Agriculture

Agriculture programs risk failure when they don’t consider the social realities of gender – that is, the distinct roles and norms assigned to women and men in a society. However, organizations, foundations and governments increasingly recognize that they must address these realities if they want to help rural women progress economically – as well as help ease hunger across the globe.

For instance, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) this month launched a new gender policy – the first in 30 years – that strives to close the gap in opportunity between women and men worldwide and prioritizes women’s empowerment as a central component of any strategy to end global ills such as hunger. Meanwhile, the coalition Farming First recently produced the Female Face of Farming, an interactive visual that lays out rural women’s role in agriculture, inequities that exist between female and male farmers, such as land ownership, and the impact of such “gender gaps.” And the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation offers up a creative infographic that illustrates how investing in women farmers can benefit entire communities.

While such new endeavors cast an important spotlight on the contributions of rural women a well as the barriers they face, the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) provides strategies for how to empower women farmers to be economically successful. ICRW’s workshops on gender and agriculture are a first step in that process. In these customized trainings, ICRW experts help organizations understand how programming that responds to women farmers’ unique needs can make a difference for entire communities – as well as for implementing organizations. ICRW also provides guidance on how to design, deliver and evaluate effective programs and services related to gender and agriculture.

In the following Q & A, Silvia Paruzzolo, an ICRW economist who leads gender and monitoring and evaluation trainings for economic development programs, discusses what it means to create “gender-responsive” agricultural programs and how ICRW approaches its workshops on the subject.

Q: What are some of the common misperceptions that organizations have about gender?

Paruzzolo: We find that staff at many organizations that work on agricultural development acknowledge the role of gender in agricultural programming. Yet there is some degree of skepticism about the importance of analytically addressing gender in agricultural projects because of beliefs that gender is a “soft” issue, not a science. At ICRW, we believe that this skepticism usually is because of a lack of clarity on the rationale for addressing gender in programming. And, there are differences in understanding around what “gender” and “gender-responsive programming” mean as well as around the use and usefulness of techniques such as gender mainstreaming and analysis. There is also a diffused perception that women’s roles and responsibilities are rooted exclusively in household work. However, growing evidence illustrates how women contribute substantially to agricultural production and related income, which makes them key economic agents in the agricultural economy. They are not only home producers or “assistants” in farm households. 

Q: What are the elements needed to ensure a program is “gender-responsive”?

Paruzzolo: Gender-responsive programming requires understanding how gender operates, its centrality to good programming, and the need for appropriate funding and assessment of outcomes.Key to ensuring that a program is gender-responsive is to understand that it cannot be treated as an “add-on.” Instead a successful program addresses how gender influences and will be influenced by the program at every single phase of the project cycle. In agriculture, this requires identifying differences in the needs, roles, statuses, priorities, capacities, constraints and opportunities of women and men farmers, and realizing how these differences affect power relationships within farming households. 

Gender-blind programs risk failure. Two ways to avoid this is to recognize that gender issues affect how a program achieves its results; and that gender also plays a role in how people respond to interventions; not everyone is affected in the same way. Essentially, designing and implementing gender-responsive programs truly requires organizations to rethink traditional practice.

Q: What are some of the challenges to implementing gender-responsive programming and how can organizations begin to address some of these challenges?

Paruzzolo: Implementing gender-responsive agricultural programming requires an in-depth understanding of gender and intra-household dynamics relevant to an organization’s specific programs. Developing this understanding and the implications for programming is definitely challenging; it requires the right techniques and skills. For example, quantitative data collection methods may not be able to capture the nuances of changing dynamics in relationships within a farming household.

ICRW’s customized workshops help overcome this challenge by introducing participants to the concepts and techniques of gender analysis, which is defined as a systematic process of using research methods to identify differences in the needs, roles, statuses, priorities, capacities, constraints and opportunities of women and men. We then train participants how to apply this information to the design, implementation and evaluation of research, policy and programs. While available frameworks and tools guide gender analysis in practice, they cannot substitute for organizational commitment to gender-responsive programming.  Sound gender analysis requires skilled professionals, appropriate financial support and a commitment to use the results to shape policies, projects and actions.

