Rationale for Attention to Gender in IFPRI's Strategy
Throughout the developing world, women, working together with men, play the dual roles of agricultural producers and household caregivers and are the key to securing household food security and nutrition. At the same time, the division of rights, resources, and responsibilities between men and women often results in higher vulnerability of women and girls to undernutrition, micronutrient malnutrition, poor health, and a general lack of time to accomplish their daily tasks.
Closing the gender knowledge gap is necessary to measure progress on most of the Sustainable Development Goals. IFPRI contributes to the SDGs by advancing methodologies, analysis, and the provision of sex-disaggregated data in a range of research initiatives. Specifically, IFPRI examines the relationships between gender and institutions, policies, programs, development outcomes (such as nutrition, health, agricultural productivity), and poverty reduction using both quantitative and qualitative methods to yield nuanced understandings of the developing world that can inform and enhance policy.
The Gender Task Force facilitates these institutional goals by supporting researchers seeking to incorporate gender into their work, identifying new areas for strategic gender research, disseminating IFPRI's gender research to external audiences, and linking with related gender policy research within CGIAR and other partners.
See the IFPRI Strategy: Gender Research Booklet
Underlying Principles of IFPRI Gender Research
- It focuses on men and women, not just women, to understand differences and relationships. IFPRI gender research also examines the interactions between gender and other characteristics, such as age, class, and caste, that may affect well-being.
- It not only compares female-headed vs. male-headed households but also seeks to look at individuals within the household.
- It considers associations between gender and age important in understanding the employment of young women and men, changes in roles and status during the lifecycle, and transitions to adulthood for adolescent girls and boys.
- It is concerned with the instrumental role that women play in their families and communities and examines concrete ways to advance women?s empowerment and equality for their own sake.
- It is cross-cutting--from land to water, households to communities to value chains, nutrition to education, and across the lifecycle--and is addressed in all of IFPRI?s strategic research areas.
- It uses both quantitative and qualitative methods and draws on the strengths of quantitative and qualitative disciplinary approaches.
- It is evidence-based: based on rigorous research, and using appropriate methods and approaches.
- It advances methodological innovations in various fields, including measuring women?s empowerment in agriculture, through active exchange with practitioners and other researchers.
- It spotlights data gaps and provides guidance for filling those gaps.
- It considers ethical implications of any research undertaking
- It engages in current policy debates, striving to bring evidence to bear on questions relevant to the worlds of policy and practice.
