Mainstreaming Gender

Incorporating gender into research can increase productivity and improve livelihoods

The Challenge Program on Water and Food’s stated aim is to “increase the resilience of social and ecological systems through better water management for food production”. A focus on gender will make our research more relevant to the development outcomes we seek.

For some time now, CPWF has been ‘talking’ gender. In fact, one of CPWF’s core principles highlights gender and diversity. But what has CPWF contributed to date? One of the key lessons learned at our 3^rd International Forum on Water and Food November 2011 was a recognition that addressing gender imbalances is critical for research-for-development; it is something that will require a more prominent gender perspective from all CPWF projects.

We hope our renewed effort to raise awareness about the importance of proactively incorporating gender into water and food research will pioneer future work under the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems.

Browse the tabs to learn more!

CPWF’s Strategy

Mainstreaming Gender in the CPWF: An Overview: What does ‘mainstreaming gender’ mean and how is it relevant to CPWF? How is gender mainstreaming incorporated into CPWF’s work?

Implementation

CPWF carried out gender mainstreaming activities at the basin and program level. Basins made use of two tools: the gender and equity checklist and the gender audit tool.

1) Gender and Equity Checklists: Gender aware research is critical to both good science and development outcomes, yet it is often unclear how to practically apply a gender lens when developing and revising research design, activities or outputs. This checklist, offers some hands-on guidance on how to do this. The yes/no questions allow researchers to more easily identify whether current and planned activities adequately consider gender.

• CPWF Gender and Equity Checklist
• Gender and Equity Checklist for non-CPWF projects

2) Gender Audit Tool: The BDC gender audit framework is a simple tool developed to assess where and how gender is evident across BDC projects. The framework guides the user through a series of steps to review project documents and processes to identify how gender has been addressed in proposal and project design and implementation. The audit tool is not meant to generate an in-depth analysis of gender within projects or BDCs, but to serve as a baseline of how gender was conceptualized in design and development.

• Download the gender audit tool

Examples of gender mainstreaming activities in the CPWF basin programs:

• Andes gender discussion
• Overview of efforts to facilitate gender integration into projects in the Ganges
• Why gender matters for farming in the Limpopo and how multiple use water services benefit women
• Considerations of gender in Mekong projects
• Gender interventions and gender equity in the Nile

Program Level Gender Mainstreaming Activities

CPWF convened a session on gender at the Third International Forum on Water and Food, held in South Africa in November 2011.

• Session abstract
• Coverage of the session

In February 2012, a gender conversation and planning day was held with the CPWF management team. During this meeting, concrete activities were planned to move forward with mainstreaming gender in CPWF research.

• CPWF Management Team Gender Conversation and Planning Day

Lessons Learned

Gender in the CPWF: Lessons Learned: An overview of how the CPWF program level treated gender, some of the outcomes of gender mainstreaming, and recommendations for how it can be done better in the future.

Stories related to gender from CPWF. 

For more information contact or .

CPWF Gender Resource List