Q: Explain ICRW’s approach to gender training workshops.

Paruzzolo: Most commonly, the main objectives of a gender training workshop are to illustrate the difference it makes to women, men, families and programs when an intervention is gender-responsive, to demonstrate how critical this is for achieving an organization’s goals, and to facilitate learning and capacity building. 

At ICRW, we tailor each workshop to the specific capacity and learning needs of an organization. Our workshops are designed to draw out participants’ current understanding of gender, hear their experiences and ideas, and resolve different concepts of gender in the context of an organization’s strategy. We also engage participants in hands-on activities and focused case studies on how to incorporate gender in agricultural interventions. 

To do this, ICRW usually begins with a “needs assessment” to better understand the organization’s staff work, how they currently integrate gender into their programming and their existing capacity, and what concerns they may have about weaving gender into on-going and upcoming projects. The information generated from the needs assessment then feeds directly into how we design the workshop and its materials. 

During the workshops, participants are usually guided through a fast-paced series of alternating content presentations, videos, practical, hands-on exercises and games designed to promote experiential and participatory learning. We focus on demonstrating the importance of gender integration for agricultural development by using empirical examples that, wherever possible, are drawn from the organization’s own work. Finally, we dedicate time each workshop day to reflect on and synthesize what was learned. 

For more information on how to partner with ICRW, please email WorkWithICRW@icrw.org
 

The agriculture sector needs to better examine the varied roles of men and women in the production, processing and sale of food. Without such data, agricultural experts fail to reach women farmers in an authentic, sustainable fashion.

Small-scale farmers – many of whom are women – are critical to growing economies and reducing hunger. But we lack proven solutions that link small-scale farmers into agriculture markets in ways that enable these producers and their countries’ economies to benefit.

When small-scale farmers have equitable access to markets and opportunities to boost their production, farm incomes increase. Farmers are able to feed their own families as well as provide food to the general population – all of which ultimately helps reduce poverty and hunger.

Women play a crucial part in this effort and in the overall agriculture sector. But despite increasing attention to women’s key roles in agriculture, there is still much we don’t understand. We don’t know how women make decisions about the types of crops they produce or how they process and sell their products. How do women farmers benefit from increased agricultural productivity? And what risks do they perceive when trying to expand their production and incomes? This dearth of information undermines the effectiveness of agriculture investments. Without understanding how women participate in the sector, programs continue to bypass nearly half of the agricultural workforce – to the detriment of women, their families and the sector overall.

We can change this. But doing it in ways that ensure women’s equitable inclusion into larger agriculture markets first requires a detailed examination of the value chains in which small-scale farmers work. Such an analysis essentially traces a commodity, such as maize, from the farm on which it’s cultivated to the dinner table where it’s ultimately consumed. The analysis identifies points along this “chain” where there are opportunities to increase the commodity’s quantity and quality of production as well as the value added to the product, such as through processing maize into flour. And it identifies inefficiencies, one of the greatest of which remains the grave inequities between how women and men participate in agriculture.

With that, it’s imperative for value chain analyses to focus on gender. Examining the journey from “farm to fork,” with an eye toward the varied roles of women and men, allows us to capture the complexities of how they each engage in specific commodities at all stages – from production to processing to sales. It reveals what women and men do and with what resources. It shows how they, their families and the agriculture marketplace benefit. Finally, it assesses these factors in the context of broader social and economic forces, such as how women’s household responsibilities can limit their time to produce crops for commercial markets or how inheritance laws can bar women from owning land.

Take for example a gender value chain analysis of dairy in Africa. Membership to dairy cooperatives was based on households, and only the head of the household was allowed to participate. That person also had to provide proof of land ownership. The analysis showed that the membership rules limited women’s participation in and benefits from cooperatives. So to better incorporate women, the analysis proposed changing the rules to relax the property ownership requirement and allow individuals, instead of households, to join.

The benefits of conducting such a value chain analysis are widely understood but how to do it in a manner that accurately represents women’s opportunities and constraints remains the challenge. At ICRW, we believe that investments in gender analysis of agricultural value chains are vital because analysis results can then be integrated into existing and new agricultural development programs to improve their effectiveness. Without data on women’s roles in farming, processing and marketing, agriculture development experts won’t reach women in an authentic, sustainable fashion. And global efforts to feed the world’s hungry and help lift them out of poverty will continue to fall short.

