La lutte des femmes rurales pour faire évoluer favorablement les inégalités entre les sexes
En mars 2018, à l’occasion de la 62ème Commission de la condition de la femme (CSW), les défis et les perspectives pour les femmes et les filles rurales seront à nouveau sous les feux des projecteurs.
Organisée par la FAO en partenariat avec le FIDA, ONU Femmes et le PAM, cette discussion en ligne vous invite à réfléchir sur la compréhension actuelle des rôles respectifs que jouent les hommes et les femmes dans les moyens de subsistance ruraux et à partager des informations, points de vues et expériences en prévision de la CSW62. L’objectif principal de cette activité est d’identifier les principales lacunes et les domaines d’action prioritaires afin d’accélérer les changements nécessaires pour faire évoluer favorablement les inégalités de genre que subissent les femmes rurales. La discussion se concentrera sur trois questions principales, présentées ci-dessous, et sera conduite au cours des trois prochaines semaines.
L’évolution des moyens de subsistance des populations rurales
Depuis le Programme d’action de Beijing de 1995, les besoins et les priorités des femmes rurales sont au cœur du programme de développement et des progrès importants ont été réalisés. Nombreuses sont les femmes qui jouissent aujourd’hui d’un meilleur accès aux marchés, aux informations, aux services financiers, à une participation accrue au secteur privé, aux formations, à l’énergie, aux technologies qui allègent le travail et aux transferts de fonds. Certaines d’entre elles ont réussi à devenir des entrepreneuses influentes dans leurs communautés, mieux respectées dans leur ménage. Les femmes jouent des rôles prépondérants à tous les niveaux des chaînes de valeur agroalimentaires, et sont des éléments clés de la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle et de la gestion des ressources naturelles.
Pourtant, la vie d’un grand nombre de femmes rurales demeure inchangée. Elles travaillent pendant de longues heures et doivent assurer, outre leur travail productif, des tâches domestiques et familiales non rémunérées. L’insécurité foncière et l’incapacité de faire des emprunts sont autant d’obstacles à leur autonomisation. Trop souvent, les femmes rurales ne peuvent pas bénéficier des progrès technologiques, elles sont exposées aux risques liés au changement climatique et connaissent des pertes après récoltes importantes. Leurs vies sont également menacées par l'augmentation rapide de la population qui se traduit par une explosion démographique des jeunes, une émigration, un vieillissement de la population rurale et la dégradation des ressources naturelles.
Approches pour transformer les rapports entre les sexes
Pour atteindre les ODD et « Ne laisser personne en arrière» (leave no one behind), le Programme de développement durable à l’horizon 2030 vise des changements pour renverser la situation actuelle dans les pays et à tous les niveaux. Il est de plus en plus souvent reconnu que les approches adoptées jusqu’à présent pour lutter contre les inégalités entre les sexes sont restées insuffisantes. Bon nombre des initiatives visant à promouvoir l’égalité des sexes se sont concentrées sur l’autonomisation économique des femmes – à savoir, garantir leur accès aux intrants, à des conseils techniques et aux marchés et leur donner une voix dans les organes de prise de décisions et les institutions rurales – ce qui contribue à des gains de productivité à court terme. Cependant, pour obtenir des bénéfices durables et sur le long-terme, les femmes ne veulent pas seulement avoir un travail rémunéré ou participer aux décisions sur les dépenses réalisées avec les revenus qu’elles produisent. Elles veulent aussi voir leur qualité de vie s’améliorer, leur temps de travail domestique et familial non rémunéré réduit et ne plus subir de violences sexuelles.
Il convient de redoubler d’efforts – et d’efforts d’une autre nature – pour obtenir des bénéfices durables à même d’améliorer la qualité de vie des femmes rurales et de leurs familles. Cela demande d’aborder non seulement les symptômes des inégalités de genre, comme l’accès inégal aux ressources et aux bénéfices, mais aussi les causes sous-jacentes de ces inégalités, profondément enracinées dans les normes et les comportements en matière de genre, les relations de pouvoir et les institutions sociales.
Question 1 : Quels sont les principaux défis que doivent relever les femmes et les filles rurales ?
- Le contexte des moyens de subsistance en milieu rural a profondément changé au cours des 20 dernières années, ce qui a des répercussions importantes pour les femmes rurales. Doit-on mettre à jour nos connaissances sur les défis que les femmes et les filles rurales doivent relever ?
- En quoi les besoins et les priorités des femmes rurales diffèrent-ils en fonction de leur âge, de leur niveau d’éducation, de la composition de leur ménage, de leurs revenus et de leur contexte culturel ?
- Pourquoi certaines femmes rurales réussissent-elles à aller de l’avant et à devenir des entrepreneuses tandis que d’autres sont prisonnières d’une situation permanente d’insécurité alimentaire et de pauvreté ?
