Since the 1970s, research has clearly demonstrated the critical link between women’s work and agriculture and food production. Yet, development aid institutions have consistently failed in supporting women’s agricultural work. Despite staggering global hunger and poverty statistics, aid to agriculture had steadily declined over the last three decades and gender-appropriate responses have dwindled. This paper asks: why can’t global institutions get it right? Drawing on lessons from agricultural interventions addressing women’s rights and gender equality, recent evaluations of multilateral agencies including FAO and IFAD, as well as new insights from complexity theory and institutional practice, this paper suggests that the answer lies partly in the fundamental contradiction between the task at hand and the nature of bureaucratic response(1)… Read Full Book
