Dryland Systems: Planning Workshop for Implementing

the Gender Strategy

The Gender Strategy: Launching the Multi-Stakeholder Implementation Process

Jennie Dey de PryckGFAR/GAP Senior Gender Adviser & ICARDA Consultant

Amman, 26 May 2014

Structure of Presentation

• Consortium Office priorities & demands• Process: developing, implementing, updating

Gender Strategy (GS) with stakeholders• GS: gaps in knowledge, target groups, goal,

objectives, research questions, theory of change, impact pathway

• GS: capacity building• GS: management systems, team building, M&E

Consortium Office: What are our Challenges?

• Approved GS for 1 year: Updated GS to be submitted early Jan 2015

• Appreciated central role given to gender research in ex ante analysis, priority setting & planning, for the entire CRP

• Recognized contribution of proposed Gender Transformative Research to innovation & need for development-oriented action research

• Stressed need for further specification of gender research questions

• CRP needs to strengthen its identification/attainment of “outcomes” for gender

The Process: taking ownership - 1

A conducive environment & time:• Strong commitment by Center DGs & Managers • Growing “demand” from CRP scientists &

partners for help in gender-responsive AR4D• CO reporting & sanctions• Opportunities to re-conceptualize and

strengthen gender research as the CRP evolves (revised IDOs, Science meeting)

The Process: taking ownership - 2

A participatory design process:• Malawi workshop with multiple stakeholders (Sept

’13) – formulated Gender & Youth IDO agreed by Steering Committee, GS objectives etc.

• Drafting GS/comments from DS scientists & CO • Submission to CO (Jan ’14)• Gender incorporated in Flagship PWBs for ’14,’15 • Amman Workshop to develop/agree Gender Work

Plan & Budget (GWP&B) (May ’14)

The Process: taking ownership - 3

Next steps 2014: • Implementing GWP&B: monitoring, reporting • Strengthening gender specialists’ and

biophysical scientists’ team work in grounding gender in technological research

• Integrating gender, socio-economic & institutional issues in DS systems concepts & methods at Science meeting (July ’14)

• Updating GS

Gender Strategy: Gaps in Knowledge & Practice in Dryland Systems

• Gender roles/issues & gaps in knowledge & practice in AR4D vary by Flagship

• Traditional CG focus on ex post gender impact assessments, gender less integrated in ex ante diagnosis & research cycle

• Small-scale, piecemeal gender research – often fails to harness opportunities from broad change processes

• Inadequate attention to socio-economic differentiation between & among women/men

• Limited value of sex-disaggregated baseline data unless disaggregated by socio-economic class, age, ethnicity etc. & supplemented with info on gender relations & dynamics

• Little knowledge of gender roles/dynamics (by class) in community NR & marketing orgs

Gender Strategy: Target Beneficiaries

• Poor, vulnerable people, especially women, to increase resilience (IDO1)

• Women (and men) with capacity to intensify or diversify to increase wealth and wellbeing (IDO2)

Need to: a) Develop typologies of these groups using baseline surveys & qualitative info b) Give attention to inter-relations between these groups

Gender Strategy Goal

The overall goal is: “to promote gender-equity in access to and control of agricultural assets, technologies, services, products and income in dryland systems in order to enhance the food security, wellbeing and resilience of poor vulnerable households, especially women and children”

Gender Strategy Objectives• Develop/implement more effective interdisciplinary ex-ante diagnostic

methods to integrate gender analysis & gender equity goals in targeting/prioritizing DS programs (All IDOs)

• Improve knowledge/understanding of key (changing) cultural, ideological, normative and institutional factors in the 5 Regions that lead to gender inequalities and identify effective gender-responsive and transformative ways of addressing these (All IDOs)

• Design processes, technologies and related policy and institutional frameworks to reduce gender disparities in critical vulnerabilities and access to agricultural/domestic technologies to reduce female drudgery and improve resilience (primarily IDOs 1 & 5).

• Integrate gender differences & equity goals into development/testing technologies to intensify production/increase value addition along selected DS crop & livestock value chains, with a focus on entrepreneurial women/men to increase wealth & wellbeing (IDOs 2 & 5).

Gender Strategy: Priority Actions

Priority to:• Mainstreaming gender throughout the CRP, in

each Flagship and IDO, especially – Integrating gender in ex ante diagnostic work– Grounding the Gender Work Plan technically

• Undertaking 1 (max.3) cross-Flagship strategic studies to INFORM/STRENGTHEN the mainstreaming work

Initial Generic Research Questions – to be refined

• What are the specific gender knowledge gaps and priorities in the 5 Regions with important implications for gender-equitable demand-driven technology development and adoption? What are the commonalities/critical differences across Regions, to enable more substantive impacts?

