Person: Elias, M.
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Elias
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M.
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Elias, M.
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0000-0001-8835-5348 11 results
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- Making room for manoeuvre: addressing gender norms to strengthen the enabling environment for agricultural innovation(Taylor & Francis, 2020) Badstue, L.B.; Elias, M.; Kommerell, V.; Petesch, P.; Prain, G.; Pyburn, R.; Umantseva, A.
Publication - A community typology of social change devised from the bottom-up(GENNOVATE, 2019) Petesch, P.; Feldman, S.; Elias, M.; Badstue, L.B.; Najjar, D.; Rietveld, A.M.; Bullock, R.; Kawarazuka, N.; Luis, J.
Publication - Key research findings entry points for enabling gender equality in agricultural and environmental innovation(CIMMYT, 2017) Petesch, P.; Badstue, L.B.; Prain, G.; Elias, M.; Amare TegbaruMen and women on average report growing power and freedom to shape their lives as well as declining poverty in their villages across the 137 GENNOVATE village-level case studies. Wider forces in the macro environments as well as improvements in rural livelihoods due to agricultural innovation contribute importantly to these promising trends. Yet, beneath these broad patterns, the GENNOVATE data show strong differences in how men and women – and their communities – experience and benefit from innovation processes. The research communities experiencing more inclusive innovation processes and rapid poverty reduction offer valuable lessons on which agricultural research and development (R&D) can build.
Publication - Fortifying the foundations for gender in AR4D(CIMMYT, 2018) Badstue, L.B.; Elias, M.; Kommerell, V.; Petesch, P.; Prain, G.; Pyburn, R.; Umantseva, A.
Publication - Fit for purpose? A review of guides for gender-equitable value chain development(Taylor & Francis, 2018) Stoian, D.; Donovan, J.; Elias, M.; Blare, T.This article presents a review of seven guides for gender-equitable value chain development (VCD). The guides advocate persuasively the integration of gender into VCD programming and raise important issues for designing more inclusive interventions. However, gaps persist in their coverage of gender-based constraints in collective enterprises, the influence of norms on gender relations, and processes to transform inequitable relations through VCD. Guidance for field implementation and links to complementary value chain tools are also limited. The article identifies opportunities for conceptual and methodological innovation to address the varying roles, needs, and aspirations of women and men in VCD.
Publication - Using vignettes to explore gender dimensions of household food security and nutrition. GENNOVATE resources for scientists and research teams(CIMMYT, 2018) Elias, M.; Raneri, J.E.; Petesch, P.; Kennedy, G.; Badstue, L.B.Eliminating malnutrition is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Poor quality diet is a principal cause of malnutrition and a top risk factor of morbidity and mortality globally (Wang et al., 2017). Nutrition programs and projects abound typically target children, mothers, and other women of childbearing age, who are particularly vulnerable to nutrient deficiencies and often discriminated against when it comes to intra-household decisions shaping access to and allocation of nutritious foods. The close association between women, particularly young and middle-aged, and food processing and preparation has further encouraged nutrition-sensitive initiatives to target this demographic group (Alderman, 2017; FAO, 2017). Yet, the influence of other family members – especially fathers, grandmothers (mother-in-law), and other extended family relations in the household – over maternal and child health and nutrition is increasingly being acknowledged (Satzinger et al., 2009; FAO, 2017). Assuming that young and middle-aged women alone are responsible for this domain of activity thus under-recognizes the ways different household members and local social norms associated with household roles and relations shape dietary decisions among family members. Social norms comprise the everyday behaviors and interactions that are deemed to be typical and appropriate in a context. These decisions affect food production, budgets and consumption. For example, despite women’s central roles in food provisioning and preparation, dietary decisions are not made individually but rather are shaped by numerous factors. Wider social norms and men’s and women’s expectations shape the resources allocated to household food budgets, dietary and cooking preferences, and how meals are shared. Social norms and other contextual influences contribute to variance on the ground in women’s and men’s control of assets for food production and purchases as well as their market access. While some decisions and activities are made or carried out jointly by the primary adult man and woman in a household, others involve greater gender specialization. A better understanding of the norms shaping household roles and relations at different moments of the nutrition pathway can enhance nutrition-related research and interventions, including by identifying important roles played by “nontraditional” actors such as husbands and mothers-in-law. In what follows, we outline a data collection method for mapping the engagement of household members along the nutrition pathway, beginning at the post-harvest or food purchase stage. This starting point along the pathway owes to the fact that the tool was applied within the larger GENNOVATE study, which also explicitly focused on production decisions in various other parts of the methodology. Yet, the tool can be expanded to analyze decisions and roles related to food production for household use and markets, including livestock raising and related products. As done within the GENNOVATE study, it can be combined with other methods or integrated in a larger data collection effort to understand the factors and processes shaping household production, exchange, and consumption.
