EXPLAINER: How can socio-technical innovation bundles help women farmers?

Socio-technical innovation bundles (STIBs) are social, technical, and technological solutions partnered with institutional and policy instruments that recognize and address context-specific challenges.

Barrett (2021) explains that “Technological and institutional innovations in agri-food systems (AFS) over the past century have brought dramatic advances in human well-being worldwide.” However, they also recognize that these solutions are severely unsustainable because they damage the climate, nature, public health, and social justice. Women and young people in agriculture stand at the fore of its detrimental effects since they are more vulnerable to the stresses caused by climate change. Furthermore, global economic and environmental stresses such as the COVID-19 pandemic have only worsened the backsliding of the gains in achieving gender and social equality.

To combat this, the CGIAR Gender Equality Initiative aims to develop STIBs to help improve women’s empowerment and climate resilience in the Global South. This means women are treated as partners and drivers of climate change solutions. They co-design climate-smart innovations that can help tackle their communities’ vulnerabilities. They forward social protection programs and initiatives to leverage women’s roles in food systems governance, all with the ultimate goal of increasing climate resilience and reducing gender inequality.