The ECOSOC agreed conclusions 1997/2 defines gender mainstreaming as: “…the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in all areas and at all levels. It is a strategy for making women’s as well as men’s concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated. The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality.” Gender mainstreaming begins with an assessment of gender differences and inequalities, followed by an assessment of opportunities for interventions. In the CGIAR context, mainstreaming refers to the use of the analysis of gender differences to inform the entire research cycle: targeting, priority setting, research design, implementation, research adoption/ utilisation, monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment with the aim of enduring that men and women benefit from the work conducted by CGIAR organisations.
1. Mary Njenga, Nancy Karanja, Gordon Prain, Diana Lee-Smith, and Michael Pigeon. Gender mainstreaming in organisational culture and agricultural research processes. Development in Practice, Volume 21, Number 3, May 2011.
Abstract: Despite increased attention to gender issues in the international development arena since the rise of feminism in the 1970s, few agricultural research organisations have integrated gender in their problem diagnosis and technology development. Gender mainstreaming can significantly enhance the impact of research and technology development. Entrenching gender mainstreaming in organisations and their research agendas remains a challenge. To overcome it requires political will, accountability, a change in organisational culture, and technical capacity within an organisation. This article presents an illustration of gender-mainstreaming practice in the institutional culture and agricultural research processes by Urban Harvest and the International Potato Centre (CIP).
Gender Roles
Despite the many advances in the development of agricultural technology it has been suggested that the agricultural sector remains the most traditional in terms of gender division of roles . For example whilst women may be involved in the manually demanding tasks such as weeding, post-harvest processing etc men may be involved in mechanised tasks or task that may demand use pf physical strength such as clearing of forest to pave way to agricultural farms. Men usually prepare land, irrigate crops, and harvest and transport produce to market. They own and trade large animals such as cattle, and are responsible for cutting, hauling and selling timber from forests. Women and girls play an important, largely unpaid, role in generating family income, by providing labour for planting,