Gender Strategy and Action Plan

Abstract

Agroforestry is increasingly recognized as having a central role in sustainable agriculture. Research has shown that trees can deliver multiple benefits in agriculture – from combating climate change and con- tributing to food production and household nutrition, to providing sustainable fuel and timber (Mbow et al, 2014; Righe et al, 2014). Women farmers – who are often responsible for managing trees, especially at the early stages of establishment – are key players in agroforestry systems (Kiptot, et al, 2014). Yet women’s roles in tree-based agricultural production and the complex gender relations that shape deci- sion-making have received minimal research attention.
The World Development Report, published by the World Bank in 2012, states that gender equality is a core development objective in its own right. Increased focus on gender equality in production systems can transform agricultural livelihoods, improve development outcomes and make institutional cultures more enabling. This strategy and action plan approaches gender as a crosscutting element in agroforestry research and development and as a strategic research focus. It is aligned and contributes to the CGIAR strategies for integration of gender in research, at the consortium level and at the level of the different Consortium Research Programmes (CRPs) in which ICRAF participates. Integrating gender in ICRAF’s research will pave the way for scientists to improve their understanding of gender and facilitate the development of critical capacities to generate more and better quality research on gender and equity. This strategy and action plan systematically articulates key mechanisms and processes required to improve gender in agroforestry research and development. It also lays out a roadmap and action points to accomplish the objectives of the strategy.
Objectives of the gender strategy:
• Raise awareness and understanding of the importance of gender integration in agroforestry research and development in ICRAF and among partners through relevant gender sensitization and training;
• Enhance gender research capacity in ICRAF and among partners through provision of expertise and robust tools;
• Mobilize adequate resources to support the goals of this strategy and drive ICRAF’s vision of rural transformation in the developing world as smallholders increase their use of trees in agricultural landscapes to improve food security, incomes, health and environmental sustainability;
• Generate a co-learning cycle between gender research and development practice and ensure that gender dimensions are fully integrated in negotiation support for relevant agroforestry landscapes.

Full text

Gender Strategy
and Action Plan

ii
The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) is one of the 15 Centres of the CGIAR Consortium. ICRAF¹s
headquarters are in Nairobi, Kenya, with eight regional and subregional ofces located in China,
India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Peru and Cameroon. We conduct research in 28 other
countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Our vision is a rural transformation in the developing world as smallholder households increase their
use of trees in agricultural landscapes to improve food security, nutrition, income, health, shelter,
social cohesion, energy resources and environmental sustainability.
The Centre’s mission is to generate science-based knowledge about the diverse roles that trees
play in agricultural landscapes, and to use its research to advance policies and practices, and their
implementation that benet the poor and the environment.
The World Agroforestry Centre is guided by the broad development challenges pursued by the
CGIAR. These include poverty alleviation that entails enhanced food security and health, improved
productivity with lower environmental and social costs, and resilience in the face of climate change
and other external shocks.
All photos © Worlld Agroforestry Centre
© World Agroforestry Centre, Nairobi, Kenya, November 2015, Gender Strategy and Action Plan.
Lead authors: Margaret Kroma and Ana Maria Paez Valencia
Contributors: Patti Kristjanson, Evelyn Kiptot, Delia Catacutan, Christine Jost and Farhat Naz
Cover page: Collens Mwinga, a farmer from Cameroon and his family have Plenty to smile about.

Gender Strategy and Action Plan
iii
Executive summary
Agroforestry is increasingly recognized as having a central role in sustainable agriculture. Research has
shown that trees can deliver multiple benets in agriculture – from combating climate change and con-
tributing to food production and household nutrition, to providing sustainable fuel and timber (Mbow et
al, 2014; Righe et al, 2014). Women farmers – who are often responsible for managing trees, especially
at the early stages of establishment – are key players in agroforestry systems (Kiptot, et al, 2014). Yet
women’s roles in tree-based agricultural production and the complex gender relations that shape deci-
sion-making have received minimal research attention.
The World Development Report, published by the World Bank in 2012, states that gender equality is a
core development objective in its own right. Increased focus on gender equality in production systems
can transform agricultural livelihoods, improve development outcomes and make institutional cultures
more enabling. This strategy and action plan approaches gender as a crosscutting element in agrofor-
estry research and development and as a strategic research focus. It is aligned and contributes to the
CGIAR strategies for integration of gender in research, at the consortium level and at the level of the
different Consortium Research Programmes (CRPs) in which ICRAF participates. Integrating gender in
ICRAF’s research will pave the way for scientists to improve their understanding of gender and facilitate
the development of critical capacities to generate more and better quality research on gender and equi-
ty. This strategy and action plan systematically articulates key mechanisms and processes required to
improve gender in agroforestry research and development. It also lays out a roadmap and action points
to accomplish the objectives of the strategy.
Objectives of the gender strategy:
• Raise awareness and understanding of the importance of gender integration in agroforestry
research and development in ICRAF and among partners through relevant gender sensitiza-
tion and training;
• Enhance gender research capacity in ICRAF and among partners through provision of exper-
tise and robust tools;
• Mobilize adequate resources to support the goals of this strategy and drive ICRAF’s vision of
rural transformation in the developing world as smallholders increase their use of trees in agri-
cultural landscapes to improve food security, incomes, health and environmental sustainability;
• Generate a co-learning cycle between gender research and development practice and ensure
that gender dimensions are fully integrated in negotiation support for relevant agroforestry
landscapes.