Publication - Fostering collaboration in cross-CGIAR research projects and platforms: lessons from the GENNOVATE initiative. GENNOVATE resources for scientists and research teams(CIMMYT, 2018) Elias, M.; Badstue, L.B.; Farnworth, C.; Prain, G.; van der Burg, M.; Petesch, P.; Elmhirst, R.; Bullock, R.; Feldman, S.; Jafry, T.; Netsayi Mudege; Umantseva, A.; Amare Tegbaru; Dina Najjar; Jummai Yila; Behailu, L.A.; Kawarazuka, N.; Kandiwa, V.; Kantor, P.; Luis, J.; Lopez, D.E.; Njuguna-Mungai, E.; Rietveld, A.M.“GENNOVATE: Enabling gender equality in agricultural and environmental innovation” is a collaborative study that represents an unprecedented initiative in the CGIAR in its scale and comprehensiveness for examining gender norms, agency, and capacities for innovations. A qualitative study, it brings to life the voices, challenges, and aspirations of local people differentiated by gender, socioeconomic class, and generation under diverse cultures, religions, ecological circumstances, and agricultural systems. The research design was developed collaboratively, and Principal Investigators (PIs) from nearly all CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) contributed substantively to the study. GENNOVATE was initiated from the bottom up in 2013 among CGIAR and associated gender researchers, and was made possible through funding support from CGIAR Trust Fund Donors, the CRPs, the CGIAR Gender and Agricultural Research Network, the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the governments of Germany and Mexico. One unique aspect of GENNOVATE is its ability to catalyze collaboration: It brought together a multidisciplinary team of researchers across the CRPs and enabled them to carry out a study that covers the many regions where the CGIAR is active. GENNOVATE researchers worked with 137 agricultural communities from 26 countries across the Global South. In this way, the initiative moved beyond the small, isolated studies which have characterized much gender case research towards real time comparisons across many qualitative cases. This has allowed for new patterns to emerge while maintaining emphasis on contextual specificity. The success of the study has rested considerably in its driving principles of systematic collaboration and learning.
Publication - Community typology framed by normative climate for agricultural innovation, empowerment, and poverty reduction(Journal of Gender, Agriculture and Food Security, 2018) Petesch, P.; Feldman, S.; Elias, M.; Badstue, L.B.; Najjar, D.; Rietveld, A.M.; Bullock, R.; Kawarazuka, N.; Luis, J.This paper employs the concepts of gender norms and agency to advance understanding of inclusive agricultural innovation processes and their contributions to empowerment and poverty reduction at the village level. We present a community typology informed by normative influences on how people assess conditions and trends for village women and men to make important decisions (or to exercise agency) and for local households to escape poverty. The typology is comprised of three village typestransforming, climbing and churning with each type depicting a different normative climate and trajectory of change in agency and poverty levels. Across “transforming” villages with significant increases in people’s agency and poverty reduction, we found a highly inclusive normative climate that is fueling gender equality and agricultural innovation, as well as infrastructural improvements, expanded markets, and male labor migration. The research, part of the GENNOVATE initiative, includes a qualitative comparative methodology and dataset of 79 village cases from 17 countries.
Publication - Gendered aspirations and occupations among rural youth, in agriculture and beyond: a cross-regional perspective(Journal of Gender, Agriculture and Food Security, 2018) Elias, M.; Netsayi Mudege; Lopez, D.E.; Najjar, D.; Kandiwa, V.; Luis, J.; Jummai Yila; Amare Tegbaru; Gaya Ibrahim; Badstue, L.B.; Njuguna-Mungai, E.; Abderahim BentaibiBased on 25 case studies from the global comparative study ‘GENNOVATE: Enabling gender equality in agricultural and environmental innovation’, this paper explores rural young women’s and men’s occupational aspirations and trajectories in India, Mali, Malawi, Morocco, Mexico, Nigeria, and the Philippines. We draw upon qualitative data from 50 sex-segregated focus groups with the youth to show that across the study’s regional contexts, young rural women and men predominantly aspire for formal blue and white-collar jobs. Yet, they experience an aspiration- achievement gap, as the promise of their education for securing the formal employment they seek is unfulfilled, and they continue to farm in their family’s production. Whereas some young men aspired to engage in knowledge-intensive or ‘modern’ agriculture, young women did not express any such interest. Framing our analysis within a relational approach, we contend that various gender norms that discriminate against women in agriculture dissuade young women from aspiring for agriculture-related occupation. We discuss the gendered opportunity spaces of the study sites, the meanings these hold for allowing young women and men to achieve their aspirations and catalyze agricultural innovation, and implications for agricultural policies and research for development. Our findings show that youth and gender issues are inextricably intertwined and cannot be understood in isolation one from the other.
Publication - What drives capacity to innovate? Insights from women and men small-scale farmers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America(Journal of Gender, Agriculture and Food Security, 2018) Badstue, L.B.; Lopez, D.E.; Umantseva, A.; Williams, G.J.; Elias, M.; Farnworth, C.; Rietveld, A.M.; Njuguna-Mungai, E.; Luis, J.; Najjar, D.; Kandiwa, V.What are key characteristics of rural innovators? How are their experiences similar for women and men, and how are they different? To examine these questions, we draw on individual interviews with 336 rural women and men known in their communities for trying out new things in agriculture. The data form part of 84 GENNOVATE community case studies from 19 countries. Building on study participants’ own reflections and experiences with innovation in their agricultural livelihoods, we combine variable-oriented analysis and analysis of specific individuals’ lived experience. Results indicate that factors related to personality and agency are what most drive women’s and men’s capacity to innovate. Access to resources is not a prerequisite but rather an important enabling aspect. Different types of women have great potential for local innovation, but structural inequalities make men better positioned to access resources and leverage support. Men’s support is important when women challenge the status quo.
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