Question 2 : Sommes-nous en train de suivre les bonnes approches et politiques pour réduire les inégalités entre les sexes ?
- Comment peut-on combler les lacunes en matière de politiques ? La plupart des pays ont ratifié des instruments internationaux et régionaux pour protéger et renforcer les droits des femmes. Pourtant, nombreux sont les pays où la réalité est bien différente du cadre politique en matière de genre. Par exemple, les problématiques hommes-femmes ne sont pas traitées dans d’autres cadres politiques, comme les politiques relatives à la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle.
- Pourquoi est-il si difficile de convaincre le secteur privé d’engager les femmes rurales en tant qu’acteurs économiques, quand bien même les résultats positifs d’une telle inclusion ont été avérés ?
- A l’approche de 2020, quelles nouvelles perspectives économiques se dessinent pour les femmes rurales ? Les programmes actuels de renforcement des capacités ciblent-ils les compétences adéquates pour les femmes et les filles rurales ? Comment pouvons-nous les mettre à jour ?
Question 3 : Quelle est la meilleure manière de générer des changements significatifs en matière de genre ?
- Que peut-on faire pour renforcer la voix et le bien-être des femmes au sein de leur ménage et de leur communauté ? Un grand nombre d’initiatives sont axées sur l’autonomisation des femmes, aussi bien dans leur travail que dans leur participation en tant que membres ou dirigeantes à des groupes de producteurs et à des groupes communautaires. Une plus forte autonomisation dans la sphère publique ne se traduit pas forcément par l’amélioration des dynamiques familiales et de la qualité de vie.
- A-t-on accordé suffisamment d’importance à la participation des hommes et des garçons pour modifier positivement les comportements ? Comprennent-ils les liens entre les rôles respectifs des hommes et des femmes et les inégalités, et leurs incidences sur la productivité et le bien-être de leurs ménages ? Leurs besoins sont-ils ignorés, entraînant leur marginalisation et leur désengagement dans le développement du ménage ?
- Quelles approches se sont-elles avérées efficaces pour aborder les sexospécificités, les relations de pouvoir et les institutions sociales profondément enracinées dans le contexte ?
Je vous remercie et j’espère que la discussion sera riche,
Clare Bishop
- Afficher 98 contributions
Hello,
I am writing from the OECD Development Centre where we are currently working on the update of the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI), a cross-country measure of discriminatory social institutions that hold back women and girls’ from realising their rights. One important area covered in the SIGI is women’s access to resources and assets including land. Results from 2014 found that in 102 countries women still face discriminatory laws and customs in accessing land and non-land assets. Although it is widely acknowledged that legal equality does not automatically translate into equality of outcomes, the SIGI confirms this: of the 102 countries where discrimination was found, only 7 countries had legal discrimination, the remaining 94 countries granted women and men the same legal rights to access land, but customary, traditional and religious practices curtail women’s rights in practice.
Discriminatory inheritance laws are another significant barrier women and girls face when accessing family land and property: in over 100 countries there is evidence of discriminatory inheritance laws or practices limiting women’s ability to inherit equally as daughters and spouses. This ranges from negative social norms that beleive only men should own land to acts of property grabbing.
When we think about how we can best achieve gender transformative impacts, it is important to see how we can improve on the enormous amount of work already being done. Over USD 3 billion of Official Development Assistance was committed to rural and agriculture projects targeted gender equality and women’s empowerment; however only around 5% of this aid targeted gender equality as a principle objective (approximately USD 187 million). Thus, projects with the ability to transform negative gender roles and empower rural women and girls remain a small part of rural and agricultural development aid. Harnessing this aid and improving on the existing work already being done through the application of a social norms lens to the design and implementation process is one way to ensure that it benefits rural women and girls.
In addition there is a need to invest in data that captures not just outcomes but also social norms that drive the gender gaps in outcomes. The SIGI Uganda country study, launched in 2015, was the first nationally representative survey measuring discriminatory social imitations. The results from the report highlight how discriminatory practices such as unequal inheritance or land ownership are often grounded in discriminatory attitudes. Indeed, the survey found that there is widespread support for gender inequality in land ownership: 27% of the population supports unequal land rights, reaching as high as 54% in the Mid-Northern sub-region. This is reflected in women’s lower levels of land ownership: only one-third of land is owned or co-owned by women. This any policy that wishes to support women’s land ownership will need to address these discriminatory attitudes.
Hi. I would like to respond to the 2nd question - are we using the right approahes in addressing closure of the gender gap. Two strategies have been said to be used 1- Women empowerment and 2 -Gender and deveopment. Apparently most organisations have then decided to dwell on strategy 1 which is what most of us are all talking about. But from what i am seeing strategy 1 has sustainability issues. Gender equality and equity are being exercised in a way that leverages women to be 'empowered' but even when they are up there, they are still not confident because they feel they were favoured to be there. When male counterparts jeer at them for making a simple mistake they crash easily. Hence she is left in a worse of case than where she was before. In some projects I have worked for, women are given start up capital for their businesses but still they are robbed of those finances by their husbands, and still cant report back about it. If she decided to stand her ground and fight back it then results in a divorce.
