Presented by Dr Petra Saghir (ILRI AWARD fellow), ILRI Nairobi, 18 May 2012

1. Making Visible what is currently not Visible:
Experiences on generating Evidence based Results on
Integrating Gender Issues in Projects.
Dr. Petra Saghir
(AWARD Fellow)
Poverty Gender and Innovation
ILRI, Nairobi, 18 May 2012

2. Introduction
Institutional changes for Capacity Building and Partnerships
• integral part of the world’s strategy for agricultural development
• produce the much needed skills to provide leadership, catalyze and
facilitate agricultural development process
• constitute a miniature of society and its structural inequalities
• historical, socio-cultural, socioeconomic and structural/institutional
categories
• encourage more girls and women to engage in agricultural
sciences, research, innovations and technological development
• lead to increased numbers of female and male agricultural professionals
In 2008, less than 25% of agricultural researchers and less than 15% of the
leaders of agricultural institutions were women.

3. AWARD
• < 1 in 4 agricultural researchers is a woman, and <1 in 7 of the
leaders of agricultural institutions is a woman
• career development program that strengthens the scientific
and leadership skills of African women in agricultural research
• help to remove any ‘glass ceiling’, ‘sticky floors’ and ‘revolving
doors’
• contribute more effectively to poverty alleviation and food
security
• women are underserved throughout the agricultural value
chain.
• current leadership for agricultural research is small in
number, almost exclusively male, and on the verge of
retirement
• leadership will be all the more effective when women are
highly represented in technical competence to generate

4. AWARD Impact Assessments
• 80% experienced a significant increase in their self-
awareness and confidence; 48% received awards and
scholarships e.g. Global Conference on women in Agric.
• 83% improved their scientific skills and access to resources =
significant increase in their scientific outputs, on average 2
peer-reviewed journal publications in two years
• 78% felt better equipped to overcome constraints;
experienced a growing positive reputation & just under half
were promoted, career change
• two-thirds made their work even more responsive to the
needs of women farmers
• hundreds of examples of effective solutions for agricultural
development like the two you heard here today.

5. Objectives of Research Attachment
• Further capacities strengthening and sustainable
utilization of skills
• Networking, partnership, mentoring, innovative
methods & approaches and practical experience
• Contribute to the improvement of the lives of the
disadvantaged and enhancing their opportunities
• Transform gender awareness within the academia
into gender transformative development to
change/challenge orthodoxies
• Analytical skills needed to understand the
complexity of gender issues

6. Activities Profile
• (a) CGP project: Integrating Dairy Goat and Root Crop Production for
Increasing Food, Nutrition and Income Security of Smallholder
Farmers in Tanzania supported by International Development
Research Centre (IDRC) and Canadian International Agency for
Development (CIDA) in collaboration with Sokoine University of
Agriculture, Tanzania (SUA) and University of Alberta, Canada
• (b) IFPRI/ ILRI: Gender and Agriculture Assets Project (GAAP) in
Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania, India and
Uganda in collaboration with IFPRI supported by Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation
• (c) FORD FOUNDATION Project: Evaluating the Impacts of Livestock
and Aquaculture Microcredit and Value Chain Programs on Women’s
Empowerment, Eastern Africa –The International Livestock Research
Institute supported by Ford Foundation.
• (d)ACIAR Gender-Climate project: Australian Center for International
Agric. Research (ACIAR)-Gender and climate Risk consideration for
research (crop/livestock) in Africa

7. CGP Tanzania
Introduction and Objectives
• Domestic livestock and root crops are important
components of the agricultural sector in
Tanzania, with goats ranking second to cattle in
contribution of livestock.
• Low growth rates of livestock and low milk
production among small-scale farmers limit food
and nutritional benefits.
• The project seeks to improve food security and
human nutrition through an integrated program of
dairy goat cross-breeding/cassava and sweet
potato production for food and feed.

