This news post was written by Regan Zink and Margarita Fontecha, with input from Dr. Silvia Sarapura, Nicole Cupolo, and Charlotte Potter.

The CGIAR gender conference is an annual event that is hosted in a different country each year with the aim of addressing the gender and social inequalities that lie at the heart of food systems. This year’s conference was titled “From research to impact: Towards just and resilient agri-food systems” and was hosted in partnership with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

With support from the Arrell Food Institute, Dr. Silvia Sarapura-Escobar and SEDRD graduate students Nicole Cupolo, Margarita Fontecha, Charlotte Potter, and Regan Zink, attended the CGIAR Gender Conference in New Delhi, India to present their work on gender-based violence in agricultural streams of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program. The key finding of the group’s research was that gender-based violence in agricultural streams of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) is interwoven into the web of structural and systemic violence faced by temporary foreign workers both in Canada and their home countries.

The conference resulted in a number of reflections about gender equity and the sustainable development agenda, the role that culture and contexts plays, and the importance of knowledge mobilization as part of the research process. The research team’s full report can be found on the University of Guelph Atrium repository and an evidence brief is available through the SSHRC Imagining Canada’s Future.

Conference participants in the main lobby of the conference venue.

This year’s conference was well attended, with hundreds of attendees, and nearly 70 conference sessions. Over the course of four days we were fortunate to hear from Droupadi Murmu, the President of India, and several other dignitaries including the G20 Sherpa, government officials, and senior UN staff. We also made a number of notable contacts including: researchers who are part of the CGIAR Gender Impact Platform, CGIAR, IFAD and FAO practitioners and academic researchers.

The sessions covered a wide range of topics including: young people’s involvement with agri- food systems and rural geographies, conceptual approaches to address gender and social equity in agri-food system’s development, gendered perceptions and priorities in agrifood systems, and unmasking the coloniality of science, among others. Additionally, Dr. Sarapura moderated a poster session titled “Towards systemic change: challenging inequities in institutions and policies” and the entire group presented our research as part of the session titled “Exploring intersectionality in gender inequity and gender transformative processes”. 

Our presentation was one of the only presentations from the “Global North” and garnered attention from attendees who were curious to hear about gender transformative research in agriculture beyond the “Global South”. Following our presentation, we were approached by a number of attendees who wanted to talk about the uniqueness of our topic and the critical south-north relationship that our research highlighted. Participants from Europe reflected that similar gaps in research likely exist regarding the experiences of temporary agricultural workers in the European context. 

Another unique aspect of our presentation was our emphasis on knowledge mobilization efforts. Conference attendees asked us many questions about identifying stakeholders, communication tools, and measuring impact. It was exciting to see that other researchers, practitioners and academics were interested in learning more and wanted to make knowledge mobilization more of a priority in their work.

Many of the sessions talked about new research approaches and encouraged us to reflect about the uniqueness and diversity of communities in different geographic contexts and how gender is a complex concept influenced by social norms and cultures. Related to this, many presenters discussed barriers or challenges that were part of their work and reminded us that we still have a long way to go in terms of gender equitable and diverse agri-food systems. Something that stood out to our research team was that many of the presentations were limited to discussing the gender binary. This serves as a salient reminder of the importance of continuing to push for a gender equitable agenda, and the inclusion of the complete gender spectrum as part of gender transformative work and the sustainable development agenda.

Presentation from one of 70 sessions included as part of the CGIAR Gender Conference.

Something else that stood out to us at the conference was the prioritization of quantitative research methods (and other traditional forms of conducting and presenting research). Many presentations focused on the economic benefits of including women in agri-food systems, and only briefly mentioned social or environmental considerations. We also observed that there was relatively little discussion of Indigenous knowledge. Again, we were reminded that at a global level there is much work to be done. 

Reflecting on the conference content and experience, we can confidently say we learned a lot. Our trip to India and other experiential learning experiences help us to foster and support spaces for enhancing and strengthening food systems that are representative, inclusive, and diverse. 

This project was funded by a SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Grant. If you want to learn more about this project, please reach out to Dr. Silvia Sarapura at sarapura@uoguelph.ca.