T he effectiveness of Participatory Research and Gender Analysis (PR&GA)
approaches is critically constrained by an organizational structure based on a
supply-driven system of innovation. Results of several studies conducted by the
Program with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR) centers demonstrates three separate but inter-related constraints:
1) Fragmented investment in and application of PR&GA approaches across
the CGIAR system leads to repeated testing of proven approaches and as a
result of which international agricultural research centers (IARCs)
do not evolve beyond a researcher-led type of participation.
2) In a researcher-driven participatory research process, the likelihood of
technologies matching farmers’ priorities is small because end-users, such
as women, tend to be brought into the participatory research
process at a relatively late stage, to evaluate technologies that have
already been developed and are ready for dissemination.
3) Even in those cases where innovations have resulted from farmers’
feedback, it is unlikely that such learning and change can be sustained
beyond the life of the project. One major reason for this is that PR&GA
approaches largely remain isolated from, and often contradict the
dominant paradigm of innovation practiced within
organizations
