Project overview:

Despite substantial progress over recent years in producing, collecting and disseminating statistics reflecting the actual status of women and men in rural areas and the agricultural sector (e.g. regular production of statistical publications on the status of women and men in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan), and the availability of some sex-disaggregated data (SDD) from the agricultural census in Turkey, the overall availability of SDD on the rural and agricultural sector was scarce in the three countries. Statistics on the agriculture sector in the aforementioned publications were very limited and rural/urban disaggregation of data was scarce or unavailable. The need for detailed rural gender data was emphasized during the FAO Regional Workshop on Sex-Disaggregated Data in Agriculture and Rural Development for Central Asian and Central and Eastern European countries, held in Turkey from 11 to 15 April 2011, with the active participation of representatives from National Statistical Offices.

The overall objective of this project was to assist Central Asian beneficiary countries in developing SDD sets on the agricultural and rural sector in order to assess the current status of the rural population and support evidence-based and informed policy-making processes. 

In the long-term, the project was expected to contribute to the achievement of rural gender equity and equality in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkey, through the formulation of gender-sensitive national agricultural policies.

Key results of the project:

• Comprehensive National Gender Profiles (NGP) of agricultural and rural livelihoods were prepared for Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkey and made available for stakeholders in the English, Russian and Turkish languages. 
• A methodological tool – the Agri-Gender Toolkit (AGT) – was developed. This toolkit is designed to facilitate the production, analysis and use of gender statistics in the agricultural and rural sector. It was designed to assist both data producers (statisticians working in national statistical offices and statistical units of relevant ministries and government agencies, such as ministries of agriculture, natural resources management and economic development) and data users, especially policy-makers and development planners. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), advocates and researchers working on gender and agriculture issues can also benefit from this tool.
• National workshops on gender issues in the agriculture and rural sector were organized to validate drafts of the above-mentioned documents, as well as to present the results of data retabulation and to discuss future plans.

The direct target beneficiaries of the project were National Statistical Offices. Ministries of Agriculture (MoA), the Rural Women’s Department/Gender Focal Point of the MoA and national NGOs working on gender issues are also expected to benefit from the project outcomes. Rural women and men were the indirect beneficiaries of the project, benefiting from a more gender-sensitive and evidence-based policy-making process.