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IITA gender team strengthens researchers’ capacity on the Africa Agricultural Adaptation (AAA) ATLAS
February 4, 2026
A virtual cross-section of participants and the presenters during the training.
A virtual cross-section of participants and the presenters during the training.

As part of its commitment to continuous capacity building and promoting gender equity, the IITA Gender team continues to invest in upskilling its members to deliver high-quality research that advances food security and improves livelihoods across the continent. 

On 10 and 11 November, the IITA Gender, Youth and Social Science team organised an intensive two-day virtual training on the Africa Agricultural Adaptation Atlas (AAA ATLAS).  The training was held in collaboration with the Policy Leadership in Agriculture and Food Security (PiLAF) team at the University of Ibadan, and moderated by IITA Senior Research Associate Olamide Nwanze.  The AAA ATLAS enables access to specialized datasets on gender, socio-economy, nutrition, climate risks, and adaptation organised per region, to inform and strengthen agricultural research and development. The AAA ATLAS aggregates scientific data with the aim to accelerate effective climate change adaptation as well as social and gender inclusion in African agriculture. Through interactive data visualizations, interactive stories and research-ready tools, it offers researchers, policymakers, and investors’ insights into climate risks, vulnerability, impacts, and adaptation strategies—bridging the gap between multidisciplinary scientific evidence and practical action.  The AAA Atlas is particularly relevant within the scope of IITA’s mission to address the current nexus of challenges: rapidly changing socio-economic contexts, the need to enhance agricultural productivity, climate change mitigation, and the prevention of environmental degradation associated with intensification—such as soil depletion, water stress, and biodiversity loss. At the same time, agricultural interventions must be responsive to socio-cultural diversity, differentiated preferences, working conditions, and diverse livelihood strategies along agricultural value chains. This nexus calls for well-thought-through and prioritised cost-effective bundles that combine technical and social innovations tailored to specific regional contexts.  As a platform widely used by key funders such as the African Development Bank (AFDB), mastery of the AAA ATLAS is expected to strengthen the quality, reach, and impact of research proposals, foresight work, and adaptation planning across Africa. In addition, it is also expected to foster Strategic Collaboration to facilitate knowledge exchange between CGIAR centers and initiatives, and partners at regional and national level, fostering a unified and integrated approach to CGIAR Systems Transformation agenda.  The training aimed to strengthen participants’ analytical skills to use the AAA Atlas’ historic, baseline, and foresight datasets for informed decision-making, and build their capacity to systematically integrate gender, climate, and nutrition considerations into research using the Atlas’s data-driven tools.  In his welcome address, IITA Gender Lead, Béla Teeken, outlined the purpose of the training and presented key highlights of IITA’s ongoing work at the intersection of gender, climate change, breeding, and nutrition. Additional opening remarks were delivered by IITA Climate Lead, John Choptiany, and PiLAF Lead, Iredele Ogunbayo. Choptiany mentioned that the ATLAS is a good way to showcase IITA’s work and the work of others, especially on the resilient solutions that can be used to adapt and combat the effects of climate change in agriculture. IITA will be more actively involved in the ATLAS going forward in 2026 to ensure that our research feeds into the tool.  The technical sessions on Day 1 began with an overview of the Atlas, facilitated by Lecturer, Research Associate at PiLAF, Oladele Osanyinlusi, who guided participants through the platform’s navigation and demonstrated how its data-rich tools support climate investment and policy planning.  This was followed by an in-depth practical session led by PiLAF Policy Researcher, Peace Aburime, who focused on analysing women’s exposure to climate hazards and exploring gender-responsive adaptation strategies. The session highlighted how climate actions that intentionally incorporate gender equality considerations can improve women’s empowerment and ensure more inclusive and equitable outcomes.  Participants worked through multiple interactive notebooks on the Atlas platform, including: 
  • Understanding Heat Stress on Producers 
  • Evaluating Climate Risks 
  • Prioritizing Livestock Investments 
  • Estimating Economic Returns on Adaptation 
  • Formulating a Climate Rationale for Projects 
These exercises facilitated by Oreoluwa Akano, Nathaniel Olutegbe and Benjamin Oyelami, allowed participants to apply their learning directly to real-world climate adaptation challenges. A Question-and-Answer session and a group discussion provided space for reflection, clarification, and experience sharing.  Participants shared some feedback and suggestions to inform strategic actions to enhance the AAA ATLAS platform and maximize its utility: 
  • ATLAS developers should collaborate more closely with agricultural research institutions such as IITA, which can contribute relevant datasets, enabling continuous improvement of the platform’s usefulness for research-for-development. IITA researchers and partners should jointly identify data and insight gaps and engage the ATLAS team to integrate new contributions that enhance platform relevance. 
  • The platform should expand to include youth-specific data, complementing existing gender data and enabling funders to assess the impact of investments in youth agribusiness. 
  • Institutions like IITA are encouraged to integrate AAA ATLAS into the early stages of project conceptualisation and design. 
  • Future webinars should highlight user stories 
Overall, strengthened collaboration and coordinated data contributions across all CGIAR centres will enhance the effectiveness and value of the AAA ATLAS platform  In closing, Teeken expressed appreciation to the PiLAF team for their collaboration and efforts towards the training and commended the participants for their active engagement throughout the training. He acknowledged the diverse insights shared during the discussions, noting that such exchanges strengthen the collective capacity to generate impactful data and research that addresses Africa’s most pressing agricultural, social and climate challenges.  Contributed by Ochuwa Favour Daramola

