Using participatory research and gender analysis in natural resource management

The use of participatory tools and methods has increased dramatically in natural resource management (NRM) over the past decade, largely because of the recognition that sustainable NRM cannot be achieved without involving the individuals and communities who make decisions about how resources are used. Participation of resource users and other stakeholders is important not only in the management of resources, but also in research oriented toward the generation of information and innovations that shape how resources are understood and exploited. Although there is extensive literature on participatory tools and methods and a growing number of case studies of their use in NRM (Hinchcliffe et al; IDRC; Pretty), it is difficult to form a coherent overview of this body of work, much of which is unpublished. Moreover, the distinction between participatory research and participatory management is seldom made, either in case studies or in the guides to tools and methods. Yet participatory management that is not firmly linked to research—understood as a process of knowledge generation that supports technical and institutional innovation—is often hindered by a lack of new technical options, information and institutions. There has been little systematic analysis of how participatory research (PR) methods and gender/stakeholder analysis (GSA) are being used in NRM research. 1 This study begins to fill the gap by providing a comparative analysis of over 60 participatory NRM research projects compiled by the Systemwide Program on Participatory Research and Gender Analysis (PRGA). The paper looks at who is doing PR research and GSA in NRM, where, how and with what observed or expected impact. Projects are assessed in terms of the type of participation they use, how they select participants, and whom they target as beneficiaries. The costs and benefits associated with incorporating user participation are also analyzed

Change in the Making: Progress Reports on CGIAR Gender Research: Issue No. 1. Toward gender-equitable control over productive assets and resources

Agriculture in the developing world faces formidable challenges, which range from increased food demand to climate change impacts, and whose scope and complexity are evolving rapidly. The opportunities to address these challenges through collaborative research are also considerable, however, and provide grounds for optimism that renewed efforts in agricultural science can succeed. Yet, one especially debilitating limitation of farming in developing countries – the absence of gender equity – threatens to stifle the impacts of agricultural research on every level – from seed delivery and livestock value chains to the management of whole rural landscapes. According to estimates from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (FAO, 2011), roughly half the people engaged in smallholder farming are women and, because of unequal control over assets and resources, they produce and preserve far less than they could. Unless ways are found to change this situation, it is hard to imagine how agriculture can rise fully to the challenges that lie ahea

Supporting women farmers in a changing climate: five policy lessons

Policies, institutions and services to help farmers develop new approaches to deal with climate change will need to produce results for women farmers as well as men. This brief provides five policy lessons to support this process, based on evidence from research in low- and middle- income countries and offers guidelines for crafting gender-responsive climate policies at global and national levels. This research was presented in March 2015 at a seminar in Paris on ‘Closing the gender gap in farming under climate change’, co-organized by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), the International Social Science Council (ISSC) and Future Earth