Gender and climate experts come together to address inequalities and climate resilience challenges in Nigeria’s agrifood systems

Participants at the 3rd High-level Dialogue on gender and climate change in Nigeria held on October 9, 2024, at the Fraser suites Abuja. PHOTO/JB SAMA PHOTOS

On October 9, 2024, gender and climate experts gathered in Abuja for the third high-level dialogue on gender and climate change, convened by HER+, the CGIAR Gender Equality Research Initiative, to address gender equality and climate resilience challenges in Nigeria's agrifood systems. The dialogue is the third in a series and continues the conversations of the first high-level dialogueorganized in October 2022 in Nairobi, Kenya, and the second high-level dialoguethat was held in October 2023 in New Delhi, India.

Nigeria has a significant agricultural potential with over 84 million hectares of arable land providing livelihoods for millions.According to FAO there is a considerable gender gap in agricultural labour productivity as men exhibit higher labour productivity levels than women. As of 2024, the gender gap in labor productivity between female and male farm managers amounts to 47 percent in Nigeria. The entrenched gender inequalities remain widespread in the agrifood sector, posing a significant threat to the country's ability to fully utilise its agricultural potential.

Mr Hyacinth Edeh, Country Program Manager at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), in his welcoming remarks acknowledged the timely convening of the dialogue. In his words:

"The choice of gender and climate change for this dialogue is both heartwarming and timely. There is an urgent need to address the escalating intersecting challenges regarding gender equality and climate resilience within Nigeria's agrifood systems. To achieve food security solutions, it is crucial to ensure that women are placed at the center of these efforts, as their involvement is vital for fostering resilience and innovation in agriculture."

Mr Hyacinth Edeh, Country Program Manager at the International Food Policy Research Institute delivers welcoming remarks. PHOTO/JB SAMA PHOTOS

The HER+research initiative aims to enhance gender equality and climate resilience in agrifood systems by generating rigorous evidence and co-designing innovative approaches that address four critical dimensions of structural inequalities that disadvantage women and hinder adaptive and resilience capacities. These dimensions focus on reducing inequitable gender norms, improving women's access to resources, markets, and technologies, supporting women's decision-making power and amplifying and integrating women's voices in decision-making processes. According to Dr. Els Lecoutere, senior scientist and lead of HER+, the driving force behind this initiative is to examine what is needed and what works to empower and to transform systems such that they support equality and inclusion.

"We are motivated by the challenge of substantial and enduring gender gaps and how this affects agrifood systems in the Global South. We must rectify these gender gaps and avoid them widening. Yet, if we do not address the structural barriers to gender equality and inclusion, we will only be treating symptoms. HER+ has led to the development of evidence-based solutions anchored on four actionable principles: transform, empower, protect, and voice. These solutions will contribute to reducing structural equalities, elevating women's roles and participation within agrifood systems, and create sustainable change towards more equitable and resilient agrifood systems," said Dr. Els Lecoutere.

Nkechi Ilochi-Kanny, Director of Business Development and Innovation at ActionAid Nigeria, in her keynote remarks emphasized that collaboration is a crucial building block for advancing gender equality. PHOTO/JB SAMA PHOTOS

In her keynote remarks, Mrs Nkechi Ilochi-Kanny, Director of Business Development and Innovation at ActionAid Nigeria, emphasized that collaboration is a crucial building block for advancing gender equality, requiring concerted efforts to gain attention and effect change. Multi-stakeholder collaboration on evidence-based solutions to address structural constraints to gender equality such as inequitable gender norms, unequal voice and decision-making power, and disparities in access to resources is essential for unlocking the full potential of Nigeria's agrifood systems. Nkechi Ilochi-Kanny underlined that:

"We must continue to push against the boundaries that restrict women. Advancing gender equality is not solely the responsibility of women but requires collective recognition. Increasing women's presence in leadership and decision-making spaces would enable more inclusive approaches to gender equality."

The discussions joined by stakeholders from government, civil society, research institutions and private sector wasguided by two themes: 1) Positive gender norms and socio-technical innovation bundles; and 2) Voice, inclusive governance and social protection for equitable agrifood systems in a climate crisis.

Theme 1: Positive gender norms and socio-technical innovation bundles for equitable agrifood systems in a climate crisis

Dr. Jumoke Adeyeye fireside chat joined by Anthony Tolupe Adedeji, Programme Officer of the Integrated Development Programme of the Justice, Development and Peace Commission (JDPC), Ibadan and Geraldina Mushena Mukenfa, Agronomist and Gender Focal Person of the Kolping Society of Tanzania. PHOTO/JB SAMA PHOTOS

Entrenched inequitable gender norms and systemic barriers underly women's restricted access to land and other productive assets and exclusion from decision-making processes. Gender inequality not only hinders women's progress but also the country's ability to build resilient agrifood systems. Dr. Jumoke Adeyeye, postdoctoral fellow at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria, working with the HER+ work package TRANSFORM, gave a presentationon co-designing for gender transformative change.She emphasized the urge to challenge inequitable gender norms as a mean to empower women economically and enhance their climate resilience.

