On 22-25 Oct, Nisha Onta, Knowledge Management Coordinator, attended the CCAFS Gender Training and Strategizing Workshop at the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) in Nairobi, Kenya. The CGIAR research program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS) Linking Knowledge with Action research team, based at ICRAF’s headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, along with partnering institutions, brought together researchers from 19 different countries to learn new approaches for gender and climate change-focused research, communication, social learning and empowerment.
During the first two days of the workshop there was training on qualitative and quantitative approaches to gender and climate change research with a focus on study design and identifying the right research tools and partners, as well as on developing gender strategies for research organizations. The second two days focused on the future of gender and climate change research in the five CCAFS regions, co-developing plans for research that will contribute to the CCAFS impact pathway and achievement of our gender development outcome targets. The workshop objectives were:
· To support the gender research of our public, NGO and CGIAR partners by reviewing research tools available through CCAFS and its partners, and how to plan research and identify tools and partners based on study objectives;
· To help our partners develop and/or improve their gender research strategies;
· To develop a plan with our partners for achieving our gender development outcome targets through research in the CCAFS regions.
Though the sessions were done in parallel tracks, there were many opportunities to share the outcomes of all the sessions with the larger group. The session on developing the regional gender and climate change research plans was a very useful exercise, as helped understand and practice the use of the CCAFS Theory of Change framework. These sessions helped to identify desired gender impacts at each stage and the changes in knowledge, attitude, and skills leading to changes in practice that would contribute to such impacts. Putting the overarching gender outcome first, and working backwards from there, asking what is needed to get there, ended up being a very powerful exercise for all the groups.
Here is the link of the workshop with all the proceedings and tools shared during the workshop. http://gsl.worldagroforestry.org:8076/conference/program-and-documents