How to do note: Design of gender transformative smallholder agriculture adaptation programmes
This How To Do Note (PDF) by IFAD is intended to provide guidance on how to design smallholder agriculture adaptation programmes that consider the differential impacts of climate change on women, men and youth smallholder farmers. This includes recognizing that programme interventions – from design to staffing to capacity development of beneficiaries and local organizations – need to consider how gender will affect sustainability and impact. The experiences, social positions and differing access to resources of marginalized populations are fundamental considerations in the design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of gender transformative smallholder agriculture adaptation programmes.While programmes designed with a deliberate focus on gender equality are better able to adapt to the needs of women, men and youth, a sound gender analysis conducted at the start of a programme can ensure that the programme’s theory of change addresses changing and contextspecific social structures, policies and social norms that perpetuate gender inequalities. A key concept is that a gender transformative programme is one that actively seeks to build equitable social norms and structures in addition to individual gender-equitable behavior, giving sufficient attention to the specific needs of men, women and youth, and their limited access to resources, including capital, land, time or even the right to make decisions. Furthermore, it is recommended to include a gender focal point with responsibilities to support gender-mainstreaming. Without a focal point, commitments to gender equality in the programme design may be seen as the responsibility of everyone and may, therefore, not be prioritized for action within the programme, especially in the early days of implementation in complex programmes.