Couples Training Report - Northern Province of Zambia. Building Equitable Climate-Resilient African Bean & Insect Sectors (BRAINS)

The Building Equitable Climate-Resilient African Bean and Insect Sectors (BRAINS) project hosted a two-day Couples' Training in Senga Hill District, Northern Province, Zambia, designed to strengthen gender-equitable household collaborations that advance climate-resilient agriculture and enhance livelihoods. The workshop convened 34 participants, including 14 married couples and six additional household decision-makers, focusing on communication, trust enhancement, equitable labour distribution, joint decision-making, resource allocation and management, and household organization. A pre-training assessment revealed persistent gender disparities in the distribution of labour and domestic decision-making, although with somewhat increased instances of collaborative decision making. Employing participatory learning techniques, participants developed household strategies and committed to adopting more collaborative approaches. The training assessment of the program revealed considerable participant satisfaction, with universal endorsements for broader community application and an increased training duration. The overall findings suggest that couples' training can serve as a gender-transformative approach to promote inclusive decision-making in households, enhance couples' connections, and boost agricultural productivity and climate resilience within the BRAINS project.