• How do (changing) cultural, ideological, normative and institutional factors in the 5 DS Regions/Countries affect gender relations? What are the implications for the diagnosis and prioritization of research problems and targeting, and implementation of (eg) plant breeding, systems agronomy, environmental sustainability and conservation, crop-livestock interactions, climate-smart production practices, and crop and livestock value chain improvement?

• What are promising ways of facilitating (transformative) change in norms, attitudes and practices underlying gender disparities in the 5 Flagships? What are promising institutional arrangements to increase women’s voice and power in community/agricultural organizations to improve NRM & ensure more equitable access to CRP innovations? How do changes in norms and practices affect intrahousehold gender relations? What are the implications for the CRP?

• What are promising technologies to reduce the drudgery of women’s household and agricultural work to free up time and energy to engage in agricultural diversification, intensification and/or value-addition in dryland crop-livestock systems, and promising practices for women to purchase, operate and maintain such technologies at the individual, household or community level?

Generic Research Questions: Focal Points to define Actual Questions based on their Work

• What are the specific gender knowledge gaps and priorities in the 5 Regions with important implications for gender-equitable demand-driven technology development and adoption?

• How do (changing) cultural, ideological, normative and institutional factors in the 5 DS Regions/Countries affect gender relations and what are the implications for the research cycle?

• What are promising ways of facilitating (transformative) change in norms, attitudes and practices underlying gender disparities and increasing women’s voice and power in the 5 Flagships?

• What are promising technologies to reduce the drudgery of women’s household and agricultural work to free up time and energy to engage in agricultural diversification, intensification and/or value-addition in dryland crop-livestock systems?

Theory of Change

Social & Political Structures,Norms, Values, Attitudes, Customs, Practices, Laws

Social & Political Structures, Norms etc determine Access by Gender & Age to: Agri. Assets, Inputs,

Services, Finance Agri. Labor Education, Skills Markets Agri. & Community

Organizations Information, ICT Employment Voice, Decision-

Making Power

AFFECTSubject to Positive or Negative Changes External Changes: Economic/Social Environmental War/Civil conflicts Natural Disasters Public Action: Policies & Laws Admin. Procedures Social & Political Movements Women’s Orgs Youth Orgs Social Campaigns

Livelihood Opportunities

Vulnerability

Risks

Distribution of Benefits, Income & Decision-Making

Dryland Systems CRP:Gender-Aware: AR4D integrates gender priorities, and addresses their constraints. Agri. services (extension, finance, inputs, markets) strengthened for women. Women helped to take advantage of positive and avoid/mitigate negative changes.Gender-Transformative: Innovations to improve women’s access to assets e.g. fish ponds, livestock, crops, incl. thro’ coops, self-help groups, group leases. Innovations for value addition by women including through cooperatives, community organizations. Recommendations to policy-makers for land reform, joint titling, labor market reform, decent work measures/sanctions etc.

Value of the Theory of Change

• Draws on work by Kabeer, Rowlands, Reeler• Aims to analyze/identify ways to reduce social & gender

inequities & poverty, and empower women in DS AR4D to improve wellbeing

• Shows root causes of these inequities/poverty are underlying social & power structures, and social norms, values, practices

• Guides identification of DS research priorities, methods, targeting

• Helps identify gender-aware and –transformative AR4D interventions

Gender-Blind, -Aware and –Transformative Development

Gender-blind development: excludes women or brings them in on terms that reproduce their secondary status Gender-aware development: brings economic and welfare benefits to women and their families but does NOT challenge the status quo (can lead to unanticipated transformations) Gender-transformative development: promotes structural changes to address power inequalities

Gender-aware & gender-transformative approaches not mutually exclusive Source: Kabeer, 2010

Gender-transformative approaches (GTAs): Some caveats

• Elaborated conceptually (eg in AAS) but very limited implementation experience & lessons learned available

• Easier to implement in situations of enabling change (joint husband-wife land titling, equalizing gender rights in family/inheritance laws)

• Can provoke conflicts (intra-household, community)• May be better to start with gender-aware approaches to build confidence

among women & in community before attempting GTAs• Critical to engage in participatory action research with women & men

stakeholders to support their goals (respecting their risk aversion)• More effective if work with grassroots dev. partners & policy makers• Consider engaging in Cross-CRP Study on Gender Norms & Agency to

identify key (changing) cultural, ideological, normative and institutional causes of gender inequalities in each Flagship, before embarking on GTAs

