With increasing emphasis on gender mainstreaming, development and donor agencies are targeting policy makers, managers and development workers for awareness raising and skills training in gender analysis. Policy makers, program managers and grassroots development agents themselves are slowly realizing the need for such training for better awareness and appropriate skills to promote the people-centred approach.
Methodologies and tools for incorporating gender concerns in projects continue to be refined and are still being developed. A number of gender analysis frameworks have already been developed and are at various stages of refinement. Some are in use and need experience-sharing and feed-back by the many development agencies that have been engaged in this endeavor. Governmental and non-governmental agencies such as USAID, FAO, IDS (UK), the Harvard Group, Clark University, UNICEF, OXFAM (UK), Christian Aid, FINNIDA, and FEMNET have developed their own tools. Gender training centres and institutes also exist, and series of training workshops are being organized with the aim of developing a critical mass of gender experts in all the regions, including Africa.
The preceding sections have set the scene for this portion of the paper which raises and tries to answer some relevant questions. Why the emphasis on gender analysis? What is its relevance for development work and what is involved? These and other questions will be addressed, and situated in contexts where data from developing countries are available.
The basic assumption that justifies the emphasis given to socio-economic and gender analysis (SEGA) as cited below, is that SEGA is expected to evoke self-evaluation of attitude, knowledge base and actions among development interventionists.
1. Social hierarchies exist in every society and often favour the few while disadvantaging the majority;
2. These hierarchies are embedded in social institutions which are designed to perpetuate them through control over the environment and the socio-economic resource base;
3. Social equity including gender equity can enhance livelihood security, productivity and sustainability because it involves all members of a community in building their capacity for their own development.13
Once the above have been verified and the need for action to bring about changes realized by those concerned, the socio-economic and gender analysis framework puts forward some of the steps recommended for transformation towards equitable relationships at all levels. These include:
1. Organization (organizing, power of collective action(s) by large numbers of the poor);
2. Education/training by reflection or action; solving problems, learning, critical thinking and analysis, (these are effective ways to help a group organize around common issues and concerns);
3. Access and control over resources such as productive means (land, credit, extension and technology) and basic socio-economic infrastructure (health, education, water, energy, housing, transportation, markets, etc.);
4. Power changes at the macro level: representation and leadership to make a difference in the decision-making bodies;
5. Local-to-national-global linkages: forging alliances to strengthen organizational power and negotiating potential in addressing concerns affecting similar groups, etc.
The increasing advocacy for Gender Analysis is because of the belief that it helps to:
· improve knowledge and understanding about people within a particular sector and project locality necessary for formulating relevant approaches to address existing problems and barriers to development, thereby improving the quality of project/program intervention;
· produce crucial insights into the gender roles, division of labour, gender relations in production and consumption; resource management and constraints to men's and women's participation in project and program activities which are likely to lead to the consideration of strategic options by planners and implementers;
· by looking at the activities profile of women and men, reveal essential information which would not be possible if stereotype roles and unverified assumptions are used as the basis for planning projects;
· discover the disadvantaged position of women from the gender gap in access to essential services and means of livelihood;
· to assess the situation realistically, identify target groups, set project objectives and define activities and approaches that enhance equity, empowerment and sustainable development.14
Considerable headway has been made towards incorporating gender analysis as a tool for development planning. Skills in gender analysis are essential for such engagement, as discussed below. Cognizant of the on-going research and re-articulations towards a deeper understanding of development, proponents of gender planning have thus far engaged in gender analysis using one, or a combination of, the frameworks which are discussed below.
This framework, developed in the 80s by the Harvard Institute of International Relations, seeks to promote the integration of women into project planning and evaluation. It has since been enriched by feed-back from development practitioners and has demonstrated its usefulness in generating essential information on the differential situation of women (female elderly, adult and child) and men (male elderly, adult and child), the household and community, including resource management and power relations factors affecting the traditional situation and critical issues in project cycle analysis. Sectoral planning has benefitted from the use of this framework as well.
