-informed evaluation studies examining the effectiveness of gender- and nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs, evidence indicating the long-term sustainability of such impacts remains limited. The chapter recommends key areas for investment: improving women’s leadership and decision-making in food systems, promoting equal and positive gender norms, improving access to resources, and building cross-contextual research evidence on gender and food systems.
Nutrition-sensitive agriculture for gender equality
(Book Chapter, 2021-11) Malapit, Hazel J.; Heckert, Jessica; Scott, Jessica; Padmaja, Ravula; Quisumbing, Agnes R.
Globally, malnutrition remains unacceptably high, and its burden falls disproportionately on women and girls. The 2018 Global Nutrition Report states that women experience a disproportionate burden of some forms of malnutrition: one in three women of reproductive age has anemia; women have a higher prevalence of obesity than men—yet millions of women are underweight (Development Initiatives 2018). Women and adolescent girls have greater nutritional needs. For example, young women’s iron requirements are higher at puberty, and caloric and micronutrient needs are higher during pregnancy and lactation. Poor nutritional status for women and girls also has direct intergenerational consequences via pregnancy and childbirth outcomes (Victora et al. 2008, Black et al. 2013a). The first 1,000 days (start of pregnancy until the child’s second birthday) represent a critical window during which poor nutrition leads to irreversible deficits in children’s development, the ability to learn, and productivity and health in adulthood (ibid.).
Toward structural change: Gender transformative approaches
(Book Chapter, 2021-11) McDougall, Cynthia; Badstue, Lone B.; Mulema, Annet A.; Fischer, Gundula; Najjar, Dina; Pyburn, Rhiannon; Elias, Marlène; Joshi, Deepa; Vos, Andrea
Almost a quarter of a century after the Beijing Declaration, and with 10 years left to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, The Guardian announced the SDG Gender Index’s finding that, “Not one single country is set to achieve gender equality by 2030” (Equal Measures 2030 2019, Ford 2019). This aligns with the most recent Global Gender Gap Index, which signals that, on the current trajectory, it will take approximately 170 years to achieve gender equality (WEF 2016)—a wait of seven generations, or two and a half lifetimes for the average woman.
Promise and contradiction: Value chain participation and women's empowerment
(Book Chapter, 2021-11) Ihalaine, Markus; Shaikh, Sumer; Mujawamariya, Gaudiose; Mayanja, Sarah; Adetonah, Sounkoura; Tavenner, Katie; Elias, Marlène
With the expansion of agricultural production for the global market, interest among research and development actors in developing more “inclusive” value chains has grown (Stoian et al. 2018a). While mainstream value chain development (VCD) has focused on enhancing the efficiency of processes along the chain, policies increasingly endeavor to address poverty, emphasizing the inclusion of poor and marginalized people in global markets (Bolwig et al. 2010). In recent decades, scholars and development agencies have directed attention toward the “gender gap in agriculture” (Huyer 2016), encompassing, among other things, women’s lesser access to market opportunities and to the benefits from cash crops (Pyburn et al. 2015). As a consequence, agricultural development initiatives increasingly aim to support the engagement of women in agricultural value chains (Sachs 2019). However, while promoting the engagement of women in markets and value chains is becoming entrenched in the global agenda for gender equality (Stoian et al. 2018a), systematic evidence demonstrating causal linkages or laying out a clear theory of change between participation and empowerment remains limited (Said-Allsopp and Tallontire 2014, Johnson et al. 2018).
Moving beyond reaching women in seed systems development
(Book Chapter, 2021-11) Puskur, Ranjitha; Mudege, Netsayi N.; Njuguna-Mungai, Esther; Nchanji, Eileen Bogweh; Vernooy, Ronnie; Galiè, Alessandra; Najjar, Dina
Seed is critical to food security as the first link in the food value chain (Galiè 2013) and can be a powerful agent of change (Reddy et al. 2007). Similarly, women’s empowerment and gender equality are key to food and nutrition security (Agarwal 2018). The interplay between the two is becoming increasingly important: socioeconomic and gender differences in seed and food security must be understood to target seed interventions effectively (FANRPAN 2011). However, the importance of seed systems to empower women has so far been neglected. This chapter contributes toward closing this gap. Gender analysis is important for a comprehensive understanding of seed systems and to shape effective and inclusive interventions that go beyond reaching women to benefit and empower them.
Examining choice to advance gender equality in breeding research
(Book Chapter, 2021-11) Polar, Vivian; Mohan, Rohini Ram; McDougall, Cynthia; Teeken, Béla; Mulema, Annet A.; Marimo, Pricilla; Yila, Jummai Othniel
Breeding is a technical pillar of CGIAR research: the animal/fish breeds, and plant varieties developed are international public goods that contribute to agricultural development for low-income contexts worldwide. Gender equality and women’s empowerment are critical social dimensions underpinning agricultural development in these contexts. Progressing toward gender equality in agriculture requires that women, as well as men, have equal capabilities to make decisions about agricultural innovation, and specifically technology choice. Current evidence, however, suggests the situation here is not yet equal. Nevertheless, despite ongoing inequalities, there is a dearth of literature on the connection between gender and breeding in agricultural research. This chapter critically examines what has been done to address gender dynamics in (current) breeding structures and processes, and what more can be done so that breeding programs contribute to advancing gender equality. We are specifically concerned with technology choices in relation to the plant variety or animal/fish breed by resource-poor smallholders in low-income countries. The chapter explores how CGIAR and public breeding programs generate options based on user needs, preferences, and constraints, and the institutional requirements needed to develop them in such a way that they contribute to gender equality and women’s empowerment.
From the "feminization of agriculture" to gender equality
(Book Chapter, 2021-11) Doss, Cheryl R.; Qaisrani, Ayesha; Kosec, Katrina; Slavchevska, Vanya; Galiè, Alessandra; Kawarazuka, Nozomi
The term “feminization of agriculture” is used to capture a wide range of gender dynamics and shifts in rural gender relations. Definitions range from the broadening and deepening of women’s involvement in agriculture (Lastarria-Cornhiel 2006) to the increase in rural women’s measured economic participation in agriculture and a reported visibility of women in agricultural activities (Deere 2005). The term may be used to imply an increase in women’s labor in agriculture, in women’s labor relative to that of men, or in women’s roles in agricultural decision-making. Broadly speaking, however, literature on the feminization of agriculture has challenged researchers and development practitioners to consider how changing rural landscapes are affecting women, especially where men are moving out of agriculture. These changes have impacts on women’s productive and reproductive workloads, both paid and unpaid, as well as their agency and decision-making, both within the farm and the household and in the community and a variety of institutions.
From vulnerability to agency in climate adaptation and mitigation
(Book Chapter, 2021-11) Huyer, Sophia; Gumucio, Tatiana; Tavenner, Katie; Acosta, Mariola; Chanana, Nitya; Khatri-Chhetri, Arun; Mungai, Catherine; Ouédraogo, Mathieu; Otieno, Gloria Atieno; Radeny, Maren A.O.; Recha, John W.M.; Simelton, Elisabeth
Rising temperatures and more extreme weather associated with climate change are expected to exacerbate existing social and gender inequalities across the globe (Adger et al. 2014 , Dankelman 2010). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that the production of major crops such as wheat, rice, and maize will be affected across all regions and that climate change will progressively increase variability in crop yields. All aspects of food security are affected, including food access, utilization, and price stability. In rural areas, major impacts are expected on water availability and supply, food security, and agricultural incomes, with shifts in production of both food and non-food crops as growing zones change as a result of weather variability (Adger et al. 2014, Girvetz et al. 2017). Climate-influenced migration is seen to be an intensifying factor in the feminization of agriculture in some regions, particularly South Asia and Central America, where out-migration for employment is predominantly male. Women left behind are required to manage farms and households with fewer resources and less family labor, further increasing their vulnerability (Gumucio et al. 2019a, Khatri-Chhetri et al. 2020).
A gender-natural resources tango: Water, land, and forest research
(Book Chapter, 2021-11) Joshi, Deepa; Monterroso, Iliana; Gallant, Bryce; Perera, Kokila; Peveri, Valentina
Gender relations shape identities, norms, rules, and responsibilities for women and men, and mediate access to, use, and management of water resources, as well as ownership, tenure, and user rights to land and forests (and related infrastructure, services, technologies innovations and interventions). Natural resource management (NRM) interventions thus have important implications for women’s labor, time, decision-making, and transformational gains.
CGIAR research through an equality and empowerment lens
(Book Chapter, 2021-11) Pyburn, Rhiannon; Eerdewijk, Anouka van
Over the past decade or so, there has been a renewed, and more concerted and comprehensive, interest in gender equality and women’s empowerment in the agricultural development sector. Renowned development organizations have put gender dynamics back in the spotlight by means of a series of publications focused on gender equality. This momentum has generated a unique opportunity to advance gender equality within and through agricultural research and development, and to institutionalize gender research within agricultural research for development (AR4D) organizations. This has also given us a chance to ask whether enough traction has been gained to mark a true turning point. As one key thinker in this field has stated that, “with agriculture now firmly back on the development agenda, it is time to re-socialize the ways that agricultural research, and practice deal with women and men, and analyze them both in relation to one another and their wider context” (Okali 2012, 2). This book is both an expression and a consequence of this overall momentum.
Assessing women's empowerment in agricultural research
(Book Chapter, 2021-11) Elias, Marlène; Cole, Steven M.; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Valencia, Ana Maria Paez; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.; Twyman, Jennifer
The concept of empowerment has steadily made its way onto the international development agenda. Batliwala (2007) traces its equivalents back several hundred years and across geographies in struggles for social justice. Feminists brought the concept of women’s empowerment to the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, where it gained traction, with the Beijing Declaration referring to “enhancing further the advancement and empowerment of women all over the world” (UN 1995, 7). Then, it was about collective struggles to challenge patriarchal structures, and intersecting structures of class, ethnicity, caste, and race, that shape women’s (subordinate) position in society (Batliwala 2007). Twenty years later, “empowerment” animates the fifth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG5): “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.”
