In 2015, the world witnessed two critical global agreements – the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Paris Climate Agreement. Both agreements emphasize the need to enhance gender equality while developing response measures to address climate change, reduce food insecurity and improve nutrition. This webinar looks at how gender can be incorporated in this process.

3. Empowering Women in
Agriculture
Dr Jemimah Njuki
Senior Program Officer, Agriculture and
Food Security
International Development Research
Center (IDRC)
March 8, 2016

4. 4
About IDRC
Gender equality, women’s empowerment and
the SDGs
Agriculture based strategies for women’s
empowerment
• Innovations for women’s empowerment
• Expanding business opportunities
• Addressing women’s time poverty
• Women in science
Some key Lessons
Outline

5. 5
About IDRC
A key part of Canada’s aid program, IDRC supports research
around the world to promote growth and development.
Strategic objectives 2015-2020:
• Invest in knowledge and innovation for large-scale positive
change
• Build the leaders for today and tomorrow
• Be the partner of choice for greater impact

6. • Gender equality as a goal
• Gender indicators in
other goals
• Two main views of
women in the context of
SDGs
– Women as key to
achieving SDGs
– Growth and
development that
works for women (in
the context of ‘leave
no one behind’)
6
Gender equality, women’s empowerment and the SDGs

7. 7
Increasing
women’s
economic
opportuniti
es
(improving
nutrition
and
reducing
drudgery)
Cambodia fish in
farms
Precooked beans in
Kenya and Uganda
Fish processing in
Zambia and Malawi
Innovations for women’s empowerment

8. 8
Expanding Business Opportunities for Young Women and Men
Developing and testing
models for engaging youth in
agribusiness
• Combining training, business
development and mentoring
• Research on what works
• Focus on 3 value chains:
Poultry, Fish, Maize in 5
countries

9. 9
Addressing Women’s Time Poverty
Recognise, Reduce,
Redistribute
• Reducing women’s
drudgery in millet based
systems
– Mechanized thresher reduced
threshing time by 35%, milling of
finger millet by 40%
• Precooked beans reduce
cooking time from 2-3
hours to 10-15 minutes
• Redistributing labour and
income in Cambodia
through household
methodologies

10. • Women’s
representation in
science, decision
making and policy
• Programs to enhance
leadership and science
skills for women
– IDRC Research AWARDS
– AWARD
10
Women in science and innovation
Male,
3037
Femal
e,
4078
Farmers Trained
Male,
18
Femal
e, 18
Graduate Students
Male,
57
Femal
e, 32
Researchers by
gender
Representation of women: Students,
scientists, farmers in the CultiAf program

11. 11
Using Radio to Achieve Impact at Scale
• Combining participatory radio
and ICTs to reach women
farmers and consumers
• Formative research with men
and women on design, timing etc
• Comparative analysis and action
research to assess different radio
interventions

12. 12
Some Key Lessons
• Addressing multiple barriers and
opportunities for gender equality
and women’s empowerment
– Women’s agency (skills, voice, resource
control, autonomy)
– Structures (legal, policy, institutional)
– Relations (household, community,
national, global)
• Learning and generating evidence on
what works
– Tools, methods and approaches to
reach scale
– Innovative tools for measuring
women’s empowerment (e.g WEAI)
• Partnerships to achieve scale
Agency
RelationsStructure

14. Challenges and opportunities to
achieving gender parity in the
Kenyan intensive dairy sector
Katie Tavenner | K.Tavenner@cgiar.org
International Women’s Day
Nairobi, Kenya
08 March 2016
ILRI/flickr

15. Why Dairy?
• Low-emissions dairy development as ‘climate smart’
• Improving rural livelihoods
• Intersection of gender/mitigation initiatives/dairy
OnILRI.org

16. Gender Dynamics in Kenyan Dairy Production
Women’s management tasks
• Securing fodder
• Providing water
• Assessing & treating animal’s health needs
• Recognizing when a cow requires mating or AI
• Removing manure
• Milking the cow
Men’s management tasks
• Owning and selling the cow
• Spraying animals against ticks
• Planting fodder crops

17. Barriers to Gender Parity
• Cultural / gender norms around ownership and
management of dairy cattle
• Women’s “triple role” burden
• Access to extension services
• Access to productive assets and credit
• Milk marketing
• Dairy income and intra-household decision-making

18. Opportunities for Gender Inclusion in
Development Interventions
• Integrating women into milk cooperatives
• Strengthening women’s leadership and
participation in formal organizations
• Designing technologies with women’s capacities
and labor burden in mind
• Making the ‘business case’ for gender inclusion
OnAfricanDairyPortal

