Ethiopian gender and agriculture stakeholder analysis

Abstract

The role of women in the agriculture sector is increasingly important for national food security. Gender equality appears in international, regional and national policy and legislative commitments. The GoE is committed to strengthening its approach to gender with dramatic recent changes. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appointed a slew of women to senior positions (including the first female president, defense minister and chief justice and 50 percent of his cabinet) at the end of 2018. Consequently, policymakers are demanding more gender-responsive data when it comes to agricultural research. This stakeholder analysis identifies several recommendations for improving gender in the Ethiopian wheat sector and by adopting a systemic view, many of the recommendations are relevant for the entire agriculture sector. This stakeholder analysis was conducted to understand how key agriculture stakeholders incorporate a focus on gender in wheat research for development (R4D). For example, are gender and equity issues mainstreamed? However, due to the lack of wheat specific organizations, the scope was expanded to include organizations working in the agriculture sector that had incorporated gender into their approach in some form. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), implemented The Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) funded project “Understanding gender in wheat-based livelihoods for enhanced WHEAT R4D impact in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Ethiopia” to which this report is an output. Strong leadership is needed to better mainstream gender in WHEAT R4D. The challenge of delivering the necessary changes in a patriarchal country cannot be underestimated. It will take courage, emotional intelligence, interpersonal skills and resilience. Building these skills in a cohort of female researchers and agriculture extension workers is a worthwhile investment that will deliver a return over the long term. There are enough voices pointing to consistent frustrations and systemic bottlenecks to suggest a focus on gender institutional strengthening is required. The stakeholder interviews revealed that many agricultural projects and institutions in Ethiopia do not adequately consider gender. Gender is narrowly understood by stakeholders to be solely about increasing women’s participation in projects, and yet, women are often overlooked as farmers and contributors to agriculture. This inevitably perpetuates inequality as men continue to gain more access to project information and resources than women. As part of the CGIAR consortium of international agriculture research institutes, CIMMYT partners with and works through national agriculture research institutes like EIAR. Neither EIAR nor CIMMYT partner with organizations that successfully and regularly empower women. The interviews uncovered seven successful methodologies being implemented to change gender norms. For wheat researchers, this is a missed opportunity to learn from and help improve the practice of gender mainstreaming in R4D. The capacity of EIAR’s researchers to understand how to integrate gender in their work needs strengthening. However, there is a lack of technical gender research support available in Ethiopia. Additionally, organizations have the tendency to use shortterm gender consultants for technical inputs, which does not lead to sustained and systemic changes. More in-country gender researchers who can build trust and capacity are required. Once the capacity and commitment of research institutes have improved, agriculture research institutes should focus on helping state-owned enterprises and the private sector improve their outreach to women by developing gender-friendly products and services. There is much work needed to improve women’s market access to wheat innovations and wheat products, including gendered institutional reform. There is limited engagement between the private sector and women and excluded groups, and the private sector and gender advisers and researchers. This report also considers other groups that are excluded from Ethiopian wheat research as part of adopting an intersectional approach to gender. The inclusion of minority or marginalized groups is not as common as gender considerations in wheat research. The Government of Ethiopia (GoE) has a disability policy, but agriculture programs and research centers do not mainstream disability issues and have not done any research on people living with a disability who work in the agriculture sector. The role of youth in agriculture is another area that warrants further attention. Overall this report shows that the current approach to addressing gender and social equity in the agricultural sector is inadequate and piecemeal. New methods should be used that align with feminist approaches to research for these are better able to grasp the realities of different types of women, while also enabling researchers to learn and reflect on gender relationships. However, the EIAR has limited experience with qualitative, participatory and feminist methods, so it would be mutually beneficial to partner researchers with (I)NGOs that use transformative methods. CGIAR centers like CIMMYT and national agriculture research systems, such as EIAR, can potentially have a bigger impact on improving food security if they can better incorporate gender and social equity in WHEAT R4D. This research found that for wheat scientists to better mainstream gender, they should align with the gender mainstreaming approaches of the GoE, allocate more funds toward gender research, build linkages with stakeholders who are transforming gender norms, experiment with transformative and feminist methods and participate in learning events and networks associated with gender to strengthen their expertise. This report concludes that it is possible to mainstream gender and social equity in Ethiopia’s agriculture related R4D but given the lack of data, gender researchers, and knowledge products available, a “think/do tank”, “lab” or large gender project is required to deliver the necessary systemic changes