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Olaosebikan, Olamide

Olamide Deborah Nwanze is a Senior Research Associate specializing in gender mainstreaming research to inform participatory and inclusive breeding, variety development, and seed systems policies regarding root, tuber, and banana (RTB) crops in the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture Headquarters, Ibadan, Nigeria. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Ibadan and holds an MSc and B. Agric in Agricultural Extension and Rural Development. Olamide is a fellow of the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development – Gender Responsive Agricultural Systems Policy (AWARD-GRASP) and the Gender Responsive Researchers Equipped for Agricultural Transformation (GREAT). She seeks to apply her gender-mainstreaming learnings, gender-responsive research, and policy development, and review expertise to facilitate women, youth, children, and vulnerable social group’s access to and adoption of agricultural Innovations that guarantee food, nutrition, income, and livelihood security in Africa. Her current roles include mentoring research fellows, development of guides and training manuals, implementation and adaptation of gender frameworks and tools, value chain actors’ engagement as citizen science partners, policy review and redesign, data management, and analysis. Her current research explores mixed methods and participatory and interdisciplinary approaches to capture and highlight gender dynamics, needs, preferences, and challenges stakeholders face within the agricultural livelihood value chain to prioritize gender-inclusive strategies in breeding programs, policy design, and implementation.

At IITA, she contributes to the implementation of the CGIAR Accelerated Breeding Initiative and Genetic Innovation Programs; participatory and gender research within the NextGen Cassava, HarvestPlus, RTBFoods, and Tricot-ClimMob 1000Farms Projects; and gender knowledge communication via the G-LENS webinar series, video documentary, policy briefs, publications, and blogs.

 

Recent publications

de Sousa, K., van Etten, J., Manners, R. Bello, A., Teeken, B., Olaosebikan, O., et al. 2024. The tricot approach: an agile framework for decentralized on-farm testing supported by citizen science. A retrospective. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 44, 8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-023-00937-1

Madu, T., Onwuka, S., Nwafor, S., Onyemauwa, N., Ejechi, M., Ofoeze, M., Ukeje, B., Eluagu, C., Olaosebikan, O., Okoye, B., 2024. Gender-Inclusive Consumer Studies Improve Cassava Breeding in Nigeria in: Frontiers in Sociology, volume 9, number: 1224504, doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2024.1224504

Olaosebikan, O.; Bello, A.; Utoblo, O.; Okoye, B.; Olutegbe, N.; Garner, E.; Teeken, B.; Bryan, E.; Forsythe, L.; Cole, S.; Madu, T. 2023.  Stressors and Resilience within the Cassava Value Chain in Nigeria: Preferred Cassava Variety Traits and Response Strategies of Men and Women to Inform Breeding. Sustainability 15, 7837. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15107837

Okoye, B., Ofoeze, M., Ejechi, M., Onwuka, S., Nwafor, S., Onyemauwa, N., Ukeje, B., Eluagu, C., Obidiegwu, J.*, Olaosebikan, O., Madu, T.* 2023. Prioritizing preferred traits in the yam value chain in Nigeria: a gender situation analysis in: Frontiers in Sociology, volume 8, number: 1232626, pages 1 – 9, ISSN 2297-7775, 2023. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2023.1232626/full

