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This post was originally published on IFPRI.org . By Elizabeth Bryan , Patti Kristjanson , and Claudia Ringler

Until recently, there has been little evidence supporting the need to focus on the gendered dimensions of agriculture and climate change. Why? Because few researchers have been talking to women in agriculture as well as men--both of whom contribute to solving the food security challenges posed by climate change.

This post was originally published on IFPRI.org. By Elizabeth Bryan, Patti Kristjanson, and Claudia Ringler

Until recently, there has been little evidence supporting the need to focus on the gendered dimensions of agriculture and climate change. Why? Because few researchers have been talking to women in agriculture as well as men--both of whom contribute to solving the food security challenges posed by climate change.

In the face of price spikes, climate change, and other stressors from the national to the global scale, the promotion of resilience has gained traction in the development community as a means of insuring that populations vulnerable to food and nutrition insecurity are equipped with the tools to survive and even thrive in our unpredictable world.

Ethiopia is currently experiencing the worst drought in 30 years, as failed spring rains combined with El Nino conditions to severely weaken the summer harvests that feed 80-85 percent of the country.  However, experts have been quick to emphasize that the current situation will in no way reach the crisis levels seen during the 1984 drought and subsequent famine.

When it comes to household nutrition, mothers matter.

That is the takeaway message from a new working paper from IFPRI’s Ethiopia Strategy Support Program (ESSP) . Using the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), the paper examines the impact that female empowerment – specifically, access to and control over household income and resources and role in household and agricultural decision-making –  has on women’s and children’s dietary diversity and nutritional status in rural Ethiopia.