Tool Spotlight: Gender Transformative Toolkit

By: Deepa Shakya, Global Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Advisor

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This blog was submitted by Mercy Corps as part of the ‘Nourishing Inclusion: Committing to Gender and Youth in the Food Crisis’ series, which showcases implementers’ examples of committing to inclusion not just in words, but in action. This post highlights Commitment 1: Meaningfully engage women and youth to promote their agency within programs and within their communities. Learn more about the series here.

When you hear the word “farmer,” who comes to mind?

Did you know that nearly 50% of smallholder farmers are women? These nearly 250 million incredible women make substantial contributions to the world’s food supply while often living on less than $2.50 USD per day. Women in agriculture face numerous disadvantages, including restrictions on land ownership, access to markets and critical services, wages, and decision-making power. Mercy Corps’ AgriFin team is on a mission to change this narrative by meaningfully engaging women in agriculture and promoting their agency within their communities.

Graphic courtesy of the Gender and Youth Activity (GAYA)

A Blueprint for Gender Integration

In 2012, Mercy Corps launched the AgriFin initiative to reach smallholder farmers without bank accounts. AgriFin envisioned a future where every smallholder farmer could prosper in a digitally interconnected world. The initiative connects smallholder farmers to products and services that could increase their productivity and income by 50%, such as information on climate smart agriculture, digital marketplaces to connect directly with buyers, and digital financial services.

After the completion of its Phase I initiative in 2021, the team realized that while AgriFin had some success in reaching up to 25% of women farmers, there was room for improvement in creating gender intentional and transformative solutions. They identified a need for their partners to provide products and services that reduce barriers in access, increase information around gender gaps, and increase agency and control over resources.

Gender Integration Marker (Source: Adapted from https://www.mercycorpsagrifin.org/agrifin-gender-transformative-toolkit/)

To support AgriFin partners to achieve this increased inclusivity, the team developed the Gender Transformative Toolkit. The Toolkit, which was designed and tested through a co-creation process, provides practical guidance to support organizations anywhere in their gender integration journey. It includes seven sections:

1. Baseline Assessment Tools: an introduction of basic tools and concepts for gender transformation.
2. Baseline Awareness Tools: case studies and key terms for gender transformation with the digital agriculture ecosystem.
3. Data Collection and Analysis Tools: examples of best practices and indicators for collecting and analyzing sex-disaggregated data.
4. Gender Segmentation Tools: examples and templates to develop personas, a technique that helps design better products and services for intended users.
5. Resource Framing Tools: best practices to create and allocate budgets based on gender needs.
6. Go-to-Market Tools: tools to better understand behaviors and needs of customers through a gender lens.
7. Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning tool: best practices and indicators to assess the impact of gender-transformative activities, as well as information on how to socialize lessons learned and impact stories.

Toolkit in Action: Building Towards Gender Transformation

Using this tool, existing AgriFin partners mapped their inclusion efforts by identifying areas of internal and external operations where they could increase their gender transformative efforts. In the beginning, most existing partners mapped their activities as gender unintentional. Based on these identified gaps, the partners used the resources in the Toolkit to develop new gender intentional and transformative activities. Mercy Corps and the AgriFin team supported partners along the journey through tailored training packages, including gender equality and social inclusion workshops and follow-up support.

“Through the gender equality and social inclusion workshop, I am equipped with the tools to actively promote equality and ensure everyone’s voice is heard. This training has transformed my perspective, enabling me to create a more inclusive and empowering environment in my daily work.” — Cynthia Mugambi, Program Support Assistant of AgriFin

As a result of these efforts, AgriFin’s partners are starting each project with the intention to increase women’s participation. So far, 96% of AgriFin partners have used resources from the Toolkit, resulting in an increase in the number of women smallholder farmers reached, from 25% to 46%. The Toolkit and ongoing support have equipped AgriFin partners with resources to better engage with women farmers and identify opportunities for operational improvement. This includes:

Leveraging existing social groups and networks to reach more women, as well as tailoring interventions to women’s day-to-day realities.

For example, ACRE Africa, a service provider working with local insurers in Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania to facilitate smallholder access to crop and livestock insurance, found that women were less likely to have cash for one lump sum premium payment and bought only 25–50 percent of the insurance coverage that men bought. ACRE then made its premium payment more flexible, letting customers buy small premium top-ups via mobile money over an extended period, eventually accumulating into meaningful coverage. ACRE also increased outreach to women already gathered in savings, self-help, and church groups and bundled insurance with credit and training on good agricultural practices and climate-smart agriculture.

Priscila is a female smallholder farmer, widowed mother of four, with two children who have recently finished school but unemployed. She is the sole provider for her family. She now has access to quality insurance that will help her mitigate climate shocks and build her resilience. She is holding an insurance voucher from AgriFin’s partner, ACRE Africa. Photo credit: Mercy Corps

Recruiting more women within their own organizations who are well-suited to recruit, sensitize, train, and support women farmers.

Over the years of implementation, the AgriFin team learned that women smallholder farmers are more likely to trust women agents due to a shared understanding of gender-based challenges. In addition to gender identity, the team found that it is also important that agents are credible, respected, supportive, and accessible. Given these insights, the team worked with partners such as FtMA, DigiFarm, Hello Tractor, and Farm to Feed to increase the number of women agents supporting the registration and training of farmers, especially women.

A female extension agent with a farmer. Photo credit: Mercy Corps

Developing organizational Gender Action Plans and Gender Policies.

Under AgriFin Digital Farmer Phase II, the team works with 17 partners and, to date, 15 of these partners have developed gender action plans and gender policies. One such partner leading the gender transformative approach is Shamba Pride. They have integrated gender-specific objectives in their organization to more intentionally reach women and youth through their efforts.

“We would like to express our sincere appreciation to Mercy Corps AgriFin for developing the Gender Transformative toolkit. This invaluable resource has been instrumental in guiding our gender mainstreaming activities within our organization and our external activities. By utilizing the toolkit, we have been able to adopt a transformative approach that challenges social norms and promotes lasting change. We are grateful for this empowering tool that has helped us advance gender equality in agriculture and enhance the impact of our technological solutions.” Patrick Sampao — AgTech Provider, Shamba Pride.

The Journey Continues

At Mercy Corps, we are providing our partners with the building blocks of inclusion through our Gender Transformative Toolkit. Together, we can build a pathway toward meaningful engagement and agency of women farmers, while fostering an environment of continual reflection and improvement.

“ Through a series of empowering capacity-building activities, we, Agrifin team and our invaluable partners, have transformed from a one-person army to a formidable force driving gender inclusion in the agriculture sector. I am particularly excited about the future of women in the agriculture digital economy. By harnessing the power of technology, we can unlock a world of possibilities, enabling women to actively participate, thrive, and lead in the digital transformation of agriculture. Together, we will build a more inclusive and prosperous future for all — A better world is possible.” — Kassim Zani, Gender Transformative Programming Lead of Agrifin

Get Involved

Do you have an example of how your organization has committed to inclusion in the food crisis to share? We’d love to hear about it! Send them to gaya@savechildren.org.