One CGIAR Consultation Workshop on ‘Digital Innovation and Transformation in Food-Water-Land Systems in India'

Under its new research for development (R4D) initiative on digital innovation and transformation, the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR), organised a two-day workshop on 8 and 9 November 2022, at Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. The workshop was aimed to better understand the actor landscape of the digital ecosystem in food-water-land systems. This includes: the availability, accessibility, gender responsiveness and effectiveness of services; the challenges and opportunities in promoting an inclusive, gender-intentional and beneficial digital ecosystem; and the data management challenges associated with data security and governance. Essential stakeholders encompassing representatives from government, research, private, producer and Non-Governmental Organizations having expertise and experience in digital innovations participated in the workshop

TH3.3: Fostering an enabling environment for equality and empowerment in agri-food systems

Lasting transformative change in agri-food systems and wider societal benefits require fostering an enabling environment for empowerment and equality by gender and intersecting social differentiation, while concurrently reducing existing inequalities in access to and control over productive resources, services and technology, resilience and leadership. Fostering an enabling environment hinges on addressing key structural constraints to equally accessing resources, exercising agency and achieving desirable outcomes across multiple scales in a holistic manner. This paper discusses the emerging thinking about key structural barriers at the scales of the state, markets, communities, households and individuals that are rooted in policy, discriminatory (formal and informal) social and economic institutions (including social norms) and dampened aspirations; and their relevance for transformative change in agri-food systems. It shows the trend and current status of key structural constraints, and what has proven effective to relax such constraints. The paper lists key evidence-based recommendations to promote an enabling environment for empowerment and equality in agri-food systems

FR2.3: What influences women's participation in water governance? Preliminary findings from Bangladesh

The Bangladesh polder zones cover 1.2 million hectares of agricultural land and are home to around eight million people with women playing a critical role in agriculture and food systems. With limited access to and control over productive resources and incomes, women are disproportionately vulnerable to climatic risks. Their ability to make important decisions can have positive outcomes on the governance of natural resources, agricultural productivity, and livelihoods. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study aims to examine the extent and level of women's participation in water management groups (WMGs) and analyze the socio-cultural, political, economic, and biophysical contexts that influence participation. A structured-questionnaire survey of 720 households was conducted during April-June 2022 in four polders of the Khulna division. Focus group discussions with women and men members were conducted to reflect on the factors that influence women's participation in WMGs. Results reveal that while men contributed mostly to decisions on structure/equipment investment and the release and distribution of water that directly affected agriculture production, women were more involved in enlisting participants for training on homestead gardening, livestock and poultry, as well as leadership development. Both men and women highlighted that participation in WMGs resulted in access to innovations that improved crop productivity and incomes. Women members opined that participation gave them social recognition in the community. Despite these perceived benefits, more than 60% of women respondents believed that their participation in meetings and decisions in WMGs is constrained by unpaid domestic work and restrictive social norms. The preliminary findings highlight that tackling restrictive gender norms to redistribute the unpaid domestic work burden of women is one way of enabling effective participation in water governance

PROTOCOL: The impact of agricultural mechanisation on women's economic empowerment: A mixed-methods systematic review

This is the protocol for a Campbell systematic review. The main objective of the review is to answer the following questions: What is the impact of mechanisation on agriculture? What is the impact of mechanisation on women's economic empowerment? The study will review the impact of mechanisation on labour demand and supply, land and labour productivity, farmers' incomes, health and women's empowerment. All literature will be considered, including nonintervention studies and studies not reporting gender-disaggregated results

Where women in agri-food systems are at highest climate risk: A methodology for mapping climate-agriculture-gender inequality hotspots

