15 October 2014: The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), the CGIAR Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and CARE International have developed the ‘Gender and Inclusion Toolbox: Participatory Research on Climate Change and Agriculture,’ an online resource for incorporating gender perspectives into research and climate change projects. The Toolbox includes tested and refined learning activities, exercises, calendars and questionnaires intended to explore such topics as gender roles and women’s empowerment.

The Toolbox, which was launched on 15 October 2014, marked the International Day of Rural Women and highlighted the need for more gender-responsive methods in development and research activities.

The Toolbox makes a full range of participatory tools and methods available to researchers and project developers. It complements previous work compiled in ‘Gender and Climate Change Research in Agriculture and Food Security for Rural Development,’ a joint 2012 publication (updated in 2013) from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and CCAFS. Examples of the additional activities included in the Toolbox are: a learning exercise to discover the difference between sex and gender; an exercise for building empathy with community members; village mapping to study access, use, conflict and control; and seasonal calendars and daily activity clocks to examine gender roles.

Through these and many other exercises the manual, which is a living document, the Toolbox aims to build the capacity of researchers across all sectors to incorporate gender and social inclusion into their work. [CCAFS Blog Post] [Launch Event Livestream Recording] [Gender and Inclusion Toolbox Website] [Publication: Gender and Inclusion Toolbox: Participatory Research in Climate Change and Agriculture]