iv

Gender Strategy and Action Plan
1
Contents
Executive summary ................................................................................................. iii
Glossary of relevant gender terms .........................................................................2
Introduction .............................................................................................................3
1. Objectives of the gender mainstreaming strategy and action plan .....................4
2. Gender in agroforestry research and development ............................................5
3. Integrating gender in ICRAF’s research and development ..................................8
4. Plan of Action to Implement the Gender Strategy .............................................11
4.1 Capacity development for gender-responsive agroforestry research
and development ......................................................................................11
4.2 Partnerships for gender-responsive research and development ..............12
4.3 Institutional support, organizational and accountability structure, and
resources required ...................................................................................12
5. Monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the gender strategy: Key
activities, indicators and responsibilities ...........................................................14
Annexes ..................................................................................................................17
Annex I: Gender research elements and questions across ICRAF’s
Science Domains ...................................................................................................17
Annex II. Main functions of the Gender Unit ..........................................................19
References .............................................................................................................20

2
Glossary of relevant gender terms
Gender Refers to socially constructed roles, responsibilities, rights, power, needs
and constraints of men and women within a given society, including notions
and expectations of what is considered acceptable behaviour for men and
women. Gender roles are not necessarily determined by biology and can
therefore shift with time as a result of social, economic and technological
change. For example, the introduction of new tree species, management
practices, mounting pressures on land, climate change, increasing poverty or
migration can change the roles of men and women in agro-forestry.
Gender equality Refers to the equal enjoyment by women, girls, boys and men of rights,
opportunities, resources and rewards. A critical aspect of promoting gender
equality is the empowerment of women, with a focus on identifying and
redressing power imbalances.
Gender equity Is the process of being fair to women and men. To ensure fairness, strategies
and measures must often be available to compensate for women’s historical
and social disadvantages, which prevent women and men from otherwise
operating on a level playing eld. Equity leads to equality.
Gender analysis Refers to the employment of a tool or set of tools to analyze the different
roles that women and men perform and how these affect their experiences,
knowledge, skills and needs. It also includes analyzing gender relations and
identifying inequalities, thus helping to frame questions about gender roles
and relations in ways that improve targeting of interventions to address men’s
and women’s practical and strategic gender interests.
Gender-relevant
research
Research that does not have gender as primary object of study but where
social variables, including gender, are relevant in shaping outcomes in terms
of human wellbeing, environmental conservation, and equity. This type of
research should integrate gender considerations into all stages of the research
cycle.
Gender-specic
research
Research for which gender is a primary topic in the analysis. It investigates the
different priorities and needs of men and women. It also analyzes how gender
relations inuence men’s and women’s ability to manage and use agricultural
and forest products, their differential capacities to leverage natural resources
and other assets in pursuit of livelihood and productive opportunities, as
well as the impact of policies, external and internal stressors and process of
change on men and women.
Gender-
sensitive
research
Gender-relevant research that recognizes the potentially different priorities
and needs of men and women related to their gendered roles and interests
in managing and using agricultural and forest products, and takes them into
account in its design and implementation as well as in the dissemination of
its results.
Gender-
transformative
research
Research that involves critical awareness of gender roles and norms and
challenges the distribution of resources and allocation of duties between men
and women. Its purpose is to transform the underlying power relations and
structural barriers that lead to gender inequality and ultimately to poverty and
hunger.

Gender Strategy and Action Plan
3
Introduction
Gender is a relational principle that congures
women’s and men’s often unequal positions
at different levels of social organization, and
locates people of diverse identities differently
within societies and cultures, inuencing how
they are rewarded or recognized. A substantial
body of empirical evidence now shows that
high-impact and effective organizations are
solidly anchored on principles that value gender,
diversity and inclusion as fundamental precepts
of an enabling organizational culture.
ICRAF understands that to achieve signicant
impacts on development challenges, the
organization needs to rigorously address gender
equality and women’s empowerment issues
in agroforestry. To be able to do that, ICRAF
needs to dedicate efforts and resources not
only to integrate gender considerations and
transformative research on gender across its
programmes, but also to similarly address this
dynamic in its own workplace.
This strategy gives strategic guidance to the
integration of gender dimensions in the Centre’s
research and development programmes.
The generation of robust, gender-responsive
agroforestry knowledge is critical to the
formulation of policies and the establishment
of institutional arrangements that increase
gender equality in decision-making over the
management and control of agroforestry
resources. The document also includes an
action plan that outlines the organizational
structure, capacities and resources needed to
implement the strategy.
ICRAF’s Human Resources Unit is developing
a complementary strategy on gender and
workplace diversity. This companion document
will focus on innovative practices and
management systems that engender a diversity-
inclusive workplace. It will set out clear policy
guidelines to create and maintain such an
enabling organizational environment.
Women farmers in South East Sulawesi gather ripe pods and split them open. Photo©World Agroforestry Centre/
Yusuf Ahmad