But if organisations are to dwell more on strategy 2 - gender and development, it means men will be equally engaged on gender issues as much as women. Men generally being more influencial than women can then speed up the process of closing the gender gap. Often men fight gender related issues because most of them do not understand how it will benefit them as men. hence lack of knowedge is resulting in resistance. Yes women may be empowered, and do all kinds of things but men will always remain her draw back unless men fully understands what gender is about, then he will gladly pull women up.
The gender and development strategy is the way to go.
Hello,
I would like to contribute on "Question 3: How best can we achieve gender transformative impacts".
I strongly believe in the power of education and the influence our educational systems can have in making our fight for gender equality feasible. The world is where it is today because of the way we were educated and brought up some years back. Before the second world war, most women never worked because they weren't given the opportunities to do so, until the need arose for women to work in factories and production houses because most of the men who actually were the workforce at that time had gone to war. Since then, the liberation of women has been slow but sure, but we all agree that more needs to be done.
I believe special modules on gender equality should be incorporated in our school systems right from primary school. We shouldn't wait till we get to the university and then start hearing about gender equality. By then, society would have pumped in so many ideologies that make people function in a biased manner uncosciously.
But if we are to start from down up, we will have a whole new generation of people who think differently. Thank you.
Dr. Samuel Opoku Gyamfi
Regional Coordinator - North Africa
CSAYN.
What are the main challenges rural women and girls are facing today?
Some of the main challenges of rural women - which were already mentioned in the online discussion- remain time poverty (women’s disproportionate responsibility for domestic work and unpaid care) and lack of access to / control over financial resources and assets such as land. Recently WOCAN conducted an assessment of the Gender integration in REDD+ and ERPD in Nepal and concluded that rural women are still facing the following challenges:
- A high level of engagement in labor- intensive forest- related unpaid activities on a daily basis, but low level of engagement in decision-making processes.
- Women’s workloads within and outside the household is high and “time poverty” is a critical issue. Their traditional roles as family care givers and food producers are unpaid and under-valued, and take up most of women’s time and energy
- Women’s access to resources to improve their income and roles in decision-making is low.
http://www.wocan.org/news/final-sharing-workshop-assessment-gender-integration-redd-and-erpd-nepal
Some of the conditions that contribute to empower women as entrepreneurs include their access to trainings to build their skills in leadership, negotiation and business, and access to financial services; as well as their access to technologies that reduce their workloads and improve the productivity of their production; the capacity of women to organize in groups and cooperatives (or be active members in mixed cooperatives) can also facilitate their negotiation power and access to better inputs and markets.
Are we using the right approaches and policies to close the gender gap?
Beyond the lack of investment in women and women’s organizations, one element that is lacking is a robust means of measuring outcomes of projects, approaches, policies (going beyond outputs) to better understand what works and improve design and implementation.
WOCAN developed the W+ Standard to address those gaps (https://youtu.be/LGQ5KupYaKs). At this time, certification schemes and standards do not quantify benefits or outcomes to women of project communities; many refer only to gender and women in relation to their workplaces or social safeguards.
The W+ Standard measures progress in women’s empowerment in six areas: Time, Income & Assets, Health, Leadership, Education & Knowledge and Food Security. The measurement of progress in projects, which is verified by an independent auditor, results in W+ women-benefit units, that individuals, companies and investors can buy, and be confident that their investment is making a meaningful and measurable positive impact. A share of the sale of units goes back to women and women’s groups. Putting money directly into women’s hands has proven to be transformative for their lives, as they are more likely than men to reinvest this to meet needs of their families and communities.
By measuring results and putting money into the hands of women, the W+ Standard can contribute to incentivizing project developers and investors to invest in women and contribute simultaneously to SDG # 5 and other SDGs where women play a critical.
The W+ Standard was recognized by the UNFCCC and awarded the Women for Results award of the Momentum for Change in 2016. A video produced by the UNFCCC shows the application of the W+ Standard to a biogas project in Nepal (https://youtu.be/bm-hyVY7680)
Thank you for organizing this important forum!
--
Maria Lee
Assistant Director | Regional Coordinator for Europe
WOCAN
What are the main challenges rural women and girls are facing today in Nigeria?
The key challenges of rural women in Nigeria include Socio-cultural constraints: the patriarchal nature of Nigerian culture is a key challenge. Also unequal access and control over resources. Insufficient knowledge and access to information have also affected economic empowerment of women in general and women headed households in particular. Gender violence is also part of the challenge. However, although a lot remains to be done there are improvements in the recent years.
