Gender in project implementation

Gender in Project ImplementationJemimah Njuki

Team Leader: Poverty, Gender and Impact

FAO-ILRI Workshop on Integrating Gender in Livestock Projects and Programs, ILRI, Addis Ababa, 22-25 November 2011

Outline

• A stratification of strategies• General /common strategies • Using data (especially baseline data) to

develop specific strategies• How do we know strategies are

working?

A stratification of strategies

Gender Aware

Gender Blind

Exploitative Accommodating Transformative

A stratification of strategies

Gender Exploitative

Take advantage of rigid gender norms and existing imbalances in power to achieve program objectives.

Expeditious in the short run but unlikely to be sustainable Can result in harmful consequences and undermine the

program’s intended objective

Gender Accommodating

Acknowledge the role of gender norms and inequities and seek to develop actions that adjust to and often compensate for them.

No active strategy to seek to change the norms and inequities Focus on limiting any harmful impact on gender relations.

Gender transformative

Actively examine, question, and change rigid gender norms and imbalance of power

Encourage critical awareness among men and women of gender roles and norms

Challenge and address the distribution of resources and power relationships between women and others in the community

• Rationale: That through gender training an awareness on gender inequalities in women’s status, access and control over resources will be created – lead to better integration of women’s concerns, needs and

priorities in development policy planning and practice.

• A large mass of gender training manuals, modules and checklists developed

• Concerns over treating gender as a technical issue==transformational gender training

Strategies: Capacity Building

Integrationist Gender Training Transformative GenderTraining

Gender training as a stand-aloneinitiative

Gender training as part ofinstitutional reform

Focus on gender roles Focus on gender relations

Describe gender inequalities Analyze gender inequalities

Gender mainstreaming through increasing number of women within organization / groups

Gender mainstreaming through integration of gender equality concerns into the analyses and formulation of all policies, programs and project.

Greater focus on technical skill Balance in focus on personal, political and technical aspects of gender training

Creates gender awareness and sensitivity through one off trainings

Gender training as a continuous and iterative process combining class room training with non-training strategies

Does not demand accountabilityof institutions

Demand accountability of institutions

Better integration of women inthe society

Structural and systematic transformation of the society.

Training as an end Training as a mean to an end

No impact assessment of training Impact assessment of training

Making gender capacity building effective…

• Links to personal, social and institutional transformation

• Transformative rather than a reformist tool..including use of transformative approaches– challenging the ideological, socio-cultural, economic, political

and institutional frameworks and structures that create and recreate gender inequalities

“focus on developing skills on the integration of gender perspective has led to ‘technicalization’ and depoliticisation of gender training”

• Long term commitment to capacity building, not one offs, not an event but a process

• Combine training with non training strategies ( CB a necessary but not sufficient condition)

Targeting approaches

• Targeting of resources, activities or services to specific groups of individuals with anticipation of changes in their “situation” relative to others

• Different levels of targeting– whole projects, project components, activities, resources,

assets, services

Targeting approaches• There are some advantages to targeting

– Reduce inequalities in distribution of key resources, assets (positive discrimination)

– Processes such as capacity are directed to those that need, or can use it..

– Matching of interventions to needs and therefore potential for higher impact

• Caution– Targeting can lead to more marginalization if not well done

(backlash, withdrawal of other services)– Discussions on need for targeting will all concerned groups

Collective Action

• Use of groups to improve rights and access to services, accumulation of assets, linkages to markets, management of resources is a well-established means of social and economic empowerment

Collective action:

• Key issues– Are women only groups more appropriate

for reaching women than mixed only groups?• Governance, leadership, women’s voice and

representation

– Form new groups or use existing ones?• How representative are the members in these

groups? Do the poor participate in collective action?

Participatory Approaches• Involving rural women in the design of technologies

products and services that are intended for their use and in the planning of services that are intended to reach them

• Women’s participation in the design of water, transportation, energy, farm technology, asset transfer schemes

From Data to strategies• What informs strategies to address

gender issues?Past project experiences

/experiences from other organizations

Stakeholder consultations on key issues and potential strategies

Local knowledge of issues and context

Use of gender and livelihoods analysis, baseline data, case studies etc)

East Africa Dairy Development

• Gender strategies informed by; – Analysis of a baseline report carried out in Kenya, Rwanda and

Uganda – Consultative meetings between the EADD gender focal persons

from the 3 countries and ILRI– Consultations and discussions with staff and partners in EADD

• Strategies are specific, addressing the real issues and owned by project stakeholders /partners

• Integrated into annual work plans of project staff and partners

Process Approach

M&E and Learning

Identification of key gender issues based on baseline data and field experiences

Identification of potential strategies to address key issues

Develop indicators to measure progress and effectiveness of these strategies

Implementation of proposed strategies

Assessment evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies

Documentation and sharing of experiences and lessons

Key issues at different levels of the project

From results to strategies• Low participation of

women in marketing co-operatives– Proposed project

interventions for milk marketing =chilling plants based on a co-op model

• Low ownership of shares by women in farmer managed co-operatives and infrastructure

Kenya Rwanda Uganda All countries0

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

100

Men and women registration in co-operatives

Male Female

% o

f mal

e an

d fe

mal

e re

gist

ered

Addressing key issues• Discussions with gender focal persons and other project staff

on reasons for these trends

– Proposed focus group discussions with both men and women farmers on reasons for low registration by women and low purchase of shares

– Key causes:• Low access to finances• Cultural issues around women’s status and place in

the hh • Proposed strategies for joint registration have not

worked due to cultural issues

Multiple strategies for different contexts

Low registration and purchase of shares by women

Tailor services being offered to the chilling plants to meet specific needs of women (e.g the payment system) and monitor extent to which women buy shares based on this

Use women groups who open a group supply number to which they contribute milk (instead of cash contributions). Part of the income from this is then used to buy shares for the group members.

Propose to a few chilling plants to test a subsidized price for shares to women

Set up a revolving fund for women with potential links to microfinance and village banks

Capacity building for transforming gender relations and attitudes

Key results form the baseline studies• Women keep more and have more control of milk

sold in the evening to informal markets compared to milk going to formal channels..co-ops– Milk is delivered to co-ops by women but money is collected

by men/husbands.

• Possible causes– Men are registered as members, women do the milking and

deliver the milk– Payment is through back accounts which are in the names

of male heads of households– Money is also diverted due to the payment schedule of the

chilling plant (monthly/ or bi weekly)

How do we know these strategies work?

• Effectiveness of the strategies– in addressing the issue– cost effectiveness– other?

• What indicators:– Qualitative /quantitative– Local indicators /scientific indicators– Core key set of indicators complemented with

qualitative studies

How do we know these strategies work?

• Some methods..– Regular monitoring and field data collection

• Integration of variables into existing tools e.g participation data, register of shareholders

• Regular analysis; to feed back into the analysis

• Case evaluation of specific strategies

• To integrate in impact assessment

Multiple strategies for different contexts

Income to women from milk sold in co-ops /CPs very low

Evaluate feasibility of payment systems which women are more likely to have access to e.g Mpesa, ZAP. This will be based on an assessment of ownership of mobile phones by women (asset ownership not disaggregated during baseline).

Combine both formal and traditional milk marketing to ensure women do not lose control of milk income (morning milk taken to CPs, evening milk sold through informal channels).

Capacity building for transforming gender relations and attitudes

Village banks and increasing capacity for women to become members