Gender and Inclusion Toolbox: Participatory Research in Climate Change and Agriculture
The Gender and Inclusion Toolbox: Participatory Research in Climate Change and Agriculture is an in-depth, ready-to-use guide for researchers and development practitioners to help uncover important gender and social differences in rural communities.
The gender toolbox is the result of a long-term partnership between the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), and CARE International. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has provided valuable contributions to ensure a high-quality research product.
The toolbox builds on the previously released Gender and Climate Change Research in Agriculture and Food Security for Rural Development training guide, produced by FAO and CCAFS in 2012. The new participatory toolbox doesn’t replace it, but instead contributes with additional participatory tools and methods and a focus on social learning approaches.
Co-producing the gender toolbox
Key gender-questions and modules for the toolbox were co-defined with local partners who work closely with smallholder farmers. The multiple testing sessions in Ghana and Kenya with farmers have ensured the various modules are useful to both researchers and development partners working to support gender transformative approaches. The ambition has been to keep the tools practical, while supporting meaningful gender-research in the context of climate change and agriculture.
The manual focuses on increasing the research capacity, skills and knowledge of its users, who include practitioners from non-governmental organisations and research for development programs, as well as researchers and rural development actors. The manual is a living document, which will be kept relevant by continuous input and feedback from practitioners using the methods in their work.
The gender tools at hand include village resource map and goal tree, perceptions of women’s empowerment, climate-information ranking, information flow map, changing farming practices, co-benefit analysis and many others.