Climate change poses a greater threat for more exposed and vulnerable countries, communities and social groups. People whose livelihood depends on the agriculture and food sector, especially in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), face significant risk. In contexts with gendered roles in agri-food systems or where structural constraints to gender equality underlie unequal access to resources and services and constrain women's agency, local climate hazards and stressors, such as droughts, floods, or shortened crop-growing seasons, tend to negatively affect women more than men and women's adaptive capacities tend to be more restrained than men's . Transformation towards just and sustainable agri-food systems in the face of climate change will not only depend on reducing but also on averting aggravated gender inequality in agri-food systems. In this paper, we developed and applied an accessible and versatile methodology to identify and map localities where climate change poses high risk especially for women in agri-food systems because of gendered exposure and vulnerability. We label these localities climate-agriculture-gender inequality hotspots. Applying our methodology to LMICs reveals that the countries at highest risk are majorly situated in Africa and Asia. Applying our methodology for agricultural activity-specific hotspot subnational areas to four focus countries, Mali, Zambia, Pakistan and Bangladesh, for instance, identifies a cluster of districts in Dhaka and Mymensingh divisions in Bangladesh as a hotspot for rice. The relevance and urgency of identifying localities where climate change hits agri-food systems hardest and is likely to negatively affect population groups or sectors that are particularly vulnerable is increasingly acknowledged in the literature and, in the spirit of leaving no one behind, in climate and development policy arenas. Hotspot maps can guide the allocation of scarce resources to most at-risk populations. The climate-agriculture-gender inequality hotspot maps show where women involved in agri-food systems are at high climate risk while signaling that reducing this risk requires addressing the structural barriers to gender equality

Effectively targeting climate investments: A methodology for mapping climate–agriculture–gender inequality hotspots

Climate change is influencing the transformation of agriculture and food systems across the globe in unprecedented ways. A large number of smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) who depend on these systems for their food and nutrition security, and incomes are experiencing increasing vulnerability. Women are at a particular disadvantage, given their lower adaptive capacity due to unequal access to productive resources and services, driven by deeply entrenched social and gender norms and other structural barriers. However, addressing these gender gaps can enable women to use their knowledge and skill to contribute to climate-resilient agriculture. This paper proposes a methodology to map climate–agriculture–gender inequality hotspots at national and subnational levels where climate hazards, women’s exposure to climate hazards affecting food systems, and gender inequalities converge to impact women’s vulnerability to climate change. These hotspots are geographical areas where extreme climate hazards intersect with large concentrations of women participating in food systems and in the agricultural labor force, and with high levels of gender inequalities—and as such, result in high risk and exposure, low adaptive capacities, and higher vulnerability of women to adverse effects of climate change. The hotspots are identified using a set of indicators based on available secondary data comparable across the countries, conforming to the framework developed for this assessment, and using the Principal Component Analysis methodology. The paper also presents the results of the analysis emerging from the application of this methodology. This includes a global ranking of 87 LMICs in Latin America, Asia and Africa by a climate–agriculture–gender inequality hotspot index using representative national-level data. Identification of subnational climate–agriculture–gender inequality hotspot areas using representative subnational level data in four selected countries is also discussed. Hotspot mapping can support organizations aiming to effectively target investments to address climate-change mitigation and adaptation so that women are not left out, and the climate change–induced food-systems transformations help advance gender equality

Effects of community-based intervention of non-government organization on gender equity in agriculture and food systems in selected areas of Kishoreganj district

This impact assessment study focuses on two community-based development projects, implemented by People's Oriented Programme Implementation (POPI), an NGO in Bangladesh. Both projects were implemented in the Kishoreganj district, a gender inequality hotspot. The "Engaging Communities and Authority to Tackle Oppressions (ECATTO)" project focused on agriculture and livelihoods promotions to ensure increased equitable access to income for both women and men, nutritious food for men, women, boys, and girls, and promoting women's empowerment and gender equity at the family and community level. The "Strengthening Household Ability to Respond to Development Opportunities (SHOUHARDO)–III," project aimed at sustainably reducing food insecurity of the poor and extremely poor households in the project areas. The impact study considered key domains in transforming food systems to explore the hypothesized relationships between the changes intended through our pilot intervention and the envisioned gender equality outcomes