Sex-disaggregated data for agricultural

development: What works; What doesn’t

Patti KristjansonSenior Scientist, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)

BMGF, Seattle, Aug 20, 2014

Why do agricultural research and development specialists have to take

on gender issues?

Photo: www.sandbox.maumbile.com

The gender gap

Because…We are not going to see the bulk of the world’s food producers & consumers – smallholders – improve their wellbeing and adapt to all kinds of changes, with climate change on top them all – unless we close the ‘gender gap’ – in access to, and control over, knowledge, resources, and assets.

…and also contribute to changing gender cultures and norms?

Source: IITA Youth Agripreneurs

See: www.tist.org

Photo: L. Onyango

Photo: N. Palmer

Challenge: Understanding the differences in the needs, preferences and assets (financial, human capital,

etc) – of men, women and youths – that facilitate or impede their adoption of new technologies & practices

Photo: Arame Tall, CCAFS

e.g. women’s relative lack of mobility

Photos: N. Palmer, CIAT; V. Atakos, S. Macmillan, ILRI; CCAFS

When women have more decision-making power, they are more likely to be doing things like water harvesting, composting, conservation agriculture, etc.

Women are less aware of various ag practices than are men, but when they are aware, they are just as likely to adopt them

Gender outcomes we seekVulnerable groups and women have increased access to, and control over: productive assets and inputs, information, food and markets

And, strengthened participation in decision-making processes

Photo: CCAFS

Photo: Reboot

Achieving these outcomes: How we do the research matters – a lot!

Kristjanson et al, 2009. Linking International Agricultural Research Knowledge with Action for Sustainable Development. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 9(13):5047-5052.

The critical K2A ‘pillars’:•Strategic partnerships & inclusive engagement processes•Co-learning; capacity strengthening, co-design and co-production of solutions•Innovative communications for scaling out

Photo: N. Palmer

Examples of innovative approaches for inclusive scaling out

Farm reality TV show targeting and informing East Africa women, men & youth on accessible agricultural practices

www.shambashapeup.com

Challenge: Funding a rigorous research component, with a solid sampling frame, measuring social, economic and environmental benefits, costs and impacts

Photo: Mediae

Examples of innovative approaches for inclusive scaling out, cont’d

• Testing new large-scale, inclusive crowdsourcing and citizen science approaches (e.g. women and men rank different characteristics of various crop varieties)

• Mobile-phone based female and youth-targeted climate and agricultural information services

• Participatory farmer-led videos sharing perceptions, knowledge and adaptation strategies

For more information, see: ccafs.cgiar.org/blog

Photo: CCAFSPhoto: ILRI

How will we know if a project or program is making progress towards

achieving gender outcomes?What are some good indicators of progress towards these outcomes (changes in behavior), what data do we have to collect, and what tools/approaches will get us there?

Photo: CCAFS

Sex-disaggregated data• Data that are collected and analysed

separately on males and females

• Involves asking the “who” questions in an agricultural household survey: ‘who provides labor, who makes the decisions, who owns and controls the land and other resources’?

• And, asking men and women about their individual roles and responsibilities

Doss, C. 2013. Data needs for gender analysis in agriculture. IFPRI EPTD Discussion Paper 1261.

Photo: ILRI

Why collect it?• Both men and women are involved in

agricultural production, so it’s necessary to understand both of their roles and responsibilities and how these may change in the context of new policies, markets, and technologies.

Photo: IFPRI

Some CGIAR research findings on gender and agricultural development• Agricultural roles of men and women, young and

old, poor vs. less poor differ; they are pursuing different types of agricultural adaptation strategies

• Studies in Uganda, Ghana, Kenya & Bangladesh suggest women have less secure land tenure & less decision-making power in agricultural production decisions than men

Kyazze et al. (2012) ‘Using a gender lens to explore farmers’ adaptation options in the face of a changing climate: Results of a pilot study in Uganda’. CCAFS Working Paper No. 26

Chaudhury et al. (2012). ‘Participatory gender-sensitive approaches for addressing key climate change-related research issues: evidence from Bangladesh, Ghana, and Uganda’. CCAFS Working Paper 19

• Women are less likely to receive information than men about new agricultural practices, but when they do, they are just as likely to adopt them – particularly resource-conserving and food security-enhancing practices (e.g. no till, cover cropping, efficient fertilizer use, agroforestry)

• Food insecure households are less likely to adopt new practices that can make them more resilient

CG Research findings, cont’d

Meinzen-Dick et al. ‘Institutions and Gender in the Adoption of Climate-Smart Practices’. CCAFS WP, forthcoming.

Kristjanson et al. 2012. Food Security 4, 381-397. http://www.springerlink.com/content/1876-4517/ Photo: N. Palmer

Questions we are now addressingwith gender-disaggregated data

• What influences which adaptation strategies are undertaken in different places? How do they differ for men and women?

