Contents:
1. PRGA reflects on 2010, a year full of challenges and achievements. We welcome 2011 with renewed optimism!
2. CIAT- PRGA Program launches its New Website.
3. New Gender Toolkit by the World Bank.
4. IICA Celebrates 'Women in Agriculture in The Americas'.
5. IFAD's New Publication: 'Gender and Rural Poverty'.
6. New Development Fund to Address Food Security, Climate Change.
7. Upcoming Events.

1. PRGA reflects on 2010, a year full of challenges and achievements. We welcome 2011 with renewed optimism!

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As we are wrapping up 2010 and waiting for the New Year, a couple of quick reflections came to us. This year has been a challenging one for PRGA in the context of the New CGIAR. We transitioned from a SWP to a Center based program and repositioned ourselves to continue supporting Gender Responsive Participatory Research (GRPR) and PPB/PVS among other streams of research. Perhaps the most important accomplishment has been to convey this new identity and be able to support from grassroots partners and NARs sharing our visions with researchers, including some of the Megaprograms- CRPs teams to be systematically gender responsive. At CIAT, we have reached out to the regions and many of the HQ's based programs; we know that there is much to do and we are planning to continue this trend in 2011. Most of this work would not have been possible without the support of our donors, colleagues and partners. We will continue on this path together reaching out to a more responsive and inclusive agriculture for men and women farmers.

Patricia Biermayr, Claudia Ximena Garcia, Angela Cardona, Freddy Escobar, Guy Manners and Christopher Sacco

2. CIAT- PRGA Program launches its new Website.

CIAT-PRGA Program has launched its new website within CIAT's new Web Portal. The Program's site is located under the Climate Change & Capacity Strengthening Research Area.

The former Systemwide PRGA Program's web-site will remain accesible at http://www.prgaprogram.org. This link is also embedded in our new CIAT-PRGA website.

Visit our new Website: http://www.ciat.cgiar.org/ourprograms/Climate_Capacity/prga/Pages/index.aspx

3. New Gender Toolkit by the World Bank.

This toolkit is part of a series designed as tools for assisting task managers in improving project performance by incorporating gender into their work. It comprises ready-to-use material designed expressly for World Bank task managers working in the agriculture and natural resources management sector. It presents a range of tools for gender analysis and practical "how-to" strategies, collected from program and project experience from around the world.

This toolkit is to be seen as a first edition, which will be tested for its usefulness by all regions. It will be updated and revised to incorporate lessons learned as well as new developments and issues, more regional perspectives and additional examples of good practice.

See the document: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTGENDER/Resources/Toolkitgenderagri.pdf

4. IICA Celebrates 'Women in Agriculture in The Americas'.

Click the photo to enlarge

The Organization of American States (OAS) inaugurated the Inter-American Year of Women on November 18th. The Inter American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) office, hosted this event celebrating women in agriculture in the Americas.

More information: http://www.iica.int/Eng/regiones/norte/USA/Pages/IICADay2010-WomeninAgriculture.aspx

5. IFAD's New publication: 'Gender and Rural Poverty'.

This issue reflects on the relevance of women's advancement to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, as it goes beyond the explicit gender-related goal. Meeting the targets related to nutrition; maternal, infant and child mortality; reproductive health; and HIV/AIDS - and even those related to the sustainable management of natural resources - is directly affected by women's roles as mothers, caregivers and natural resource managers, as well as by prevailing gender relations.

The neglect of women's needs and rights undermines the potential of entire communities to grow and develop. Poverty is therefore deeply rooted in the glaring imbalance between what women do and what they have - in terms of both assets and rights. As women's status increases, so do the benefits to society. Studies have shown, for instance, that the major contributing factor to improved child nutrition is women's socio-economic status, particularly their educational levels. In addition, the countries that have closed the gender gap in education the fastest have experienced the fastest economic growth. Other studies have concluded that when women farmers have direct access to knowledge and technologies, crop yields increase significantly.

Read more: http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/web/guest/topic/home/tags/gender

6. New Development Fund to Address Food Security, Climate Change.

A new research initiative funded by several global development agencies will attempt to tackle threats to agriculture and food security resulting from climate change. The US$200 million project, known as the Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), will explore new ways of helping vulnerable rural communities adjust to global changes in climate. The 10 year project will also attempt to help the agriculture sector in vulnerable countries reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and combat future food productivity and security challenges that are expected to arise due to climate change.

Read more : http://ictsd.org/i/news/biores/96743/