Towards gender-inclusive innovation: Assessing local conditions for agricultural targeting.

The importance of gender norms in agricultural innovation processes has been recognized. However, the operational integration of these normative issues into the innovation strategies of agricultural interventions remains challenging. This article advances a replicable, integrative research approach that captures key local conditions to inform the design and targeting of gender-inclusive interventions. We focus on the gender climate across multiple contexts to add to the limited indicators available for assessing gender norms at scale. The notion of gender climate refers to the socially constituted rules that prescribe men's and women's behaviour in a specific geographic location-with some being more restrictive and others more relaxed. We examine the gender climate of 70 villages across 13 countries where agriculture is an important livelihood. Based on data from the GENNOVATE initiative we use multivariate methods to identify three principal components: 'Gender Climate', 'Opportunity' and 'Connectivity'. Pairwise correlation and variance partitioning analyses investigate the linkages between components. Our findings evidence that favourable economic or infrastructure conditions do not necessarily correlate with favourable gender normative conditions. Drawing from two case-study villages from Nepal, we highlight opportunities for agricultural research for development interventions. Overall, our approach allows to integrate local knowledge about gender norms and other local conditions into the planning and targeting strategies for agricultural innovation.

Leaving no one behind: how women seize control of wheat-maize technologies in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is strongly committed to the "leave no one behind" principle of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. However, social norms and institutional biases in agricultural organisations can prevent indigenous peoples and women from participating in wheat-maize innovation processes, as they rarely meet the requisite criteria: sufficient land, social capital or formal education. The GENNOVATE (Enabling Gender Equality in Agricultural and Environmental Innovation) research initiative in Bangladesh shows that indigenous Santal women are obtaining access to and benefiting from wheat-maize innovations, enabling low-income Muslim women to benefit as well.

Le Bangladesh est fortement attaché au principe que personne ne soit « laissé pour compte ¼, l'un des Objectifs de développement durable de l'ONU. Cependant, certaines normes sociales et biais institutionnels au sein de organisations agricoles empêchent parfois les Autochtones et les femmes de prendre part à des processus d'innovations relatives à la culture du maïs et du blé, car ils répondent rarement aux critères requis : terres suffisantes, capital social ou éducation formelle. Au Bangladesh, l'initiative de recherche GENNOVATE (Promouvoir l'égalité de genre dans l'innovation agricole et environnementale) montre que les femmes autochtones du Santal obtiennent accès aux « innovations blé-maïs ¼ et en bénéficient, ce qui permet également aux femmes musulmanes à faible revenu d'en bénéficier.

From Working in the Wheat Field to Managing Wheat: Women Innovators in Nepal.

There is very little research on women in wheat in Nepal, and wheat is still considered a 'man's crop'. Consequently, extension services rarely target women, and women are not considered as innovators. However, research conducted in the Terai plains in 2014/15 shows that women are innovating in wheat to the extent that wheat farming is experiencing a shift from feminisation of agricultural labour towards women taking control over decision-making. Processes accounting for this include male outmigration, non-governmental organisation (NGO) work on promoting women's equality which has developed women's confidence, individual support from extension agents and strong cooperation between women to foster each other's 'innovation journeys'. Women who lived in seclusion 10 years ago are receiving recognition within their families and communities. This article provides recommendations for researchers, rural advisory services and other partners to bring their work in alignment with the realities of women wheat innovators.