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

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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

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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

• 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’)

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Gender equality, women’s empowerment and the SDGs

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Increasing women’s economic opportunities (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

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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

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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

• Women’s representation in science, decision making and policy

• Programs to enhance leadership and science skills for women

– IDRC Research AWARDS

– AWARD

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Women in science and innovation

Male, 3037

Female,

4078

Farmers Trained

Male, 18

Female, 18

Graduate Students

Male, 57

Female, 32

Researchers by gender

Representation of women: Students, scientists, farmers in the CultiAf program

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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

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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

Relations Structure

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

ILR

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Why Dairy?

• Low-emissions dairy development as ‘climate smart’

• Improving rural livelihoods

• Intersection of gender/mitigation initiatives/dairy

On

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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

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

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

On

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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

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

Promising Ways Forward

• Creation of a dairy NAMA for Kenya

• Strengthening smallholder access to markets and appropriate technologies

• Favorable policy environment

on Flickr by ILRI /Rosem

ary D

olan

Comments / Questions?

Contact Details

Katie Tavenner | Postdoctoral Fellow - Gender International Livestock Research Institute |ilri.org Box 30709 -00100, Nairobi, Kenya Mobile: +254 0790 639 920 | Tel: +254 20 422 3410 | Skype: Katie.Tav E-mail: K.Tavenner@cgiar.org

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

PRESENTATION OUTLINE

Introduction

Why focus on Youth

Regional Policies on Youth

Challenges and Opportunities

Conclusions

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

THANK YOU

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)

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”

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).

Malnutrition

UNICEF, 1990

Malnutrition infection Cycle

www.unsystem.org

Nutrition in the life cycle

www.unsystems.org

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.

WHO Global Prevalence of Vitamin A Deficiency

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.

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.

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