Short Abstract

Explores how feminist evaluation strengthens climate governance in Kenya, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Highlights participatory learning, gender gaps, and proposes practical principles to embed accountability, inclusion, and gender-sensitive evidence use in policy.

Description

Embedding Feminist Evaluation Cultures in Climate Governance: Insights from Kenya, Nigeria & Pakistan

Strand: Building Evaluation Cultures

Author: Cynthia Jebichii KERING, MA Candidate, Keele University

Email: cynthiajebichii0@gmail.com | Phone: +447470589290

Full Abstract

Aligned with the UK Evaluation Society 2026 Conference theme “Bridging the Gap: Evaluation to Action,” this paper explores how feminist evaluation cultures can transform climate governance systems in Kenya, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Climate adaptation frameworks increasingly commit to gender equity, yet evaluation practice still prioritises technical indicators over lived experience, learning, and accountability.

This study examined how evaluation systems recognise or marginalise women’s climate knowledge and agency. Using a systematic qualitative analysis of climate policies, M&E frameworks, and evaluation reports, the research analysed how evaluation culture shapes equity and learning. Findings reveal that Kenya’s decentralised structures foster participatory learning and feedback, while Nigeria’s centralised, externally driven evaluation limits gender accountability. Pakistan’s dryland agriculture context illustrates risks where climate-smart frameworks and trade systems exacerbate women’s unpaid labour and water burdens when gender-sensitive evaluation is absent.

The paper proposes feminist evaluation principles that strengthen local learning cultures and promote relational accountability, inclusion, and epistemic justice. These principles offer evaluators practical guidance for embedding gender-sensitive evaluation approaches that ensure women’s knowledge and experiences inform climate action. By bridging evaluative insight and policy change, feminist evaluation cultures can help realise climate justice in the Global South.

Short Abstract

This paper contributes to the UKES 2026 theme “Bridging the Gap: Evaluation to Action” by exploring how feminist evaluation cultures can strengthen climate governance in Kenya, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Through systematic document analysis, the study examines how evaluation systems recognise or marginalise women’s climate knowledge. Kenya demonstrates participatory learning cultures, while Nigeria maintains technocratic practices. Pakistan reveals how the absence of gender-sensitive evaluation can intensify women’s unpaid labour. The paper proposes practical feminist evaluation principles for embedding learning and accountability.

Keywords: feminist evaluation; climate governance; participatory learning; evaluation capacity; gender equity; Global South.

Speaker Bio

Cynthia Jebichii KERING is a Gender and Development scholar and evaluation researcher completing her Master’s degree at Keele University, United Kingdom. Her work focuses on feminist evaluation, climate governance, and gender-responsive public policy in Africa. She has researched comparative gender-responsive climate adaptation in Kenya and Nigeria and explored climate-smart agriculture and women’s economic precarity in Pakistan. Her research advances participatory and equity-driven evaluation approaches that centre women’s lived knowledge in climate decision-making systems.

Presentation Title Options

- Feminist Evaluation Cultures in Climate Adaptation

- Embedding Women’s Knowledge in Climate Evaluation

- Climate Justice Requires Evaluation Justice