Photovoice for Gender Responsive and Effective Innovation

Eliane Ubalijoro and Myriam Gervais of McGill University in Canada will analyze methods to use the knowledge and expertise of rural women smallholder farmers in developing countries to better inform agricultural development projects. Although women are central players in the production, processing, and distribution of agricultural food products in sub-Saharan Africa, they are often not consulted during the planning of projects related to food security, partly due to communication barriers. They will develop and evaluate participatory methodologies, including appreciative inquiry, which is a particular style of questioning to promote practical responses, and photovoice to supplement words with visual aids, such as videoclips, in order to record the problems faced by women farmers in three districts in Rwanda, and their ideas on how to address them. These records will then be passed on to agriculture development programming staff and policymakers.