In their quest to complete a literature review of research about women and agricultural development, Jacqueline Ashby and Jennifer Twyman found themselves stalked by what seemed to be zombie myths: concepts, ideas and statistics that — no matter how thoroughly debunked — just refused to die.
“You can read papers from the 1980s and they don’t look terribly different from the papers that are being written now,” said Ashby, senior adviser on gender and research for CGIAR, an international consortium of agricultural research organizations, in an exclusive interview with Devex in Paris.
Nobody can explain zombies. And nobody knows why there’s been so little progress in research on agriculture and gender.
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About the author
Bill Hinchbergerhinchberger
Bill Hinchberger is a global communications professional and educator. He studied at Berkeley and has taught at the Sorbonne. Based mostly in Paris, he spends quality time in Brazil and the United States, and works extensively in Africa and Latin America. He has served as an international correspondent for The Financial Times, Business Week, ARTnews, Variety, and others. One current focus of his work is content creation for foundations, NGOs and other organizations, especially those working on issues related to international affairs, the environment and development. He also runs training programs for professional journalists, notably in Africa, and is an associate of Rain Barrel Communications, a leading consultancy for social justice projects.