Women do not have equal access to productive resources . There is gender disparities in land holdings. Access to resources, and Participation in decision making Inclusion of women in programmes from the onset not as an addendum will help in bridging the knowledge gap
Omitoyin Siyanbola (PhD)
Fisheries Administration, Policy and Gender Dept of Aquaculture & Fisheries Mgt, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
Contribution from the Kenyan Chapter of the Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network (CSAYN)
1
Undeniably, life in the rural areas has experienced change in the past two decades. Whether the change has been positive or negative for its dwellers, however, depends on where in the world you look. Positive change can be attributed to the inclusion of rural people’s interests in most national discussions. There have also been numerous inquiries made by private actors into the livelihoods of rural women, the most recent being a declaration by the Associated Country Women of the World to convene the first International Forum on Rural Women and mark the International Day of Rural Women. This attention has led to rural electrification projects, construction of proper transport systems and incorporation of technology in rural agricultural schemes. Conversely, in other countries such as the USA the widespread closure of rural industries such as Rubbermaid and Smith Corona and outsourcing of production to cheaper labour markets has left many people unemployed, both male and female.
It is important to also acknowledge that for some rural women, life has remained virtually unchanged throughout the decades. Their respective governments have not been able to promote development in these regions; some deliberately. In spite of the numerous leaps and bounds made, there is still a chasm between the sexes. Inequality exists at every level of society. In rural areas, however, is where these inequalities manifest in their rawest form. Young girls are forced into early marriage. These marriages have very low success rates, more often leaving the woman to raise the children unaided. Needless to say, this deprives them of a high quality education leading to economic stagnation. Older women lack proper geriatric care as they are more likely to be the only dependable source of sustenance for their families. After all, it has been reported that women spend 90% of their earned income on their families compared to 30% of men. In Africa, Asia and even Latin America, culture has been by far the biggest impediment. We have zealously clung to beliefs that insist on the submission of women.
In Kenya, where rural urbanization has been a relative success, it is not uncommon for rural communities to even engage in cross-border Female Genital Mutilation. This is despite enactment of a statute directly criminalizing this activity . Even more noteworthy, leaders from those particular communities that have risen to national leadership positions have completely ignored these activities in return for political support. Regardless, a considerable number of women have risen to wealth and good fortune. As easy as it is to attribute this to plain hard work and sweat, it goes deeper. The reality of the situation is that there are simply no success models in the rural setting. If there are, the pathways are highly limited, marred with obstacles and almost miraculous. Almost always, the attainment of success is contingent on either physically leaving these areas or an internal dissociation from the ‘smalltown’ mentality by these women. In truth, the rural definition of success for women lies on their ability to marry and produce children. A girl may actively pursue their primary and high school education but it rarely goes beyond that; a life of academic success and its accompanying returns are a fantasy in that environment.
2
The battle for policy reform and institution is gradually being won. With the exception of countries like Sudan, U.S.A, Tonga, failing to ratify the Convention Against All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) , many countries have made considerable efforts to effect policy that furthers gender equality. Even so, the disconnect between ratification and implementation of relevant policy is equally global. Rural women are especially vulnerable to these failures because of their isolation. It is time to focus on other fronts. It is time to realize that any and all the policies we conceive are at their core, only an ideology. The only reason, for example, that Constitutions govern nations, is because the individual citizens have agreed to abide by their stipulations.
Although gender equality is often presented as a stand-alone goal, there is agreement that progress on any and all of the SDGs will be minimal if gender equality is not prioritized. Arguments and evidence from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) find that lower levels of discrimination against women are linked to better outcomes in several areas, including educational attainment, child health and food security. For example, where women have a more equal status in the family, children are more likely to complete primary school, even when allowing for differences in country income level, urbanization and the fertility rate. Where women have greater “physical integrity” (control over their own bodies), child health outcomes improve. Similarly, countries where women lack any right to own land have on average 60% more malnourished children . At The Farm Management Association of Nigeria’s 2004 Conference, it was presented that African women have mainly shouldered the responsibility for domestic food production and processing. FAO (1983) estimates show that in West Africa, 60-90 percent of the domestic farm and marine produce are handled by women. Women farmers work on the average from 10-14 hours in many parts of Africa and carry multiple responsibilities for food, water, fuel, housework and childcare making their agricultural productivity lower than it need be 6 . Private companies are aware that supporting rural women will increase profits. Paradoxically, few to none are investing huge amounts of money in efforts to improve their competiveness by promoting women’s empowerment in their supply chains; even though many strive to project the image of a gendersensitive (or transformative) company. In fact, OXFAM’s Behind The Brands revealed that despite women contributing 43% of the agricultural labour force, the big ten food companies are barely prioritizing women’s support; with the best, Coca-Cola, scoring a 6 out of a possible 10. Efforts have been made, however, by the likes of Kellogg’s (making the most significant leap in the past year), Unilever and MARS. A lot more could be done but, in a capitalistic world, the truth is that it will require significant buy-in to support differentiated empowerment for female workers.
