6. Recommendations to support gender responsive technology for poverty alleviation

Structural changes in rural economies, combined with the emergence of new technologies, are likely to intensify female marginalization even further in the future unless government officials and community leaders systematically consider and address rural women’s needs, and identify and deliver gender-responsive technology driven by gender specific technology demands. A framework to manage the identification and delivery of technology support services by government and other providers (supply) based on needs articulated by rural women (demand) are proposed in Figure 3. The proposed flow of technology support among various stakeholders in development such as Central government agencies and locally situated NGOs and technology centres through effective involvement of communities served. It would be important to have gender-segregated database to support the identification and transfer of gender responsive technologies for rural households. In this context the gender differentiated technology assessment for household production is a crucial activity.

The following recommendations - for capacity building, research and development, enhanced collaboration, strengthened technology transfer centres and policy change - are also elaborated in this context.

Figure 3: Proposed flow of technology support

Capacity building

• Educate community leaders, government officials, and local people (men and women) about the relevance and importance of gender-sensitive and participatory approaches, and about the Royal Thai Government’s commitment to gender equality and human rights.

• Train government officials involved in rural development in gender analysis and gender mainstreaming, and support them to mainstream gender in policy formulation and planning process and implementation of activities. For instance, support them to use a gender-responsive assessment process for technology needs identification and transfer.^[9]

• Train government officials (in provincial, district and sub-district organizations) and community group leaders to use ICTs to access and disseminate needs-based technology information that is also gender sensitive.

• Build the capacity of rural women to identify and articulate their information and technology needs, and to access information and services provided by government institutions. A framework to build the capacity of rural women to identify their technology and resource needs, increase their knowledge and enhance self-confidence, and empower them to engage with external agencies is presented in Figure 4.

Research and development

• Create and regularly update organizational directories to improve knowledge about the roles of different actors (government, non-governmental, academic, local and other) in technology development and delivery.

• Develop a gender- and sex-disaggregated database (using inputs from government, NGOs and communities) and support decision-makers to use this to assist the identification, planning and targeting of gender-sensitive interventions, including technology development and delivery.

• Carry out additional research to develop a range of appropriate and affordable technologies that meet rural women’s needs in agricultural production, post-harvesting and household activities, and help to reduce drudgery and save time.

• Support NGOs and private companies’ efforts to develop appropriate gender-roles responsive technologies for agricultural production, processing and household tasks.

Figure 4: Capacity building components and potential gains for rural women

Institutional Collaboration

• Develop partnerships between different types of organizations - including government organizations, NGOs, academic institutions and CBOs - involved in technology planning, development and transfer in order to foster synergies, improve information exchange and coordination, and strengthen the delivery of demand-driven and gender-responsive services accessible to rural women.

• Identify ways to develop new linkages between CBOs and sub- and district level institutions to support technology planning, development and transfer. For instance, sub- and district-level agencies could match technology demands identified by community groups with services offered by various government agencies.

• Develop a framework to manage the flow of resources available for gender-responsive technology development and dissemination to reduce duplication and overlap (see Figure 5). The information available from government, local governance organizations, NGOs and service organizations as well as private sector should flow through the technology centre, the nodal decentralised unit for supporting rural communities. To achieve such decentralised technology support system, it would be important to increase investment in these centres in physical infrastructure, financial support and human resource. The local administration should acknowledge the unique role of such local technology support systems and provide administrative support. The research and training institutions should play a key role in developing gender responsive technologies and methodologies for training and information dissemination. In the view of increasing importance of information technologies in development, it would be essential to take advantage of such technologies to support technology centres.

Figure 5: Resources mobilised for technology and technical knowledge services

Agriculture Technology Transfer Centres (TTCs)

• Make TTCs gender-responsive by: i) training staff in gender analysis approaches; and ii) enabling staff to access and use gender-disaggregated data to understand and apply gender-differentiated information in the identification, dissemination and transfer of technology.

• Supply TTCs with well-equipped resource libraries that include relevant publications, audio-visual materials and the necessary hardware and software infrastructure to make good use of these materials (Figure 6).

• Strengthen the capacity of staff of TTCs to use ICTs to access information and dissemination information and technology.

• Train and encourage the staff of TTCs to use alternative, interactive approaches to discuss technology options, adoption constraints and adoption feasibility with rural men and women.

• Promote information exchange and linkages between the TTCs and research and development institutes, universities and national research centres.

• Support staff of TTCs to become active partners in the identification and dissemination of needs-based technology developed by state and private sector organizations.

• Ensure that the services offered by the TTCs are available at a time of the day and season when local people can make use of them.

Figure 6: Proposed resource library to support technology transfer centres

Policy for gender-responsive technology

• Develop a gender-responsive technology policy framework, as part of the Government’s framework for gender and development, in order to strengthen the capacity of organizations at the implementation level to plan and deliver gender-sensitive technology services in response to local needs.

• Develop and implement policies that enable government officials at lower levels to serve as facilitators of rural development according to needs and priorities articulated by local men and women.

• Develop mechanisms to ensure that policies related to technology development and transfer taking into account the different roles and needs of rural women and men, and target women accordingly.

• Revise the organizational structure for planning and policy-making at the national level to support gender mainstreaming at all levels (Figure 7). The flow chart presents the proposed linkages to improve gender mainstreaming in policy formulation phase and implementation process. For instance, establish provincial GAD Committees to support gender mainstreaming in the implementation of policies, programmes and projects, and monitor progress. It is crucial that current interventions by Royal Thai Government (RTG) at central level on gender mainstreaming be carried to the provincial level also. It is also recommended that capacity building and gender planning as relevant to technical area should be supported at provincial level and further down in the hierarchy of the agency.

• Increase the number of female government officials employed at the provincial, district and sub-district level.

• Implement key reforms in primary, secondary and tertiary education to help change perceptions about traditional gender roles and stereotypes. For instance, revise primary school textbooks, introduce sex-based quotas in secondary schools, and ensure equal opportunities for female and male university students at the tertiary level, especially in disciplines like engineering, medicine, science and technology that have traditionally been dominated by male students.

Figure 7: Proposed organizational framework to mainstream gender and development (GAD) approaches in technology development and transfer