A practical framework for assessing gender equality and social inclusion in agro-climatic services: Lessons learned from Vietnam

Agro-climatic services can help farmers manage climate risk, but women and marginalised groups often benefit less because of unequal access to resources, information channels and decision-making power. This info-note presents a practical framework for assessing gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) in agro-climatic services, drawing on lessons from Vietnam's Agro-Climatic Bulletin (ACB) in the Mekong River Delta. The framework builds on established climate services research. It reframes six dimensions of information quality (availability, accessibility, timeliness, understandability, relevance and use) as diagnostic questions about who is reached, who understands the information, and who is able to act on it. This helps implementers locate exclusion along the information pathway from production to use. The framework is applied to ACB experience using findings from a user needs assessment of 665 households, a human-centered design study and a pilot of improved bulletins. The analysis finds that the strongest progress has been in accessibility and understandability, through multiple dissemination channels, simplified layouts, videos and e-learning. Gaps remain in availability, because GESI insights are not systematically built into service design, and in use, where limited resources, inputs, credit and extension support restrict women's and marginalised farmers' ability to act on advisories. The note recommends short- and long-term actions for each dimension and offers three guiding principles: start upstream, combine minimum inclusion standards with targeted adaptations, and link advisories to the support services farmers need to act on them.