Practical Notes: Critical elements for integrating gender in agricultural research and development projects and programs
This paper (PDF), published in the Journal of gender, agriculture and Food security answers the question on how to integrate gender in agricultural research, development projects and programs. Gender integration has become a common topic within research and development circles. Most people now recognize that agriculture research and development must be gender responsive and must address the needs of both men and women, while recognizing and addressing the unequal access to resources and differential levels of productivity between men and women. As a result, organizations have developed strategies to integrate gender in their work and to ensure they are empowering women. More often than not however, most organizations have struggled to identify what the entry points for gender integration might be and how they can make the process more systematic and the integration more meaningful. Many organizations and programs have as a result ended up with gender policies and strategies that are broad, not clear on actions and therefore not implementable. This paper provides four entry points that provide guidance to research organizations or research programs looking for a systematic process for gender integration. Namely; 1) The focus of the research and expected outcomes; 2) Gender sensitive research; 3) Capacity building in gender integration and gender research; 4) Tracking and holding staff accountable for gender outcomes.