• How are these influenced by environmental conditions, norms, decision-making, enabling environment (land health measures, land tenure, information sources)?

Photo: ILRI

Gender outcome indicatorsWomen’s control over resources – to compare men’s and women’s control over how land, livestock, water, forests, etc - and the income from sales of crop, livestock or forest products - is used How to measure?•Inserting specific questions into existing surveys (e.g. LSMS) – BMGF supported WB work on this with One Campaign (Leveling the Field)•IFPRI/USAID’s Women’s empowerment in agriculture index (WEAI) has a domain on ownership and control over resources•CCAFS intra-hh gender-CC survey looks at plot and livestock ownership and income

Source: CGIAR gender network

Gender outcome indicators

Women’s Participation in Decision Making•a greater degree of participation in decisions relating to women’s & their hh’s well-being•an expansion of the range of decisions and available choices in which women (and their families and communities) can participate

How to measure?– Need indicators of decisions over own labor, own income,

and decisions made in groups – e.g WEAI; CCAFS tools look at ag production decisions

Source: CGIAR gender network

What doesn’t work• Ignoring it (i.e. collecting sex-

disaggregated data)• Comparing female-headed and male-

headed households - it misses important data on women

• Assuming one source of hh income, or that women have control over income arising from their ag activities & efforts

• Purely extractive data collection approaches do not empower women; social learning approaches can

Shaw A, Kristjanson P. 2014. A Catalyst toward Sustainability? Exploring Social Learning and Social Differentiation Approaches with the Agricultural Poor. Sustainability 6(5): 2685-2717. Deere CD, Alvarado GE, Twyman J. 2012. Gender Inequality in Asset Ownership in Latin America: Female Owners vs Household Heads. Development and Change 43(2): 505–530.

Photo: ILRI

What works? What can/should be done at a project or program-level?

Strategic gender research at a range of scales:•using complementary quantitative and qualitative methods – new ones have taken a ‘module’ approach; key questions come first!!•Purely extractive/diagnostic research won’t empower women•Need to consider time, expense; no ‘one size fits all’ •Developing at theory of change/impact pathway with key partners is critical - appropriate indicators ‘fall out’ at different levels of the impact pathway

Innovative Communications Approach Gender Impact Pathway Example

Theory of Change: We must target women to have impact

Outcome: Farmers (men and women) are adapting, public and private sectors are supporting

e.g. Outcome to Impact Indicator: net soil fertility enhanced (male and female plots)Indicators of progress towards outcome: •no. of women reached with CSA info with ShambaShapeUp (SSU)•no. and reach of local partners (NGOs – e.g. GROOTS, CARE, IFAD projects) that target and work closely with women•% of farmers learning something new from SSU per season•% of farmers changing at least one practice per season•% increase in CSA practices adopted per SSU season (compared with last season)

Agriculture, Food Security Gender-disaggregated Survey ResourcesCCAFS Questionnaires and Data freely available:

CCAFS hh and village baselines, intra-hh gender survey, farm characterization (ImpactLite) surveys: http://thedata.harvard.edu/dvn/dv/CCAFSbaseline

Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index: http://www.ifpri.org/book-9075/ourwork/program/weai-resource-center

Guide to gender analysis in Agroforestry: http://www.icraf.org/newsroom/highlights/new-guide-gender-analysis-agroforestry

Gender and Assets project:http://gaap.ifpri.info/

Photo: World Bank

New gender-CC research tools, papers, & briefs: ccafs.cgiar.org/genderJoin the Gender, Agriculture and Climate Change Research Network:

https://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostRecent=&gid=6657402

Additional References• Shaw A, Kristjanson P. 2014. A Catalyst toward Sustainability? Exploring Social

Learning and Social Differentiation Approaches with the Agricultural Poor. Sustainability 6(5): 2685-2717. L\DOI:10.3390/su6052685 Open Access. http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/6/5/2685

• Wood S A, Jina A S, Jain M, Kristjanson P, DeFries R. 2014. Smallholder farmer cropping decisions related to climate variability across multiple regions. Global Environmental Change 25: 163-172. Open Access. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.12.011

• Vervoort JM, Thornton PK, Kristjanson P, Förch W, Ericksen PJ, Kok K, Ingram JSI, Herrero M, Palazzo A, Helfgott AES, Wilkinson A, Havlik P. 2014. Challenges to scenario-guided adaptive action on food security under climate change. Global Environmental Change. Open Access. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378014000387

• Kristjanson P, Harvey B, Van Epp M, Thornton PK. 2014. Social learning and sustainable development. Nature Climate Change. Vol 4. https://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/34283

Thank you!

And thanks for inputs from the CGIAR gender network, IFPRI, ILRI, CIAT, ICRAF, FAO, CARE, WeEffect, Mediae, PROLINNOVA and many other collaborators ……

Photo: World Development Movement