To that end, agriculture researchers and practitioners can no longer operate in separate silos – especially in light of increasing budget constraints and skyrocketing food prices. They need to work together to find synergy in their complementary interests and expertise. They must set a unified agenda for effectively analyzing the gender inequities at each stage of a commodity’s journey from the farm to the dinner table. And then, they need to identify ways to overcome them.

By taking steps to truly understand the lives and livelihoods of women farmers as well as processors and traders, global endeavors to increase agricultural productivity, boost economies and alleviate hunger will be far more successful.

Paula Kantor is ICRW’s senior gender and rural development specialist.

ICRW will host a workshop in Nairobi, Kenya, with agriculture practitioners and researchers in an effort to jumpstart a shared agenda on creating more gender-responsive research, practice and learning in agricultural development.

With concerns about a mounting budget deficit and anticipated cuts to investments in foreign affairs, legislation aimed at international development issues will likely face challenges in the 112^th session of the United States Congress that starts today. This includes efforts geared toward bettering the lives of marginalized women and girls worldwide.

Although the Obama administration has committed to empower women and girls as part of an overall push to improve development programs, officials over the next two years will need to secure stronger Congressional support – through legislation and funding – to turn pledges into programs.

“Investing in women and girls as part of an overall strategy to improve the efficiency of foreign assistance could form the foundation of compromise both within and between Congress and the administration,” said Dan Martin, senior advocacy specialist at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). “Reducing poverty and defending human rights are not partisan issues. We hope Congress can find common ground in these efforts.”

The political landscape transformed on Nov. 2, when Republicans took control of the U.S. House of Representatives with a net gain of 63 seats, and Democrats retained a slim majority in the Senate. While committee leadership in the Senate remains unchanged, House leadership of key foreign affairs committees shifted dramatically.

Meanwhile, the economic crisis of 2008 continues to affect the federal budget, putting foreign assistance accounts at risk for reductions. Senior members of Congress, including incoming House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, said they intend to cut funding from the U.S. Department of State and the Agency for International Development (USAID), the two agencies primarily responsible for conducting global development programs.

According to the State Department, foreign aid represents 1 percent of the federal budget. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has prioritized women and girls as part of her larger efforts to improve the effectiveness of U.S. development dollars, saying “investing in the potential of the world’s women and girls is one of the surest ways to achieve global economic progress, political stability and greater prosperity.”

Indeed, leaders from the legislative and executive branches of the government are recognizing that women and girls are integral to activities abroad. But Congress took few concrete legislative actions in 2010 to back up that notion: Legislation aimed at preventing child marriage failed to pass into law. So did a bill meant to help reduce violence against women worldwide. Meanwhile, Congressional action in late December to fund the federal government through March 2011 meant that foreign assistance funding would see no increases in the near future.

In the midst of anticipated challenges ahead, ICRW experts will continue to educate members of Congress and key administration officials about specific actions that can be taken to improve gender equality and fight poverty worldwide. To that end, ICRW will work on the following issues in the 112^th Congress:

Prevention of Child Marriage

Child marriage, most common in poor, rural communities, has devastating consequences for young girls around the world and, as ICRW research has shown, further perpetuates the cycle of poverty. By helping girls to stay in school longer and preventing health risks associated with early childbearing, combating child marriage could increase the effectiveness of U.S. foreign assistance dollars – and give millions of girls a better chance to live full, healthy lives.

Senators on Dec. 1 unanimously approved the “International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act,” legislation aimed at curbing this harmful traditional practice. However, despite significant bipartisan support, it failed in the House to pass into law.

“We made great progress over the last two years, and ICRW fully intends to use that momentum to bring this issue forward again in 2011,” said ICRW President Sarah Degnan Kambou. “We need to work with key stakeholders, including those that led the effort to defeat the bill last year, to find the nexus between good policy and good politics.”

