presented by Ruth Meizen-Dick on behalf of Sophie Theis - Elizabeth Bryan and Claudia Ringler

1. Addressing Gender and Social Dynamics to
Strengthen Resilience for All
Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Senior Research Fellow, Environment and
Production Technology Division, IFPRI
on behalf of Sophie Theis, Women’s World Banking; Elizabeth
Bryan and Claudia Ringler, EPTD, IFPRI

2. Gender Climate Change and
Nutrition (GCAN) Framework
• The impact of climate shocks and
stressors on people are not only direct
but follow different pathways and are
influenced by different factors:
• Exposure and sensitivity
• Resilience capacities
• Decision-making context
• Responses
• Resilience is dynamic: well-being
outcomes influence future resilience
capacities

3. Gender Climate Change and
Nutrition (GCAN) Framework:
Gender Dimensions
Men and women have different:
• Exposure and sensitivity to shocks and
stressors
• Capacities to respond
• Preferences, needs, and bargaining power
• Response choices
• Well-being outcomes
• Feedback loops

4. Exposure and Sensitivity
• Differences between men and
women based on:
• Livelihood activities
• Reliance on natural resources
• Infrastructure
• Access to social protection
programs
• Health and nutritional status
• Other identities intersect with
gender (e.g. marital status)

5. Resilience Capacities
• What factors influence men’s and
women’s resilience capacities
o Perceptions of climate change and
risk
o Access to and control over assets
and resources
o Access to information and
technology
o Labor/time
o Institutions (e.g. groups, social
norms and land tenure)

6. E.g. Differences Access to Information and Technology
Affect Capacities
• Unequal access to
agricultural, and
climate information
• Low awareness and
adoption of CSA
practices
• When aware,
woman are just as
likely to adopt new
practices
Image: Financial inclusion / MasterCard Foundation © 2009

7. Program Approach: Reaching Women
with Information on CSA
• IFPRI partnership with grassroots women’s organizations to
develop and deliver video-based extension messages on CSA
in India, Kenya and Uganda
• Context based on identified CSA strategies preferred by women
• Testing different modes of information delivery (e.g. videos)
• Measuring outcomes along the scale from increasing
awareness to adoption to improved well being

8. Decision-Making Context and
Responses
• Different preferences for how to
respond
• Interest alignment
• Bargaining power
• Common responses vary by gender
(coping responses, risk management,
adaptation, transformative responses)
• What are the nutrition and gender
implications of chosen responses?

9. E.g. Women’s Role in Decision-Making
Leads to Different Choices
• In Bangladesh, women with higher empowerment (WEAI
scores) were more likely to diversity production
• This was driven by women’s involvement in productive
decision-making and group membership
• Implication: women drive decisions towards lower risk exposure
to climate change and greater availability of nutrients
See De Pinto et al. (2019) for more details
WEAI = Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index
Visit weai.ifpri.info for more details

10. Program Approach: Household Dialogues
• E.g. Mercy Corps’ Building Resilience through the Integration of Gender
and Empowerment (BRIGE) program
• Facilitated household dialogues with couples in Niger and Nepal on roles
and responsibilities, household finances, and disaster preparedness (4
days)
• Other activities:
• Follow up and coaching (6 weeks)
• Religious and community leader training
• Husband schools
• Results: more joint decision-making, improved financial management,
greater confidence, sharing domestic burden, increased women’s mobility
Contributor: Jenny Morgan, Senior Knowledge Management Advisor, Mercy Corps

11. Program Approach: Governance of
Natural Resources
• E.g. USAID Water Resources Integration Development Initiative
(WARIDI) in Tanzania promotes improved management of water
resources and service delivery
• WARIDI piloted the UPWARD (Uplifting Women’s Participation
in Water-Related Decision Making) to enhance women’s
participation in water decisions
• Trained women’s groups, local government authorities, and
community leaders
Contributor: Hannah F. G. Taukobong, Vice President, Iris Group; Christina G. Sudi, Gender Integration
and Youth Inclusion Advisor, and Erneus Kaijage, Climate Change Specialist, USAID WARIDI

12. Pathways to Differential Well-
Being Outcomes
• Production pathway: Crop choices
and uses—implications for nutrition
• Income pathway: Who controls
income? Men and women have
different consumption preferences
• Asset pathway: Gender-
differentiated asset dynamics
• Labor pathway: Labor implications
of response strategies (e.g. CSA
practices)

13. Program Approach: Tracking Differential
Well-Being Outcomes
• ACDI/VOCA’s Feed the Future Resilience and Economic Growth
in the Arid Lands–Accelerated Growth (REGAL-AG) project
• Used a monitoring and evaluation tool, Outcome Harvesting, to
discern differential project impacts on men and women
• Found specific benefits for women from activities related to shoat
(piglet) trading and poultry processing
Contributor: Jennifer Himmelstein, Corporate Analyst, and Sean Stone, Data
Analyst, Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Learning, ACDI/VOCA

14. Resilience Programs Can Support Gender
Transformative Change
• Diagnose areas of women’s disempowerment in a particular context
• Design appropriate gender-sensitive approaches and strategies
• Approaches that facilitate women’s empowerment have greater
potential for transformation
Reach Benefit Empower
Include women in
program activities
Increase women’s
well-being (e.g. food
security, income,
health)
Strengthen ability of
women to make
strategic life choices
and to put those
choices into action
Transform
Changes in the structures
governing men’s and
women’s behavior that
lead to greater gender
equality

15. Conclusions
• The framework highlights the gender
dimensions of resilience
• Tools can help identify gender-related
opportunities and challenges in
particular contexts
• Lots of implementation approaches to
integrate gender into resilience
projects
• Ones discussed here but also many
others (e.g. financial services geared
towards women, group-based
approaches)