4
1. Objectives of the gender mainstreaming strategy and action
plan
The goal of this strategy is to create an
institutional environment at ICRAF that supports
gender-sensitive and gender-transformative
research and development in agroforestry
landscapes as a critical contribution to achieving
ICRAF’s mission and vision.
The specic objectives are to:
• Raise gender awareness and
understanding of the importance of
gender integration in agroforestry
research and development in ICRAF and
among partners through relevant gender
sensitization and training;
• Enhance gender research capacity in
ICRAF and among partners through
provision of expertise and robust tools;
• Mobilize adequate resources to support
the goals of this strategy and drive
ICRAFs vision of rural transformation in
the developing world as smallholders
increase their use of trees in agricultural
landscapes to improve food security,
incomes, health and environmental
sustainability;
• Generate a co-learning cycle between
gender-relevant and gender-specic
research and development practice and
ensure that gender dimensions are fully
integrated in negotiation support for
relevant agroforestry landscapes.
In developing the strategy, the responsible
team conducted a critical review of gender
strategies of the CGIAR research programs
(CRPs) including the CGIAR Consortium gender
strategy, and the gender strategies of the
Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) CRP, the
Dryland Systems (DS) CRP, and the Climate
Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)
CRP1.
Following the development of a rst draft
of the strategy in January 2015, validation
workshops were held in Nairobi, Kenya and
Bogor, Indonesia in February and March 2015,
respectively. The purpose of the workshops
was to engage scientists and coordinators
from an early stage to gain consensus on a
comprehensive framework and roadmap for
integrating gender into ICRAF’s work. One of
the key messages from the workshops was that
there is a need for the organization to embrace
a culture that values gender in agroforestry
research, but there is also a sense of having
political will and a critical mass of scientists
engaged and empowered.
1 See: CGIAR Consortium level Gender
strategy http://library.cgiar.org/bitstream/
handle/10947/2630/Consortium_Gender_
Strategy.pdf?sequence=4
FTA gender strategy http://
foreststreesagroforestry.org/gender-
strategy-for-the-cgiar-research-program-
on-forests-trees-and-agroforestry-crp-fta/
DS gender strategy http://drylandsystems.
cgiar.org/sites/default/les/GenderStrategy.
pdf
CCAFS gender strategy https://ccafs.cgiar.
org/sites/default/les/assets/docs/ccafs_
gender_strategy2012-nal.pdf

Gender Strategy and Action Plan
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2. Gender in agroforestry research and development
An FAO-SOFA study published in 2012
presented evidence that whilst women represent
43% of the agricultural workforce across all
developing countries, their access to resources
does not equal that of men. Women’s access
to land, water, nancial capital and knowledge
is limited in many countries. These constraints
on women’s productive capacity lower their
agricultural productivity and incomes and hinder
their effective management of natural resources
(FAO, 2012).
Several other seminal reports, including the
2010 Millennium Development Goal Summit
report, acknowledge that addressing the specic
constraints faced by the agricultural workforce
in developing countries can enhance agricultural
productivity and improve development
outcomes. Beyond rural women’s direct
agricultural labour contribution, they also play
critical roles in household food and nutrition
security (Hawkes and Ruel, 2011; Ahmed and
Sharma, 2004). Yet signicant gender disparities
in access to resources remain. These disparities
in large measure explain the consistent yield
gaps between men and women farmers that,
according to the FAO statistics, average around
20%-30% (FAO, 2010). Evidence demonstrates
that where gender equality is greater in terms
of both opportunities and benets, there is both
higher economic growth and a better quality of
life (IFAD, 2012).
Agroforestry has been increasingly recognized
as having a central role in sustainable
agriculture, generating robust knowledge on the
role trees play in production landscapes and the
multiple benets they deliver – from combating
climate change and contributing to food
production and household nutrition, to providing
sustainable fuel and timber (Dufo and Udry,
2004; Mbow et al., 2014). Women farmers are an
integral part of agroforestry systems, as they are
often responsible for managing trees, especially
at the early stages of establishment (Kiptot et
al., 2014). Women are often the majority of those
who cluster on marginal, degraded lands with
insecure tenure (Dufo and Udry, 2004; Agrawal,
2001), yet their roles in tree-based agricultural
production systems and the complex gender
relations that shape decision-making have
received minimal research attention.
Cocoa Farmers in South and Southeast Sulawesi. Photo©World Agroforestry Centre/Yusuf Ahmad

