Gender Integration Training for BioInnovate

To ensure the success of sustainable development initiatives, it is necessary to recognize and address gender related inequalities throughout project design, project implementation, monitoring, and evaluation stages of development projects. Gender integration serves as strategy for beginning the process of developing culturally nuanced transitions toward gender equality. A priority for the sustainable development community articulated specifically in the sustainable development goals, gender equality requires time and local adaptation to be successful.

A Gender Integration Workshop was organized by the Penn State Gender Initiative in collaboration with BioInnovate Africa. The workshop focused on gender integration for BioInnovate's projects that support biological technologies that are transitioning to the market in Eastern Africa. A multidisciplinary team included: gender specialists from Penn State (Ruth Mendum) and ICRISAT (Esther Njuguna-Mungai) two biological scientists from Penn State (Mary Barbercheck) and ICRAF (Mary Njenga) and one community extension specialist from Penn State (Walt Whitmer)., These workshops aim to help BioInnovate Africa teams develop a culturally specific understandings of the significance of gender integration and apply these insights to development initiatives, applied research and innovation outreach. These workshop was conducted through short intense lectures, group discussions, and plenary discussions. Emphasis was placed on co-learning and co-development to allow participants to collaborate with gender researchers and social scientists to define achievable goals for gender inclusion in bio-innovation projects.