Institutionalizing Gender-responsive Research & Development in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management through Women's Networks

Researchers have noted that institutions responsible for agriculture and natural resource management are characteristically ‘gender blind' throughout most of the developing world (e.g. Gurung, J., 2002; Tinker, 1997). In countries of Asia, this is especially true, due to culturally prevalent gendered norms and values that discourage women from pursuing careers in these male dominated sectors, and maintain gender biases and stereotypes that blind male and female professionals from seeing gender-related aspects of land use. This persists, despite the increasing documentation about the pivotal roles that women play in agriculture, as labourers, holders of knowledge, decision makers, and food processors in these areas of the world.

A working hypothesis of this project is that demand-driven research that benefits poor women requires an interactive approach to innovation built around the use of gender-sensitive participatory research approaches and the institutionalization of these in agriculture and NRM organizations.

The development goal of this project is to use the knowledge generated through this research to assist poor rural women emerge from poverty by a) more effectively manage their own agricultural assets, including labour, knowledge and other assets, b) gain access to agricultural and NRM technologies, services, inputs and markets, and c) have more effective input in decision making processes of agricultural and natural resource management organizations that can affect their livelihoods.

Specifically, this project aims to create networks of rural women's Research & Development committees that engage directly with agricultural and NRM organizations that welcome their ownership and are committed and able to support their needs. This will be achieved through: 1) building capacities of rural women to meet their needs for food security and income generating opportunities by establishing a network of women's R and D committees and enhancing their capabilities and opportunities for agro-enterprise development; 2) facilitating a process of change within the agricultural and NRM organizations themselves to support a planning and delivery process that is more responsive to the needs of rural women, and to institutionalize these changes; and 3) conducting action research that will generate a viable set of ‘best practices' for mainstreaming gender-sensitive participatory R & D approaches within selected organizations and assessing the impacts of these methodologies for learning and change.

Project partners are WOCAN members and their partners in Renewable Natural Resource Research Centre Wengkhar, Bhutan; Indian Council for Agricultural Research, Meghalaya, India; Department of Agriculture, Meghalaya, India; Northeast Network, Meghalaya, India; Horticulture Department, Sikkim; Eastern Himalayan Initiatives, Sikkim,India; CARE Laos; Department of Agriculture and Forestry, Phonsaly Province, Lao P.D.R; Department of Agriculture, Nepal; WOCAN Nepal.

WOCAN Director Jeannette Gurung conducted a Research Feedback and Planning Workshop for the project "Institutionalizing Gender-responsive Research & Development in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management through Women's Networks" in collaboration with the CGIAR System-wide Program on Participatory Research and Gender Analysis (PRGA) partner in Kathmandu, Nepal, from July 17-24, 2006. Project participants from Laos, Sikkim, NE India and Nepal drew on their organizational analyses of gender in their agriculture and NRM organizations to develop plans for organizational change and the integration of mechanisms to respond to rural women's needs for food security and agro-enterprise development. WOCAN and PRGA held meetings with staff and directors of partner organizations in Sikkim, Meghalaya, Nepal and Laos to gain their support for the Action Plans.