6
Why gender matters in agroforestry research and development
• Decision-making over land use is gendered, as are perceptions about environmental and
ecosystem services. Both aspects have strong implications for understanding landscape
multi-functionality. Gender behaviour in relation to sources of information that is trusted
and perceptions of risk in the evaluation of new technologies is key to better understanding
how landscapes change (Villamor et al., 2014). In Indonesia, for example, empirical studies
suggest that women are more active and dynamic than men in responding to external
opportunities that often shape landscape use (Villamor et al., 2013).
• Gender differences are crucial to understanding the motivations to incorporate trees on
farms. In Africa, male motivation is largely conditioned by nancial factors, whereas females
are concerned with soil conservation and household food consumption (Kiptot and Franzel,
2012; Fischer et al., 2012; Peterman et al., 2010).
• Rural women in African countries have traditionally been the primary domesticators of
forest-based food and medicinal plants; they have highly specialized knowledge on trees
and forests, species diversity, management, use and conservation practices. Yet their
participation in tree domestication is often hindered by their limited access to and control
over land and trees, lack of information, and heavy household workloads (Degrande and
Arinloye, 2015).
• Rural women make substantial contributions to labour in agroforestry systems; they often
disproportionately bear the costs of tree management, but realize only a fraction of the
benets, and tend to be enlisted for decision-making only when tree resources are degraded
(Rocheleau and Slayter, 2007; Teklehaimanot, 2004).
• The use of fodder shrubs for increased milk production, an agroforestry practice promoted in
East Africa, showed that 47% of planters were women (Kiptot et al., 2013), while in Tanzania
and Uganda, only 39.8% of the income from milk was managed and controlled by women.
Yet fodder shrubs provide direct benets to women farmers including fuelwood, high-quality
manure and stakes for vegetable production (Degrande et al., 2007).
• Gender is an important determinant of participation in the value chains of timber and
non-timber products; cultural, economic, governance, political and environmental factors
intersect with other social factors such as education, age and ethnicity to shape the
experience of women. Unfortunately, most timber and non-timber products value chain
interventions have focused on women, rather than on the relations between women and
men, thus implicating prospects for gender-equitable and sustainable outcomes (Haverhals
et al., 2014).

Gender Strategy and Action Plan
7
The international community has committed to
a new set of Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) that will determine the new common
international development imperatives, and
countries are now expected to strengthen
efforts to achieve the goals. One of the 17 SDGs
is achieving gender equality – a goal of huge
magnitude that positions gender research in
development as a key endeavour and a priority
investment for donors. The CGIAR has also
aligned its recently approved Strategic Results
Framework (SRF) with the SDGs and has set
ambitious sex-disaggregated targets, including,
“50 million women assisted to exit poverty and
75 million women meeting minimum dietary
energy requirements.” Gender and youth have
been recognized as crosscutting themes in the
SRF, and gender and inclusive growth is one
of the eight global research priorities that the
CGIAR wants to develop the requisite capacities
to develop outcomes with partners.
To achieve signicant impacts on development
challenges, ICRAF’s research needs to
rigorously address gender equality and women’s
empowerment issues in agriculture and natural
resource management. To do that, the Centre
must dedicate efforts and resources to integrate
gender considerations across its research
programmes to enable the production of
gender-responsive knowledge and innovations.
Research that does not recognize the inherent
differences that exist between men and women
– and the inequalities that are often complexly
intertwined with clan, ethnicity, and other
modes of social differentiation – run the risk of
being irrelevant. Such research can even create
unintended consequences that are adverse to
poor women smallholders and their households.
Wheat harvesting in Rajasthan, India. Photo@World Agroforestry Centre/Charlie Pye Smith

8
3. Integrating gender in ICRAF’s research and development
To achieve its vision, ICRAF combines six strategic roles that mobilize its research and development
agenda. These roles also make up a generic Theory of Change of how ICRAF expects science and
evidence-based knowledge in the form of research outputs to translate into locally articulated change
in the form of development outcomes.
Analysing this generic Theory of Change and its associated roles with a gender lens offers a general
framework for gender mainstreaming in the overall research agenda; it also helps demonstrate the
relevance of gender analysis and how it informs the achievement of ICRAF’s vision and goals. Table 1
provides an overview of what integrating gender in each of ICRAF’s six roles would require.
There are measures address gender issues in Burkina Faso. Photo@World Agroforestry Centre

