WIPO magazine issue -1 - 2024 World Intellectual Property organization.
Applying a Gender Transformative Approach within a fish harvesting technology for women
1. Applying a Gender
Transformative Approach
within a harvesting
technology for women
Afrina Choudhury, Mozammel Hoque Bhuiya, and Fayzur Rahman
2. • USAID-funded Aquaculture for Income and
Nutrition (AIN) project in 18 villages in
Barisal region, Southwest Bangladesh
• AIN engages with women to promote
carp/tilapia+mola polyculture in homestead
ponds
• Mola is rich in micronutrients
• Women don’t usually catch fish (socio-
cultural & technical reasons); rely on men
• Women find it difficult to catch mola (eg: nets
not suitable for them or nets are not suitable
to catch these small fish with)
Background
3. Research project
Rationale:
• Designing technologies for women may create new roles and avail
new or existing opportunities and benefits
• But technical feasibility may not create or trickle down to social
acceptance
• Need to understand and address the social and gender relations
that shape how women and men adopt, use and adapt these
technologies.
• Need for dissemination strategies that lead to uptake, sustained use
and equitable development outcomes around consumption, decision
making and…
Research question:
What are the effects on gender attitudes, intra-household decision
making and technology adoption (use) of household- and community-
scale gender transformative strategies being combined with woman-
targeted harvesting technology dissemination?
4. Purpose is to understand:
• Attitudes about men’s and women’s accepted behavior at the
community level
• Utility of the gill net in meeting local women’s needs
• Impact of women being able to catch mola frequently
• Impacts of household gender awareness strategies on
adoption of gill net, consumption of nutritious fish and
empowerment indicators
• Impacts of community-scale gender awareness strategies on
attitudes, adoption and empowerment indicators
5. Interventions
• Fish harvesting technology (gill net) designed for
women to enable frequent harvesting of nutrient-rich
mola from homestead ponds: assessing effect on
consumption
• Gender consciousness-raising exercises (Household)
to reduce normative barriers to women harvesting: pilot
testing. Adapted from HKI’s Nurturing Connections
manual
• Gender consciousness-raising exercises
(Community) to reduce normative barriers: pilot testing
7. Multi-scale GTA approach used
At the household level, tools
used include ‘hopes & fears’,
demonstrating and building
trust, ‘power hierarchies’,
access to nutrition, obstacles to
change, ‘who decides’, and
exploring gendered behavior.
At the community level, tools
used include ‘hopes & fears’,
‘looking at our attitudes’, ‘acting
like a man/woman’, ‘how will we
empower each other’, gender
equality solutions, ‘the man box’
(masculinities) and a historical
timeline of gender changes.
8. • Longitudinal designs (before versus after)
• Treatment versus control
Tools:
• Household GTA pilot: Baseline and endline
using adapted WEAI indicators
• (n=144 HH, all who received aquaculture
training: 86 with nets + GTA; 58 nets only;
49 no nets)
• Community GTA pilot: Before & after gender
attitude surveys with community members
• (10 villages treatment, n=251 resp; 8
villages control, n=207resp)
• Both (upcoming): qualitative focus groups &
interviews
Evaluating gender change
9. Consumption study
The study aims to assess
the effectiveness of
women’s use of the mola
gill net on the frequency of
mola consumption
66 control (non gill net
group) and 95 treatment
(gill net group)
Weekly panel data
collected over 6 months
10. Preliminary findings
A man will be considered less of a man if his wife catches fish
• GTA integration has helped explore
and address the social and gender
attitudes and beliefs that prescribe
women’s roles
• Technologies conducive for women
can prompt independent involvement
and decision making
• Women report the positive influence
the involvement of their spouse and
family members had on their adoption
• Data shows some positive change in
aquaculture-related decision making,
gender attitudes and self-efficacy—as
well as consumption (1.2 times higher)
Either a man or a women could successfully operate or manage
a fish pond
11. Average nearly double the mola consumption in experiment
group(N=95) than the control group(N=66)
Average times of mola
consumption
12. HDDS in almost all months was higher in experiment
group(N=95) than the control group(N=66)
Weekly Trend of Household
Dietary Diversity Score
only 17 gm (6-7 large size(2.8-3.1 cm) mola can meet the recommended Vitamin A content for under-5 child as well as Contribute 22, 8, 5, and 5 % of recommended intake of Calcium, Iron Zink, and protein respectively (Kataki & Babu, 2002)
Power over is most commonly addressed by
These exercises helped address power within ,power to and power with
HKI’s Nurturing Connections
Promoting gender-transformative change with men and boys by Promundo and AAS
Engaging Men and Boys in Gender Transformation by Promundo, USAID & others (page-69)
Gender awareness and development by UNDP (page-48)
Gender Sensitivity by UNESCO (page-57)
Gender Analysis and Awareness Course by BRAC (page-27)
We try to involve or target women but women do not use the technologies in a vacuum – without influences from other actors and institutions.
Reducing technology adoption gap between men and women by specifically targeting women
Technologies cannot be 'delivered' in a gender-neutral way because their impacts will not be gender-neutral; the operating environment is shaped a priori by gender relations (Manfre et al. 2012; Ragasa et al. 2012; Farnworth, 2010).
Therefore, on the technology side, ignoring the social context may limit the benefits of an intervention, as barriers to adoption or to benefiting from adoption among marginalized groups are not addressed
Scales used include GEM (Gender equitable Men) scale, Gender Norms attitude scale, Gender Relations Scale, WEFI, (http://gender.care2share.wikispaces.net/file/view/C-Change_Gender_Scales_Compendium.pdf )
WEAI indicators include gendred perceptions, leadership, group membership, decision making, nutrition, credit, extension, time use.we also used Rosenberg’s self esteem scale to analyse power within
Consumption 1.2 times higher
87% frequency of usage by women
14% did not adopt because society does not see it positively
57% of the time women did not use was becase they did not have time
Statistically significant GAS (14% women did not adopt the net because society will not see it positively)
The GAS reliability analysis indicates the Cronbanch’s alpha for gender inequality is 0.784 and Cronbanch’s alpha for equality is 0.741.
GAS study respondents were 458 (including 251 as Intervention and 207 as control) from 18 gill net villages. For GAS out of the 458, 186 respondents were women and 272 respondents were men. [[Indicate that will disaggregate analysis by gender]]