Every day, rural women around the world play a critical role in our global food system, particularly women in least developed countries. Climate change demands new approaches to agriculture: farmers’ practices will need to change in order to adapt to and mitigate changing conditions. Gender is central to this change: policies, institutions and services to help farmers deal with climate change will need to produce results for women farmers as well as men.
This policy brief provides five lessons to support gender inclusive interventions for agriculture and food security, based on evidence and case studies from research in low- and middle-income countries. The brief also offers guidelines for crafting gender-responsive climate policies at global and national levels.
Recommendations cover adoption of new technologies and practices; design and implementation extension and climate information services; women’s role in developing climate-smart innovation; and improving climate change policies and institutions.
The brief is based on research led by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the University of Copenhagen, the University of North Carolina, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Bioversity International, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the International Potato Center (CIP), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), 3d4AgDev, Oxford University, and Kumaun University.
The research was presented in March 2015 at a seminar in Paris on ‘Closing the gender gap in farming under climate change’, co-organized by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), the International Social Science Council (ISSC) and Future Earth. For full details and further resources visit http://ccafs.cgiar.org/closing-gender-gap
