Project Background
Realizing Gender Equality, & Attitudinal Change for Transformative Systems in Nutrition - (REACTS-IN) program promotes the scale-up of gender transformative interventions and approaches that aim to remove barriers to realizing nutrition and health for Women and Adolescent Girls (WAGs). REACTS-IN has brought together international partners with specialized expertise in nutrition, food systems, health and program evaluation including World Vision, Nutrition International (NI), HarvestPlus, and McGill University. REACTS-IN will directly contribute to advancing the rights and human dignity of WAGs by increasing access to gender equitable nutrition, production, and consumption of nutritious foods by female farmers and community members.
One of the key innovations that is led by HarvestPlus within the REACTS-IN Program is promotion of production and consumption of biofortified crops for Climate Resilience and Womenโs Economic Empowerment innovation. Climate change impacts WAGs disproportionately, and it worsens existing gender inequalities. Women have less access to natural resources than men and bear a higher responsibility in household/home production activities including securing water, food, and fuel. Agriculture is the top employment sector for women in the programโs target countries including Kenya, and girls and women often must leave school or increase work hours, respectively, to manage the increased burden of climate change and economic shocks.
Biofortified crops (beans, sweet potato, etc.) are ideally suited to empower families in rural areas, who cannot afford to diversify their diet beyond the common staples. They are resilient to food system shocks such as COVID-19 that cause critical interruptions in delivery of other nutrition services including supplements and industrial fortification. Furthermore, biofortified crops have a potential to regenerate local agriculture, enable women farmers to better adapt to climate change, and enhance livelihoods of women farmers through Nurturing Care Groups (NCGs). They are climate-smart, micronutrient-rich and gender equitable in important ways: they are bred to be high-yielding, fast-maturing varieties that farmers can select depending on rain presents in each season. Many varieties of these crops possess fast-cooking traits that reduce cooking time by up to 50%, free up WAGsโ time, and reduce deforestation for fuel, which in turn contributes to regenerative agriculture. They are also well-suited to small-holder farming systems of crop-rotation and mixed-cropping. The former promotes nitrogen-fixation which increases soil fertility while the latter reduces per-crop soil tillage labor thus freeing up time for WAGs in particular. The seeds and vines are also both more pest and disease-resistant than the traditional varieties, which reduces yield losses and the need to apply pesticides thus protecting the environment from pesticide residues. Since women comprise more than 80% of smallholder farmers who cultivate beans and sweet potato, training on proper crop husbandry practices will result in surplus production of these high-yielding varieties. These will then be marketed at various levels enabling women to generate income for purchase of other nutritious household foods, as well as meet the health and education needs of the family. Further nutrition education (targeting knowledge attitudes and practices) through NCGs will influence food consumption and household feeding behaviors thus influencing nutrition outcomes at household and community levels.
Gender Equality and Human Rights Analysis (GEHRA) demonstrate that gender inequality and malnutrition are inextricably linked, reinforcing each another in a pattern that touches women at every life stage. In Kenya for example, Elgeyo Marakwet Countyโs gender inequality index stands at 0.62 compared to the national average of 0.55, hence the county has a higher level of gender inequality than the national average. Due to deeply rooted cultural norms, beliefs and practices, women frequently do not have the power to decide how food and other resources are distributed. Thus, it is unclear how interventions such as REACTS-IN that seek to empower women with farm inputs such as biofortified seeds and training in agronomy and nutrition contribute to shifting these dynamics especially among WAGs.
Scope of Work
The aim of this consultancy assignment is to provide insights into how the current programming pathways for the biofortification component of REACTS-IN project in Kenya is contributing to gender equitable adoption of biofortified crops (iron beans and vitamin A sweet potato). It also aims at understanding if adoption is occurring in a sustainable way during the funding phase, and why, and how realized gains/successes can be sustained in the post-funding phase.
Responsibilities
- Map key gender related cultural norms, beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, and practices in agriculture that affect women and adolescent girls' ability to achieve proper nutrition
- Identify societal patterns of poverty and gender inequality that affect women and adolescent girls that could be minimized through an agricultural intervention such as biofortified crops (iron beans and vitamin A orange sweet potatoes)
- Identify strategies for inclusion of gender perspectives into delivery models being used in the REACTS-IN project, biofortification component
- Identify nodes for inclusion of gender responsive interventions while reaching marginalized households with high iron beans and vitamin A sweet potatoes
- Identify gender roles and norms that may affect adoption and retention, and the consumption, of biofortified crops (high iron beans and vitamin A sweet potatoes)
- Identify negative outcomes likely to emerge due to project implementation strategies and provide strategies on how to reduce such effects
- Identify capacity building activities for increasing knowledge on gender aspects that influence food and nutrition security by targeting internal and external stakeholders, including community groups, faith-based leaders, and government departments
- Develop a theory of change illustrating how interventions of the REACTS-IN project, specifically the biofortification component, contribute to gender equality in Elgeyo Marakwet county
- Prepare project report and at least one manuscript for publication in a peer reviewed journal
Deliverables
- Progress report 1: Mapping key gender related cultural norms, beliefs, knowledge, attitudes and practices in agriculture that affect women and adolescent girls' ability to achieve proper nutrition (15 work days)
- Progress report 2: An analysis of gender integration within the REACTS-IN project, biofortification component (10 work days)
- Progress report 3: Journal manuscript and final report (10 days)
Professional Qualifications
- Education: Masters or PhD in gender studies, development studies, social science, or a related field
- Experience: At least 5 years experience working on gender-related issues, particularly in agriculture, food, nutrition security, or food systems
- Demonstrated experience in evaluating gender issues in adoption of new technologies, particularly crop varieties and associated agronomic practices
- Demonstrated experience in appraising gender issues within developmental projects
- Experience working with marginalized populations particularly women in rural areas
To Apply
- Provide detailed budget that will fully support completion of the outlined deliverables
- Describe the methodology that will be used
- Fees for the duration of the assignment
- CV