The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report warns of ‘irreversible’ impacts of global warming.

Pressure on food security has also dramatically increased with global and regional supply chains fractured by the pandemic and now the invasion of Ukraine.

Scientists, researchers and policymakers—both male and female—must play equal roles in finding solutions to make communities more resilient in the face of climate change.

Women’s participation in agriculture and climate research is steadily rising, and this is welcome progress as we celebrate International Women’s Day 2022, under the theme #BreakTheBias.

But a ‘leaky pipeline’ effect still weakens women’s representation in science and research, too often restraining their progression to senior scientific or decision-making roles.

What is the bias?

The agricultural research system has an ongoing problem of recruitment, retention and advancement of women.

For instance, women make up only a quarter of agricultural scientists in Africa, and a much lower proportion of decision makers on agriculture and climate at both national and global levels.

Women are not well represented in key climate-change related sectors, either as researchers, skilled workers, professionals or decision-makers.

Although they are well represented in some scientific disciplines—health and environmental management for instance—they are very much in a minority in fields vital for the transition to a climate-smart, sustainable future: agriculture, energy, engineering and digital technologies.

Faustina Obeng Adomaa of the AICCRA Ghana team observes that:

“Many societies sensitize and nudge girls to choose careers stereotyped as right for them, and these usually do not include research-based careers in agriculture and climate change. Thus, many women do not find themselves in agriculture and climate research.”

Those women who pursue scientific careers also face challenges, such as lower pay compared to their male colleagues, or a comparative lack of recognition from the scientific community.

Take the case of agriculture research in East Africa, where women may also face difficulty in travelling to conferences, workshops or field visits. This is often because career responsibilities are seen as secondary to domestic caregiving duties.

The career trajectory of women in this field is effectively less of a progressive continuum, and more a ‘leaky pipeline’ where progress is hampered by bias.

But when women researchers or scientists are provided with opportunities along with a supportive and enabling environment, they have proven to excel, working on innovative solutions to community challenges, training the next generation of scientist and actively participating in policy initiatives and institutions.   

How to break the bias

Encouraging and supporting women’s participation is key to gender-responsive interventions in the agriculture and climate sectors.

Critically, this should be done not just at the higher levels of research, but equally for positions at more junior levels, that often ultimately inform, support and influence policy.

Projects and programmes should adopt multiple measure to build the case for equal representation of women across all levels of institutions.

AICCRA projects work to achieve this through multiple ways:

• Promote postdoctoral positions and research fellowships for women, recruiting talented and suitable women for senior project positions, while also monitoring or measuring how much they mentor their female peers and junior colleagues.
• Encourage women’s participation in activities that develop their leadership skills.
• Work with platforms such as the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) to develop gender-sensitive curriculum aimed to support women students and faculty.
• Conduct leadership workshops for women researchers involved in the AICCRA project, in collaboration with African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD).
• Encourage the participation of women leaders and civil society as stakeholders in developing national Gender and Climate Action Plans.

The project also plans to track and monitor the support structures in place for women researchers, such as the existence of a women and science committees or networks within organisations, the existence of day care and other ‘women-friendly’ actions being implemented.

Organisations such as RUFORUM play a key role in building capacities of future researchers, empowering them with the required leadership skills and knowledge.

Beyond science and research institutes, other organizations that work to generate and diffuse climate-smart innovations must also work to realize the potential of women to find solutions to climate change. 

For example, the Women Environment Programme of Nigeria worked hard and steadily with public, private and civil society stakeholders to develop a Gender and Climate Action Plan, making commitments and pledges of support the mainstreaming of gender in climate action and efforts to support environmental sustainability.

In addition, the National Action Plan on Gender and Climate Change was recently approved by the Nigerian Government.   

If agriculture and climate research institutes want to earnestly celebrate international women’s day, then the theme of this year’s campaign provides a pathway to change, one that AICCRA is proud to already support: Celebrate women's scientific achievements; Raise awareness against bias; Take action for equality.

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Nitya Chanana is Gender and Social Inclusion Science Officer for AICCRA

Sophia Huyer is Gender & Social Inclusion Lead for AICCRA