Mainstreaming gender in the BOBLME Project

The paper presented a gender audit of international and regional instruments in the eight BOBLME countries. Uneven progress in tackling gender inequalities was found. Entry points to mainstream gender in the Strategic Action Plan(SAP) were identified and key recommendations to BOBLME partner countries were made.

Aquatic agricultural systems in Cambodia: national situation analysis

The objective of the current report produced for the CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS) is to provide basic information on key constraints driving poverty and vulnerability in aquatic agricultural systems in the Tonle Sap region in Cambodia. Six objectives and corresponding research themes are included in the program: sustainable increases in productivity; equitable access to markets; resilience and adaptive capacity; empowering policies and institutions; reduced gender disparity; and expanded benefits for the resource-poor. In this report, the authors review the main aquatic agricultural systems (status, specific policies and strategies, interventions, challenges, and options), then review the main drivers of change. This leads to an identification of plans and strategies important to AAS, with a particular focus on perspectives, gaps and opportunities in national policies, community engagement, increased benefits, adaptive capacity, and gender. This review, of potential interest to decision makers and all development partners, leads to conclusions and recommendations aimed at policymakers and institutional as well as private investors in development.

Social and gender analysis report: Barotse Floodplain, Western Province,Zambia

There is increasing awareness that integrating gender into development frameworks is critical for effective implementation of development strategies. In working to alleviate rural poverty, the CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS) recognizes that “business as usual” gender integration approaches will not deliver lasting and widespread improvements in agricultural productivity, poverty reduction and food security. In response, AAS operationalized a gender transformative approach. The approach is informed by conceptual frameworks that explicitly recognize the potent influence of social relations on creating and perpetuating gender inequalities. In this way, AAS aims to address the underlying causes of rural poverty and gender inequality in Zambia’s Barotse Floodplain, where people rely extensively on riverine and wetland ecosystems for food and livelihood security. A central question guiding the research program is “How do social norms and gendered power relations influence agricultural development outcomes?” The findings presented in this report provide insights that help answer this question. The report presents a review of literature relevant to livelihoods, ecosystem services, and gender and social relations in Zambia, with a specific focus on Western Province, where AAS is currently implemented. It also presents a synthesis of findings of a social and gender analysis conducted in 2013 in 10 focal communities situated in and around the Barotse Floodplain.