Livestock and Fish program pushes gender agenda forward
As the world celebrates the International day of Rural women, the CGIAR research program on livestock and fish continues to highlight the gender agenda. The program’s gender strategy operates along a continuum of gender integration approaches, from the accommodating to the transformative, to contribute to understanding under what conditions each approach has the potential to advance chain performance and the outcomes of poor women and other marginalized groups.
This week, the program’s gender working group is meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The workshop brings together gender experts from several countries including Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Malaysia and the Netherlands to discuss ways that the program’s value chains can be transformed in ways that benefit women as well as men.
The workshop has provided a platform for participants to share their experiences on current livestock and fish gender related research.
The group examined capacity development strategies and learning and impact mechanisms to increase the impact of gender interventions along livestock and fish value chains. The presentations also addressed issues around market access, asset ownership and gender as well as public-private partnerships and innovation hubs that improve access to markets by women retailers.
The workshop included a ‘share fair’ session in which participants presented and discussed posters from their projects. One of the participants, Jo Cadilhon, also shared what he learned about the importance of gender in value chain development. He used the share fair to engage gender specialists in a peer assist session where he sought inputs on how to give a gendered focus to a dairy value chain assessment in India.
It is emerging clearly that there is need to shift the focus from needs assessment to the actual activities that will address the gender needs and gaps already identified by the several studies already completed.
The meeting also includes a field trip to LIVES project partners in West Shoa.