Gender Strategy and Action Plan
9
Table 1. Gender dimensions across ICRAF’s roles in research and development
Role 1: Generation and validation
of knowledge as International
Public Goods (IPGs).
ICRAF’s research agenda should include gender strategic
issues that go beyond a focus on women and their access
to resources, to analysing institutions, power relations and
gender inequality at household, community and institutional
levels.
Research should focus on adequate gender and social
stratication, a eld research design that addresses potential
gender concerns, and the creation of co-learning mechanisms
with research participants moving away from pure extractive
data collection.
Role 2: Building robust evidence
for higher-level decisions on
policies and investments.
Research should focus on the nexus of gender and socio-
cultural factors of differentiation and their historical contexts
in agroforestry landscapes at nested scales.
Role 3: Working with partners at
multiple scales to translate IPGs
into actionable knowledge.
Research should focus on gender differences in technology
adaptation; apply a gender lens to the assessment of
approaches and materials at multiple scales; and implement
iterative learning approaches with partners aiming at gender
transformation
Role 4: Demonstrating proof
of application of knowledge to
accelerate impact and advance the
science of scaling up
ICRAF should engage with partners, including relevant
stakeholders with an interest in, and responsibility for, gender
equity policies and programming; ensure research offers
opportunities for co-learning by men and women stakeholders
at all levels.
Design scalable options that simultaneously increase
productivity, sustainability and gender equality
Role 5: Developing and mobilizing
capacity at institutional and
individual levels.
ICRAF should promote gender-sensitive agroforestry
innovations (social and technological) that are proven and
tested at regional, community, household and individual levels
among men, women and youth.
Research should mobilize efforts to improve gender
awareness and capacity of agroforestry boundary partner
institutions.
Role 6: Convening, advocacy and
interfacing amongst a wide range
of partners to be co-responsible for
development outcomes and better
engaged with realities faced by
development agencies.
ICRAF should engage partners and stakeholders to promote
the adoption of national and international agroforestry,
agriculture and/or NRM policies that include specic and
appropriate provisions that dismantle structural barriers to
rural women’s empowerment and gender equality.
Research should focus on (i) increasing equitable participation
by women farmers and other disadvantaged groups in
household and community decision-making and asset/
benet management; and (ii) improving women’s and other
disadvantaged groups’ access to agroforestry input and
output markets.

10
To operationalize its strategic goals and roles the
World Agroforestry Centre’s R&D is organized
around six Science Domains (SDs). Collectively,
the SDs’ research agenda addresses the role of
trees in transforming lives and landscapes.
The SD teams are primarily focused on the rst
two of ICRAF’s roles: generating knowledge
as IPGs and building evidence to inform high-
level decisions. They also support regional
and country teams with roles three, actionable
knowledge, and ve, capacity development.
Integrating gender analysis and research in the
SDs’ agenda will enable them to provide socially
differentiated solutions to complex problems
across different agro-ecologies, sectors and
political spheres.
In developing this strategy document, Science
Domain teams were invited to reect and
discuss the gender dimensions of their work.
Each of them proposed a set of strategic gender
research questions presented in Annex I, as
an overall guidance to harmonize and build a
coherent gender research agenda.
Following the requirements of gender integration
in role one, research questions related to SD2,
for example, should go beyond the identication
of potential and actual market actors (men and
women in specic locations) to careful analysis
of underlying structural factors mitigating
women’s effective participation in tree-food
product value chains. Science-based knowledge
from such analysis is critical to guiding and
informing roles three and ve – supporting
effective interventions to improve women
farmers’ participation in agroforestry tree-
product markets and increasing and diversifying
their incomes.
Gender strategic research under SD1 and SD5
are cut across by issues of insecure land and
tree tenure, which is more evident for women in
developing countries. Research should focus on
identifying tenure arrangements that promote
secure gender-equitable and socially inclusive
access to, and benets from land and tress.
Efforts under SD1, SD3 and SD4 that relate to
technology design and agroforestry innovations
should pay special attention to understanding
the gender division of resources and knowledge
at household and community levels in order to
develop strategic, user-focused interventions
that would more effectively contribute to
increased adoption at different landscape
levels. Studies have shown, for example, that
in circumstances where men risk losing control
over women’s labour, produce or income,
men may resist women’s efforts to innovate
(Blackden and Wodon, 2006; Tsikata, 2003;
Action Aid and CARE, 2012).
As ICRAF’s research is largely implemented
through regional and national teams and
partners, these teams would also address
gender dimensions related to implementation,
promotion and scaling up of tested technologies
and context-specic solutions. Following the
requirements for role six, priority should be
given to research and development programmes
that increase equitable participation in
household and community decision-making
and asset/benet management, and improve
access and participation by women and other
disadvantaged groups in agroforestry input
and output markets. These programmes would
then focus on different topics according to the
regional or national priorities and contexts.

