Transformations Conference 2023: Transformative partnerships – what is missing for systems change?

CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform’s Community of Practice on Gender-Transformative Research Methodologies: Combining feminist approaches with community of practice praxis to foster transformation

Adopting a gender-transformative agenda that embraces a feminist ethos can be challenging in certain organizational cultures, especially those whose primary focus is not necessarily the attainment of gender equality. During this session, the speakers will reflect on the development of the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform’s Community of Practice for Gender-Transformative Research Methodologies (GTRM-CoP).

The speakers will present how gender (and those ‘doing gender’) in CGIAR, an influential agricultural research-for-development organization, were not originally core to the work and mandate of the organization. Therefore, the recent identification of gender and social inclusion as a key impact area in CGIAR is a challenge. While awareness of the complex intersections between gender and agrifood systems has risen, budgets and capacity have not kept pace with the new needs. Gender researchers tend to work in isolation, lack recognition and struggle to mainstream their insights into the core workings of CGIAR. Taking a social learning ‘design turn’ can, the speakers will argue, provide a space for transformative, feminist ‘reflecting and doing’ and for building commitment and capacity for gender-transformative research.

The speakers will introduce communities of practice as spaces for social learning that strengthen individual and collective empowerment. This will be followed by an overview of attempts to mainstream gender in CGIAR, to contextualize the case study and locate it within efforts to advance a gender-transformative agenda in the organization. The ‘reflecting and doing’ process of the GTRM-CoP will be examined according to a set of design considerations adopted as part of a social learning praxis to create the conditions for action-oriented learning. This process is informed by feminist thinking and critical insights generated from recent debates about the role of the researcher vis-à-vis neo-colonialism.

The speakers will then conclude with critical reflections about limitations and ambitions of the GTRM-CoP, and its potential for fostering broader gender transformations.