8. Qualitative Study
Study Area
• Two districts: Mvomero and Kongwa representing 4
communities - Wami Luhindo, Kunke, Masinyeti and Ihanda
Methodology
• Purposive selection: Communities practiced mixed
crop/livestock systems. total of 12 GDs were conducted
involving 224 men and women
Qualitative data: Gender disaggregated and mixed—men and
women—Group Discussions
Tools: Ranking, Pairwise ranking, proportion pilling and Venn
diagrams.
Data Analysis: Descriptive measures such as
percentages, tables, pie, bar charts, proportion pilling, Venn
diagram and Verbal quotes

9. Results
Community wealth and classification
• Poor (45%), Average (37%) and Rich (18%)
• On average, Male HHs (62%) FHHs (28%) and 10% CHHs
• The female & child HHs and HIV HHs were more vulnerable to: i)
poverty, ii) food insecurity iii) having undisciplined children.
• 35% of the population is affected by HIV/AIDS and 65% do not know
their status
• 10 – 70% of HHs are food insecure
• On & Off farm Livelihoods activities
• Rich women produce crops & rich men, average wealth produce
livestock
• Casual labour is off farm activity by poor men and women engage in
sale of charcoal and firewood less remunerative
• Men makes bricks, do small businesses eg grocery stores & sale of
grains
• Community cohesion/collective responsibilities (Venn Diagram)

10. Gender issues in livestock/crop production
Ownership, Management and decision making in relation to
goats
• Men owned all the goats and made related decisions; Single
women or through inheritance
• Ownership affected by patriarchal tradition
• Women were by far less likely than men to own not only
goats, but also livestock in general
On management: associated with gender
• rural–urban migration influence management increases
women’s workload
On decision-making over goats, women have limited control over
sale and use of incomes
Crops ownership: depends on market prices and yield
• Men own cash crops/crops for cash; women own subsistence
or food crops for home consumption.

11. Perception of men and women
• Varied Perceptions of women and men
• Men perceived value addition resulting from owning dairy goats & attendant
increase in income
• anticipated increase in men’s real income could come about either through men
accessing women’s income
• women using their earnings to substitute men’s expenditure on household needs
and children’s education.
• Women perceived change in status quo and increase workload resulting from stall
goat management activities.
• Output: Discussion Paper entitled NO: 21 ‘Integrating improved goat breeds with
new varieties of sweet potatoes and cassava in the agro-pastoral systems of
Tanzania: A gendered analysis’ and Gender Strategy for CGP, Tanzania
http://mahider.ilri.org/handle/10568/16959

12. Gender and Agriculture Assets Project (GAAP) IFPRI/ILRI
Evaluating the Impacts of Agricultural Development Programming on
Gender Inequalities, Asset Disparities, and Rural Livelihoods
Purpose
• To reduce the gap between men’s and women’s control and
ownership of assets, by evaluating how and how well agricultural
development programs build women’s assets
• Three-year project, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation
• Development partners Moz., Kenya&Tanz. Bangladesh, Burkina
Faso and Eastern India, )
Why assets?
• Control over and ownership of assets is a critical component to
well-being
• Increasing control/ownership of assets help create pathways out
of poverty more than measures that aim to increase incomes or
consumption alone
• Different types of assets matter to both men and women

13. Why look at control of assets?
• Households do not pool resources nor share the same
preferences
• Who receives resources determines impact of policy
• Evidence from many countries that increasing
resources controlled by women improves child health
and nutrition, agricultural productivity, income growth
– how to target women with development interventions
– how to improve participation
– what to do to increase the chances that they will benefit
from agricultural development projects
• Deliverable/Output:
A report on the Qualitative Gendered Assessment of
GAAP / Land O Lakes – Mozambique Smallholder Dairy
Development Project (MSDDP)

14. FORD Foundation
Introduction: Evaluating the impacts of livestock and aquaculture microcredit
and value chain programs on women’s empowerment
 Women’s right and their economic opportunities projects are rarely
conducted together although they might have a chance of ensuring greater
change towards women empowerment
 Increasing opportunities for earnings for women does not guarantee
empowerment
 Making women aware of their rights minus financial resources does not
guarantee empowerment
 A shift from human rights universal views on women rights that neglect
corresponding ability to exercise rights on economic issues
 Main Objective: To improve the impacts of livelihood programs on women
and their households through the integration of women’s rights into
economic development projects
Case study approach: East Africa Dairy Development Project, Juhudi
Kilimo, Kenya Women Holding Aquaculture project, KARI Value chains project

15. Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture (EWAI)
& Gender Parity Index
• WEAI captures Women’s empowerment and
inclusion level in the agricultural sector e.g. in
ownership & control of
assets, workload, leisure, leadership
quality, decision making, achievement etc.
• The purpose of the index is to understand why
women in developing countries face persistence
obstacles and economic constraints despite their
contributions to agric growth

16. Output:
Kitale, Eldoret and Malindi to collect data
Weighted Empowerment score
Income Decision
ACCESS CREDIT
ACCESS TO PRODUCTION
CAPITAL
Income decision making
Productive decision making
Earn More than HH head
Leadership Index

17. Gender (equality) Parity Index
1.1
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
17 11 4 15 8 1 14 16 10 6 13 12 2 7 5 3 9
Household identification
OVERALL-INDEX Selfranking

18. ACIAR
• Australian Center for International Agric. Research (ACIAR)-
Gender and climate Risk consideration for research
(crop/livestock) in Africa
• Gender Integration in Climate Change and Crop/Livestock
• Different varying multiple and simultaneous effects on
females, males and their households
• Women are change agents and custodians of climate
resilience & mitigation
• Workshop (Facilitated) 2nd -5th May 11 countries
• A Framework for Integrating Gender and Climate Change
Considerations into Crop-Livestock Research

19. Why women?
• Media, Activists and Politicians; wrong approaches & methodologies
• Existing ideologies (beliefs/ideas onto which actions are based) socialization
= gender identity
• legal and customary rights of formal & informal Institutions rules
• Labor overload (production, reproduction)
• Identities determined by gender and socio-economic status.
• different entitlements right from birth e.g.
land, commercialization, migration & capital leading to constraints; Unequal
terms of marriage
• Society socially exclude and, or unfavorably include (“unequal” terms of
social participation) opportunities for advancement. Limit & undermine the
capacity to take up opportunities
• male resistance and silencing = vulnerability; no research recognition
Affect women agency (= oppression & insubordination)

21. In reality…………
• Women shapes the totality of production, processing, distribution and
consumption
• Closing the gender gap in agriculture leads to gains not only for the agriculture
sector but for the society as well (FAO, 2011)
• 40-60% of farmers in Sub Saharan Africa are women
• Female membership in agricultural marketing cooperatives is generally low despite
their major role in the agriculture sector
• Different impacts of interventions
• Treating the HH as a unit decrease the effectiveness of development interventions
• A focus on gender can increase the productivity of agriculture and livestock
systems, and improve food security and nutrition
• increase farm yields by 20-30%; increase agricultural output by 2.5-4%, reducing
the number of hungry people by 12-17% such gains could reduce the number of
hungry people by between 100-150 million

22. •
Lesson Learnt
Gender mainstreaming in CRPs
• These attempts so far have elicited important lessons that must be used to move
forward to ensure continuity
• A positive attitude created in both the management and few scientists
• lack of accountability leaves gender incorporation as an individual initiative rather than
organizational or program commitment
• Generating and utilizing gender disaggregated dataset is crucial to enhance the success
of research and development endeavors
• external donor based projects and this has contributed to gender being viewed as a
foreign concept
• One/5 time training is not adequate to influence attitudes of researchers and
development practitioners; conscious effort
• The fact that most of the people involved are female has given researchers the impression that
gender equals women
• mainstreaming gender analysis in agricultural technology development and transfer will not be
achieved if:
– awareness and sensitization of gender perspectives are not carried out at all levels within the
institution

23. Challenges
• Donor driven gender agenda
• Misconceptions on gender and feminism
• Inadequate understanding and importance of
gender mainstreaming among the technical and
physical scientists
• Limited dedication of the management body is
also a challenge in gender mainstreaming in all
the countries

24. opportunities
• PGI: technical expertise to conduct gender
integration research-specialists
• Monitoring, & Evaluation and looking for impact
assessment on gender in projects
• Increase awareness for agriculture & rural
development project planning
• Gender strategy
– Integration into project components/activities
– Integration into project implementation approaches
– Specific gender activities and gender research
– Gender integration in CRPs

25. Conclusion
Non gender integration = Project failure, create backlash and
negative outcomes
‘Often when we talk about miserable women, we always
forget that they are actually married to miserable men and
gives birth to miserable children too’!
Acknowledgement
• AWARD
• ILRI
• PGI
• Dr. Jemimah Njuki
Asante Sana!