jacqueline ashby
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Gender and Food Security
Jacqueline Ashby
Senior Advisor, Gender and Research
CGIAR Consortium
Topics
• Challenges for gender research in food security
• Lessons from mainstreaming gender in CGIAR Research Programmes (CRPs)
• Opportunities and challenges: operationalizing an effective gender research programme
1. Challenges for gender research in food security
• The “gender gap” in agriculture
• Risks• Opportunities
The “gender gap” in agriculture (FAO, 2010)
In most regions of the world, one out of five farms is headed by a women
Women comprise about 40% of people working on farms in low-income countries
Mali women collect firewood for cooking on the dry bed of the Niger
River (photo on Flickr by United Nations).
The “gender gap” in agriculture (FAO, 2010)
Inequalities between women and men producers:
• hold back agricultural productivity ( causing yield gaps of 20-25%)
• perpetuate poverty and unsustainable resource use
• make women more vulnerable to climate-change impacts on agriculture
Photo P. Casier (CGIAR).
Example: gender productivity gap in
Ghana• Women are not
confident of their rights to hold land left fallow.
• So women fallow their plots less than their husbands, and achieve much lower yields
Source: Goldstein et.al. 2008
The “gender gap” in agriculture (FAO, 2010)
Pervasive inequalities between women and men in:
• Assets for agriculture --land, water, trees, fisheries, livestock, especially insecure property rights
• Labor markets• Access to services- financial,
advisory, business development• Knowledge and skills• Technology• Membership of farmer
organizations• Policy
Mali women collect firewood for cooking on the dry bed of the Niger
River (photo on Flickr by United Nations).
Making the case: Why close the gender gap in agriculture and food systems?
Risks of ignoring the gender gap
• Women don’t buy into proposed technologies or strategies if these are inappropriate (eg. more labor intensive)
• Women can’t access or use information about recommended innovations
• Women oppose or cannot invest in needed innovations
Photo P. Casier (CGIAR).
Example: technology is not adopted
Review of 24 multivariate studies of technological input use, access, and adoption fertilizer, seed varieties, tools, pesticide use, access, and adoption.
• 79 percent of studies found men have higher access to technologies
• 59 percent of studies found the farmer’s sex has no significant effect on output once unequal farm size, credit, capital, extension and other factors are taken into account
Risks: women are worse off and oppose
innovations• Innovations
increase drudgery for women
• Women do not share increases in income when men control marketing
• Thus, women face different incentives from men
Photo P. Casier (CGIAR).
Case –Tanzania village studies
• Rainy season is now much shorter: farmers in the two villages studied adapted by growing more drought-tolerant crops.
• Faster-maturing sorghum and maize plus new varieties of sesame and sunflower were introduced
• Increased marketing of food crops, sorghum and maize, traditionally grown by women increased their workloads
• New crops-- sesame and sunflower-- increased income but led to more weeding work for women.
• Women did not benefit from the profits: all grain is typically sold by men, and women are less likely than men to control the cash received.
Source: Nelson & Stathers 2009
Opportunity:Transformative
Approaches• Female autonomy is
an important determinant of productivity and earnings of rural women producers
Source Buvinic 2013
Gender relations affect autonomy in:
(1)Decisions about agricultural production and marketing
(2)Power over use of resources like land, water and livestock
(3)Control over food availability, spending and income
(4)Leadership in the community and bargaining power in markets
(5)Time use and workloads
Example: improving value chains without transforming autonomy.
• Women didn’t market increased horticulture production because they don’t control the land or the income generated (Burkina Faso & Uganda)
• Men removed dairy cattle far away from the homestead to prevent women from increasing their household bargaining power from sales of milk (Kenya)
Source: Quisumbing et al 2013
Example: improved autonomy, Mozambique
2002: the Towards Sustainable Nutrition Improvement Project targeted improved vitamin intake among children under five
•Sweet potato was a “women’s crop” in 72% of farms but women sold it in only 48%
•Women farmers tested high-yielding varieties and were directly involved in their evaluation and selection.
•Women and men of all ages identified practices that could reduce women’s workloads
•RESULT: 90 percent of farmers adopted, vitamin A intake increased 8 times for children in adopter households
Example: economic empowerment
Decision power (54 Asian communities):• Community-level
gender norms are more important determinants of empowerment than women’s personal characteristics (e.g. education, landownership)
• Domestic violence is equally important
Source: Mason & Smith 2003
2. Lessons from mainstreaming Gender in CGIAR Research Programs
(CRPs)1981: first
position paper on gender in the CGIAR
2011: first CGIAR-wide gender research strategy
Value Proposition: Gender and System Level Outcomes
• Identify key barriers to empowerment in agriculture
• Increase scale, scope and significance of gender research
• Understand broad trends in changing gender relations that matter
• Work with implementation partners to design transformative interventions
Core challenges of CRP Gender Strategies
Core challenges of CRP Gender Strategies
• Diagnoseo Barriers that research can
addresso Barriers that research can
address with partnerso Barriers best left to others
o Maximize extrapolation and generalizability
• Improve the data and methods– Collect better sex-
disaggregated data– Drill down into gender
relations
Implement a program-wide Gender Strategy
• Accountability
Gender Budget: a must!
• Many CRP proposals lacked a gender budget
• Dedicated funds for gender research must be earmarked at the planning stage of research
• Monitor performance
Clear Deliverables
All CRPs must:•Have an approved gender strategy that is implemented within 6 months of their inception•Report outputs with demonstrable and measurable benefits to women farmers in target areas within 4 years following inception of the CRP.•By 2015 train and recruit to ensure sufficient gender expertise.
Objective• To improve the
relevance of the CGIAR's research to poor women as well as men (reduced poverty and hunger, improved health and environmental resilience) in all the geographical areas where the work is implemented and targeted by end of 2012.
• By 2015 progress towards these outcomes will be measurable.
Hold programs accountable
CGIAR Consortium Board approved policy states that funds can be withheld if Program plans of work and budget or annual reports do not meet expected standards of gender mainstreaming i.e.
- Appropriate research outputs and outcomes
- Adequate funds allocated- Gender-responsive
research approaches - Results that benefit men
and women and improve women’s empowerment
Objective• To improve the
relevance of the CGIAR's research to poor women as well as men (reduced poverty and hunger, improved health and environmental resilience) in all the geographical areas where the work is implemented and targeted by end of 2012.
• By 2015 progress towards these outcomes will be measurable.
Build Research Capacity
Gender Strategy requires:• high calibre social scientists•gender awareness and accountability at all management levels•partnerships capable of leveraging gender equality for positive impact
Gender Postdoctoral Fellows and University Partnership Scheme
20 new postdoctoral fellowships
3 University partnerships for mentoring research quality
3. Opportunities and challenges
operationalizing an effective gender research programme
• Promote gender awareness at all levels
• Ensure performance monitoring of gender in research and accountability for its deliverables
• Invest in capacity development
• Install policy supporting gender and diversity in the workplace
Promising interventions linking gender and food security
• A suite of integrated services designed to reach poor women farmers: land rights, farmer groups, savings and loans, technologies and training
AutonomyEG. In Malawi, women with profitable farms:
• Cultivate high value cash (not subsistence) crops
• Belong to village savings and credit unions
• Control farmland, decide what to grow and how to spend their earnings
Source Dimova & Gang 2013
