Leaving no one behind: how women seize control of wheat-maize technologies in Bangladesh

Rev Can Etudes Dev. 2019 Aug 29;41(1):20-39. doi: 10.1080/02255189.2019.1650332. eCollection 2020.

Abstract
in English, French

Bangladesh is strongly committed to the "leave no one behind" principle of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. However, social norms and institutional biases in agricultural organisations can prevent indigenous peoples and women from participating in wheat-maize innovation processes, as they rarely meet the requisite criteria: sufficient land, social capital or formal education. The GENNOVATE (Enabling Gender Equality in Agricultural and Environmental Innovation) research initiative in Bangladesh shows that indigenous Santal women are obtaining access to and benefiting from wheat-maize innovations, enabling low-income Muslim women to benefit as well.

Le Bangladesh est fortement attaché au principe que personne ne soit « laissé pour compte », l’un des Objectifs de développement durable de l’ONU. Cependant, certaines normes sociales et biais institutionnels au sein de organisations agricoles empêchent parfois les Autochtones et les femmes de prendre part à des processus d'innovations relatives à la culture du maïs et du blé, car ils répondent rarement aux critères requis : terres suffisantes, capital social ou éducation formelle. Au Bangladesh, l’initiative de recherche GENNOVATE (Promouvoir l’égalité de genre dans l’innovation agricole et environnementale) montre que les femmes autochtones du Santal obtiennent accès aux « innovations blé-maïs » et en bénéficient, ce qui permet également aux femmes musulmanes à faible revenu d’en bénéficier.

Keywords: Bangladesh; Santal indigenous people; Sustainable development goals (SDGs); gender; wheat–maize innovations.

Grants and funding

This article draws on data from GENNOVATE case studies developed in Bangladesh under the CGIAR Research Programmes on Wheat and Maize – which also funded data collection. Research methodology development was supported by the CGIAR Gender and Agricultural Research Network, the World Bank and the CGIAR Research Programme on WHEAT and MAIZE. Data analysis was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the CGIAR Research Programme on WHEAT and MAIZE.