2020 Report Activity 1 - Individual Capacity End Line Report

October 2018, a baseline individual capacity evaluation was undertaken at local and national levels in Guatemala. Its objective was to map out the initial status of CSA and gender knowledge, skills, attitude, and related practices in the three types of actors targeted by the project (farmers, local and national level stakeholders) in order to compare it with an end line exercise and assess the contribution of the project to the observed changes. Following the development of a detailed project Theory of Change (see full Activity report) to identify the expected changes and outcomes, specific questionnaires were designed for each of the three target groups (see Table 1 and 2). In the case of farmers, the questionnaire focused on assessing their level of knowledge on specific CSA practices and their potential impacts on agricultural production but also on climate vulnerability and gender dimensions (i.e access to resources, labor, and decision making). With local actors additional questions aimed at assessing their understanding of a Gender-sensitive approach, their level of institutional mainstreaming/implementation and monitoring, their perceived individual capacities and needs. Finally, with national-level stakeholders, the questions addressed individual perceptions on the importance given to Gender in the political and agricultural sector agenda, their level of knowledge and technical expertise, and their capacity to support gender mainstreaming into their institutional work

Activity Report: Individual capacity baseline report

This report presents the results from the baseline capacity evaluation undertaken at local and national level under the IDRC/CCAFS project “Generating evidence on gender sensitive Climate-Smart Agriculture to inform policy in Central America” implemented in Guatemala. Its objective was to map out the initial status of CSA and gender knowledge, skills, attitude and related practices in the three types of actors targeted by the project (farmers, local and national level stakeholders) in order to compare it with an end line exercise and assess the contribution of the project to the observed changes. Building on the project Theory of Change (TOC) formulated by the CIAT team to identify the expected changes and outcomes, specific questionnaires were designed for each the three target groups. In the case of farmers the questionnaire focused on assessing their level of knowledge on specific CSA practices and their potential impacts on agricultural production but also on climate vulnerability and gender dimensions (i.e access to resources, labor and decision making). With local actors additional questions aimed at assessing their understanding of a Gender sensitive approach, their level of institutional mainstreaming/implementation and monitoring, their perceived individual capacities and needs. Finally, with national level stakeholders, the questions addressed individual perceptions on the importance given to Gender in the political and agricultural sector agenda, their level of knowledge and technical expertise and their capacity to support gender mainstreaming into their institutional work. The baseline results show some level of knowledge on the CSA promoted practices (at all levels) and gender dimensions (at subnational and national levels). At farmer level, the practice most known by farmers was shade in coffee and the one less known is eco-efficient stoves. However this is the practice known by the women interviewed. Farmers consider that they have some knowledge on the effect of these practices on yield and adaptive capacity and on gender indicators. Local actors have some idea of the level of adoption of these practices and on factors that enable their adoption. They also shared having a fairly good knowledge about the intra-household gender dynamics in Olopa through surveys, local actors meetings. However they consider that they have few knowledge on the link between gender and CSA. Finally, national actors’ definition of gender is related to participation, equality, which is consistent with local actors understanding. However at national level, actors interviewed seem to integrate key aspect of the need to understand and address the specificity of women (and vulnerable groups) in terms of knowledge, needs, and abilities. For them, gender is more important at the global political agenda than at the agricultural agenda. There is few interest/ support to further incorporate gender in this sector

Methodological Guide to Co-design Climate-smart Options with Family Farmers

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) seeks to improve productivity for the achievement of food security (pillar 1: Productivity), to develop a better ability to adapt (pillar 2: Adaptation), and to limit greenhouse gas emissions (pillar 3: Mitigation). Technical and organizational innovations are needed to find synergies among those three pillars. Innovation (its creation and its operation) is a social phenomenon. Many studies worldwide have shown that promoting a sustainable change and innovation within organizations has to be analyzed and implemented with stakeholders. Thus, the ability of local actors to tackle climate change and mitigate its effects will depend on their ability to innovate and mobilize material and non-material resources, to articulate links among national policies, not only between themselves, but also undertaking actions at the local level. To support stakeholders in the development of responses to this challenge, we propose the development of open innovation platforms, in which all local actors may participate. These platforms are virtual, physical, or physico-virtual spaces to learn, jointly conceive, and transform different situations; they are generated by individuals with different origins, different backgrounds and interests (Pali and Swaans, 2013).The purpose of this manual is to provide a seven-step methodology to allow family farmers to co-build and adopt CSA options to tackle climate change in an open innovation platfor

