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Improving Gender Integration in Research with CIMMYT

To mark International Rural Women’s Day, KIT Royal Tropical Institute helped long-term partner CIMMYT to develop a new publication to assist scientists and project managers to better integrate gender into their agricultural research.

The publication analyses the different gender approaches used by three different CIMMYT maize projects in Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Nepal. In particular, it examines the differing interpretations of “gender” by scientists, staff and participants and how each interpretation affected their gender interventions, strategies and project outcomes. It also shows what happened as the understanding of gender and related concepts evolved over each project – including why it changed, and to what effect.

“This resource goes beyond the question of ‘how to’ integrate gender in research for development,” said Katrine Danielsen, KIT Senior Advisor. “It invites the reader to critically reflect about what gender integration really means in the context of their work – because there are different ways of thinking about gender, all of which have implications for the outcome of a project.”

The three case studies illustrate that recognising how we think about gender affects project intervention strategies. They also demonstrate the power of farmer participation in research for development in general and for women and disadvantaged groups in particular.

Maize & wheat research with CIMMYT

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center – better known by its Spanish acronym, CIMMYT – is a non-profit international agricultural research and training organization. It focuses on two of the world’s most important cereal grains: maize and wheat, and related cropping systems and livelihoods. CIMMYT’s research addresses challenges encountered by low-income farmers in the developing world including food and nutritional insecurity, environmental degradation, economic development, population growth and climate change.

CIMMYT Maize Zimbabwe

Publication

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