This presentation was given by Andrea Vos (CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research/KIT), as part of the Annual Gender Capacity Development Workshop hosted by the CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research. The event took place on 27-28 September 2018 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, hosted by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and co-organized with KIT Royal Tropical Institute. See more info at: http://gender.cgiar.org/gender_events/annual-conference-2018/

1. Gender transformative approaches
in agriculture
A literature review conducted for the European Commission by the
CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research

2. gender.cgiar.org
Background and rationale for gender
transformative approaches
 Dissatisfaction / critique of mainstream gender integration:
 Too technical (focus on gaps),
 Superficial,
 Based on ‘fixed’ categories of men and women
 Reproducing gender inequity though implicit bias
 GTAs as alternative to “business as usual”

3. gender.cgiar.org
Understanding gender transformative
approaches
Common threads in the conceptualization of GTA:
 GTA center around transformation:
 Focus on underlying causes, power dynamics and
structures
 Creating an enabling environment
 Examine, question and change rigid gender norms
 GTAs operate at three interrelated dimensions of change:
 Individual capacities and agency
 Social relations and norms
 Social structures and institutions
 Partnerships: engaging with different actors across scales

4. gender.cgiar.org
The goals of gender transformative
approaches
Better
development
outcomes
Gender
equality

5. gender.cgiar.org
Women’s empowerment and gender
transformative change
Commonalities:
 concerned with individual and collective agency
 conceptualization of power:
 power to,
 power with
 power from within
 critical reflection, engagement with social structures and
institutions

6. gender.cgiar.org
Women’s empowerment and gender
transformative change
Some (potential) differences:
 (targeting power relations)
 Emphasis on women’s agency vs. relational aspects of
gender inequity
 Who benefits: women or society as a whole?
 Explicit focus on men and questioning the effects of harmful
masculinities
 Focus on organizational change and learning

7. gender.cgiar.org
Methodologies for gender transformative
change
Participatory Action Research for knowledge generation as
well as a process for transformation
 encourage critical self-reflection and explores bias
 acknowledge and value different ways of knowing and
forms of knowledge
 emphasis on the role and positionality of the facilitator

8. gender.cgiar.org
Methodologies for gender transformative
change
Capacity strengthening and organizational learning:
“talk the talk and walk the walk”
 Holistic focus on participants of GTA: community members,
researchers and development actors
 Capacity strengthening at inter-related levels of the
individual staff/researcher and the organization
 “Learning by doing” to complement traditional training
 Strengthening reflective and critical capacities,
 Encounter inequality and adversity, which is needed to
understand alternative ways of believing and behaving

9. gender.cgiar.org
Lessons learned on GTA from Aquatic
Agricultural Systems (AAS)
 Translate big ideas into principles and concrete strategies
for action (with room for maneuver)
 Intersectionality: reframing gender in complex systems
 Start at the beginning with contextual analysis and capacity
development around GTAs across the research team
 Individual and institutional commitment
 Critical reflection
 GTAs are long-term and diverse

10. gender.cgiar.org
Thank you!