A systematic gender-responsive and evidence-based customer and product profiling approach for breeding
Purpose
Provide an evidence-based protocol that is socially inclusive for customer and product profile development including trait prioritization.
Expected impact
Improved crops’ varieties and animal breeds have great potential to contribute to enhancing food security, nutrition and income generation when they respond to the needs, preferences and constraints of end-users. The new protocol will support more accurate and systematic attention to social inclusion and specifically gender in product profile development and characterization of client groups. Thus, it will promote the development of new breeding products with traits relevant for men and women from different stakeholder groups. This will generate outcomes in three CGIAR impact areas: nutrition and food security, poverty reduction, and gender equality.
Description of the tools
The approach presently includes two tools, the gender-responsive customer profiling tool and the gender-responsive product profile query tool, called the G+ tools. These are embodied in a standard operating procedure to ensure that gender considerations are systematically and consistently incorporated into formal breeding structures. The G+ customer profile characterizes client groups targeted for new varieties considering gender differences in knowledge, assets and decision making. The G+ product profile query tool helps collect and analyze evidence to prioritize traits in a product profile by examining both potential positive gender-related impacts of those traits, but also any negative impacts it may have. More tools are planned. The approach guides a process where an interdisciplinary team including market specialists, breeders, social scientists, and gender specialists work collaboratively in a process guided by the premise that decision-making based on the best evidence is essential to achieve outcomes and impacts from crop improvement.
Examples of use
The approach is being implemented in different breeding programs within the CGIAR and in partnership with national breeding programs. Some of the cases of current implementation include: cassava in Nigeria, sweetpotato in Uganda, banana in Uganda, and beans in Kenya. In all cases the G+ tools are being implemented through a standard operating procedure to ensure a systematic and replicable process.
Links to relevant blogs
Plant breeders could let women farmers guide them
Gender-responsive breeding comes several steps closer to reality
Breeding for Better Gender Equity
Contact persons
Béla Teeken: b.teeken@cgiar.org
Vivian Polar: v.polar@cgiar.org
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