Most companies are also reluctant to focus on a female workforce in areas where increased mobility of women results in an increase in gender-based violence. This translates to sporadic interruptions of the production chain.
3
It’s time for mankind to look inward. In Stanislaw Lem’s words: “Mankind has gone out to explore other worlds without having explored his own dark passages and secret chambers; and without finding what lies behind doorways that he himself has sealed.” The root causes of gender inequality are only partially understood. We need strategies that will directly target cultural norms and informal institutions in societies. Otherwise, the impact of any external efforts will only be temporary. These norms are largely to blame for the perceived lack of interest by the private sector in engaging with rural women as economic actors despite its proven benefits and the fact that Africa has been described as the region of female farming per excellence, with women, particularly in the rural areas regarded as the hidden productive force in the countryside . In conclusion, the hearts of men must embrace the value of gender equality. Cultural and religious beliefs still insist on separation of gender roles often to the detriment of the woman. Drafting of policy without first addressing these roots only serves to build resentment as opposed to respect between the sexes. In Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman she scribed, “… I appeal to their understandings; and, as a fellow-creature, claim, in the name of my sex, some interest in their hearts. I entreat them to assist to emancipate their companion, to make her a help meet for them! Would men but generously snap our chains, and be content with rational fellowship instead of slavish obedience, they would find us more observant daughters, more affectionate sisters, more faithful wives, more reasonable mothers – in a word, better citizens.” She could not have summarized better.
On the question, what approaches have proved successful to address deeply rooted gender norms, power relations and social institutions?
Quoting from an interesting article, "A field of her own:Advancing rights of women farmers can revolutionise the rural ecosystem, by Tarini Mohan (http://googleweblight.com/i?u=http%3A%2F%2Findianexpress.com%2Farticle%… ), the chance of propertied women being physically abused is reduced from 49 per cent to 7 per cent due to an increase in the wife’s bargaining power. But, as many as 87 per cent of women do not own their land; only 12.7 per cent of them do. Moreover, despite their hard labour in the field, women are not officially counted as farmers, and are either labelled “agricultural labourers” or “cultivators”. This is because the government does not recognise them as farmers those who do not have a claim to land under their name in official records.
Some key points taken from this article may lead to successful approaches to address deeply rooted gender norms, power relations and social institutions:
1.Providing women with access to secure land is key to incentivising the majority of India’s women farmers.
2.With security of tenure, female farmers should be provided with the three critical driving factors — the incentive, the security, as well as the opportunity — to invest in the land they harvest.
3. The government should not label women merely as “agricultural labourers” or “cultivators” but recognise them as farmers even if they do not have a claim to land under their name in official records. We need to change the stereotypical image of an Indian farmer- a mustachioed man, clad in a white dhoti with farming tools in hand. Women in India constitute close to 65 per cent of all agricultural workers as also, 74 per cent of the rural workforce, is female.
Finally, we need to create a new image of farmer, which is women inclusive!
Contribution to FAO Discussion on Rural Women: Striving for gender transformation impacts
By Taibat Moji Yusuf, Kwara State University, Malete, Nigeria
Introduction
Gender defines how power and resources are shared among females and males. Both rural women and men throughout the world are engaged in a range of activities essential for household welfare, agricultural productivity, and economic growth. However, women’s substantial contributions are marginalized and undervalued in conventional agricultural analyses and policies. Policy makers and agricultural administrators assumed that farmers are men while women only give helping hands on the farm. For this reason most government policies, programmes and services were mainly focused on male farmers. However, the changing rural social structure resulting from male out-migration and wars has drastically changed gender responsibility. Rural women are becoming more responsible for household food security and children welfare as indicated by the increasing number of female headed households in the developing countries. Estimated numbers are 45% in Kenya,35% in Malawi, 30-40%in Zambia and 15% in Nigeria (FAO 2005). The main global challenge now is how to make the female farmers who had no access to education, land and other productive resources and were victims of the harmful cultural practices to do the work of “male” farmers effectively and efficiently and also to ensure gender balance in agricultural development. The rest of the discussion looks at the challenges of gender balance, the consequences of the challenges and how the challenges could be tackled to ensure gender balance when there will be equal participation of women and men in decision making, equal ability to exercise their human rights, equal access and control of resources and benefits of development.
Major Challenges to gender equality in Agricultural production in Nigeria
These are grouped under four major headings;
1) Women Legal and cultural status: these have to do with cultural laws, customs, beliefs and attitudes in some communities which confine rural women mostly to the domestic sphere and limits their participation in politics and public activities. They affect women access to productive resources, services, education, employment and credit. In some regions in Nigeria, girls are not allowed to go to school or are often removed from school instead of boys to help with farming and household work anytime there is a work burden in the family. Also Women are made to handle low-paid tasks in agro-processing and their wages are usually lower than males.
