Gender Dissagregated Data in Agricultural Research: 'Towards Building Capacity for Data Collection’

Abstract

The Sustainable intensification of Maize-legume cropping systems for food security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) is a multi-institution and multi-stakeholder regional collaborative research project led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), with donor support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). The SIMLESA program is implemented in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Australia and aims at increasing farm-level food security and productivity, in the context of climate risk and change. The Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) is one of the collaborating partners in this program with the role of providing technical backstopping, capacity building in gender mainstreaming, monitoring and evaluation and in knowledge transfer and technology spillovers. ASARECA’s gender mainstreaming strategic plan (2010- 2014), recommends "the improvement of the collection, dissemination and use of gender-disaggregated data in agriculture, fisheries, forestry and rural development.” This was in recognition of the importance of gender-disaggregated data to food security policy and planning. This particular training workshop was one of the capacity building activities related to gender mainstreaming undertaken by ASARECA in the SIMLESA program.