19. Basic Indicators for Gender Parity
• Gender of who in the household is registered with the
producer organization/HUB
• Gender of who in the household delivers the milk
• Gender of whose bank account milk sale profits are
delivered
• Number of women and youth in leadership positions /are
board members
• Number of women/youth attending and participating in
meetings

20. Advanced Indicators for Gender Parity
• Milk availability for children at household consumption
level
• Commensurate milk sales with women’s labor
• Ownership/control of livestock assets and technologies
• Income controlled by women from morning and evening
milk sales
• Decision-making for milk sales, cattle sales and purchases,
and animal health/breeding
• Number of hours spent on dairy-related tasks for men and
women

21. Promising Ways Forward
• Creation of a dairy NAMA for Kenya
• Strengthening smallholder access to markets and
appropriate technologies
• Favorable policy environment
onFlickrbyILRI/RosemaryDolan

23. Opportunities for youth in
agriculture and how they
can tap into climate
financing
Priscilla M Achakpa
Executive Director, Women Environmental Programme(WEP)
Member, African Working Group on Gender and Climate Change(AWGGCC)
Organizing Partner, Women Major Groups(WMG)
National Coordinator, Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative
Council(WSSCC)
Regional Focal Point, West Africa, GEFCSO Network
Block E Flat 2 Anambra Court, Gaduwa Housing Estate, after Apo Legislative
Quarters, P.O.Box 10176, Garki, Abuja
Nigeria
Email: priscilla.achakpa@wepnigeria.net
www.wepnigeria.net
+23492910878

24. PRESENTATION OUTLINE
 Introduction
 Why focus on Youth
 Regional Policies on Youth
 Challenges and Opportunities
 Conclusions

25. Introduction
 Agriculture will continue to be one of the key drivers of
African economic growth
 A prime responsibility of providing employment
opportunities for a rapidly growing and predominantly
youthful population.
 The agricultural value chain therefore provides multiple
entry points and pathways for advancing Africa’s
transformative agenda toward a green economy and low
carbon development

26. WHY FOCUS ON YOUTH
 The growing population of nearly 300 million inability
of Africa’s agriculture to match the needs of a
growing population has left around 300 million people
frequently hungry and has forced the continent to
spend billions of dollars annually importing food.
 In 2010, 70 % of the region’s population was under
the age of 30,
 In 2010, 20 % of the population were young people
between the ages of 15 to 24.
 The large majority of the youth lives in rural areas
and mostly employed in agriculture, accounting for
65% of total employment.

27. Youth Farm (YFarm) Project is a trademark and brainchild project of Fresh & Young
Brains Development Initiative and Alexijan Consults which adopts a two-pronged
approach to promote youth-led farms and agribusinesses, as well as highlight the
benefits of farming for sustainable youth development and livelihoods. The YFarm
Project aims to promote agriculture as a Fun activity, Culture, Career and Business
among African Youth. It also aims to draw youth out of Poverty, into Sustainable
Agriculture and closer to God.
Source: Fresh and Young Brains Initiative, Nigeria

28. REGIONAL POLICIES ON YOUTH
• NEPAD Youth Desk
– Launched in 2005 by New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) to give youth a
platform for dialogue and enable them to contribute to policy debates.
• The African Youth Charter
– Adopted July 2006 at the 7th Ordinary Session of the Conference of Heads of States
and Government
– Lays the pedestal for national programmes and strategic plans for Youth empowerment
• Youth Decade Plan of Action (2009-2018)
– Declared by the African Union Assembly in January, 2009, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
– Framework for multi-sectoral and multidimensional engagement of all stakeholders
towards the achievement of the goals and objectives of the African Youth Charter.

30. Youth Charter and Agriculture
Article 14: Poverty Eradication and Socio-economic
Integration of Youth
• Train young people to take up agricultural, mineral,
commercial and industrial production using
contemporary systems and promote the benefits of
modern information and communication technology to
gain access to existing and new markets;
• Facilitate access to credit to promote youth participation
in agricultural and other sustainable livelihood projects

31. Challenges and opportunities
 Macroeconomic conditions, political stability, access to
finance
 Lack of technical skills, soft skills
 Low investments in education (vocational training and
refocusing on tertiary education)
 Demand for jobs (white collar jobs) exceeds supply
Opportunities
 The worlds goods and services cannot be produced
without working age labor
 Agriculture is projected to create 8 million jobs by 2020,
manufacturing-same but may double
 Technology, ICT and social media are viable tactics for skills
development programs in youth
 Raising the productivity of small holder farmers is
important

