Why is it important to close the gender asset gap, especially in agricultural development?
In light of the upcoming Platform Annual General Assembly on gender and food systems, IFPRI's senior research fellow Ruth Meinzen-Dick discusses in an in-depth interview with the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development how agricultural development projects can understand how men’s and women’s control of assets will affect project participation and outcomes.
Compared to many other development targets there was a lot of data to support that narrowing the gap between men and women in terms of control over various types of household assets substantially improved agricultural productivity, said Meinzen-Dick.
For long-term poverty reduction, and especially for breaking the intergenerational transmission of poverty, gender equality is absolutely critical. Meinzen-Dick, points out that gender-focused interventions are not deterministic 'social engineering,' and that almost all development interventions bring about changes to the fabric of a society.
In retrospect on the role of donors, Meinzen-Dick expressed that some donors deserved a lot of credit, since they had championed gender issues for a long time. That efforts were being donor-driven was not necessarily a bad thing. Donors who championed gender issues had picked up considerable research that showed how important this was for long-term food security and for long-term poverty reduction. These donors created space for women to be involved as co-investors in rural development, producing food for their families, their communities and even for the world.
Please see the post and video interview here.
Reblogged this on CSA Youth Network.