Gender Strategy and Action Plan
11
4. Plan of Action to Implement the Gender Strategy
The general framework for gender integration
presented in section 3 of this strategy discusses
the integration of gender considerations in
relevant research as well as the production of
strategic gender knowledge and innovations.
Both require dedicated efforts and resources.
Gender integration requires planning of research
projects using a gender lens and should happen
at every stage of the R&D cycle. Central to this
process are issues of introspection, mindset
change, and skills development among
researchers.
The key to gender-sensitive agroforestry
research and development lies in developing
the awareness and capacities of researchers to
understand and address the gender dimensions
of their research. How, for example, intra-
household dynamics of decision-making over
production and management can affect and
be affected by research and development
interventions.
Gender integration should start at the problem
identication and analysis stage by developing
partnerships that will allow the articulation of
research priorities and goals aligned with the
interest of women and men beneciaries, local
organizations, and other relevant stakeholders
with responsibility for supporting gender-
equitable policies and programming.
The need to develop capacities and establish
partnerships is relevant to all science domains
and regional teams. Thus the successful
implementation of this strategy requires the
active engagement and contribution from
staff at all levels and an enabling institutional
environment that provides support in terms
of human and organizational resources and
operational tools.
The Plan of Action presented below identies
the efforts needed at different organizational
levels to foster such an enabling environment
structured around three priority areas, each with
guidelines and proposed actions:
i. Capacity development for gender-
responsive agroforestry research and
development;
ii. Partnerships for gender-responsive
research and development;
iii. Institutional support, organizational and
accountability structure, and resources
required;
4.1 Capacity development for gen-
der-responsive agroforestry re-
search and development
It is critical that the Centre devote efforts to
improve scientists’ awareness of the importance
of addressing gender dimensions in research
and its effect on development outcomes. The
Centre must also increase its institutional
capacity for gender analysis and gender-specic
research.
The Centre will address capacity gaps in
integrating gender through the following steps:
1. Continuous and systematic awareness-rais-
ing of scientists and technical staff to build
a common understanding of gender-relat-
ed concepts in agroforestry, agriculture and
natural resources management and to equip
them with the basic skills and tools to plan
for, collect, analyze, and evaluate gender-dis-
aggregated data.
2. Develop capacities of interested scientists
and gender focal points for gender analysis
and transformative gender research. Specic
actions will include: (i) seminars with partners
and external gender experts to share new
tools, insights and approaches to gender
integration and analysis; (ii) sponsorship of
Centre scientists, through fellowship oppor-
tunities and the staff development fund, to
participate in gender-related courses; and (iii)
setting up and promoting electronic knowl-
edge-sharing platforms, including a section
of the Centre’s website dedicated to sharing
gender and agroforestry publications, re-
sources, and tools.

12
3. Instituting a mentoring programme that pairs
up experienced gender/social scientists with
researchers across the Centre.
4. Self-assessments and reviews among
scientists, technical staff and partners will
be encouraged to capture emerging gaps
and opportunities to improve understanding
of gender-related concepts and gender-
disaggregated data.
4.2 Partnerships for gender-
responsive research and
development
Effective attention to gender will require
partnering with a wide range of institutions,
including other CGIAR centres through
CRPs; national, regional and international
agricultural research partners; as well as with
non-research partners. Moreover, achieving
gender-responsive outcomes and closing
the gender gap at different societal levels
will depend on how effective ICRAF will be in
forging strategic partnerships with advocacy
and policy-inuencing communities that have
the comparative advantage to develop local
capacities, build awareness and mobilize local
action for gender-responsive change at all
levels. Policy and advocacy partnerships with
women’s networks, civil society organizations
and women’s groups are fundamental to
creating environments that enable the promotion
of technologies and knowledge products that
benet women at all landscape levels.
The strategy for partnerships will focus on
targeting organizations with gender expertise
and working on gender-transformative initiatives,
and becoming a valuable partner for such
organizations in agroforestry research and
development.
Scientists will be encouraged to forge strategic
collaborations with established gender
research institutions such as the International
Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) and
the International Development and Research
Centre (IDRC). It would be equally strategic to
forge partnerships with any of the large number
of university research programmes on gender
in agriculture at the national and international
levels. Such research partnerships will increase
the gender responsiveness of problem
identication, priority setting, project design,
and methodology and tools development. This
will in turn position ICRAF as a partner of choice
for boundary partners with an interest in and
responsibility for supporting gender-equitable
policies and programming.
The second and equally critical focus is
partnerships for technology delivery, adoption
and capacity development among men and
women farmers at different landscape levels.
This focus prioritizes the forging of collaborative
arrangements with governmental and non-
governmental development organizations
(national and international) engaged in the
development of gender-sensitive extension
systems.
ICRAF will also prioritize inclusive
partnerships with local institutions, including
local governments and community-based
organization, to amplify the cultural t of
technologies and innovations to the local
context.
Lastly, ICRAF will identify opportunities and
gaps with long-term partners to increase their
awareness of the importance of gender research
and the integration of gender dimensions in
their work. Taken together, these partnerships
will crucially amplify capacities to address
gender integration across agroforestry research,
technology delivery, and policy impacts at
different scales.
4.3 Institutional support,
organizational and accountability
structure, and resources required
The relevance of gender as an analysis
criterion and a determining factor in achieving
development outcomes should be reected
in institutional values, support systems, and
resource mobilization. The commitment and