Base Broadening for client-oriented impact
(Book Chapter, 2001) Sperling, L.; Ashby, Jacqueline A.; Weltzien, Eva; Smith, M.; McGrath, S.
Broadening of basic germplasm pools can only achieve its goal of promoting agricultural stability if the products are actually sown by farmers on a significant scale.
Comparing and integrating farmers' and breeders' evaluations of maize varieties in East Africa
(Book Chapter, 2005) Groot, Hugo de; Siambi, M
While Kenyan farmers still grow many traditional maiz e varieties, they increasingly face soil, pest and environmental constraints to crop productivity.
Organizational implications for mainstreaming participatory research and gender analysis
(Book Chapter, 2005) Gurung, Barun
T he effectiveness of Participatory Research and Gender Analysis (PR&GA) approaches is critically constrained by an organizational structure based on a supply-driven system of innovation. Results of several studies conducted by the Program with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) centers demonstrates three separate but inter-related constraints: 1) Fragmented investment in and application of PR&GA approaches across the CGIAR system leads to repeated testing of proven approaches and as a result of which international agricultural research centers (IARCs) do not evolve beyond a researcher-led type of participation. 2) In a researcher-driven participatory research process, the likelihood of technologies matching farmers’ priorities is small because end-users, such as women, tend to be brought into the participatory research process at a relatively late stage, to evaluate technologies that have already been developed and are ready for dissemination. 3) Even in those cases where innovations have resulted from farmers’ feedback, it is unlikely that such learning and change can be sustained beyond the life of the project. One major reason for this is that PR&GA approaches largely remain isolated from, and often contradict the dominant paradigm of innovation practiced within organizations.
Impact of participatory natural resource management research in cassava-based cropping systems in Vietnam and Thailand
(Book Chapter, 2007) Dalton, Timothy J.; Lilja, Nina; Johnson, Nancy L.; Howeler, Reinhardt H.
In South-east Asia, many of the poorest farmers live in areas with limited potential for crop production. Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is an important crop on these soils, because it is easy to grow, requires few external inputs and its roots and leaves can be used as human or animal feed. Cassava is also planted as an industrial crop for the production of animal feed and starch where market conditions are developed. The wide variety of end uses makes it a popular crop and an effective vehicle for improving the livelihood of poor upland farmers.
Farmer field schools and local agricultural research committes as complementary platforms
(Book Chapter, 2004) Thiele, Graham; Braun, Ann R.; Gandarillas, Edson
Farmer field schools (FFS) and local agricultural research committees (CIALs) are platforms supporting integrated decision-making and innovation for sustainable agriculture. They share several basic principles and processes but their main objectives differ. The first is oriented towards providing agroecological education through participatory learning, whereas the second is a permanent local research service that links farmer experimentation with formal research. This paper compares their objectives, principles and processes as a basis for exploring their application and looks at the new challenges and opportunities.
Contening cultures amongst development actors
(Book Chapter, 2004) Messerschmidt, Don; Gurung, Barun; Biggs, Stephen D.
Lewis et al (2003) establish a cogent argument which suggests that serious analysis of the culture of aid organizations, and of the relationships with other actors, matters, and that it is a neglected area of analysis. Their discussion raises important new questions about the development enterprise from an internal perspective that heretofore has been neglected or ignored. Contrasting the article by Lewis et al. with a book by Harrison and Huntington (2000) reinforces that conviction. Throughout the Harrison and Huntington book-- whose authors provide an excellent overview of the history of the study of culture as something that certainly does ‘matter’ in development--we kept saying to ourselves that ‘All this is fine, but it is focussed (as is much of the ancillary literature on ‘culture’ in development) on looking outward, at others undergoing development, without consideration of the development agency actors themselves. It mostly addresses questions and issues concerning the question: Why some political and national systems succeed and others fail.
Decentralized participatory plant breeding: a case from Syria
(Book Chapter, 2004) Ceccarelli, Salvatore; Grando, Stefania
Conventional modern plant breeding has been recognized to be more beneficial to farmers in high potential environments or those who could profitably modify their environment to suit new cultivars, than to the poorest farmers who could not afford to make the necessary modifications. As a consequence, low yields, crop failures, malnutrition and poverty affect a large proportion of humanity.
Adoption and scaling out: strategies and experiences of the Forages for Smallholders Project
(Book Chapter, 2004) Roothaert, Robert; Kerridge, Peter C.
The Forages for Smallholders Project (FSP), convened by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), started in 1995 to move research on tropical forages from the experiment stations to farmers’ fields, which created scope for evaluating the potential of improved forages in smallholder farming systems in Asia. The target farming systems were those in upland areas. The FSP now operates in six countries in Southeast Asia through national partners.
Gender analysis and indigenous fallow management
(Book Chapter, 2014) Colfer, C.J.P.; Minarchek, R.D.; Cairns, M.F.; Aier, A.; Doolittle, A.; Mashman, V.; Odame, H.H.; Roberts, M.; Robinson, K.; Esterik, P. van

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