2) Property rights and inheritance laws: Lack of property right and the patrilineal system of land inheritance operating in most regions in Nigeria, do not permit women to have direct access to lands and other natural resources except through their husbands and male relatives. Since access to land and property right are tied to access to credit and acquisition of capital assets, women often have difficulty obtaining credit or acquire capital like the new labour and time saving farm innovations. Extension service which is to provide agricultural information and access to farm resources is equally tied to farmers’ land title and making women to lose out in important information and training that will improve their farm efficiency.
3) Gender Role; has to do with behaviours and tasks that a society considers appropriate for men, women, boys and girls. In some societies, male are mainly responsible for commercial agriculture. They prepare land, irrigate the crops, harvest and transport to markets. They own and trade large animals, cut, haul and fell timbers from forest. Women and girls play largely unnoticed, unpaid but important roles in generating family income by providing labour for planting, weeding, harvesting and threshing crops and processing produce for sale. In most parts of Nigeria, women are responsible for maintaining households, raise children, grow and prepare food, manage small animals, collect fuel wood and water
4) . Financial systems that perpetuate women discrimination; Banks consider women a higher risk because they do not trust women entrepreneurship ability and as such do not provide credit to women. They do not have gender- specific modes of transactions, they expect women to handle voluminous bookwork as educated male farmers and demand for loan collaterals which by right (rural) women do not have. Most of the financial institutions including newly introduced Microfinance banks are concentrated in the urban areas rather than rural areas where are large number of women farmers who seriously need financial assistance.
Consequences of the Gender constraints; considered under two major aspects include;
1) Economic exclusion resulting into
wasted Human capital
low labour productivity
low agricultural production
food insecurity and
slow development
2) High Social Cost in terms of
High rates of under nutrition
High infant mortality
and high HIV/AIDS infection among others
Ways to address the deeply rooted gender norms and involving men and boys to achieve gender transformative impacts
This aspect is considered under the three tiers of government levels operating in Nigeria including Local Government Authorities (LGAs), State Government and Federal Government levels
Local Government Authority
The property and land inheritance law which inhibits rural women from having direct access to land and other natural resources could be addressed right at the local government level. All it takes is to encourage formation of separate cooperative societies among men and women. These societies are to be registered in each local government areas (LGAs) of the country. Since women do not have right to property, the local government authorities should acquire large parcels of land, clear and prepare the land then distributes on legal basis amongst the registered women cooperative members. Similar treatment should be extended to males without access to land (this group can be known through farm analysis). Those male farmers with land asset should be encouraged to pull their assets together and work as registered cooperative groups to benefit from the transformation agenda of the government. The separation of the groups will make it easier for women to participate actively in agricultural production without any fear of being molested or shortchanged by men. It will also provide the opportunity for women to own land and better bargaining power in the purchase of farm inputs and selling of their farm produce. Education and training which has always been the main problem of most women, preventing them from accessing credit, productive resources and use of modern technologies could also be handled through this arrangement using staff of the extension units of the local government authorities. The legal status of women could be addressed by the inclusion of Government / policy processes in the extension programme. This will help men and women to know their rights and how to fight for their rights.
In a nutshell a well coordinated and managed LGAs is the solution to problems of property right and land law, education and training, legal status and better bargaining power in buying and selling activities
State Government Level
Because of the very low level of education, culture and norms , rural women in Nigeria still depend largely on hired labour on their private farms for land clearing and preparation ( to complement their personal labour) at exhorbitant prices because they have to compete with the male farmers in this regard. They also supply labour on their husband farms in the area of planting, weeding, fertilizer application, harvesting and processing in addition to the domestic workload thus, making their work more over whelming and less attractive. To tackle the labour problem, Nigeria Government established national center for agricultural mechanization (NCAM) in two states Ilorin in Kwara State and Ibadan in Oyo State to provide simple improved farm tools for rural farmers. Although the gesture is in the right direction, NCAM products are few, expensive and not gender friendly. Most of their products are constructed for male farmers.
For the purpose of gender equality, a gender specific tool which will save labour, cost, time and can be easily handled by both men and women should be provided. The centers may be provided with recommended specifications and funds to produce large quantity.
To ensure usage and patronage, the centers should be replicated in all states. The earlier formed farmers’ cooperative societies in each LGAs should register separately with the centers in their states. Gender specific tools produced by the centers should then be distributed to the different groups of farmers on loan to be paid back after harvesting. Each society should be made to sell their produce directly to the centers since the centers have various storage facilities such silos, cribs and cool room to their credit. This will allow the centers to deduct their money and pay the farmers their dues. The produce bought from the farmers can be supplied directly to the processing companies for value addition Thus NCAM could be used as an assembling centre for farm produce as well as collecting center tor processing companies to ensure fair transaction devoid of the harmful practices of middlemen
However the centers need initial funding ,for replication in each state and large production of their products. The initial funding should be in form of revolving loan which should be paid back as soon as the centers find their feet. The refund of the loan should be made on yearly basis as they collect their pay from the farmers. The cooperative farmers and the processing companies also need funding for their various initial take off.
