Gender analysis of agricultural innovation systems in East Africa

Margaret Najjingo Mangheni, Makerere University, Uganda

Sarah Cardey, University of Reading

Livestock and Fish Gender Working Group Workshop and Planning MeetingAddis Ababa, Ethiopia, 14-18 October 2013

Presentation outline• Background:

-Project details (title, research team, funders, objectives, methods)

-Definition of the concept innovation system

-Assumptions

• The gender analysis framework to be used by the project

2

Project details

• Title: Innovation systems, agricultural growth and rural livelihoods in East Africa

• Funded by: DFID-ESRC Growth Programme• Research project team:

– University of Reading Chris Garforth, Peter Dorward, Sarah Cardey, Graham Clarkson

– University of Nairobi Rose Nyikal, Florence Olubayo– Makerere University Margaret Mangheni, Bernard Bashaasha,

Haroon Sseguya– Ahfad University for Women Awadalla Saeed, Muna Haddad– University of Kiel Abdulai Awudu, Taiwo Osun– USIU, Kenya George Mose, Josiah Ateka

3

Aims and methods

• Aims are to find out: – (how) do institutional arrangements for supporting smallholder

farming affect innovation behaviour of rural men and women?– (to what extent) does innovation by smallholders affects

incomes, livelihoods and the local agricultural economy?• Innovation includes both:

– new [to the farmer] practice, technology, input, organisation ..– process (the steps, influences, interactions that lead to a change

taking place on the farm)• Methods

– Key Informant Interviews– Participatory research (timelines, innovation histories, maps)– Survey to test hypotheses linking innovation to outcomes

4

What is an innovation system?It is a network of organizations, enterprises,

and individuals focused on bringing new products, processes, and forms of organization into economic use, together with the institutions (i.e laws, regulations, attitudes, habits, practices, incentives) and services (e.g. input and output markets, credit, advisory and other support services) that affect their behavior and performance.

5

• Innovation requires interfaces that facilitate knowledge flows and technology uptake amongst multiple actors in the innovation system.

• The innovation systems concept embraces not only the suppliers of technology but the totality and interaction of actors involved in innovation.

6

• It extends beyond the creation of knowledge to encompass the factors affecting demand for and use of knowledge in novel and useful ways.

Assumptions

• Agriculture is gendered and the influence of gender varies between regions and countries.

• Men and women engage with communication sources differently and use communication sources to suit their own needs.

• They also sometimes engage with institutions and services differently.

• Innovation processes are a lot more complex than helping women with a new commodity

8

Gender Analysis framework

• When thinking about innovations, however, it may not be helpful to be framework driven

• Need for adaptation of tools, layering in a gender approach to analysis of power relations

• Start with innovation systems perspective, add gender as explicit layer

9

Questions to consider in the GA• Why do women and men innovate?• Why do they choose not to innovate?• What are the constraints in their social roles that

prevent innovation?• What are the social roles that support innovation?• In which ways and domains are women and men

innovating?– At which level? (household, community, meso,

macro)– In which roles (productive? reproductive?

Community?)

10

Institutional arrangements supporting farmers’ innovation

• Institutions and institutional structures– Formal and informal institutions– Within the institutional landscape, how is gender

being taken into account, if at all? Why?• How are men included?• How are men excluded?• How are women included?• How are women excluded?• Are gender roles challenged?• Are gender roles reinforced?

11

• How do institutions support or undermine solidarity and reciprocity between men and women?

• How do the institutional arrangements support or undermine equality?

• What are the implications (or ‘results’) for (a) men, and (b) women?

• Who gains? and at what levels?• Who loses? and at what levels?

12

Services

• Which services are targeting men?

• Which services are targeting women?– Why?– What are the assumptions?

• What services do women want?

• What services do men want?– How do these services link with their roles?

13

Financing

• Which projects are being financed? How can they be characterized?– Which ones target men?– Which ones target women?– What is their level of gender awareness?– Do they support current gender relations?– Do they challenge them?

14

Information and communication

• Where do men and women get information from?

• How do men and women process and use information?

• What are the social learning processes for men and women?– How are they different?

• How do they support or inhibit innovation decisions on the part of men and women?

15

Conclusion

• This is work in progress

• We hope to test and refine the framework

16