Gender research activities in IITA contribute to African rural development

31 May 2022

IITA seeks to carry out cutting-edge gender research in agriculture. During a seminar on 13 May, to understand the progress of gender research in IITA and its impact in Africa, Senior Scientist and Gender Specialist Steven Cole presented “The Contribution of Gender Research at IITA to African Rural Development.” Leena Tripathi, Director of IITA East Africa Hub, moderated the seminar.

In her introductory remarks, Tripathi commended Cole for his excellent work on gender research at IITA. “I know you are doing an outstanding job, so the floor is yours to begin your presentation,” she said.

Cole organized his presentation into three parts: Research that has been concluded and ongoing research that he led and co-led; research he supported IITA colleagues to conduct and colleagues he supported outside the Institute; and other details about work he has carried out over the past three years at IITA.

The first research he presented was in the Best Cassava Project in Tanzania, where cassava seed entrepreneur (CSE) recruitment and training was set up without using a gender lens. The project recruitment tended to favor men, and by mid-2020, only 24% of staff recruited and trained by the project were women. Cole and colleagues carried out a gender study to understand the barriers affecting women’s participation as CSEs and proposed ways the project could be more gender-responsive and transformative. Cole also mentioned that he and his colleagues received a grant to set up a transdisciplinary approach to develop a mixed-methods research tool. The project is ongoing, but the aim is to improve the measurement and understanding of decision-making on agricultural matters within households and determine how this impacts critical development outcomes.

Concerning the research where he supported IITA and external colleagues, Cole cited the Feed-the-Future Mozambique Improved Seeds for Better Agriculture (SEMEAR) Project; the CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals; a COVID-19 study in the Democratic Republic of Congo; the development of a book chapter on assessing women’s empowerment in agricultural research; and a pilot study and book chapter on gender-responsive cassava breeding.

Cole highlighted ongoing collaboration with a group of CGIAR gender scientists and colleagues from Rome-based agencies to develop guidelines on measuring gender transformative change for food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture. He and other IITA gender scientists have strengthened the IITA Gender Science Network (GSN), which consists of social and biophysical scientists who promote gender research and integrate gender perspectives into their activities at the Institute. He added that the GSN worked with the Communication Office to set up a gender web page for showcasing materials on gender research. “Recently, the team launched a gender webinar series to increase the visibility of gender research activities. The first webinar took place in March, and the next will come up this month,” he said.

Sharing resource mobilization efforts of the gender team, Cole stated that IITA had received over half a million US dollars from the GENDER Platform since 2020. He also mentioned other resource mobilization efforts that have increased scientists’ abilities to carry out gender research at IITA.

Speaking of the future of IITA’s Gender Team and the GSN, Cole highlighted the need to grow and develop these while mobilizing resources to carry out gender strategic research, add new gender transformative research projects within IITA, and help the Institute build strong gender research for development partnerships in and outside the One CGIAR.

Other plans include delivering One CGIAR commitments, such as collaborating with agronomy teams to develop and scale gender- and youth-responsive agronomic solutions. He also plans to learn from the IITA Cassava Breeding Unit to inform gender-responsive fish breeding efforts in Nigeria and support gender colleagues to deliver on their research in OneCGIAR Initiatives.

Contributed by Favour Eleta