Senegal is launching an agricultural Gender and Climate Action Plan, informed by AICCRA engagement

Participants in the validation workshop for the Gender and Climate Action Plan in Senegal.

Through a partnership with AICCRA, Senegal's Ministry of Agriculture is coordinating the development of a Gender and Climate Action Plan for the agriculture sector, which will be crucial to inform national cross-sectoral gender and climate action led by the Ministry of Environment.

Dibor Sarr Faye, National Focal for Gender and Climate at the Ministry of Environment, emphasised that the sectorial plan will inform the national cross-sectorial plan, saying:

"With this sectorial Gender Action Plan, we pave the way for inclusive gender and climate sensitive solutions. I want to express gratitude to AICCRA for their support. With their continued partnership, we're empowered to mobilize resources and drive impactful change on a national scale."

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Savings club in Mali boosts women farmers access to climate-smart innovations

                Women of the 'Savings for Change' group in the Sikasso region of Mali. 

Accelerating the adoption of climate-smart technologies by overcoming financial barriers for smallholder farmers—especially women—is a priority for the AICCRA project. Thanks to the 'Savings for Change' program with AICCRA Mali, Syngenta Foundation and the Malian Association for Support and Advice to Community Initiatives (AMACIC), more than 30,000 women farmers in Mali are investing in climate-smart agriculture innovations which are boosting incomes by an average of USD618 per hectare.

Rokia Togola, a woman farmer from the Sikasso region of Mali, shared her personal experience with the Savings for Change mechanism. She stated that her income has increased, and now she can contribute to her children's school fees and healthcare. Her decision-making power on productive resources—such as the rental of agricultural land, the use of agricultural machinery and the payment of agricultural labor—has increased.

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Article: From gender gaps to gender-transformative climate-smart agriculture

This is for the gender and climate researchers! In a new review, Sophia Huyer, Ana Maria Loboguerrero, Nitya Chanana, and Olga Spellman explore a synthesis of research on gender transformation that proposes concepts for moving gender and climate research forward. 

Gender equality and intersectionality outcomes in climate-smart agriculture (CSA) require addressing inequality. Much of the research on the nexus between gender and climate has emphasized the negative impacts on women, in terms of their increased vulnerability to climate-related shocks. But the root causes of many climate-related vulnerabilies facing women persist because agricultural intervention approaches have largely ignored women as agents of change. However, inclusive action through farmers', women's and youth movements can be transformative.

The concept of CSA holds immense potential to support transformation as its effective implementation occurs within an enabling environment with social, economic and political dimensions. In the context of food systems transformation, gender transformation requires scalable, enabling mechanisms, and research should focus on what constitutes effective scaling and for whom. 

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Paper: Enabling gender and social inclusion in climate and agriculture policy and planning through foresight processes

In this recently published paper by Edwige Marty, Alcade C Segnon, Sabine Homann-Kee Tui, Sabrina Trautman, Sophia Huyer, Laura Cramer and Everisto Mapedza, learn more about why scenario-guided planning processes are important tools for ensuring that agriculture investment plans and other decisions and policies incorporate climate change concerns.

In these, gender and social inclusion should be prioritized from the onset and integrated at different stages of planning, notably by allocating more time, human, and financial resources to ensure inclusiveness.

Other key insights:

• Parallel consultations among diverse organizations and groups can provide effective spaces for often-sidelined or marginalized groups’ interests and needs to be integrated into policy decision-making. In AICCRA's activities, we ensure that marginalized groups are consulted in the most appropriate ways, and their interests and needs are included in decisions and project activities.
• Practitioners should further their use of foresight processes and development of tools and methods for integrating gender and social inclusion in these as part of the policy process, as well as strengthen the capacities, expertise, and role of conveners. In West Africa, AICCRA has worked with CORAF to develop and expand foresight analysis capacity in the region through both training and application of foresight in a concrete policy process. 
• We can improve success by the promotion and dissemination of existing gender and social inclusion research and documentation as well as support for learning and reflection to refine identified leverage points. The gender database developed by AICCRA can help practitioners access evidence on gender and social inclusion.

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