Expertise

Agriculture and Food Security

Cultural Practice, LLC places people at the heart of the agriculture-nutrition nexus to ensure the contributions of all people, adults and youth, are equally recognized and rewarded. By listening to and engaging farmers, wage workers, and agri-entrepreneurs in our work, we are able to identify more sustainable and equitable solutions to increase agricultural productivity and reduce hunger and malnutrition.

Our approach highlights the social relationships and power structures that create asymmetrical opportunities for women and men, girls and boys in agricultural value chains, and provides practitioners with the skills and knowledge to build farmer-focused, demand-driven systems that deliver the most innovative agricultural solutions for today’s food systems.

Learn more about CP’s expertise in Agriculture and Food Security.

Climate Change and Environment

The unpredictability of environmental and climatic change creates new vulnerabilities for people in both developed and developing countries. Gendered roles and responsibilities also mean individuals will experience and respond to these changes in different ways. Cultural Practice, LLC generates new knowledge about the evolving strategies that households, communities, and firms are using to cope with this variability.

Learn more about CP’s expertise in Climate Change and Environment.

Economic Growth

Cultural Practice, LLC is committed to identifying innovative strategies to build equitable and sustainable economies. Empowering women and girls to reach their full potential not only strengthens communities, but is also essential to global economic growth, innovation, and competitiveness.

CP helps clients understand how trade at different scales provides differing opportunities for women and men, girls and boys, and the challenges regional bodies face in strengthening these market systems to the benefit of all. We have developed a variety of resources analyzing the policies and practices that contribute to inclusive business-enabling environments, and support entrepreneurs, wage workers, and cross-border traders’ participation, performance, and access to benefits. Our analyses provide a holistic understanding of economic empowerment indices, accounting for both objective and subjective measures. We also use social and gender analysis to determine appropriate livelihood strategies for different populations including adolescent girls and boys.

Learn more about CP’s expertise in Economic Growth.

Health

Addressing gender equity in health and health systems is one of the most direct and potent ways to improve livelihoods and generate inclusive, lasting social change. CP assesses health systems’ responsiveness to diverse clients, and barriers to equitable access and quality of care. Our health staff and consultants offer multidisciplinary perspectives and skills, including anthropology, economics, midwifery, public health, governance, communications, demography, sociology, nutrition and epidemiology.

CP also works extensively on prevention and response to gender-based violence (GBV) and has been a key partner in several USAID efforts to develop policy guidance and programming surrounding GBV. As a primary subcontractor on USAID’s Health Policy Initiative IQC, CP designed and facilitated gender and health training, policy analysis, and program management tools.

Learn more about CP’s expertise in Health.

Gender and Social Inclusion

As our core technical specialty, Cultural Practice, LLC applies principles of gender and social inclusion to all of its services and sector work. CP helps clients conduct country- and sector-specific analyses to identify gendered disparities and inequalities that may limit access to equal opportunities and benefits. We then work with clients to integrate findings into the design of development activity approaches aimed at overcoming gender-related obstacles and enhancing women’s and men’s equal participation and leadership.

Our signature Gender Dimensions Framework provides guidance to development practitioners and technical experts striving to promote equitable opportunities in agricultural value chains. Whereas many gender and social inclusion frameworks are oriented specifically to understanding women’s roles as producers at the household level, the GDF probes diverse gender issues across multiple realms, including practices and participation; access to and control over productive assets; beliefs and perceptions; and laws, policies, and institutions.

CP also provides gender audit services to help organizations identify and understand gender patterns within their composition, structures, processes, culture, and management, as well as in the design and delivery of policies and services. Audits identify critical gender gaps and challenges and suggest improvements and innovations to address these disparities.

Learn more about CP’s expertise in Gender and Social Inclusion.