Pathways to Women’s Empowerment in the Promotion of Climate Smart Agriculture in the Philippines, Myanmar, and Cambodia

Climate change is not gender neutral. Women are a vulnerable population within a vulnerable population. Far from an equalizing event, climate change risks and disasters often magnify and aggravate existing inequalities in society, including gender inequality. National governments and the international development community recognized that in order to strengthen and accelerate their goals for agricultural development, economic growth and food security they need to build the contributions that women make and take steps to alleviate barriers to women empowerment. A quantitative-qualitative study has been undertaken to investigate how the promotion of climate smart agriculture is contributing to women empowerment within the climate smart villages (CSVs) in Myanmar, Cambodia and the Philippines. The analysis of survey results (n=121) showed that the majority of the women farmers opt to make decisions jointly with their husbands in activities related to agriculture production. Women’s participation in the decision-making process are related to decisions on what crops or crop varieties to plant. Women are more engaged in the decision making related to small livestock such as goats, pigs and chickens, they have gained more experience and knowledge and are able to provide good suggestions regarding livestock. Increased income is a powerful measure of women’s economic empowerment. Across the six CSVs, there is a significant difference in the perceived increase in incomes. The impact of women’s increased income has been equally positive at both the household and community level, with increased involvement in household and production decision-making and increased and more active participation in community activities. Household borrowing and saving have traditionally been the normative responsibility of women. This finding is supported by focus group discussions (n=113) in the CSVs where women are designated as budget planner and keeper of the household income. The study also indicated that the promotion of homestead gardens and small livestock buffered the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic to the households as these activities provided them with food, enabled them to share or sell vegetables to their neighbors, and reserved food for extended lockdowns

Gender Outcomes Harvesting in Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security: A meta-analysis

Within the context of the promotion and adoption of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) options or practices, this paper is a meta-analysis that focuses on gender outcomes resulting from women’s adaptation strategies, in response to constraints brought on by their normative and cultural environment, expectations emanating from their reproductive and productive roles, and gender disparities that contribute to gender inequality and women’s economic disempowerment. The women’s adaptation strategies were examined among climate-smart villages in five countries in Southeast Asia -- Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Lao PDR, and the Philippines. The gender outcomes were harvested from available gender-related literature and empirical studies under the CCAFS and researches implemented by IIRR on CSA practices, technologies, innovations consisting of a portfolio or a basket of options that address food security, climate change adaptation and mitigation and support services provided in climate-smart villages. Outcome is defined in this study as a change in the behaviour, relationships, actions, activities, policies, or practices of an individual, group, community, organization, or institution. Gender outcome harvesting shifts the focus on the changes that impact on women and men from the use of CSA technologies, practices, and social learning practices. The report presents gender outcomes and insights from 69 reports conducted in these five countries with findings validated by studies done in other CSVs elsewhere, covering a range of women’s concerns that include an analysis of their gender roles are determinants or barriers to empowerment, gendered impacts of climate change, male migration, literacy, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Gender outcomes were also harvested from studies on the adoption not only of CSA practices (including homestead gardens and livestock production), but also of agricultural innovations, labour-saving technologies and seed systems. The report includes gender outcomes that spring from integrating gender approaches into CSA and food systems, examining pathways around gender norms surrounding patriarchy, and assessment of the use of gender transformative approaches, gender guidance and tools used in measuring women’s empowerment. In support of the findings and recommendations, a final section is presented on a future research agenda

Using dynamic tools to develop an understanding of the fundamental ideas of calculus

Although dynamic geometry software has been extensively used for teaching calculus concepts, few studies have documented how these dynamic tools may be used for teaching the rigorous foundations of the calculus. In this paper, we describe lesson sequences utilizing dynamic tools for teaching the epsilon-delta definition of the limit and the fundamental theorem of calculus. The lessons were designed on the basis of observed student difficulties and the existing scholarly literature. We show how a combination of dynamic tools and guide questions allows students to construct their understanding of these calculus ideas

App for Addition and Subtraction of Integers

This paper presents a mobile app, AlgeOps, created to assist students in understanding addition and subtraction of integers. The design of the app amalgamated the neutralization model (based on cancelling integers of opposite signs) and the number line model to offer a more holistic representation of integers. Furthermore, since AlgeOps presents two objects, boxes and balloons, the learning objective may be extended to adding and subtracting polynomials. Pre- and post-assessments, student observations and interviews with teachers and students revealed the app can increase performance, facilitate conceptual development, and increase engagement in tasks involving integer addition and subtraction