The Women in Rural Brazil website offers gender-strategic information to subsidize innovation projects and development initiatives whose goal is to improve the quality of life of women living in rural areas of Brazil. Approximately one million women manage agricultural enterprises and 4,5 million work in the agricultural and livestock sector. Although these women constitute a large demographic group, there is still very little research, development and innovation projects which target their needs.
Innovation Summary
Innovation Overview
Equality is an intrinsic value that expresses the rights of individuals and collectives to enjoy the same conditions and opportunities to reach their full social, economic, political, and cultural potential. Recent efforts to incorporate sex and gender analysis into the scope, execution and evaluation of research, innovation and development actions, particularly in North America, Europe and some Asian countries, have promoted access to equal opportunities and full participation of women. In the ‘‘Cone Sul’’ region, the Institutes of Agropecuary Research (INIAs) are the main institutions responsible for agricultural research and innovation. They are of vital importance to the region's food systems, its social and economic development and environmental sustainability. Among the institutions that constitute the ‘‘Programa Cooperativo para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Agroalimentario y AgroIndustrial del Cono Sur – PROCISUR’’ (among them, Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation - Embrapa), women represent on average 28,6% of the labor force but occupy only 27.7% of the managerial-level positions. This low representation may explain why gender equality strategies within such institutions have been incipient, according to a document recently released by ‘‘PROCISUR’’. In light of this report, these institutions have acknowledged the strategic importance of incorporating the gender dimension in research and innovation projects and of working towards the 2030 Agenda´s vision of a fairer and more sustainable world where nobody is left behind. Their aim is to reduce the gender gap and fulfil Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) in the rural environment.
In the case of Brazil, only 32% of Embrapa researchers are women, which means that few research, development, and innovation initiatives specifically target women living in the rural areas of the country. Data from the ‘‘2017 Agropecuary Census’’ show that, in addition to having less access to land and the means of production, women also have less access to technical training. In order to foment inclusive, impacting and socially relevant proposals, it is important to systematically integrate analyses of sex, gender and their intersections into research projects. This means creating tools to facilitate access to these communities of women by researchers and representatives of the public sector. The goal of creating the Women in Rural Brazil website was to offer a database of quantitative and qualitative information on the lives of women managing and working in rural establishments. The expectation was that such a database could minimize gender-based exclusion in research and development projects in agriculture. The creation of this website involved technicians from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (‘‘MAPA’’), the United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture (‘‘FAO’’), and Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (“Embrapa”), with strong female participation across these three institutions. The first interactive graphics were built on data from the census carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (‘‘IBGE’’) from 1995 onwards, when the collection of disaggregated data pertaining to sex began. The website was developed within Embrapa because it possesses a System of Strategic Intelligence (Agropensa) dedicated to subsidizing strategies of ‘‘Research, Development, and Innovation’’ (‘‘PD&I’’) for both the institution itself and its partners. Women in Rural Brazil was created as a tool for researchers and actors within the public sector working to define governmental programs and public policies. Its indirect beneficiaries are the women at whom the studies, actions, and technological innovations are aimed; apart from society in general, as gender equality contributes to the reduction of poverty and higher levels of human capital.
Innovation Description
What Makes Your Project Innovative?
The website is a public tool dedicated to facilitating access to strategic information on women currently dispersed in the data banks of different governmental entities, such as the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (‘‘IBGE’’), the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (‘‘MAPA’’), the National Supply Company (‘‘CONAB’’), the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (‘‘INCRA’’), and the Ministry of the Environment (‘‘MMA’’), among others. The idea is to collect this information and make it easily accessible through interactive graphics that display information on a national and regional level. Furthermore, the website includes information on public policies oriented towards women in rural areas since the Federal Constitution of 1988, a special section with public notices for contracting projects, as well as publications and news.
Innovation Development
Collaborations & Partnerships
Due to the difficulty in obtaining statistics on women living in rural areas of Brazil, FAO and MAPA invited Embrapa to be part of the working group that created the structure of the website (subsequently developed and hosted by Embrapa). The financial resources were ceded by MAPA.
Users, Stakeholders & Beneficiaries
Users: researchers, government employees and Civil Society Organizations, as well as private companies that offer technologies to or seek products created by women. Beneficiaries: women who run rural establishments, women rural workers, and society in general.
Innovation Reflections
Results, Outcomes & Impacts
In the first phase the main result was the synergy generated among the partner institutions and Embrapa’s researchers and analysts, who were formally invited to participate in this effort. Given Brazil's continental dimensions and great spatial heterogeneity, a network ‘‘Rede Embrapa Mulheres Rurais’’ was created with the participation of 70 researchers from all regions of Brazil and different fields. The first publications will be available from 2023 onwards. Five of them are currently under review and will focus on women in livestock farming, coffee farming, vegetable oil extraction in the Amazon, organic cotton cultivation and macaúba extractivism. Another 15 are already being prepared.
Challenges and Failures
The website was a result of the interaction of professionals from different institutions. The first challenge was to establish a coordinated workflow within this heterogenic group, which grew and subsequently required the involvement of other Embrapa professionals (support staff). Another challenge was feeding the website with relevant information, which also requires the commitment of researchers and analysts to working together, which in turn demands good coordination. Other governmental organs had to be persuaded to hand over their data bases in cases where they were not already public. These data sources are fundamental for the elaboration of specific studies, which will be presented in different languages, to reach diverse audiences.
Conditions for Success
One of the partner institutions will continue hosting the website, which will involve IT professionals; web designers; communication professionals; and experts in the field. If these human resources are not available, external aid will be contracted. The work must be formalized via ordinances and other mechanisms, so that people are recognized as participants in the process and can prove their collaboration. Coordination must be clear and transparent and allow for wide participation of all involved. Good institutional relationships with other governmental entities to obtain disaggregated data are necessary. It is important to ensure the participation of female professionals who identify with the proposal and will be willing to cooperate.
Replication
The website can be replicated in other countries, especially those part of ‘‘PROCISUR’’, that consider the gender perspective of strategic importance for their agricultural research institutes. Tools that facilitate access to the reality of these women by researchers and public employees are vital to subsidize inclusive, creative, and impactful proposals. This discussion is ongoing within the Gender Training Program for Agricultural Science and Technology Institutions of PROCISUR.
Lessons Learned
Being daring means creating something different, something unusual which will, in general, face resistance, as people tend to be averse to change. New ideas are harder to understand than the ones already known. Occasionally, it will be necessary to explain over and over the why and the importance of what is being proposed, and at first there will be few people interested in hearing, supporting, and cooperating – be patient. Finally, believe in the power of networks, these collective phenomena, as the best environments in which to nurture innovative perspectives.
Status:
- Implementation - making the innovation happen
Innovation provided by:
Date Published:
22 November 2023