Positive transformation to farm mechanization, active participation by individuals in the society and value addition food chains will be made possible through this arrangement and will later translate to increased food production, farmers income, food security and poverty reduction.
Federal Government level
National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme is a Nigerian programme organized for young graduates to serve their fatherland after graduation. It was established by the FG several decades ago to foster unity among the youths and provide man power where such is lacking. Right now the program seems to have outlived its usefulness, because the youths in some states are been used as sacrificial lambs for the purpose of politics. The program can be rebranded and made more functional by diverting the energy and interest of the vibrant youths towards productive agricultural activities. Doing this will engage both the boys and girls in productive activities where they can acquire entrepreneurship skills which will prepare them for real life experience and curb the problem of youth restlessness resulting from idleness and unemployment which often lead into various vices in the country. In addition the arrangement will provide plenty of agricultural produce for home consumption and exportation.
The Procedure for engaging the youths
The government needs to procure large area of land in each state, Provides tractors and implements for land clearing and preparation, farm inputs, improved seeds and seedlings, storage facilities, processing facilities and regular payment of the corps allowance. The corps members in each state should be grouped according to their fields of interest to handle various aspects of agriculture. For instance ,those in education and extension may be made to handle extension education, those in medicals to take care of their colleagues, those in animal science to take care of animal management, the veterinary to take care of animal reproduction and health, those in economics to coordinate the farm activities and handle the issues of trading (buying and selling) . The few youths who are not educated could be absorbed at the local government level.
Here, I want to share two cases from rural and remote mountain region of Nepal with respect to Q3. Although it’s simple and small initiative, it makes us think about such initiatives with respect to improving nutrition of women and children.
In one of the remote districts of mid-west Nepal, woman farmers have now realized nutritional importance of growing vegetables instead of tobacco in their field. Under the Nutrition in Mountain Agro-ecosystems (NMA) project funded by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and jointly implemented by IFOAM-Organics International, FiBL and HELVETAS Swill Intercooperation, there is a ‘school nutrition garden’ micro-intervention which is being implemented by a local NGO: Women Upliftment and Awareness Centre (WUAC) in Mugu district. Under this micro-intervention, the students are taught about theoretical and practical knowledge and skill on nutrition and nutrition sensitive agriculture. Technical persons from District Agriculture Development Office, District Health Office also provide technical knowledge about, for instance, composting, importance of nutrients to human health, nutritional importance of local food and method to grow it, hygiene and sanitation to the students on monthly basis. This knowledge are being ultimately replicated in household level of the students. Their mothers – woman being nutrition gatekeeper of a family – learn such knowledge from their children. As a result, the greenery that was due to tobacco in their land is now replaced by seasonal and off-season vegetables, as mentioned in the paragraph below.
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‘Now we don’t plant tobacco now, rather cultivate leafy vegetables, carrot, fruits’
- Mrs. Tara Khadka, Chairperson, School Nutrition Garden, Ima village, Mugu
Earlier we used the leisure time after household chore in smoking tobacco. We used to plant tobacco leaves in our land; only the green in our land was tobacco. Even young girls used to consume it, and still many people consume it. After intervention of nutrition garden in our school, we knew about its health hazard from our children. We also got knowledge about health benefits of vegetable crops and its consumption; we knew about including vegetables, green leafy vegetables, fruits, meat, egg, pulse in our daily diet. From our children, we know about new technology to grow it. I have now started cultivating vegetables in small kitchen garden for household consumption. I also provide vegetables in day food for my children. I also sell excess vegetables in the local market – the earning has supported my family expense including health, children’s education.
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Such type of intervention, in spite of its limited coverage, has been effective in changing behavior of people, particularly of women towards agriculture and nutrition, and is helping to improve nutrition of their children and family. Considering its bright side, District Education Office – for wider impact – has prepared a curriculum on nutrition and nutrition sensitive agriculture and is being taught to the students of grade 1-5 in 18 schools now. The District Education Office has decided to teach the course to the students of grade 1-10 in all schools from the fiscal year 2018/019 in the district.
The NMA project is promoting and scaling-up such nutrition sensitive agricultural practices in mountain agro-ecosystems through an action network of empowered rural service providers (RSPs), which is named as Mountain Agro-ecosystems Action Network - MAAN (https://maan.ifoam.bio).
