Challenges and Solutions for Gender Mainstreaming and Gender Integration in Research and Development

Abstract

There is an increasingly wider consensus that gender inequalities worldwide in agriculture and natural resource management are critical barriers to establishing robust food and nutrition security and poverty reduction. While there is commitment for inclusion at the policy level, implementation in both research projects and grassroots conditions remains complex. Even the definitions of equality vary substantially between cultures, nations and individuals. The purpose of this document has been to concretely demonstrate that the expansion and improvement of energy access in subSaharan Africa can provide a vehicle for expanding the economic, cultural and personal opportunities for women and girls. At the same time, by providing men and women with the chance to improve a central component of their lives ? the production and use of energy products ? the case studies described here show that expanding energy access and sustainability creates circumstances in which women’s contributions benefit all community members rather than becoming a zero-sum game in which women and girls benefit at the expense of men