Abstract
Gender differentiation in smallholder farming and agriculture and the need to ‘feminize’ agricultural development have been recognised as critical to poverty reduction. Evidence now demonstrates that the shocks resulting from climate risks to agriculture and food security and adaptive responses are highly gender-differentiated. However, agricultural research and development have not delivered the transformative changes needed in smallholder farming from a poverty eradication and gender equality perspective, and particularly to support women to adapt to climate risks. Climate smart agriculture represents a step change in the ways that issues related to crop and livestock productivity, the climate adaptive capacity of smallholder farming, and the carbon footprint of farming are investigated and technologies transferred. However, international agriculture research and development have struggled to find effective ways of integrating gender equitable outcomes in agriculture programmes. High level strategic decisions have not prioritised resources for gender equality work resulting in climate smart agriculture being rather gender blind. Knock on effects down the research and development strata have meant that some development agencies have taken up a CSA approach without addressing gender inequalities. While others, including some INGOs, are pushing for greater attention to gender equality in agricultural development. Methodological remedies that can enable gender equality to be better addressed through agricultural research and development have been identified from tool-boxes to epistemological change. But without a change in high level prioritisation of resources the potential for a climate smart and gender responsive international agriculture research and development remains out of reach.
Highlights
Shifting demographics and the gender-differentiated impacts of different stress factors in the agricultural sectors of developing countries demand that agricultural research and development (R&D) directly address gender equality issues
The analysis showed that discourses on climate policy, agricultural development, and agro-industry focus on efficiency-based distributive equity, and small-scale climate smart agriculture”2 (CSA) discourse focus on needs-based distributive equity
In 2017, after the SAPA gender review the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Independent Office of Evaluation developed guidance on “What works for gender equality and women’s empowerment.”
Summary
At the local level the technological innovations and changes in farming practices that climate resilience requires have implications for the ways that household members engage in small-scale agriculture and in other livelihood activities. Programme level evaluations of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) programme on Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and of the Adaptation in Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), have revealed the ways and the extent to which these R&D programmes have addressed issues of gender equality. The weaknesses in addressing gender equality have pervaded the adoption of CSA approaches, in part due to existing situational mechanisms not being challenged by stronger emphasis of addressing gender inequalities through adaptation in small-scale farming
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