Gender responsive water and agriculture assessments start in Egypt

August 2020 - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is undertaking gender-responsive water assessments to assess the relative situation of women and men in different communities regarding water access, governance, and use in order to ensure that water resources are governed in a way that is sustainable and inclusive in the projects areas and that women and men are benefitting equitably from these resources. This activity falls within the project ‘Implementing the 2030 Agenda for water efficiency/productivity and water sustainability in NENA countries’, implemented by FAO with funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

Agriculture is a key sector in the Egyptian economy, contributing 11.3 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. The agriculture sector is the largest employer of women in Egypt, with almost 45 percent of women in the workforce, although these figures might not be capturing the right involvement and contributions of women in agriculture-related activities inside and outside the households. Rural women’s roles in farming activities are more diversified and enlarged recently. More than 50 percent of rural women are actively involved in informal tasks such as fertilization, weeding, harvesting, sacking, marketing and storage of the agriculture products. Some also undertake ploughing and irrigation. Women also carry out all domestic tasks, including water and fuel collection, and food processing and preparation.

Securing water is critical in achieving food security and improved agriculture and rural livelihoods in all parts of the world as well as in Egypt. As all other resources, water is deeply connected to cultural, social, and economic systems, where gender and power relations influence the different ways in which water is accessed, conserved, controlled, and managed. Despite the key role women play in food and water security through their knowledge of crop production, local biodiversity, soils and local water resources, they are often excluded from decision-making processes in water and land management and from their allocation, both for domestic and productive purposes.

It is essential to determine what men and women need –at different phases of their life-, what they can and will contribute to, and how they will participate actively in decision-making regarding water and food resources. To understand the needs of women and men, all activities and interventions have to be based on regularly updated gender analysis.

In light of the FAO corporate guidance on gender and agriculture and FAO’s regional methodological note on gender-responsive water assessment, an assessment is piloted in Egypt with the following objectives:

• Understand the lives and experiences of women and men, girls and boys of Egypt in the rural field sites and their circumstances, needs, roles, opportunities, barriers, and the gender and power relations in which they operate;
• Understand the similarities and differences between different rural women and men from different age groups and other social determinants in relation to water resources.
• Conduct a gender-sensitive mapping of stakeholders on the national and field level to help future coordination, partnerships and programme design;
• Consult the beneficiaries on the expectations, practical, and strategic needs to inform future equitable, sufficient, and sustainable water and agriculture interventions;
• Understand how to integrate gender efficiently in the future work under the context of SIDA project through a list of evidence-based recommendations and a gender action plan.

In Egypt, the assessment started in Al-Minya governorate where four male farmers and eight female farmers were interviewed, providing information about their daily lives, gender roles, and dynamics, to inform FAO’s future interventions. In addition several interviews with 10 key informants from the Ministry of Water, Ministry of Agriculture, and Partner Organizations have been conducted to get the insights of the policy makers regarding water resources and gender in the field area. The assessment will continue over the next month with a series of data collection tools, including a desk review of the government documents on water/agriculture and gender, key informant interviews with the officials, partners, and grassroots organizations, and a number of interviews and focus group discussions with the farmers in the field to understand their lives, circumstances, opportunities, and barriers. The gender assessment will be implemented in the remaining seven countries under the project including: Algeria, Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, Tunisia, Jordan, and Morocco.

This activity is implemented under the regional project “Implementing the 2030 Agenda for water efficiency/productivity and water sustainability in NENA countries” implemented by FAO under the water scarcity initiative, in collaboration with the respective ministries in every country, and funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).