Olaosebikan, O., Bello, A. A., de Sousa, K., Ndjouenkeu, R., Adesokan, M., Alamu, E. O., Agbona, A., van Etten, J., Kegah, F. N.*, Dufour, D., Bouniol, A., Teeken, B. 2023. Consumer acceptability of cassava gari-eba food products across cultural and environmental settings using the triadic comparison of technologies approach (tricot) in: Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture,

Teeken, B., Olaosebikan, O., Bello, A. A., Madu, T.*, Cole, S. M. 2023. Qualitative assessment on the positionality and preferences of dyads in relation to cassava-related activities: working with tricot trial citizen scientists https://hdl.handle.net/10568/138326 Type: Manual

Bouniol, A., Ceballos, H., Bello, A. A., Teeken, B., Olaosebikan, O., Owoade, D., Agbona, A., Fotso Kuate, A., Madu, T.*, Okoye, B.*, Ofoeze, M.*, Nwafor, S.*, Onyemauwa, N.*, Adinsi, L.*, Forsythe, L., Dufour, D. 2023. Varietal impact on women’s labour, workload and related drudgery in processing root, tuber and banana crops: focus on cassava in sub-Saharan Africa in: Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, pages 1 – 25, ISSN 0022-5142,

Bello, A. A., Agbona, A., Olaosebikan, O., Edughaen, G., Dufour, D., Bouniol, A., Iluebbey, P., Ndjouenkeu, R.*, Rabbi, I. Y., Teeken, B. 2023. Genetic and environmental effects on processing productivity and food product yield: drudgery of women’s work in: Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, pages 1 – 32, ISSN 0022-5142, 5

Cavicchioli, M., Zimbiti, T., Teeken, B., Nwanze, D.O., Liani, M., Parkes, E. & Bello, A. 2023. IITA-Gender Responsive Breeding Training Report. Genetic Resources Center, IITA-HQ, Ibadan, 21-23 September, 2022. Ibadan, Nigeria: IITA, (34 p.).https://hdl.handle.net/10568/131368

Agbona, A. Peteti P., Teeken B., Olaosebikan O. Bello, A. A., Parkes, E., Rabbi, I. Y., Mueller, L., Egesi, C., Kulakow, P. 2022. Data Management in Multi-disciplinary African RTB Crop Breeding Programs. In: Williamson, H.F., Leonelli, S. (eds) Towards Responsible Plant Data Linkage: Data Challenges for Agricultural Research and Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13276-6_5

Lora Forsythe, Pricilla Marimo, Sarah Mayanja, Olamide D. Olaosebikan, Esme Stuart, Bela Teeken, Benjamin Okoye, Tessy Madu, (2021). Cross-product Gender Analysis of RTBfoods Step 2 Gendered Food Mapping on RTB Products. Understanding the Drivers of Trait Preferences and the Development of Multi-user RTB Product Profiles, WP1. London, UK: RTBfoods Field Scientific Report, 30 p.

Teeken, B., Garner, E., Agbona, A., Balogun, I., Olaosebikan, O., Bello, A., Madu, T., Okoye, B., Egesi, C., Kulakow, P. and Tufan, H.A. 2021. Beyond “Women’s Traits”: Exploring How Gender, Social Difference, and Household Characteristics Influence Trait Preferences. Frontiers Sustainable Food Systems 5:740926. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2021.740926

Teeken, B., Agbona, A., Bello, A., Olaosebikan, O., Alamu, E., Adesokan, M., Awoyale, W., Madu, T., Okoye, B., Chijioke, U., Owoade, D., Okoro, M., Bouniol, A., Dufour, D., Hershey, C., Rabbi, I., Maziya‐Dixon, B., Egesi, C., Tufan, H. and Kulakow, P. (020. Understanding cassava varietal preferences through pairwise ranking of gari‐eba and fufu prepared by local farmer–processors. Int J Food Sci Technol. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijfs.14862

Bela Teeken, Olamide Olaosebikan, Ireti Balogun, Benjamin Okoye, Tessy Madu, Steven Cole, Abolore Bello, Elizabeth Parkes. (2020). Piloting the G+ customer and product profile tools for gender-responsive cassava breeding in Nigeria. Nigeria: International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11766/13000