Part of the collection of posters developed for CGIAR Knowledge Day, Nairobi, 5 November 2013

1. CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food secure future
Gender Research in A4NH
IMPLEMENTATION RESULTS
Recent gender results from A4NH research:
Gender Implications in the Nutrition Impact Pathway
• Three of the seven widely accepted pathways through which
agriculture influences nutritional outcomes are found to be
explicitly gendered: women’s time, workload, and control of
resources. These pathways are informing gender-sensitive and
gender-responsive research and programming around
agriculture-nutrition linkages.
• Recent review of homestead gardening and dairy
projects found mixed results on women’s
empowerment. A4NH is working with the CRP on
Policies, Institutions, and Markets to explore the
usefulness of the Women’s Empowerment in
Agriculture Index (WEAI)—a tool jointly developed
by USAID, IFPRI, and OPHI—for analyzing nutritional
outcomes across a variety of contexts.
• Evidence from two studies suggests that empowerment and
nutritional outcomes are influenced less by the type of program
than by how the program is implemented. Agricultural programs
with demonstrated impacts on diet quality and nutritional status
were those which integrated gender and considered women’s
multiple roles as caregivers, farmers and value chain actors.
• Assessments of animal-source-food value chains in five countries
indicate that men and women face differential exposure to food
safety risks due to differences in biology, roles, knowledge, and
practices. A4NH will work with the CRP on Livestock and Fish to
ensure gender consideration into interventions that reduce
exposure at critical points along the value chain.
• Researchers and implementers are learning from A4NH how
gender tools and approaches can be integrated in impact
evaluations. Results on how gender influences adoption of
orange-fleshed sweet potato and how participation in homestead
gardening changes control of assets are being used to improve
effectiveness of existing programs as they go to scale.
Coordination and capacity building:
• Gender research inventory currently underway to foster
collaboration and identify gaps in A4NH. Systematic reviews
planned on links between agricultural interventions and women’s
time, and agricultural interventions and domestic violence.
• HarvestPlus is conducting a high-level gender assessment to take
stock of past experiences and identify lessons for its next phase of
delivery at scale.
• Through internal and external expertise, gender is being
integrated into the impact pathways and theories of change
being developed for each of the major research areas of A4NH, to
support planning, implementation, and evaluation.
• December 2013 workshop planned for all CRPs with nutrition
intermediate development outcomes (IDOs) to build capacity for
gender researchers across the CGIAR to critically apply known
methodologies to projects with nutrition objectives.
Vision
Gender is being integrated along all A4NH impact pathways to inform research design,
implementation, and evaluation with the following goals.
1. Agricultural researchers use research outputs (methods, tools, approaches) to better
understand gender and its influence on nutritional outcomes of agricultural interventions
2. Development implementers and enablers use A4NH research outputs to design agricultural
policies and programs that empower women and support households and communities to
improve nutritional outcomes, especially for women and young children
Implementation Challenges
• Gender research capacity among A4NH partners is limited by lack of recognition of the
importance of gender in research and programming and/or a narrow supply of trained gender
researchers working on agriculture-nutrition issues.
• A challenge for A4NH is to both support gender researchers to focus on high quality research and
to address capacity needs of partners; partnerships with organizations with a mandate for
capacity building in gender and nutrition are a key strategy to address this challenge.
Partnerships and Capacities
The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
• Research on gender power relationships and cassava value chains as well as implications for nutrition and diet
quality in Africa south of the Sahara
• Assessment of existing nutrition capacity across Africa south of the Sahara and identifying possible linkages to
A4NH centers and projects
Helen Keller International (HKI)
• Capacity development with national partners in support of CAADP processes
• Research on how certain agriculture interventions, like HKI’s homestead food production programs, can produce
equitable nutritional and health benefits for men, women, and young children
The Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH)
• Examining implications of agriculture interventions on women’s time and on nutrition/diet quality
Key contacts
John McDermott: Director, A4NH- J.McDermott@cgiar.org
Agnes Quisumbing: Senior Gender Advisor, A4NH - A.Quisumbing@cgiar.org
Hazel Malapit: Gender Research Coordinator, A4NH - H.Malapit@cgiar.org
Nancy Johnson: Evaluation Coordinator, A4NH - N.Johnson@cgiar.org
Amanda Wyatt: Research Analyst, A4NH – A.Wyatt@cgiar.org
For more information visit our website: a4nh.cgiar.org
October 2013
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Photo credit: Flickr (Neil Palmer/CIAT)