Jemimah Njuki

International Women’s Day, ILRI, Nairobi, 8 March 2012

Gender: Refers to the socially constructed roles and status of women and men, girls and boys. It is a set of culturally specific characteristics defining the social behaviour of women and men, boys and girls, and the relationships between them.

Gender: Refers to the socially constructed roles and status of women and men, girls and boys. It is a set of culturally specific characteristics defining the social behaviour of women and men, boys and girls, and the relationships between them.

Gender Mainstreaming: Is a strategy for making women's, as well as men's, concerns and experiences an integral dimension in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and social spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated.

Gender Mainstreaming: Is a strategy for making women's, as well as men's, concerns and experiences an integral dimension in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and social spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated.

Female Share of the Agricultural Labour Force

Women, on average, comprise 43% of the agricultural labour force in developing countries and account for an estimated two-thirds of the world's 600 million poor livestock keepers.

FAO and Farming First 2012

Access to Extension Services Because of cultural attitudes, discrimination and a lack of recognition for their role in food production, women enjoy limited to no benefits from extension and training in new crop varieties and technologies.

FAO and Farming First 2012

Gender Yield Gap The vast majority of studies suggest that women are just as efficient as men and would achieve the same yields if they had equal access to productive resources and services. Bridging this gender yield gap would boost food and nutrition security globally.

FAO and Farming First 2012

Access to Markets Increasing women's share of household income has broad benefits to improved rural livelihoods. Improving transportation and infrastructure constraints and encouraging rural women's participation in farmer organisations and cooperatives can help both to achieve economies of scale in access to markets as well as reducing isolation and building confidence, leadership and security.

FAO and Farming First 2012

To enable ILRI to have a systematic approach to promoting gender equality / equity at institutional and research level.

To define the role that ILRI will play in stimulating and facilitating efforts, both in-house and with partners at the national, regional and global levels, to overcome constraints and take advantage of opportunities to promote gender equality and equity within the livestock sub sector

It is a reflection of the increasing awareness that gender

equality and equity are important prerequisites for agricultural growth and sustainable development.

Previous efforts in integrating gender in ILRI proposals—often not carried through to implementation, monitoring and evaluation

Lack of clarity on where responsibility and accountability for integration of gender in projects and programs lies.

Even where there is willingness to integrate gender, the practical skills and guidelines for doing so, are usually lacking—often leading to gender “paragraphs”

To increase the quality, efficiency and impacts of ILRI’s work in livestock development.

To promote equality of opportunity and equity in outcomes between women and men in the livestock sub-sector at local, national, regional, and global levels.

To ensure that human equality, equity and rights are respected across gender, that there is good gender representation in ILRI staffing, decision making positions and there is active and balanced participation by both women and men in ILRI’s policies and work.

Using the Project Cycle

Figure 1: The Project Cycle

Integration of gender into projects, programs and activities should use the project cycle to ensure that gender is integrated in all key points of the project.

An easy and practical way of integrating gender in projects /programmes

Seven critical areas in which projects, programmes should integrate gender within the project cycle..

Integrating gender in ILRI’s organizational structure and culture

Three Key Areas

i. Documenting existing evidence on livestock Review of evidence on Gender and Livestock to

inform targeting and research

ii. Systematizing collection of gender disaggregated data on productivity, value chains, livelihoods Develop key gender and livelihood indicators for

use in M&E and Impact Assessment in all ILRI programs and project.

iii. Strategic research on gender and livestock Current priorities (based on CRPs) Gender and value chains Gender and livestock technology development Gender and assets Gender, livestock, nutrition and health Gender and climate change

Research partnerships◦ International: IFPRI, ICRW, UN women, FAO◦ Regional /National: ASARECA, NARS,

Universities Implementation partnerships

◦ Mainly with NGOs Information dissemination and

communication◦ Electronic (blogs etc)◦ Networks (Gender and Livestock Network,

Gender and Agriculture Network)◦ Biennial conference◦ Online gender and agriculture journal

Objective 1: To promote equality of opportunity and outcomes between women and men in the livestock sub-sector

Objective 2: To increase the quality, efficiency and impacts of ILRIs work in livestock development

Objective 3: To ensure that human equality, equity and rights are respected across gender, that there is good gender representation in ILRI staffing….

A narrowing of gender disparities in the adoption of livestock technologies, access to services, information and inputs

A narrowing of gender disparities in outcomes including nutrition status, asset ownership, and intra-household decision making Improved gender equity in access to and control of benefits from livestock and associated resources and interventions

The extent to which women are involved in the livestock sector and in ILRI programs in terms of decision making, production, marketing, or processing is in proportion to their numbers in the sector

Increased availability of sex disaggregated data for decision making in livestock for ILRI, other CGIAR centres and partners

Increased capacity and expertise to develop and implement gender responsive agricultural innovations, especially for smallholders by ILRI staff and partners

Integration of gender-related indicators in ILRI’s performance evaluation and reward systems

Increased number of women participating in science in ILRI and partner institutions, and advancing to leadership positions (and to exceed 30%)

The extent to which ILRI policies and programs are gender responsive

Should gender be a specific focus of work or can we assume that our work will lead to equitable outcomes for men, women and other marginalized groups? How can we more effectively mainstream gender in our work?  

Who should have the responsibility for integrating gender in our work? How do we ensure accountability by staff for gender outcomes from our research and other work at ILRI?