Bundled innovations for women’s empowerment and resilience

Abstract

Climate change is exacerbating uncertainty and risks for farmers and other food systems actors in unprecedented ways. Women and marginalized farmers face higher vulnerabilities as they often encounter additional barriers in the form of constraining social and gender norms.

In response, the CGIAR Initiative on Gender Equality (HER+ Harnessing Gender and Social Equality for Resilience in Agrifood Systems) aims to strengthen the climate resilience of vulnerable women in food systems in the Global South. Together with partners, the initiative seeks to support women in increasing their agency, acquiring and gaining control over resources, and facilitating their path toward empowerment. This will help them adapt to climate change and be resilient to shocks and stresses through higher adaptive capacity. Additionally, the initiative aims to position women as partners and drivers of climate change solutions.

There are four identified dimensions (addressed by four work packages) to achieve the intended goals of the HER+ Initiative. The focus here is on Work Package 2 (WP2), titled EMPOWER, which aims to develop and test context-specific bundles of social and technical innovations (STIBs).

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is the lead implementation organization for WP2 in India. IRRI, in collaboration with various partner organizations, has set up Learning Labs in North 24 and South 24 Parganas districts of West Bengal, and Nuapada district of Odisha. The focus of this presentation will be on the Learning Labs set up in West Bengal.