Quinn Bernier

Addressing gender in agricultural research for development in the face of a changing climate: where are we and where should we be going?

ABSTRACT Agricultural development efforts that do not address persistent gender gaps miss opportunities for greater impact. This synthesis reflects on key findings from integrated quantitative and qualitative analyses at the nexus of gender, agricultural development, and climate change. Linked farm household-, intrahousehold-, community-, and institutional-level data highlight significant and nuanced gender differences in adaptive capacity of individuals and communities to respond to climate change. The gender gap is also substantial in exposure to climate change and its impacts, and uptake of new practices that lower vulnerability. Women in agriculture will remain largely neglected by information and service providers unless their differing needs, access to, and control over resources are considered at policy and project design stage. Yet clear guidelines for addressing the needs of both men and women in different environments and agricultural systems are still lacking. Participatory ‘action research’ approaches with a focus on co-learning, and using innovative cell phone or social media-based approaches offer exciting new opportunities. Agricultural development decision-makers and project designers need to ‘design with gender in mind’. Equipping them with tools and knowledge of innovative gender-transformative practices and intervention options and creating accountability for serving women and men will be key.

Making climate change adaptation programmes in sub-Saharan Africa more gender responsive: insights from implementing organizations on the barriers and opportunities

Research shows that paying attention to gender matters not only for the equity of climate change adaptation programmes, but also for their efficiency and effectiveness. Many organizations working to increase resilience to climate change with local communities also recognize the importance of gender, yet the degree to which gender is actually integrated in climate change projects is unclear. This study examines the extent to which organizations involved in climate change and resilience work in sub-Saharan Africa are integrating research on gender and climate change and incorporating gender-sensitive approaches into their programmes using data collected through a knowledge, attitudes, and practices survey and key informant interviews targeted at government agencies, local and international NGOs, and other practitioners. The results show that although organizations have access to research on climate change from various sources, more is needed to identify entry points for gender integration into climate change adaptation programmes across a range of local contexts. Lack of staff capacity on gender, lack of funding to support gender integration, and socio-cultural constraints were identified as key barriers to gender integration by many respondents, particularly from government agencies. Enabling organizations to pay greater attention to the gender dimensions of their programmes is possible through greater collaboration across different types of organizations in order to share knowledge and best practices and strengthen the integration of research into adaptation programmes.