Mainstreaming Gender In Small Scale Agriculture

1. MAINSTREAMING GENDER
IN SMALL SCALE AGRICULTURE
Malika A-Martini
Malika.Martini@fao.org
Cairo, Egypt
February, 2015

2. PRESENTATION OUTLINE
I. Introduction
 Gender and Development
 Our Focus
II. What do we need to do?
 Innovating for Better Impact
 Evolving WID-GAD Concepts
 Approaches to Gender Integration
 Empowerment Index
 Chain Empowerment Matrix
III. Why is Gender still the Missing Link?
 Overview
 Example
 Lesson learned

3. GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT
IS MORE ABOUT ALL OTHER MEMBERS OF THE
HOUSEHOLDS, SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF
DIFFERENTIAL ROLES THAN ONLY WOMEN!

4. OUR FOCUS
WOMEN AND MEN, COMMUNITIES

5. INNOVATING FOR BETTER IMPACT
 Gender integration
 Not about working with women
 Evolving concept
 WID
 GID
 GAD
But people are still talking about
working with women and using women
and gender interchangeably
Photo credit: CIAT

6.  "Not everything that counts can be counted, and
not everything that can be counted counts"
 “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over
again and expecting different results”
Need
Change

7. APPROACHES TO GENDER INTEGRATION
 How?
 Understand
and
 integrate
gender
matters to the
quality and
sustainability
of
development
outcomes
Source: USAID
• Change
norms and
relations
• Causes of
ineq. not
just
symptoms

8. TRENDS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOR BY SEX IN
MENA
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
1990-1995 1996-2000 2001-2005 2006-2010 2011
Male Ec. Active in agric. Fem. Ec. Active In Agr.
Source: Computed from FAO Statistical Database 2011.
Martini, 2011, EGM Accra, Ghana

9. EMPOWERMENT INDEX (USAID)
Domain Indicator
Production Input in productive decisions
Autonomy in production
Resources Ownership of assets
Purchase, sale, or transfer of assets
Access to and decision on credit
Income Control over use of income
Leadership Group member
Speaking in public
Time Workload
Leisure

10. Activity
Integrator
2
Chain co-owner
4
Chain Actor
1
Chain Partner
3
C
h
a
i
n
A
c
t
i
v
i
t
i
e
s
Chain Governance
CHAIN EMPOWERMENT MATRIX

12. WHY IS GENDER STILL THE MISSING LINK?
 Projects and other development efforts
must work with men and women, and
also with communities

13. WHY IS GENDER STILL THE MISSING LINK
CONT’D
 The world has in fact moved from the gender
blind approach and most efforts are exclusively
focusing on women
 It has forgotten that women work with men and
other individuals of their households
 Women have to take power from those they are
living with

14. LESSON LEARNED
A SMALL SCALE WOMEN FARMER
 Grew beans
 Intercropped with maize, and occasionally in
her husband’s tobacco crop
 Harvest; 70-80 kg /year;
 30 kg to feed the family
 40 kg to sell: uses the proceeds to buy oil, clothes
etc.. for her family
 Was in control of the beans crop

15. EXAMPLE CONT’D
 NGO started working on beans
 Woman farmer thought that finally she is going
to get a good market for her produce:
 She got good bean varieties / improved seeds
 New varieties needed to be planted in rows…. she
had to negotiate with her husband…
 He allocated a small piece of land, production
increased, productivity increased, prices were
good….
 However…

16. EXAMPLE CONT’D
 The new market for this produce was in the city
- production was bulked and exported
 Tobacco production not good, the husband
joined his wife in bean production
 He took the beans to the market et came back
without the money…
 She couldn't believe: she produced well, she
sent the product to the market but she lost
control over the crop (how much to keep to feed
the children, how much would go to the market)

17. EXAMPLE CONT’D
WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE REASONS
 Market development project focused on women:
 Production increased
 Productivity increased
 Woman lost control over the crop; couldn’t
make any decision
 Her strategy: she went back to her neighbors,
borrowed few of the old seed varieties,
started intercropping it on maize and tobacco
 She could go to the side of road to sell and
get some money

18. WHAT TO AVOID
 Development projects focusing on women and
forgetting the other forces around them
 In many countries, the lean season is long and
families all together are struggling to put one
meal together
Women and men together should be part of the
solution

19. CONCLUSION
 If we continue working only with women as was
done in the 1970s, we will go backward
 For better results of alleviating poverty in NENA
we need:
 To give due attention to gender
considerations in improving work
 When working with women alone, think of
changing the paradigm to look at gender
relationships, and understand the reasons for
inequalities

20. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION
Let's get everyone's
gender glasses to face
the challenges!