"By co-designing solutions with women, we can challenge the deep-rooted social norms that limit their access to resources and livelihood opportunities. Gender Transformative Approaches (GTA), which targets normative constraints and fosters awareness of such constraints, provide specific entry points to challenge normative constraints at different points in the agrifood systems to increase women's participation and capacity to boost their economic resilience", said Dr. Jumoke Adeyeye.

Dr. Jumoke Adeyeye's presentation was followed by a fireside chat joined by Anthony Tolupe Adedeji, Programme Officer of the Integrated Development Programme of the Justice, Development and Peace Commission (JDPC), Ibadan and Geraldina Mushena Mukenfa, Agronomist and Gender Focal Person of the Kolping Society of Tanzania. The discussion shed light on persistent gender norms that continue to disadvantage women in Nigeria, as well as in Tanzania. These include norm that restricts women's rights to own agricultural land and other productive assets, the norm that discourages women from purchasing or selling productive assets without taking permission from husbands. Other norms include norm that limits women's access to mobile money accounts, norm that restricts women from taking out loans or making credit-related decisions, and norms that limit women's participation in leadership roles or positions in groups and in society. The Kolping Society of Tanzania is actively sponsoring radio programs in rural communities to raise awareness among women about their roles in the agribusiness value chain, fostering concrete community dialogue through this accessible medium. Similarly, the Justice, Development, and Peace Commission, Ibadan, is working to close the gender gap by collaborating with traditional and religious leaders, who serve as influential voices within communities, to champion gender transformative changes in cassava agrifood system.

In the ensuing conversation with the wider audience, Professor Anthony Onoja, President of the Agricultural Policy Research Networkand Director of the Institute of Agricultural Research and Development at the University of Port Harcourt, advocated for women's inclusion in climate change adaptation research and decision-making processes. He proposed that empowering women through cooperatives and engaging influential leaders can enhance their economic participation and resilience. Innovative approaches, such as the guide to developing quantitative tools for measuring gender norms in agrifood systems by the HER+ work package TRANSFORM is fundamental to improve our understanding gendered social norms and to addressing structural gender inequalities in agrifood systems.

Subsequently, Dr. Eileen Nchanji, senior scientist at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIATand co-lead of the work package EMPOWER, presented guidelines on how to co-design socio-technical innovation bundles (STIBs) and key results on its effect on resilience, empowerment and food security status of men and women small holder farmers across Africa and Asia. She highlighted that although there are numerous technical and technological innovations designed to address climate change in agriculture, land, and water systems, social innovations often neglected can increase uptake especially amongst women and other vulnerable groups. She advocated for gender-responsive STIBs, a more wholistic and integrated approach that not only advances technical and technological solutions but also considers the gender dynamics, policies, and the enabling environment that influence the adoption of these solutions by women. She also reiterated the importance of multifaceted partnerships and co-designing with farmers and other value chain experts for ownership and sustainability.

Theme 2: Voice, inclusive governance and social protection for equitable agrifood systems in a climate crisis.

Dr. Jordan Kyle fireside chat with Ifeoma Anyanwu, Deputy Director of Gender Mainstreaming at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, and Vivian Efem-Bassey, project coordinator at ActionAid Nigeria. PHOTO/JB SAMA PHOTOS

Achieving gender equality also depends on women having a voice in policy and governance and on ensuring that policies designed to promote resilience benefit women. Dr. Jordan Kyle, Research Fellow at IFPRI and lead of the work package VOICE presented on inclusive governance and policies for gender equality and climate resilience, highlighting the importance of integrating women's perspectives into agricultural policies:

"Women are differentially affected by climate shocks. Solutions designed without women's voices are unlikely to work effectively for them."

Dr. Jordan Kyle stressed that increasing women's representation within decision-making supports inclusive policy deliberation and can contribute to transforming the gender norms and societal relations discussed in the first part of the dialogue event. In Nigeria, women's representation remains low-with only 3% of female parliamentarians-compared to other African countries. Sheemphasized the importance of scalable innovations to amplify women's voice and agency in policy and governance and of indicators for tracking women's voice and agency, which are critical for measuring progress and identifying areas for improvement. WEAGovis once such tool for identifying entry points and opportunities for increasing women's policy influence.

During the fireside chat with Mrs Ifeoma Anyanwu, Deputy Director of Gender Mainstreaming at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, and Vivian Efem-Bassey, project coordinator at ActionAid Nigeria, unpacked the power of greater representation of women in decision-making bodies to ensure their voices are heard in policy deliberations. Ifeoma Anyanwu emphasized the need for gender-inclusive budget at the national level and to implement policies and reach women with innovative solutions. She also highlighted the critical role of data and evidence, noting:

"You cannot address the concerns of women without evidence-based data that is disaggregated by gender."

