{"id":12711,"date":"2026-06-20T12:56:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.iita.org\/news-item\/training-agricultural-researchers-to-be-more-gender-responsive\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T17:53:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T17:53:59","slug":"training-agricultural-researchers-to-be-more-gender-responsive","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/training-agricultural-researchers-to-be-more-gender-responsive\/","title":{"rendered":"Training agricultural researchers to be more gender-responsive"},"content":{"rendered":"Peter Kulakow, IITA breeder and Elizabeth Parkes, HarvestPlus breeder are part of a 16-person training panel for 11 teams of 33 researchers from four continents participating in a training on \u201cGender Responsive Root, Tuber, and Banana Breeding,\u201d 12-21 September in Kampala, Uganda.\n
\n\n\"Picture<\/a>\n

Margaret Mangheni of Makerere University in Uganda\u00a0and Hale Tufan of Cornell University co-lead the GREAT\u00a0training course in Uganda. Photo by D. Torrington, Cornell.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\nThis is the first of seven training on the theory and practice of gender-responsive research organized by agricultural theme and offered in a joint Cornell University and Makerere University educational project called\u00a0SUPER<\/a>, or Gender-responsive Researchers Equipped for Agricultural Transformation.\n\nIn GREAT, researchers who work in sub-Saharan Africa learn how to identify the needs of both women and men when setting agricultural project priorities, implementing projects, and measuring and communicating outcomes.\n\n\u201cIn sub-Saharan Africa, the livelihood and food security of a majority of people depends to some extent on roots, tubers and bananas, especially in rural areas,\u201d said Margaret Mangheni, an associate professor at Makerere University who has more than 20 years\u2019 experience with gender-sensitive agricultural development projects in sub-Saharan Africa, and leads the project at Makerere. \u201cGREAT training will improve the outcomes of agricultural research for smallholder women farmers, entrepreneurs and farmer organizations across sub-Saharan Africa.\u201d\n\nIn the \u201cGender Responsive Root, Tuber and Banana Breeding,\u201d or RTB course, research teams focus on challenges like banana bunchy top disease, banana xanthomonas wilt, cassava breeding and processing, potato production, banana breeding, micronutrient enhanced cassava, and sweet potato improvement.\n\n\u201cGREAT works to equitably extend the benefits of agricultural research to both women and men,\u201d said Hale Ann Tufan, adjunct professor with International Programs in Cornell University\u2019s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, who leads the five-year project at Cornell. \u201cOur goal is for agricultural researchers working across sub-Saharan Africa to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers by considering gender and prioritizing gender equality goals in their work.\u201d\n\nResearchers in the RTB course represent a mix of projects and institutions: IITA in Cameroon, Bioversity International in Burundi, the Centre de Coop\u00e9ration International en Recherche Agronomic in France, HarvestPlus,\u00a0NEXTGEN<\/a>\u00a0Cassava Breeding in Uganda and Nigeria, the Program for Emerging Agricultural Research Leaders in Ghana, the West Africa Center for Crop Improvement in Ghana, the International Potato Center in Colombia, and the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute in Ghana.\n\nKulakow commended the organizers of the training and said that the lessons were important to IITA\u2019s research. \u201cThis is a really good program.\u00a0 It will make a difference in our ability to do gender research that can help many IITA projects.\u201d\n\nBy 2020, GREAT expects to have trained eight cohorts with up to 10 research project teams each, or more than 200 researchers representing at least 30 national and international research institutions in sub-Saharan Africa.\n\nSubsequent training to create more inclusive and effective agricultural systems will be offered on the themes of grain and legume breeding; small ruminant breeding; dairy and legume value chains; nutrition and food systems; knowledge exchange (extension); and agricultural mechanization.\n\nTo help sustain the initiative, GREAT will create a center of excellence for gender responsive agricultural training at Makerere. Over the life of the project, GREAT content will be integrated into spin-off short courses and current agricultural degree programs at Makerere.\n\nGREAT is funded by a $5M grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Kulakow, IITA breeder and Elizabeth Parkes, HarvestPlus breeder are part of a 16-person training panel for 11 teams of 33 researchers from four continents<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":17232,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[],"science-area":[],"program":[],"location":[47],"news-type":[],"hub":[62],"crop":[65],"impact-areas":[],"item-year":[194],"class_list":["post-12711","news-item","type-news-item","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-uganda","hub-eastern-africa","crop-banana","item-year-194"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/12711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news-item"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/12711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22789,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/12711\/revisions\/22789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12711"},{"taxonomy":"science-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/science-area?post=12711"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=12711"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=12711"},{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=12711"},{"taxonomy":"hub","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub?post=12711"},{"taxonomy":"crop","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/crop?post=12711"},{"taxonomy":"impact-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/impact-areas?post=12711"},{"taxonomy":"item-year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/item-year?post=12711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}