Gender and Inclusion Toolbox: Participatory Research in Climate Change and Agriculture

This toolbox contains a range of gender-sensitive and socially inclusive participatory action research tools which are designed to support data gathering that will help integrate gender and social perspectives in climate research and programme design. As stated in the introduction, "We know that a gender equity gap exists in agriculture and that this gap shapes how men and women contribute, respond and adapt to climate change....Building resilience within this context is a matter of understanding how gender norms and relations, along with other critical factors such as caste, class, age, disability and sexual orientation all affect differences in access, power and decision making in regards to adaptive capacity." This toolbox offers participatory action research tools that are designed to help understand these norms and relations and how they affect women, as well as allow women to participate in the research process - so that the voices and circumstances of both women and men are taken into consideration.
The toolbox was created to increase the participatory research capacity, skills and knowledge of non-governmental organisations, research for development programmes, researchers, and rural development actors engaging in climate change and agriculture work, with the overall objective of improving food security. It is divided into four main parts:

1. Basic Concepts - Provides an overview of concepts in gender, climate change, participation, qualitative research, and gender and social analysis;
2. Learning Activities - Outlines team-based learning and reflection activities to support gender and inclusion concepts;
3. Logistics and Planning Guide - Supports a sampling strategy, sex-disaggregation, and fieldwork best practices;
4. Research Modules - Describes different participatory research tools for socially differentiated data collection and analysis related to: Co-Production of Knowledge, Climate Resilient Agriculture, Climate Information, and Mitigation. Participatory research tools include: village resource maps and goal trees, daily activity clocks, climate-information ranking, information flow maps, changing farming practice timelines, co-benefit analysis, and others.

 

As the Toolbox is in modular format, each activity can be used on its own or sequentially according to the user's needs.

The Toolbox resulted from a long-term partnership between the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), and CARE International. It builds on the previously released 'Gender and Climate Change Research in Agriculture and Food Security for Rural Development' training guide produced by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and CCAFS in 2012. The participatory tools were tested in Western Kenya and Northern Ghana and subsequently refined.