October 29, 2021 | Parakou, Benin
A team of local PEP researchers held a national policy conference to show how targeting women for training and resources can improve gender equality and boost soybean productivity in Benin.
October 29, 2021 – A team of local PEP researchers held a national policy conference to share their recommendations for improving gender equality and productivity in Benin’s soybean sector.
The team brought together 20 policy stakeholders and advisors, academics, and representatives of civil society for their event. The key policy stakeholders in attendance were representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (MAEP), the second Communal Approach to the Agricultural Market (ACMA II), and the National Union of Soybean Producers (UNPS).
The PEP team presented findings and recommendations from their PEP project evaluating the gender-differentiated impact of a soy-productivity pilot program in Benin. They explained that women’s roles in soybean production are often overlooked or undervalued in policies seeking to improve productivity in the sector. The team then showed that an integrated capacity-building system with gender-sensitive targeting can help address some of the gender inequalities to improve productivity.
A number of the participants congratulated the team and expressed their appreciation of the work. In particular, the MAEP representative said that the scientific approach will contribute to developing the soybean sector and should be applied to other sectors. The President of the UNPS called for the team’s recommendations to be applied at a larger scale. He said that he wants to see strategies be increasingly targeted to women so that they may benefit from the intervention packages.
A journalist from Le Rural reported from the event (in French), sharing the team’s results and recommendations with a wider audience of people interested in national agricultural issues.
The research team organized the event with financial and advisory support from PEP, with additional support from theLaboratoire d'Analyse et des Recherches sur les Dynamiques Economiques et Sociale (LARDES) and the UNPS.