CCAFS Science Meeting presentation by Jacqueline Ashby - "Key questions for a gender-focused climate change research program"

1. “Key questions for a
gender-focused climate
change research program”
Jacqueline
Ashby
Senior
Advisor,
Gender and
Research
CGIAR
Consortium
Artist: Ashley Cecil; image on Flickr by Piotr Fajfer Oxfam International

2. CGIAR Consortium Gender
Strategy (Dec. 2011)
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.

3. CGIAR Consortium Gender
Strategy
Objective Deliverables
• To improve the relevance • All CRPs have an explicit
of the CGIAR's research to gener strategy that is
poor women as well as implemented within 6
men (reduced poverty and months of their inception
hunger, improved health • Research outputs in all
and environmental CRPs bring demonstrable
resilience) in all the and measurable benefits
geographical areas where to women farmers in
the work is implemented target areas within 4
and targeted by end of years following inception
2012. of the CRP.
• By 2015 progress towards • By 2014 Staff training
these outcomes will be and strategic partnerships
measurable. ensure all CRPs have
sufficient gender
expertise.

4. CCAFS’ Gender Strategy
(Feb. 2012)
Central, strategic
question
“Which climate-
smart agricultural
practices and
interventions are
most likely to
benefit women in
particular, where,
how and why?”

5. Topics
• The “gender gap”
• What questions to
ask about gender?
• When in the research
process to ask these
questions?
• Strategies and tools
for seeking answers
Mali women collect firewood for cooking on the dry bed of the Niger
River (photo on Flickr by United Nations).

6. 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).

7. The “gender gap” in
agriculture (FAO, 2010)
Inequalities between
women and men that:
• hold back agricultural
productivity (yield
gaps of 20-25%)
• perpetuate poverty
and unsustainable
resource use
• make women more
vulnerable to climate-
change impacts on
agriculture
• are obstacles to
CGIAR impact
Mali women collect firewood for cooking on the dry bed of the Niger
River (photo on Flickr by United Nations).

8. 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
• Organization
• Supportive institutions and
Mali women collect firewood for cooking on the dry bed of the Niger
policy
River (photo on Flickr by United Nations).

9. Framework :how the gender gap
affects development outcomes.
Women’s Agricultural Empowerment
Context: Ecological, Social, Economic, Political factors, etc.
Shocks
Consumption
Livelihood
Assets Strategies Full Incomes Well-being
Savings/
Investment
Legend: Women Joint Men

10. The Women’s Empowerment
Index (WEAI)
Measures women’s control
over
(1) decisions about farming
and agricultural
production
(2) power over resources like
land and livestock
(3) control over spending and
income
(4) leadership in the
community
(5) time use.
• Parity of control within
the household
• Developed by USAID,
IFPRI & OPHI (Oxford)

11. Climate-smart interventions
can:
• Improve gender
equity
• Benefit poor women
as well as poor men
• “Do no harm”- avoid
making inequities
worse
• Widen the gender gap
by privileging men
Photo P. Casier (CGIAR).

12. Risks of ignoring
the gender gap
• Women don’t buy
into proposed
adaptation strategies
if technologies are
inappropriate (eg.
more labor intensive)
• Women don’t access
or use climate
information
• Women oppose or
cannot invest in
mitigation practices
Photo P. Casier (CGIAR).

13. Framing relevant questions
• Mind the gap! –
“must ask”
questions that
detect basic
gender differences
• Approach gender
as one aspect of
social
stratification and
differentiation

14. CCAFS’ strategic gender
question:
• “Which climate-smart
agricultural practices
and interventions are
most likely to benefit
women in particular,
where, how and
why?”
> Climate smartness
depends on how men
and women users’
make tradeoffs
among short-term
and long-term gains

15. Mind the gap!
Between men and women
• Inequalities mean
tradeoffs between
short-term gains
(food security or
income) and long-
term adaptation and
mitigation may be
different for women
than for men
• Costs of adoption
may be different for
men and women

16. Mind the gap!
Between men and women
Key question
How do perceptions
of risk and of
tradeoffs between
long and short
term gain differ
for women versus
men ?

17. “Must ask” questions for discerning gender
effects on agriculture:
comparing men and women.
• Who owns or controls
the assets?
• Who does the work?
• Who makes the
decisions?
• Who captures what
share of the benefits?
• Who is able to
participate?

18. Mind the gap!
Within households
• Households do not
have a unified set
of objectives or a
single decision-
maker
• Adoption
decisions involve
bargaining among
competing
interests within
the household

19. “Must ask”questions for discerning gender
effects on agriculture:
men and women within households.
• Who owns or controls
the assets?
• Who does the work?
• Who makes the
decisions?
• Who captures what
share of the benefits?
• Who is able to
participate?

20. Mind the gap!
Within Communities
• There is no such
thing as “the
community”
• Rural
communities are
deeply stratified
• Women in
different social
strata do not have
the same interests

21. Social Stratification
• Gender is just one
facet of social
stratification in
rural populations
• i.e. differences
between the
“haves” and the
“have-nots”

22. Social stratification of rural
men and women
• Landless laborers
• Semi-landless
• “Landed poor” (who lack capital)
• Semi-commercial small producers or
traders
• Commercially viable small producers or
traders in local markets
• Industrial-scale or export-oriented
producer groups

23. “Must ask”questions for discerning gender effects
on agriculture:men and women within different
social strata.
• Who owns or controls
the assets?
• Who does the work?
• Who makes the
decisions?
• Who captures what
share of the benefits
(consumption,
investment,
wellbeing)?
• Who is able to
participate?