Impact PathwayWomen have better access to and control over productive assets, improved technologies,

inputs, services, information and market opportunities and capture a more equitable share of increased income, food and other benefits

Development agencies

Policy makers

Line departments

Producer & marketing

associations

NGOs/CSOs

Extension systems

Agribusiness

Farmers pastoralists

NARS

Advanced research centers

CG centers

Other CRPs

Women empowered within HHs & communities

More rapid adoption of technologies with

additional benefits for women by incorporating

their preferences

Policy reforms improved gender equity in access to ag. technologies, assets,

services & markets

Men & women increase yields/outputs/incomes

from DS crops & livestock thro’ use of technology & management innovations

Accelerated crop/livestoc

k breeding with traits

better suited to user needs

Indicators tested & available.

Analyses available for dev. policy, action &

future AR4D

Evidence-based analyses & policy briefs on gender issues & gender-equitable

practices in community pastoral/other DS NRM,

ag. orgs/ag. services

Hands-on training & technical manuals for biophysical and social

scientists in gender analysis in DS systems

Evidence-based gender-

awareness raising briefs, presentations for managers

Gender-differentiated preferences for crop & livestock enterprises &

traits incorporated in technology dev. from

breeding to processing products

M&E systems have explicit

gender indicators

Gender research findings &

recommendations integrated in dev. policy & practice

CGIAR & NARS scientists’ capacity

to undertake gender research

enhanced

Gender awareness & commitment of CGIAR & NARS research managers

enhanced

Gender integrated across CRP’s

research cycle

Impa ct

Deve

lopm

ent

Out

com

esO

utpu

tsG

uidi

ngpr

inci

ple

s

Rese

arch

Out

com

es Gender integrated in

CGIAR & NARS AR4D

Improved gender-sensitive methods

for sustainable use & conservation of

community natural resources

Partners along impact pathway

Gender equity in access to

technologies & appropriate

delivery systems

Female drudgery in HH & agri.

work reduced, freeing time for more productive

agri. work & improved child

nutrition

Impact Pathway: Application

• Not “cast in stone” but a tool to guide design of gender-aware/transformative activities, outputs, outcomes in each Flagship and in strategic research across Flagships

• FPs to identify “outcomes” quickly to meet CO demand by end 2014, drawing on opportunities from past/on-going work that require little (if any) additional investment while continuing long-term scientific work

• Shows need for different partners along IP (eg NARS, CSOs at activity/output level, policymakers/dev. orgs at dev. outcome level)

Capacity Building

• Identify CB needs for biophysical scientists, gender specialists etc:– Use/adapt specialized tools for this purpose– Collaborate with other CRPs

• Design/implement – Awareness-raising for managers/scientists– CB for biophysical & social scientists

• Adapt gender research tools & methods• Train women scientists in leadership, management &

negotiation; provide mentoring

Management & Coordination

• Senior Gender Specialist/Coordinator to be member of CRP Research Management Committee & report to CRP Director

• Set up CRP Working Group of Gender Focal Points & agree methods of communication/discussion (meetings, email)

• Form/strengthen multidisciplinary research teams in each Flagship, with shared systems approach

• Allocate Gender FP(s) per Flagship & IDO• Accountability for “gender” at all levels

Gender Team Building

• Regular DS Gender FP meetings to share lessons & update plans

• Training, supervision, mentoring of junior staff within Centers and across CRP Gender Team

• Use of external specialists to fill temporary staffing gaps (universities, NARS, CSOs):

*Secondments or consultants*Special services

Monitoring & Evaluation

Gender M&E Strategy will be:• Nested within overall CRP M&E strategy • Based on the CO indicators for annual reporting on

CRP progress

Partners & Networks

• CO Senior Gender Adviser & CGIAR Gender & Agriculture Research Network

• Other systems CRPs (AAS, Humid Tropics, AN4H, PIM)• Other research programs (World Bank LSMS-ISA, IFAD

Household Methodologies)• GFAR/GAP – GCWA2 & GCARD3 (2015)• Regional Fora (AARINENA, FARA, APAARI)• YPARD• WFO

Budget

• Budget for gender mainstreaming in the Flagships (IDOs 1, 2, 3, 4, 6) to come from the Flagships’ budgets

• Budget for cross-Flagship strategic research to come under IDO 5 (in CRP Director’s Office)

• Approx. 10% of total CRP budget allocated to gender (in practice likely to be more)

Thank you