32. Challenges and Opportunities
 The Paris agreement on financing, 59. Decides that the Green
Climate Fund and the Global Environment Facility, the entities
entrusted with the operation of the Financial Mechanism of the
Convention, as well as the Least Developed Countries Fund and the
Special Climate Change Fund, administered by the Global
Environment Facility, shall serve the Agreement;
 Article 65 Urges the institutions serving the Agreement to enhance
the coordination and delivery of resources to support country-
driven strategies through simplified and efficient application and
approval procedures, and through continued readiness support to
developing country Parties, including the least developed countries
and small island developing States, as appropriate;
 These article provides ample opportunity for youth to engage their
parties at the country level for support as well as the financial
instutions for financial support in their projects and programmes

33. THANK YOU

35. How To Improve Nutrition In Africa
Within The Context of a Changing
Climate
Tawanda Muzhingi, Ph.D.
International Potato Center (CIP), SSA
Regional Office, ILRI Campus, Nairobi,
Kenya
t.Muzhingi@cigar.org
+16032860631 (mobile USA)
+2548718608534 (Local Mobile)
+254204223639 (Local office)

36. Background
• Sub-Saharan Africa is characterized by some of the
most nutritionally insecure people in the world.
• The staggering levels of malnutrition and food
insecurity on the continent are compounded by
poverty, conflict, HIV, and poor access to health
services.
• The definition of food security set out at the 1996
World Food Summit stated that “food security exists
when all people at all times have both physical and
economic access to sufficient food to meet their
dietary needs for a productive and healthy life”

37. Some Basic facts
• FAO estimates that 239 million people in sub-Saharan
Africa were hungry/undernourished in 2010.
• Almost one in three people who live in sub-Saharan Africa
were hungry, far higher than any other region of the world,
with the exception of South Asia.
• Sub-Saharan Africa had the largest proportion of its
population undernourished, an estimated 30 percent in
2010, compared to 16 percent in Asia and the Pacific (FAO
2010).
• In 2008, 47 percent of the population of sub-Saharan
Africa lived on $1.25 a day or less. (United Nations 2012).

38. Malnutrition
UNICEF, 1990

39. Malnutrition infection Cycle
www.unsystem.org

40. Nutrition in the life cycle
www.unsystems.org

41. Stunting in Africa
• Stunting, or low height for age and generally
occurs before age two, and effects are largely
irreversible such as delayed motor development
impaired cognitive function and poor school
performance.
• In SSA stunting has stagnated since 1990 at about
40% and little improvement is anticipated.
• Childhood undernutrition and overweight co-
exist in many countries, leading to a double
burden of malnutrition.

42. WHO Global Prevalence of Vitamin A Deficiency

44. Malnutrition and Climate Vulnerability in
Africa
• Temperatures: increasing average temperatures in
seasonally arid and tropical regions the impact is likely to
be detrimental.
• Rainfall: Areas that are dependent on seasonal rainfall, and
those that are highly dependent on rain-fed agriculture for
food security, are particularly vulnerable
• Floods: Heavy rainfall events as the climate warms are
expected which lead to flooding and destruction of crops
over wide areas, as well as devastating food stores, assets
and agricultural land .
• Droughts: are projected to increase in intensity, frequency
and duration resulting in agricultural losses, reductions in
water quality and availability.

45. How to Improve Nutrition in the face of
climate change
• Improvement in access to cheap and affordable health
care systems through out SSA as climate change has the
potential to affect different diseases.
• Investments in plant breeding research to develop the
value chains for crops that are better adapted to the harsh
and variable climate of drylands.
• Investments in solutions to understanding the impact of
dryland stresses on smallholder agriculture;
• Advocating for climate modeling and decision-making
tools. Research and development of agricultural policies
based on crop simulation models.
• Better farm management such as soils and water
conservation water, and crop and livestock diversity.

46. International Women’s Day
Women, throughout most of the world, have the major responsibility
for their families' nutrition. Their own nutrition is often impaired,
under the social and biological stresses they face. Developments that
improve women's position in society are likely to improve nutrition
overall, and are essential for this. Equally, any activities aimed at
preventing malnutrition depend substantially on women's activities,
indeed on their empowerment. At the same time, more attention
must be paid to improving women's own nutritional status −perhaps
an under−recognized problem − and many of the necessary
technologies are now well known. Finally, it is becoming increasingly
clear that protecting women's nutrition, notably during pregnancy and
lactation but in fact throughout the life−cycle, is necessary to
safeguard the nutrition of infants, children and indeed future
generations.
www. UNSYSTEMS.org