Leverage points

1. Identifying leverage points to
promote women’s economic
resilience to climate change
challenges in Tanzania – Fish
value chain
Prepared by: Netsayi Noris Mudege
Presented by: Lucyphine Kilanga, and Lawrence Kitogo
Maleba District, Tanzania

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Workshop objectives
• To present and validate the preliminary findings of the study on ‘How gender
norms constrain women’s economic resilience to climate change challenges
among fisherfolk in Tanzania’
• To engage communities and stakeholders to identify leverage points to
challenge gender norms and promote women fish value chain actor’s
economic resilience to the impact of climate change

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Challenge
• Women’s lack of agency or limited ability to define and
act on goals, make decisions that matter to them, and
participate in the economy and public life.
• Women’s lack of access to and control over resources
social norms that discriminate based on gender policies
and governance that fail to include and benefit women.

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HER+ entry points to tackling gender
inequalities in agrifood systems

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6. Data Analysis
Methods and
Tools to
understand
gender norms
affecting the
women’s
economic
resilience against
the impacts of
climate change in
the Fisheries
sector
Participatory
identification of
Leverage Points,
Design and
implementation
of Gender
Transformative
Approaches
Changes in gender roles
and norms
Reduced gender gaps in
terms of access to finance
Improved participation
in the value chain
women increasingly
taking on leadership
roles
Improved adaptive capacity
and skills and risk
management
Improved decision
making power and
voice
Improved fisheries
environment to
allow for women’s
participation
Women in
Fisheries'
Economic
Resilience to the
Impact of Climate
change
• Documentatio
n of lessons
learnt in the
implementatio
n of GTAs
including an
impact
assessment of
comparison
and
GTA intervention
groups
• GTA
guidelines,
video stories
and
webinars to
inform the future
design,
implementation,
evaluation and
scale-up of
GTAs
Research
Inputs
GTA
Intervention
Outcomes Research
Outputs
Impact

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Questions and output
• What specific leverage points and levers can help alleviate
restrictive gender norms and balance power relations in ways that
increase the capacities of women AFS actors to build economic
resilience to CC challenges?
• Identified set of leverage points and levers to intervene for
deeper-level change required to strengthen capacities to
build economic resilience to CC challenges

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Leverage points
• Identified leverage points should allow is to intervene in
AFS at deeper levels by targeting structures that create
social inequalities, e.g., restrictive norms that block
women’s access to financial services and
entrepreneurship opportunities.

9. Leverage points
• Leverage points are places in a
system where, “a small shift in one
thing can produce big changes in
everything” (Meadows, 1999).
• In human-made systems,
leverage is about the efficiency
and efficacy of interventions for
changing the systems in
accordance with desired goals. A
leverage point is the place in the
system structure where the
intervention is made
• Leverage Points – Systems Thinking
(infilon.net)
Leverage Points – Systems Thinking (infilon.net)

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Leverage Points
• Leverage points are activities within a complex system where a
small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything.
• We want to know where they are and how to get our hands on
them. Leverage points are points of power (Meadows, 1999).
Leverage points: How to assess and apply them for greater project
success (pmi.org)

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Leverage Points
Examples where these “forces” apply include:
• Speaking truth to power;
• Getting past resistance to achieve results;
• Working through difficult encounters;
• Negotiating with reluctant stakeholders;
• “Selling” and implementing a new process;
• Overcoming resistance.
•Leverage points: How to assess and apply them for greater project success (pmi.org)

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Leverage Points
Human beliefs and paradigms that construct and shape human
systems are potentially the most powerful leverage to change system
behaviour.
• We can do the following
• SYSTEMS INFRASTRUCTURE- Add constraints; Change rates;
Increase buffers
• INFORMATION FLOWS - Modify feedback loops; Expand
communication systems
https://medium.com/converge-perspectives/identifying-leverage-points-in-a-system-3b917f70ab13
Leverage Points – Systems Thinking (infilon.net)

13. Leverage Points
• TARGET ORGANISING PRINCIPLES - Change the rules that govern the
system; Enhance the organization of the system; Align shared goals
• MINDSETS- Modify the behaviour that govern the system; Expand the
system’s ability to transcend paradigms
• Based on Ehrlichman, David (2018). Identifying Leverage Points in a System.
• https://medium.com/converge-perspectives/identifying-leverage-points-in-
a-system-3b917f70ab13
• Leverage Points – Systems Thinking (infilon.net)

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Leverage Points
• Once leverage points have been identified, participants in
collaborations and networks can form teams to define and
implement plans for how they will work together to affect the
system.
Identifying Leverage Points in a System | by David Ehrlichman |
Converge Perspectives | Medium

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Tool to be used: Design Thinking

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Thanks for Listening!