Integrating Women into International Agricultural Development Programs

President Obama’s Feed the Future Initiative to increase U.S. investment in agricultural development, particularly through small-scale farmers, strives to help reduce hunger and poverty worldwide. Through this initiative, the administration commits to boosting productivity and incomes by ensuring that women and men farmers have equal access to resources.

Congressional leaders in 2010 provided much-needed funding for international agricultural development. However, in the current budget climate, future funding for these programs will likely face scrutiny.

“The Obama administration must do a better job of communicating to Congress what Feed the Future is, how it serves American interests, and why the requested funding levels are necessary,” said David Kauck, ICRW’s senior gender and agricultural specialist. “Consistent U.S. investment in international agricultural development will enable farmers to increase their income, reduce hunger and malnutrition and contribute to overall economic growth.”

Violence against Women

Nearly one in three women around the world will face violence in her lifetime, and certain regions of the world have even higher rates. The U.S. continues to fund programs to address gender-based violence globally, even increasing investment in some areas, such as to further explore the link between HIV and violence. The “International Violence Against Women Act” (IVAWA) was first introduced in 2008 and reintroduced in 2010 to foster a more comprehensive, coordinated approach that supporters of the legislation, including ICRW, believed would be more effective and fiscally responsible. 

The bill received unprecedented attention as the subject of multiple Congressional hearings and debates. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed IVAWA on Dec. 14, however the Congressional calendar did not allow time for a full Senate vote on the legislation.

ICRW experts say IVAWA provides the U.S. an opportunity to become a worldwide leader in a comprehensive approach to reducing violence against women. “Reducing violence against women will have a double dividend,” said Mary Ellsberg, ICRW’s vice president of research and programs and an expert on in issues related to gender-based violence. “It will help end a gross human rights violation, and give women more opportunities to realize their full educational, economic and social potential, which will ultimately lead to more stable and prosperous societies.”

Foreign Assistance Reform

The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 is the governing document of most U.S. international assistance. However, in the context of today’s development issues, many deem the act to be outdated.

Several attempts by legislators to modernize U.S. foreign assistance in 2010 were met with limited success. The Obama administration, however, is moving forward on two fronts to keep pace with the changing times, especially as it relates to further integrating women into foreign assistance programs:

The first one is through President Obama's “Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development", which was released last year and further clarified his commitment to empowering women and girls as well as integrating gender throughout all development programs. “We’re investing in the health, education and rights of women…” Obama said during the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit in September 2010, “because when mothers and daughters have access to opportunities, economies grow and governance improves.”

Second, the State Department last month released the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), which pledges to “integrate gender issues into policies and practices at the State Department and USAID.” The QDDR will serve as a blueprint of reforms to be implemented at State and USAID, starting in January 2011, to make foreign assistance more effective.

“In order to make these executive-level commitments permanent, Congress needs to pass legislation to reform the Foreign Assistance Act,” Martin said. “And to do that, administration officials will have to reach out to counterparts on the Hill to find common ground.”

Roxanne Stachowski is ICRW's external relations associate.

The global Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has commissioned the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) to identify pragmatic ways to integrate gender analysis into ongoing agricultural research programs. 

Established in 1971, CGIAR is a network of 15 global institutions engaged in research for sustainable development. CGIAR centers collaborate with national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, the private sector and other partner organizations around the world. Its research has been credited with spearheading major improvements to agricultural productivity and food security.

ICRW is working with CGIAR to examine how the organization can incorporate gender-related realities into its research, program implementation, policy design and evaluation in fields such as food security and nutrition. Analyzing the role of gender in agriculture includes, for instance, addressing the unique needs and capabilities of women and men in farming. In many countries, women play critical roles in agricultural production, processing and marketing.

And by considering women farmers’ various agricultural responsibilities, CGIAR scientists can develop effective technologies that are more likely to enjoy widespread acceptance, said David Kauck, ICRW’s senior gender and agriculture specialist who leads the project. He added that as more women farmers adopt such technologies, researchers will have a greater impact on alleviating hunger, boosting agricultural productivity and improving the livelihoods of the rural poor.

“By better integrating gender considerations into CGIAR’s formidable body of research, we can help ensure that both women and men benefit from agricultural innovations,” Kauck said.

Roxanne Stachowski is ICRW’s external relations program associate.