Browsing by Author "Fischer, G."

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Gender- and youth-sensitive data collection tools to support decision making for inclusive sustainable agricultural intensification
(Taylor & Francis Group, 2021) Grabowski, P.P.; Djenontin, I.; Zulu, L.; Kamoto, J.; Kampanje-Phiri, J.; Darkwah, A.; Egyir, I.; Fischer, G.
To achieve equitable sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI), it is essential to understand differential access and control over agricultural resources by women and youth, and to assess how intensification interacts with gendered and age dependent relationships. Existing packages for assessing women’s empowerment in agriculture tend to be large-scale surveys that do not provide timely results, nor are they easily integrated into a gender-transformative process. This paper applies concepts from Kabeer on gender analysis and empowerment to evaluate promising tools available for assessing inequities in SAI and supporting a gender-transformative approach. We interviewed decision makers in Malawi and Ghana to understand their needs and practices for equityanalysis. We evaluated, adapted and tested tools to detect inequities from SAI. Our results demonstrate the suitability of tools to decision makers’ needs for ex-ante assessment and early detection of disparities. We synthesize information from the testing and adaptation of tools about the resources required, the equity issues they can reveal and their potential role in a gender-transformative approach. The use of the tools needs to be part of an inclusive and culturally specific process for identifying gaps and facilitating a more equitable sharing of SAI responsibilities and benefits through iterative cycles of action and learning.
Realizing Inclusive SAI: contextualizing indicators to better evaluate gender and intergenerational inequity in SAI processes and outcomes – cases from Southern and Western Africa
(International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 2020-03-26) Darkwah, A.; Zulu, L.C.; Djenontin, I.N.S.; Kamoto, J.; Kampanje-Phiri, J.; Fischer, G.; Grabowski, P.; Egyir, I.
Despite increasing sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) investments, indicators for detecting gender and intergenerational inequities in SAI costs and benefits sharing often remain overgeneralized, theoretical, or locally irrelevant. We examine the relative value of, and how to, customize standard SAI indicators to detect such inequities in specific socio-cultural contexts to enhance data collection for evidence-based decision making in fostering gender/youth inclusive SAI. Using focus-group discussions and key informant interviews among farmers and diverse government, NGO, private sector, and academic stakeholders in two districts in Malawi and three in Ghana, we assess the perceived roles, differentiated needs/ priorities of men, women and youth, and the sharing of SAI burdens and benefits within farming households. We investigate what context-appropriate questions to ask, to whom, and how, to collect reliable information on indicators of SAIinvestment inequities. Results illuminate context-specific, gendered and intergenerational factors shaping access to and ownership of productive resources, household decision making, SAI participation, and appropriateness of selected indicators. Combining farmers’ and local field-expert’ perspectives offers practical insights for customizing inequity indicators. Findings highlight advantages of local contextualization of SAI indicators, including insights on appropriate data-collection approaches that challenge orthodox survey/quantitative methods for detecting and assessing gender/age inequities to foster inclusive SAI.