In August 2014 CP was awarded a contract to work with Cornell University in developing the curricular materials for its new Gender-responsive Researchers Equipped for Agricultural Transformation (GREAT) certificate training program. In partnership with Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, the program will combine classroom, on-line, and field work to build a common understanding of the different perceptions, drivers, and challenges of biophysical and social scientists to effect gender-responsiveness in agricultural research.
The scope and direction of the program was the focus of the inception workshop on Cornell’s campus in Ithaca, NY in May this year. Participants included not only faculty and gender experts but also representatives from African regional organizations, USAID, and CGIAR centers. Deborah Rubin, CP Co-Director, participated in a public panel discussion sharing their experiences working to address gender-based constraints in agricultural programming. The panel highlighted the role of gender-aware biophysical scientists in convincing fellow scientists about the critical role of gender-responsiveness in research for agricultural transformation.
CP is also part of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) consortia awarded the “Integrating Gender and Nutrition within Agricultural Extension Services (INGENAES)” project. UIUC and CP will be joined by the University of Florida and the University of California-Davis. INGENAES will support the Presidential Feed the Future initiative to strengthen gender and nutrition integration within and through agricultural extension and services. Kristy Cook, Senior Technical Advisor at CP, will serve as an Associate Director to INGENAES.
CP will be working with Jhpiego to develop a gender analysis toolkit with questionnaires and users’ guidelines tailored to different types of health interventions. CP will support Jhpiego in establishing foundational knowledge for collecting data and applying the findings of gender analysis to its work.