KIT Royal Tropical Institute worked with the CGIAR Research Programs on Livestock and Fish to integrate gender into international livestock and fish research. This program was one of 14 in phase 1 of CGIAR research programs and part of the world’s largest global agricultural innovation network (CGIAR).

KIT’s role grew over the two-and-a-half year engagement, with KIT leading the Gender Initiative of the CGIAR Research Program, acting as interim Senior Gender Researcher, and sitting on the Program Management Committee. KIT also worked on developing a gender-integrated proposal for the second phase of CGIAR’s Research Programmes (2017-2022), specifically for the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock.

Gender Integration

In June 2014, KIT Royal Tropical Institute began working on gender integration with the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish (CRP L&F). The Program was one of 14 that ran until 2016 as part of phase one of CGIAR Research Programs. As with all CGIAR Research Programs, it provided research for agricultural development outputs, which are International Public Goods (IPGs).

CRP L&F was lead by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and had four other key institutes as partners: WorldFish, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). With a global outlook, focus countries were: Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nicaragua, Tanzania, Uganda, and Vietnam.  

KIT’s work with the CRP on Livestock and Fish began with a focus on its five “flagships” (research areas), namely: health, genetics, feed and forages, value chain and systems research. KIT worked with scientific staff from a range of scientific fields, in each of these flagships, to discuss entry points for integrating gender analysis into their research.

The overall objective was to build gender research capacity and gender integration awareness throughout the agricultural research program and to support the development of interdisciplinary teams where gender scientists played key roles. This was done through coaching teams on the implementation of gender-integrated research projects throughout 2015 and 2016.

KIT’s Work

KIT’s gender advisors provided feedback, support, and acted as sounding-boards for the scientific work of the 15 gender-integrated research project teams. Coached projects were selected through competitive call for proposals, which included project funding. The experience of gender integration and the gender-integrated project findings were brought together through a writing workshop—Writeshop—in 2016. Individual cases are available online and a full book will be published soon.

KIT also acted as interim leader of the Gender Initiative within the research program. This meant  working with the Program’s gender team to develop the overall gender research questions (both strategic and integrated) for the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock, building on the CRP L&F learning (for phase 2 of CGIAR Research Programs, which will run 2017-2022).

In addition KIT’s interim leadership included reporting and phase 2 planning as well as membership on the Program Management Committee and representing the Program’s gender work in the CGIAR Gender and Agriculture Research Network.

Results

KIT supported the research program in integrating gender in all relevant aqua/agricultural research areas. KIT co-wrote the gender part of the proposal for the follow-up to this program—CRP Livestock—for phase 2 of CGIAR research programs. A book on the gender integration efforts and learning of the program will soon be available online: A Different Kettle of Fish: gender integration in fish and livestock research.