Similarly, some of the RSPs involved in MAAN are also using various types of role play and demonstration to improve the nutrition of children and mothers of golden 1000 days and reduce gender discrimination in remote rural mountain in Nepal. In the region, there is a big gap in nutrition among pregnant, lactating women and children under the age of 5 years. Usually, Nepali women have many different tasks at household level: caring for their children, preparing food, collecting firewood and water, sometimes looking after the livestock, and a lot more tasks. The challenge is that they go on with these tasks during their pregnancy and the lactating time. Women face serious health problems and risk the life of the baby (by having a uterine prolapse). Among the local people, the relation between the workload of pregnant women and uterus prolapse is often not known and ignored.
To make families and especially men aware of women’s burden, their own and their child’s need of care, and their need of a balance diet (especially during the 1000 golden days), the RSPs organized different role plays as part of local level food fair in Dailekh district. They invited the husbands of the intervention to join the role plays, and make them aware about the situation of their wives. During the role play, the men got some pillows under their clothes to feel a big belly and were ask to move around, miming typical work of women. In this way, they could feel some difficulties and realize the tasks of their wives. In the end, the people including local politicians asked men to be more cooperative with women in sharing household responsibilities and to ignore the so-called ‘natural’ division of work between men and women.
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Another SDC-funded and HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Nepal-implemented project – Sustainable Soil Management Programme (SSMP) – promoted simple and climate smart agricultural technologies in mid-hill regions of Nepal. Effect of these technologies in improving soil fertility and farm productivity and income is described in the attached file. Besides, to what extent these technologies were successful in reducing women’s workload and its ultimate effect in sharing workload between men and women is also mentioned with simple study in later part of the attached file.
This paper was shared in national conference on climate smart agriculture organized by Ministry of Agriculture Development in August 2016 in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Dear organizers,
thanks for this excellent discussion and in-depth inputs on this topic. I would like to share some insights from the work of the four UN agencies, UN Women, FAO, IFAD and WFP on the Rural Women Economic Empowerment in Kyrgyzstan. It is a unique joint programme of the four agencies, which aims to address the multiple challenges faced by rural women in an integrated manner. The programme brings together expertise of the four UN agencies, and has proven to be effective in providing an integrated response to the various aspects of rural women's empowerment. Specifically, an external evaluation has found the programme to be a flagship joint programme due to a single entry point, through which the UN agencies have provided a single integrated development assistance to the same group of beneficiaries. This has accelerated internal empowerment process, allowed the rural women to build on the increased economic agency to internalize leadership skills, practice them at the level of their households and communities. Evaluation has also confirmed transformative changes taking place in rural women's lives due to the multidimensional approach taken in the joint programme, which included access to productive assets, business skills, access to revolving funds, institutionalization of women's groups through establishment of women's cooperatives, access to processing technologies for moving women's groups up along the value chains for increased value added and higher negotiation powers, capacity building for women's better leadership, participation and influence on local gender-responsive development planning, service provision and decision-making processes. Finally,the programme has allowed to bring the voice of rural women to the national level policy debates, policy formulation and legislative processes.
The evaluation also called for continued collaboration focusing on the rural women in the country. The programme in Kyrgyzstan has established effective coordination mechanism, whereby it not only benefitted rural women but also allowed cross fertilization of approaches used by UN agencies, shared knowledge production in the interventions with the highest transformative effect on the rural women. While the focus so far has been on mobilizing the most vulnerable groups of rural women, there is a need to continue institutional support to women entrepreneurs supported through the programme, and women's cooperatives. Short term and funding challenges of the programme created challenges for upscaling of these approaches on a wider scope and to engage in longer-term policy discussions. It is great to see that many inputs recognize the importance of addressing sexual and reproductive rights of rural women. Unfortunately, due to funding limitations, these issues have not been a priority for the joint programme, and have only be partly covered through partnership with other UN agencies. However, upon reflection we see that empowering rural women to exercise reproductive rights is important for transformation of their lives. In addition there is a need to engage in policy discussions at both local and national levels to recognize, redistribute and reduce the care burden on young rural women. There is an urgent need to engage in macroeconomic policy discussions, which go beyond mere support to women's enterpreneurship, but integrate and focus macroeconomic policies on creating environment for the empowerment of rural women. Rural women tend to concentrate in informal employment sector without social security and pension support. Fiscal, monetary and trade policies should be formulated with a focus on creating better opportunities for rural women. Discussions around government spending should be informed by the exsiting research on the huge potential of investing in the care economy and early childhood development. This is unfortunately not possible within a short timeframe and limited funding of the joint programme. It also requires building of local research and expertise in policy formulation from gender perspective.
Finally, in line with the 'leaving noone behind' principle it is important to understand that rural women are not a homogenous group, and contains groups with multiple forms of discrimination, including single mothers, female-headed households, women with disabilities, women with children with disabilities, women from ethnic and religious minority groups, young women, women of non-traditional sexual orientation, etc. It is important to ensure that these groups have equal opportunity to benefit from the government policies and development assistance.
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