GENDER CONCERNS IN AGRICULTURAL INSTITUTIONS: A CASE STUDY OF KENYA AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Abstract

The Government of Kenya requires all public institutions to actively mainstream gender in government policies, plans and budgets to promote equality of opportunity between women and men, and to eliminate sex discrimination. During a training workshop on ‘Gender Mainstreaming in Agricultural Research that was convened by Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) in November 2010, key gender issues in the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) were pointed out by researchers. To address these gender concerns, the team came up with strategies for KARI which included finalisation of the KARI gender policy, among others.  In this regard, a survey was undertaken between May and June 2011 on the current gender concerns in KARI. The purpose of this survey was to identify gender concerns, needs and priorities in KARI and devise ways to address them. Force field situation analysis tool was used to achieve the enhancement or minimizing of forces that will influence gender mainstreaming efforts in KARI. Force Field Analysis is a tool to assess Facilitating and Constraining Forces that act in any situation involving change. The study noted that there are more facilitating than constraining forces and therefore there is the political goodwill to mainstream gender right from the national to the institutional level. E.g. Vision 2030 and the new constitution support gender equality as well as have stipulated mechanisms of mainstreaming gender. This means that awareness creation and training should be done to build capacity, which will lead to specific gender budgeting, hence gender mainstreaming.