GREAT Course participants during fieldwork. Luwero, Uganda 2019

Our gender-responsive trainings and research are heating up as GREAT continues to grow and offer new opportunities to scientists in Sub-Saharan Africa and in South Asia. 

The research clusters announced in February are progressing steadily. Three out of the five research cluster teams completed field research and are currently analyzing data. The cluster on women empowerment, masculinities and social norms in agriculture has collected qualitative data and will collect the quantitative data (using the PrOWEAI tool) in July. All of these research clusters are aimed at deepening the capacity of agricultural researchers to conduct gender responsive and transformative research across Africa and beyond.

Preparation for the gender-responsive plant breeding and seed systems course for South Asia is in high gear. The two-part course combines in-person training in Hyderabad, India from September 12-17 followed by virtual sessions September 25-30. We are thrilled to offer this course to equip participants with the knowledge and skills to identify and address gender issues in plant breeding and seed systems programs in Bangladesh, India and Nepal.

We are finalizing the GREAT Trainer’s manual and will publish it before the end of the year. In this manual we document the training content and processes of the GREAT gender responsive plant breeding mainstream courses delivered during Phase 1 of GREAT 2016-2020. The manual targets all facilitators/trainers interested in applied, gender responsive agricultural research

Last but not least, our partnership base is expanding! We are pleased to announce our early discussions with the Excellence in Agronomy initiative on the OneCGIAR on a collaboration to build capacity of the Use Cases and scaling partners in the last quarter of 2022. 

Stay tuned!

Sincerely,

Dr. Margaret Mangheni and Dr. Hale Tufan,

GREAT Co-Principal Investigators

Creating more inclusive and effective agricultural systems

My journey with GREAT

Makerere University | by Businge Martha | July 8, 2022 | Read more here.

GREAT expands to South Asia with the gender-responsive plant breeding and seed systems course

Cornell University | by Matt Hayes and Elizabeth Asiimwe | May 11, 2022 | Read more here.

Hale Ann Tufan: at the nexus of gender equality and agricultural research

Cornell University | by Kelly Merchan | May 25, 2022 | Read more here.

GREAT Fellow Kachalla completes his PhD!

GREAT fellow Kachalla Kyari Malla successfully completed a PhD in Genetics and Crop Breeding at the University of Maiduguri in Nigeria. In his work as a wheat breeder at Lake Chad Research Institute Maiduguri, Kachalla credits the GREAT course for equipping him with the capacity to integrate gender in his work.

Congratulations Dr Kachalla Kyari Mala!

Promotions

Congratulations to the following GREAT Trainers and Fellows who were recently promoted at work!

Trainers:

• Dr Peace Musiimenta was promoted to Senior Lecturer in the School of Women and Gender Studies at Makerere University
• Dr Rosemary Isoto was promoted to Senior Lecturer in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at Makerere University
• Dr David Kalule Okello was promoted to Principal Research officer at National Semi Arid Resources Research Institute, National Agricultural Research Organization, Uganda

Fellows:

• Dr Robert Kawuki was promoted to Senior Principal Research Officer at National Crop Resources Research Institute, Namulonge. Dr Kawuki attended the maiden GREAT Course (Theme 1) on gender-responsive root, tuber and banana breeding in 2016/2017
• Dr Jimmy Lamo was promoted to Senior Principal Research Officer at National Crop Resources Research Institute, Namulonge. Dr Lamo attended the gender-responsive plant breeding course customized for the International Rice Research Institute (East Africa) in 2019
• Dr Biruma Moses was promoted to Principal Research officer at the National Agricultural Research Organization. Dr Biruma attended Theme 2 on gender-responsive cereal grains breeding in 2017/2018

Women and Gender in development Discussion Series -VirginiaTech, Fall 2022. 

Gender in Field Research, Gender in Academia: Navigating Multiple Identity Positions.

• Date: Thursday, 8 September 2022, 12:30pm to 1:30pm (GMT-04:00) America/New York.
• Speaker: Nora Haenn, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, North Carolina State University

Beyond 'Women’s Traits': Analyzing Gender and Social Differences for Inclusive Crop Varietal Design.

• Date: Thursday, 13 October 2022, 12:30pm to 1:30pm (GMT-04:00) America/New York.
• Speaker: Hale Ann Tufan, Research Professor, Department of Global Development, Cornell University

The Gendering of Climate Change Scholarship in Africa.

• Date: Thursday, 10 November 2022, 12:30pm to 1:30pm (GMT-05:00) America/New York.
• Speaker: Siera Vercillo, Adjunct Professor and Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Waterloo

Freely access 238 full-text articles in the GREAT CoP Zotero Group library.

Authors in bold, below, are CoP members.

Moving beyond reaching women in seed systems development

Published: November 2021

Puskur, Ranjitha; Mudege, Netsayi Noris; Njuguna-Mungai, Esther; Nchanji, Eileen; Vernooy, Ronnie; Galiè, Alessandra; and Najjar, Dina

Access the full-text PDF online.

Market segmentation (G + Customer and Product Profile Tools) for gender responsive bean breeding in Zimbabwe: Piloting report. 

Published: 2022

Nchanji, E.; Nyarai, C.; Tsekenedza, S.; Gutsa, F.; Sondayi, L.; Lutomia, C.; Chirwa, R.; Rubyogo, J.C.; Onyango, P.

Access the full-text PDF online.

Gender-responsive breeding: Lessons from Zimbabwe

Published: 2022

Nchanji, Eileen; Nyarai, Chisorochengwe; Tsekenedza, Shylet; Bruce Mutari; Gutsa Freeman; Sondayi Lloyd; Lutomia Cosmas; and Onyango, Patricia

Access the full-text PDF online.

Tools and methods on gendered design, deployment and evaluation of agricultural technologies

Published: 2022

Tarjem Ida Arff; Ragasa Catherine; Polar Vivian; Sylla Almamy; Teeken Béla; Nchanji, Eileen; Mujawamariya Gaudiose; Mudege, Netsayi; and Marimo Priscilla

Access the full-text PDF online.

Ask the Gender Clinic: How to integrate gender meaningfully in policy development and implementation?

Published: 2021

Arwen Bailey, Marlene Elias, Fanny Howland, Eileen Bogweh Nchanji, Ronnie Vernooy 

Access the full-text online.

Top 10 reads on gender and entrepreneurship. Gender Insights

Published: May 2022

Nchanji Eileen

Access the full-text online.

Three things scientists don’t know about women farmers and climate change but really should

Published: June 2022

Ranjitha Puskur and Karl Deering

Access the full-text online.

Banana seed exchange networks in Burundi - linking formal and informal systems

Published: May 2022

Nduwimana Innocent; Sylla Seigne; Xing Yanru; Simbare Alice; Niyongere Celestin; Garett Karen; and Omondi Bonaventure Aman

Access the full-text PDF online.

Towards equitable public sector plant breeding in the US

Published: June 2022

Lauren Brzozowski, Solveig Hanson,Jean-Luc Jannink, Brigid Meints, Virginia Moore, Hale Tufan, and Seren Villwock

Access the full-text PDF online.