Mrs Vivian Efem-Bassey spoke from her experience designing effective programming to empower women within Nigeria, emphasizing how ActionAid relied on a 'reflective action toolbox'to deploy a successful women's advocacy program in partnership with HER+ researchers. This toolbox, she argued, includes methods that are culturally sensitive and easy to deploy. Operating from these principles ensures that programming designed to empower women resonate locally and can be sustained over time.

The dialogue continued with a presentation of work by the work package PROTECT, focusing on social protection as a core strategy for addressing climate vulnerability globally to strengthen women's climate resilience at large scale. Dr. Jumoke's Adeyeye's presentation on leveraging social protection for gender equality and climate resiliencepositioned social protection programs and policies to be very effective for reducing poverty and improving food security at the household level. Key highlighted programs included cash transfers and food transfers (including through public works), often with bundled activities like trainings. If appropriately designed the resource transfers and bundled activities can address women's inequitable access to resources, information, and services. HER+ research aims to guide stakeholders on social protection potential to support women's climate resilience and gender equality at large scale, and which designs are promising. Some of the key approaches include strengthening households' and women's coping abilities during climate hazards, promoting diversification of livelihoods, preparing for disasters, and the adoption of climate-smart practices.

Launch of HER+ innovations and research collection

Dr Els Lecoutere, Lead of HER+ initiative, presents the recently launched HER+ research collection tool. PHOTO/JB SAMA PHOTOS

The event also introduced HER+ innovations, including a women's voice training curriculum co-designed with ActionAid Nigeria. Dr. Katrina Kosec, Senior Research Fellow at IFPRI, presented the curriculum, which is part of the VOICE work package and aims to enhance rural women's political participation in southwest Nigeria. The training is designed to help women overcome psychological barriers to expressing their voices and to support husbands in challenging restrictive gender norms. Dr. Katrina Kosec highlighted that the training's effectiveness was tested using a randomized controlled trial and led to significant increases in women's participation in community governance and in community development projects.

Dr. Katrina Kosec, Senior Research Fellow at IFPRI launches the women's voice training curriculum co-designed with ActionAid Nigeria. PHOTO/JB SAMA PHOTOS

Dr. Jumoke Adeyeye presented a recently launched guide on developing quantitative tools to measure gender norms in agrifood systems.This Guide is intended for researchers and practitioners who wish to better understand and transform gender norms as the root cause of gender inequalities and women's disempowerment in agrifood systems. It builds on existing resources that provide guidance on how to measure social norms and gender transformative change in AFSs.

The Guide was developed through a collaborative process that started in November 2022 and remains ongoing. Local stakeholders and AFS experts working in Tanzania and Nigeria helped develop the Guide with researchers from the following institutions: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), FHI360 & KIT Royal Tropical Institute. A survey was developed using the Guide and was piloted within the cassava, poultry, and fisheries AFSs in Tanzania and Nigeria.

Mrs Martha Awinoh, senior communication specialist for HER+, launched the HER+ research collection, a living online collection all HER+ publications and innovations to support gender transformative change, empowerment, protect and strengthen the voice of women in agrifood systems.

Key actionable points

Participants applaud HER+ and partners commitment to turning discussed action points into tangible steps. PHOTO/JB SAMA PHOTOS

Several key action points emerged from the discussions. First, reducing normative constraints is essential to fully enable women's participation in agrifood systems. Persistent barriers such as restrictive gender norms, limited financial autonomy, and lack of access to technology and leadership opportunities must be addressed. Empowering women to participate in decision-making processes will ensure their voices are heard and recognized as vital agents of change.

Second, improving access to agricultural land and resources is critical for women's economic empowerment. Beyond legal reforms, informal barriers, including gender norms, need to be tackled. Solutions such as awareness campaigns, community engagement, and collective ownership models, particularly involving men and leaders, can promote more gender equality in control over land. Third, the inclusion of influential religious and traditional leaders was emphasized as key to creating supportive environments for gender equality and women's empowerment within communities.

Fourth, strengthening women's voices in agrifood system governance and policies is necessary for effective gender-responsive agricultural policies. Building women's leadership skills and ensuring their involvement at every level of policy development, implementation, and monitoring is crucial. Fifth, gender-responsive budgets must be integrated into government funding to deliver impactful, climate-resilient solutions for women farmers.

Finally, achieving gender equality and climate resilience requires innovative, multi-scale, and collaborative approaches that include diverse stakeholders-policymakers, development partners, researchers, and local communities. Recognizing women as central to these efforts is key to driving equitable and resilient agrifood systems. HER+ and its partners is committed to turning these action points into tangible steps and will continue collaborating with stakeholders to advance gender equality and climate action.

Authors: Theophilus Enemali, Rapporteur, Martha Awinoh-HER+ initiative Senior communication specialist and, Els Lecoutere , Lead of HER+ Initiative

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