24. Key question reframed
How do perceptions of risk and of
tradeoffs between long and short term
gain differ between men and women in
different social strata ?
Photo

25. Questions posed through the
research cycle
• Unpack the
reframed key
question
• Define sub-
questions to ask
progressively
through the
research cycle

26. Gender in the research cycle
(not pipeline)
Planning
Evaluation Discovery
Testing and
development

27. 1. Improve targeting
• Gender differences
require us to seek the
gender and socially-
disaggregated information
needed to characterize
beneficiaries of research
more accurately
• What are our intended
beneficiary groups (men
and women in which
social strata of the rural
population)?

28. Defining CCAFS’ intended beneficiary groups will
be fundamental to achieving impact
for climate-smart agricultural interventions:
• Shotgun approach = poorly defined beneficiary groups
“small farmers”
“women”
“communities”
• Leads to a weak, “generic” theory of change, confounded
effects and interventions with confusing social outcomes
• Why some men and women adopt new practices and
others do not remains opaque – Farm size? Assets?
Empowerment?

29. Defining CCAFS’ intended beneficiary groups will
be fundamental to achieving impact
for climate-smart agricultural interventions:
Beneficiary groups that are differentiated socially
and gender-wise provide clear “recommendation
domains”
• Interventions can be tailored to suit a given
group and tested with them
• Probabilities of successful impact increase
• Easier to interpret success and failure
• Approach commonly used in the health and
education sectors

30. 2.Understand constraints
• Planning requires
information on how
gender and other social
differences affect
resilience as well as
exposure and sensitivity
to threats
• How do gender
differences influence the
vulnerability and
empowerment of different
intended beneficiary
groups to climate-change
in agriculture?

31. Case – Tanzania village
studies
• The increasing unpredictability of the rainfall
season has led to more people having to use
oxen ploughs.
• Ploughing land using oxen is much faster than
by hand, and this speed allows maximum use of
the shortened, often intermittent rainy period
for crop production.
• The poorest households can rarely afford to
plough using oxen, and the wealthier owners
prepare their own fields first. Poorer women
struggle with increases in demand for their
labor and increased costs for hiring oxen
ploughs
Nelson & Stathers (2009)

32. 3.Identify decision-making
criteria and scenarios
• Discovery research needs
information about how
men and women in
different social
beneficiary groups
perceive risks and the
payoff to different
climate-smart options
• How do gender
differences influence the
kinds of incentives people
in different beneficiary
groups face and the
tradeoffs they are
prpared to make?

33. Case –Tanzania village studies
• Rainy season is now much shorter.
• Farmers in two villages studied adapted by growing more
drought-tolerant crops, faster-maturing sorghum varieties,
sesame and sunflower have been introduced
• Grain is typically sold by men, and women are less likely than
men to control the cash that is received.
• Switches in crops grown in response to drought has led to
increased marketing of traditional food crops, sorghum and
maize, which are grown by women and increases their
workloads
• Women do not benefit from the profits.
• Increased sale of groundnuts, bambara nuts, and cowpeas
traditionally sold by women is providing women with more
access to, and control of, income.
• The introduction of sesame and sunflower increased income,
but control of this cash is not always shared and these crops
have led to more weeding work for women.
Nelson & Stathers (2009)

34. 4. Understand innovation
strategies
• Development and
testing need
information on how
gender and social
difference affect
actual responses to
interventions
• How may gender
differences influence
the innovation
strategies to reach
intended beneficiary
groups?

35. 5. Evaluation- micro level
(field site)
• How have different
dimensions of the
gender gap changed?
• Use the checklist of
“must-have”
questions about
gender differences
• CCAFS Gender
manual and training
• Many methods and
tools are available

36. 5. Evaluation- macro-level
• What changes have
occurred in women’s
empowerment ? ( an
intermediate outcome)
• Have changes occurred in
the distribution of assets,
income, investment,
consumption and
wellbeing ? (using the
framework for gender
effects)
Useful tool: The Women’s
Empowerment Index

37. Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index
Survey Instrument

38. WEAI measures empowerment in:
• Individuals
• Groups
• Areas
• e.g. in pilot areas
in Bangladesh
shows 31.9
percent of women
are empowered

39. Sources of low empowerment:
• In the Bangladesh
sample areas lack
of control over
resources, weak
leadership, low
influence in the
community and
lack of control
over income are
the most
important
contributors to
low empowerment
WEAI Survey pilot areas in Bangladesh

40. Generating data
• Mind the gap! Filter
all proposed
interventions through
the basic set of
questions about
gender differences
• Improve the gender
and agriculture data
collection and
information system
(CRP2 Policies)

41. Generating data
• Focus effort in
sentinel sites
where a combined
investment in
gathering
information on
gender can be
efficient

42. Generating data
• Consider large
scale, policy-
oriented
experiments to
pilot interventions
with beneficiary
groups that are
differentiated
socially and
gender-wise from
the start

43. Thanks!