“From Research to Impact: Towards just and Resilient Agri-food Systems” Conference (India)

Deadline: 20-Jun-23

Applications are now open for the “From Research to Impact: Towards just and Resilient Agri-food Systems” Conference.

Inscribed in the tradition of the annual CGIAR GENDER conferences, the international conference ‘From research to impact: Towards just and resilient agri-food systems’ will address the gender and social inequalities at the heart of food systems.

This event is co-hosted by the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). It will engage researchers, National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil society organizations (CSOs), donors, policymakers, the private sector, and more, working toward fostering gender-equal, socially inclusive and resilient food systems.

Conference Themes

• They invite contributions that consider the links between research, evidence, and impacts on gender equality and social inclusion, and their relationship with other food system outcomes (diets, nutrition and health; poverty and livelihoods; environmental health; climate resilience). What kinds of evidence, innovations, and combinations thereof, developed and used under which conditions, can be levers of transformative change? And how can research for development processes and all that they entail – equitable partnerships, etc. – catalyze gender transformative change in food systems?
• Under this broad umbrella, they invite contributions on the following themes:
  • A gender and social inclusion lens on resilience in the context of climate change, COVID and other shocks and stresses
    • This theme addresses the gendered dimensions of these challenges and their root causes, and explores approaches that elevate women’s voices, address unequal work burdens and power dynamics, and increase equitable access to information, markets, and lucrative economic opportunities. They invite contributions on effective strategies for mitigating and adapting to multiple shocks and stresses, and promoting sustainable development for women, their families, and their communities, particularly from an intersectional perspective.
  • From women’s empowerment to gender-transformative change in agri-food systems
    • In this theme, they invite contributions that help conceptualize and assess women’s empowerment, social (gender) norms, masculinities and femininities, and gender transformative change as well as the linkages among these.
    • They explore approaches and innovations that can transform the social and gender norms that restrict the achievement of equitable, sustainable food systems.
    • They seek practical lessons and implications from success stories as well as from interventions or larger change processes that have had unintended disempowering effects on women and gender equality in agri-food systems.
  • Gender-responsive and transformative agrifood systems innovations
    • Access to information, quality inputs, capital, markets, land, and more are not equitably distributed across gender groups. The problem is complex and encompasses a lack of understanding of agri-food systems and technologies that enable inclusive and equitable productivity and income gains. Technology and innovation are seldom, if ever, gender neutral. To advance towards gender equality and inclusive development, women and men from various socioeconomic and demographic backgrounds must have equal ability and opportunity to innovate, and to adapt, adopt, and benefit from agri-food systems innovations. In this theme, they invite contributions that conceptualize, assess, and/or evaluate the gender-responsiveness or gender-transformative potential of agri-food system innovations that address the production, distribution, and/or consumption of food.
  • Fostering equitable market systems
    • This theme seeks to shed light on how to create an enabling agri-food market environment for women, youth, poor men, and other marginalized individuals and communities. It examines how these social groups can not only fully participate in, but also benefit equitably from, agri-food market innovations and systems.
  • Delivering nutrition, food security, and health for all
    • Women play a significant role within the food system – as farmers, processors, traders, and consumers. However, entrenched gender inequities – reflected in income and asset disparities between women and men, norms that prioritize the nutrition of men and boys over women and girls, women’s limited decision-making power in the household, and more – contribute to persistently lower health and nutrition outcomes for women and girls in many settings. Addressing gender equality and women’s empowerment within food systems is critical for improving women’s health and well-being and progressing towards food and nutrition security for all.
    • This theme seeks contributions that address gender issues across the links between food security, nutrition and health, with a specific focus on agri-food systems.
  • Youth and agrifood systems
    • Young people are increasingly considered a distinct group in interventions seeking socially inclusive food systems outcomes. However, they are often constructed in relation to adults or stereotyped. In this theme, they invite contributions that shed light on young people as food systems actors in their own right and reflect on how food system interventions and transformations can provide productive and rewarding livelihoods for young people. Contributions that consider the intersectionalities that shape young people’s identities, social positions and their opportunities, barriers and choices are particularly welcome.
  • Other
    • They additionally welcome contributions that fall under the broad conference theme, but do not clearly fit under the six themes.

Abstract Selection Criteria (For Individual and Full Sessions)

• They invite proposals for full sessions or single contributions in various formats related to the conference themes.
• Relevance to the field of gender and social inclusion research in agri-food systems.
• Relevance to the conference theme, which links research to impact.
• Research has practical and/or theoretical implications.
• Attention to intersectionality and interlocking social dimensions of inequality.
• A focus on gender and power relations rather than on ‘women’, and on connecting analysis from the individual to institutions and structures – i.e., on systemic change.
• Methodological rigor.
• Research sufficiently advanced to share findings.
• The composition of sessions will additionally promote:
  • Diversity in methodological traditions (qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods) and research geographies, where relevant.
  • Social diversity (in nationalities, stage in career, gender).

For more information, visit CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform.