In 2021, the UN Food Systems Summit called for “bold actions to transform the way the world produces and consumes food” to advance the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Gender equality is a precondition to achieving these goals and generating sustainable and resilient agricultural and food systems.

The online conference ‘Cultivating Equality: Advancing Gender Research in Agriculture and Food Systems’ focused on research that helps understand and advance positive synergies among sustainable and resilient agricultural, rural, and food systems, and equality in societies globally.

Under the ‘Cultivating Equality 2021’ conference, African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) organized an interactive dialogue on “Unlocking the Potential of Gender Research and Researchers to Revolutionize Agricultural Research and Development” on October 12, 2021. The session brought together an array of gender expert speakers, including Dr. Nicoline de Haan, Director of the CGIAR GENDER Platform, Professor Petra Abdulsalam-Saghir of the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB) in Nigeria, Dr. Rosanne Diab, Director of GenderInSITE in South Africa, and Ms. Titilope Fakoya a Gender and Social Development Specialist from Nigeria.

There is a growing global momentum to strengthen agricultural research for development (AR4D) by integrating gender into research projects and development interventions. Agricultural scientists, managers, and particularly gender researchers are at the core of these processes to ensure effective and appropriate responses to the needs and priorities of diverse groups of food system actors—including their most marginalized members. Achieving this balance calls for embedding the realities and experiences of differentiated groups as an integral part of the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of all AR4D work so that all are represented equitably and benefit equally. Equitable AR4D requires gender researchers, working across AR4D institutes and embedded within multi-disciplinary teams, to be equipped to lead and influence processes of designing and implementing socially inclusive approaches towards transformative change in the agricultural sector.

The session sought strategies for gender researchers to lead socially inclusive practices that drive transformative change in the agricultural sector. Targeted participants included expert gender researchers, seasoned practitioners on gender and development, gender trainers, emerging gender researchers, research funders, and other agricultural research and development stakeholders.

The ‘Cultivating Equality: Advancing Gender Research in Agriculture and Food Systems’ conference was co-organized by the CGIAR GENDER Platform and Wageningen University & Research as EU Gender-SMART partner.