Gender Strategy and Action Plan
13
engagement of the highest management level
is crucial, as is also the establishment of an
organizational platform that raises the prole of
gender research and spearheads the integration
of gender considerations in research as well as
the production and dissemination of evidence-
based knowledge on the dynamics of gender
relations and agroforestry.
Specic actions to be taken for establishing
such an organizational platform include:
1. Management and senior leadership
commitment that will be manifested through
i. Re-articulating ICRAF’s institutional
values in the corporate strategy to
ensure that gender elements are
properly reected, and communicate
these widely to staff and partners;
ii. Providing the necessary support and
resources to successfully implement
the strategy, including the deployment
of resources to establish the Gender
Unit and support the successful
implementation of the strategy;
iii. Nominating a champion within the SLT
and the Board of Trustees who will
help mobilize the institutional changes
needed to implement the strategy.
2. Establish a functional Gender Unit and a
senior gender scientist/advisor position to
lead and support gender-responsive re-
search and development at ICRAF in both
bilateral projects and in participating CGIAR
Research Programmes (CRPs). The scientist
will have a solid track record in gender and
agroforestry/agriculture and, as the focal
point for gender at ICRAF, will play a lead-
ership role in centrally positioning gender
research in the science community. A key re-
sponsibility of this position will be to develop
a robust resource mobilization portfolio and
leverage funds to support strategic gender
research in the organization. See Annex II for
a complete list of functions and responsibili-
ties of the Gender Unit.
3. Support and strengthen the Gender Imple-
mentation Team,2 which will work closely
with the Gender Unit to support gender inte-
gration and work jointly in the development
of gender research proposals.
4. Endorse the recommendation for cascading
responsibility/accountability to all scientic
and technical staff for gender mainstreaming
in agroforestry research and development
by:
i. Incorporating indicators of gender
responsiveness in performance
contracts and annual evaluations for
science leaders, regional and country
coordinators;
ii. Including minimum standards of gender
integration, where appropriate, as one
of the criteria of a quality proposal, and
integrate it in the proposal approval
process;
iii. Requiring researchers and other
professional staff to always share
research results and outputs with
advocates, policy makers and men and
women from different socio-economic
backgrounds who participated in the
research or who could be affected by
the research ndings;
iv. Encouraging researchers and other
professional staff to follow the
standards for gender integration in the
R&D cycle proposed in this document
and other tools and materials for
gender integration promoted by the
Gender Unit.
2 A group of gender focal points at various
Science Domains, Regional and Country
ofces that has consolidated in the last three
years. The GIT focal points have not only
become advocates of gender integration in
their own regions and units but have also
developed an important network to promote
and move forward strategic research on
gender and agroforestry.

14
5. Monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the gender
strategy: Key activities, indicators and responsibilities
The implementation of this strategy will be systematically monitored to guide efforts on resource
mobilization, the activities of the Gender Unit and the decision-making process at the higher levels of
management. Systematic monitoring will also foster learning and facilitate continuous improvement
at every stage of the implementation process.
The framework proposed is based on the strategy objectives and the three priority areas dened
in the action plan. Each is proposed as an action area with corresponding activities, indicators and
timeframes.
Strategy
Objective
Action Area Activities Indicators Responsibility
Enhance gender
research capacity
throughout ICRAF
and its partners
Capacity
development
for gender-
responsive
agroforestry
research and
development;
Continuous
and systematic
awareness-
raising on gender
integration and
gender research
% of scientists
and professional
staff that has
been exposed to
gender-awareness
and training
opportunities
Lead: Gender
Unit supported
by: SLT, SD
leaders,
research leaders
% of gender-
sensitive research
projects
Develop internal
capacities for
gender analysis
and transformative
gender research
% of researchers
with knowledge
and skills to apply
gender analysis
% of potentially
gender-
transformative
research projects
Establishing
a mentoring
programme to
build capacities on
gender
% of scientists
directly involved in
gender research
Long way to go- Vietnamese women farmers in rice elds Photo©World Agroforestry Centre/

Gender Strategy and Action Plan
15
Mobilize
adequate
resources to
support gender
research to
contribute to
ICRAF’s vision
Institutional
support,
organizational
structure, and
resources
required for
supporting
gender
integration in
ICRAF’s work
Establish a senior
gender scientist
position to lead
and support gender
mainstreaming at
ICRAF
Gender unit is
established and
fully functional
Senior
Leadership
Increase
accountability
of professional
staff and research
leaders for gender-
responsive research
and development
Gender integration
indicators
incorporated into
annual performance
contracts and
evaluations
Identify priority areas
for gender research
and develop
relevant proposals
on gender-
transformative
research
% of gender-
specic research
products
(briefs, scientic
papers, policy
recommendations)
Identify priority areas
for gender research
and develop
relevant proposals
on gender-
transformative
research
% of potentially
gender
transformative
research projects
Gender Unit
supported by
gender focal
points
Develop a proposal
review process and
guide/checklist for
incorporating gender
elements
PDU checklist
incorporates
gender guidelines
Gender Unit
Generate a co-
learning cycle
between gender
research and
development
practice
and ensure
that gender
dimensions are
fully integrated
in negotiation
support for
relevant
agroforestry
landscapes
Strengthening
partnerships
for gender
sensitive and
transformative
research
Increase the number
of strategic partners
working on gender
Number of MoUs
and collaborative
agreements with
strategic partners
working on gender
increased
Gender Unit,
PDU
Increase the number
of rural women’s
networks, NGOs or
CBO’s working on
women issues
Number of MoUs
and cooperative
with women’s
networks/NGOs/
CBOs increased
Gender Unit and
research leaders
Develop information-
sharing platform
for knowledge
sharing and learning
about gender
transformation in
agroforestry
Information sharing
platform/portal
established
Gender Unit

16
H’mong woman with her child picking indigenous Shan tea leaves. Photo©World Agroforestry Centre

Gender Strategy and Action Plan
17
Annexes
Annex I: Gender research elements and questions across ICRAF’s Science
Domains
ICRAF Science Domain Gender Research Questions
SD1 - Agroforestry Systems
Research into the appropriate agroforestry-
management options and their economic
and ecological impacts on farming systems
and household welfare
• What processes (research/actions/reforms)
can lead simultaneously to greater productivity,
sustainability and gender equality in different
contexts?
• What are the synergies and trade-offs between
productivity, sustainability and gender equality in
different contexts and at different scales (farm,
household, community, landscape)?
• How do we design scalable options that
simultaneously increase productivity, sustainability
and gender equality? Can we identify best-bet
approaches, methods, tools and indicators for
different contexts and scales?
SD2 - Tree Products and Markets
Enhancing the potential to achieve rural
development goals through tree-products
value chains and services
• Identify and analyze power relations between
women and men; How do they determine access
to productive resources, shape decisions and
distribute benets within the household?
• Identify and analyze constraints (time, social,
budget, legal) that inhibit women’s participation
in value chains and markets for agroforestry
products.
• Identify the aspirations of women to participate in
these value chains.
SD3 -Tree Diversity, Domestication and
Delivery
Identifying, delivering and conserving
quality tree germplasm as well as
supporting the optimal use of the right tree
in the right place for the right purpose.
• How do gender roles, priorities and knowledge
inuence the access, use and conservation of tree
genetic resources?
• How can gender-specic knowledge and roles
inuence tree species selection and prioritization?
• What are the implications of gender-specic
knowledge and roles for propagation and access
to markets for recently domesticated trees?
• How can the different priorities of men, women
and youth be considered to improve the efciency
of delivery systems and ensure that protable
material choices are available to smallholder
farming landscapes?

18
SD4 - Land Health
Develop and promote scientically rigorous
methods for measuring
and monitoring land health, assessing land
health risks, and targeting and evaluating
agroforestry and other sustainable land
management interventions to improve
soil fertility, ecosystem health and human
wellbeing
• How do environmental and behavioural risk
factors that inuence land degradation interact
with gender dynamics?
• Identify the gender dynamics that may affect the
cost efciencies of agroforestry and alternative
preventative and rehabilitation interventions under
different circumstances.
SD5 - Environmental Services
Understand and promote the benets and
sustenance of key environmental services
associated with tree-based
landscapes, including water, soil
stabilization, carbon, and biodiversity
• What approaches, including timing, sequencing
and overall design of negotiation processes
for payments for environmental services (PES)
and co-investment schemes, are necessary
for ensuring gender-equitable and effective
participation?
• How effectively can gender perceptions,
preferences and sensitivity be integrated into the
decision-making processes and practice portfolios
that help to achieve climate-smart landscapes?
• How can gender inuence the structure and
dynamics of landscapes to reduce conicts of
interest among actors and enhance functionality?
SD6 - Climate Change
Examine how poor farmers and national/
sub-national agencies can better adapt to
changing conditions as well as benet from
mitigation opportunities.
Understand and monitor how trees and
agroforestry systems are responding to
current climate variability.
• Which climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices
are gender-responsive? Which are the most
gender transformative?
• Which gender-responsive CSA practices and
investments have the largest returns (and for
whom)?
• Will international climate policy instruments
exacerbate or mitigate inequities between
different actors at multiple scales? And how can
they be used to promote the latter?

Gender Strategy and Action Plan
19
Annex II. Main functions of the Gender Unit
• Provide scientic, conceptual and
methodological leadership for gender in
agroforestry research and development
across the Centre’s participating CRPs
and bilateral projects to contribute to the
achievement of ICRAF’s strategic goals;
support the implementation of diversity-
responsive policies that explicitly state a
strong organizational commitment to gender,
diversity and inclusion.
• Lead the operationalization of ICRAF’s
gender strategy and action plan for
agroforestry/landscape research and
development; monitor and support ICRAF’s
Units, regional and national programmes
in using gender-sensitive criteria to
assess contributions to gender equality in
agroforestry landscapes.
• Build robust national, regional and
international partnerships for gender-
specic research and development to drive
agroforestry innovations to impacts at scale.
• Lead Centre-wide resource mobilization
efforts for strategic research on gender in
agroforestry;
• Raise gender awareness and lead capacity
development of scientists and partners to
better integrate gender in research projects
and programmes; coordinate and support
capacity development of gender focal points
across ICRAF’s Science Domains and
regions.
• Lead the development of tools and
methodologies for gender integration in
research and development;
• Support the development of communication
and media resources on gender and
agroforestry to facilitate learning and sharing
of knowledge among center scientists and
partners.
A proud Kenyan woman farmer with her papaya orchard. Photo©World Agroforestry Centre/

20
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A hard day labour for a Kenyan woman winnowing cheek peas grown at her farm. Photo©World Agroforestry
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22
Farmers examine crop in Nyandarua, Kenya Photo©World Agroforestry Centre/Sherry Odeyo

World Agroforestry Centre is a
member of the CGIAR Consortium
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Phone + (254) 20 722 4000, Fax + (254) 20 722 4001,
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Email: worldagroforestry@cgiar.org
Website: www.worldagroforestry.org