Cultivando para Ganar - Choice Game for climate action

Smallholders are decision-makers with goals and strategies. Their decisions and behaviors towards the adaptation of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) options depend on individual livelihood goals, beliefs concerning the likelihood of uncertain climate events, and personal motives. Understanding the decision-making of farmers about the adoption of CSA practices and technologies to increase farming resilience against climate risks, which are embedded in many other risks, is a difficult task. Innovative approaches in action research, such as playing games, can generate a neutral environment to experiment and learn from simulated circumstances and outcomes and increase actors' awareness and capacity to plan the implementation of gender-sensitive CSA options properly. We developed and tested a choice game to understand and strengthen farmers' decision-making to implement (or not) CSA options after having received a seasonal climate forecast. The game was co-designed with CCAFS project partners in the Climate-Smart Villages of Olopa, Guatemala, and Santa-Rita, Honduras, and tested with farmers and extension in both countries. The game can be played in two settings, i) as a board game in a room where all players are present, and ii) as a virtual game where participants are connected through a video conference and accessing a shared document. Results provided general insights into farmers' perception of climate risks and the need and opportunities to proactively cope with them by implementing CSA practices. They were, however, hardly capable of developing strategies to do this in an economically reasonable way, and tried to implement as many strategies as possible. When playing the game in a virtual setting, agricultural experts and stakeholders from local institutions found the game to be an exciting tool to complement traditional learning methods in several ways. First, learning is promoted through the experience of the players. Also, the context of the game forms a safe learning environment for testing alternative decisions. Besides, discussion among players about the game outcome can be stimulating for real-world situations associated with adopting CSA practices. Simulation games can also make players aware of their mental models and potentially change these models or beliefs. Overall, the game is a useful tool for researchers to understand players' perceptions about climate risks, seasonal weather forecasts, and climate-smart agriculture options to cope with risks. For national stakeholder experts and development practitioners, it is a practical tool to be used in action research to complement other learning approaches, especially in low literacy communities

Integración de género en políticas de agricultura, seguridad alimentaria y cambio climático: el caso de Guatemala

La integración de la perspectiva de género en las políticas es fundamental para alcanzar objetivos de desarrollo nacionales y abordar retos como el cambio climático (CC) y la seguridad alimentaria y la nutrición (SAN). Dentro del proyecto CCAFS FP1 LAM, analizamos en qué medida el género está incluido en las políticas de CC y SAN de Guatemala. Utilizamos la metodología desarrollada en el informe "Gender integration in agriculture, food security and climate change policy: a framework proposal" (Integración de la perspectiva de género en laagricultura, la seguridad alimentaria y las políticas sobre el cambio climático: una propuesta marco); la cual incluye análisis de narrativas y de documentos. Resultados muestran que a pesar de que Guatemala ha firmado múltiples compromisos internacionales en temas de género, son poco mencionado en documentes de políticas. A nivel de gobierno, se han creado unidades sectoriales, así como una secretaria presidencial de género que tienen pocas capacidades. Existen políticas de género, pero poco se incluye del tema dentro de las políticas sectoriales. A nivel de ciclo de política (de la elaboración al monitoreo y evaluación), si las mujeres con reconocidas como una población más vulnerable, son poco incluida en políticas de SAN y CC. Existen múltiples barreras, ubicadas a diferentes niveles que explica a la falta de integración de género en el ciclo de políticas. Actores entrevistados identificaron más barreras que soluciones frente a esta situación. Las barreras que logran más consenso entre los actores entrevistados se relacionan con (1) racismo, machismo, conservatismo, (2) la falta de presupuesto público y (3) la falta de sensibilización. Contra narrativas permiten ver motivaciones de actores que no tienen interés en hacer avanzar el tema de género en el país.The integration of the gender perspective into policies is essential to achieve national development goals and address challenges such as climate change (CC) and food security and nutrition (SAN). Within the CCAFS FP1 LAM project, we analyze to what extent gender is included in the CC and SAN policies of Guatemala. We use the methodology developed in the report "Gender integration in agriculture, food security and climate change policy: a framework proposal"; which includes analysis of narratives and documents. Results show that although Guatemala has signed multiple international commitments on gender issues, they are little mentioned in policy documents. At the government level, sectoral units have been created, as well as a gender presidential secretary who has few capacities. There are gender policies, but little is included in the topic within sectoral policies. At the policy cycle level (from development to monitoring and evaluation), if women were recognized as a more vulnerable population, are little included in SAN and CC policies. There are multiple barriers, located at different levels that explain the lack of gender integration in the policy cycle. The actors interviewed identified more barriers than solutions to this situation. The barriers that achieve the most consensus among the interviewed actors are related to (1) racism, sexism, conservatism, (2) lack of public budget and (3) lack of awareness. Against narratives, they allow seeing motivations of actors who have no interest in advancing the gender issue in the country