This entails tasks carried out by the community, household members by age and sex, and consists of all categories of activity including productive, reproductive and community management. Activity profiles indicate who does what, and how identified activities are carried out. These profiles reveal any
The division of labour by livestock and crop in agro-pastoralist families reveals the difference in roles and responsibilities which can form the basis for project intervention. In some West African countries, Fulani women are responsible for rice production at the family plot. They are expected to divide their interest and time between the family farm, their own private plots and weeding the crops of male members of the family. Men produce millet, maize and groundnut and look after large livestock.15
Gender division of labour for livestock among agro-pastoralist household members in Pakistan revealed that women were responsible for stocking of fodder from crops (50%), manure collection (89%), care of birthing animals (47%), cleaning animals (49%) and watering (43%).16
Activity profiles showing the division of labour may include the location where activities are performed, how far from the household they take place. The profiles will indicate mobility, access, mode of travel, travel time, etc. all having implications for planning projects. Information on these for each of the socio-economic or ethnic groups will enable planners to target beneficiaries,
The Gender Calendar of Jeded Village in Northeastern Somaliland revealed that women's daily tasks included food preparation, child care, small business, handicrafts, hut building and maintenance, house-cleaning, fetching water and fuelwood; men's activities included `being household head', watering camels and other animals, milking camels, searching for lost animals, teaching Koran, burying the dead, traditional healing. Joint activities included milking animals, building and dismantling huts, slaughtering animals. Weekly tasks for women involved washing clothes, ceremonial meetings, removal of manure, and seasonally, looking after livestock, care of animal health, extraction of ghee in the rainy season. Men's seasonal activity profile showed cutting field grass and looking after animals in the dry season (same as women).17
In a community, there is a need to analyse resources such as land, cash, tools and labour as means of production and livelihood as well as benefits from outputs such as income and agricultural products etc. This is bound to show how men and women are situated regarding resources, including their control of and/or command over benefits that may be derived from their activities. It is also important to distinguish between access and control; access implies the ability to use resources and/or benefits and to make short-term decisions on them. Access has terms of use rights for women as daughters, wives, mothers, etc. depending on their life cycle and gender relations (e.g. junior or senior wife among co-wives) in polygamous families cultivating husbands's family farm and private plots in West African rice farming systems. Similarly, access to land by women in Southern African countries and their continued access and control over resources are subject to gender relations, including their fertility. A Southern African woman farmer is entitled to work on her husband's land as the de jure and de facto head of household; however, in the absence of her spouse on migrant labour, her control over agricultural credit and investment in, or disposal of, land is considerably restricted.
Control, therefore, essentially implies the ability to use and even dispose of a resource or benefit, and impose one's definition upon the other actors in a situation (male control of female labour and time, or resources/inheritance, etc.). Issues of access and control are critical to project development. By focusing on resources and benefits, it is possible to obtain an accurate assessment of relative power of the members of the household and community or society and incentives/disincentives for participation in projects.
Among Tsamako agro-pastoralists, women and men have access to use of communal land so long as they belong to the particular clan owning the `communal land' and provided that they have the `ability' to work on the land. Nevertheless, male spouses control the labour of wives to process grain and brew parishe for male friends who are to help in land clearing and ploughing. The size of the land to be cleared and cultivated depends on the amount of parishe the womenfolk are able to brew and serve to large numbers of male
friends. This clearly shows the importance of female labour and male control over female labour.18
Among the Tsamako agro-pastoralists in Ethiopia, the women have control over the proceeds from the sale of gathered forest resources - incense, wild fruits, herbs used for purchase of ornaments, cosmetics, etc. Men dispose of income from the sale of livestock and grain to purchase guns, bride price for more wives, etc.
In the Fulani case, power of decision on disposal of produce from the family farm and male-crop plots rests with the male household head while women have control over decisions on inputs for, and disposal of, outputs and income from their private plots.19 For the Pakistan case, 87% of the marketing of livestock products to agents (large scale transactions) was done by men and 11% by women, whereas women's sale of produce to villagers contributed up to 94%. This shows the scale of business and restricted mobility of women.20
Factors determining who does what, and what access and control individuals have to resources and benefits, are broad and interrelated. The impact of socio-economic institutional structures, and of demographic, cultural, legal, political and environmental changes on gender relations of production and consumption should be assessed and analyzed. The implications of the analysis of these for program planning and success need to be seriously considered. For instance, environmental depletion, male migration and civil war lead to demographic changes and have an impact on gender relations; knowledge of impacts and inter-relationships is bound to influence planning and resource allocations by projects and programs in support of communities affected by such factors.
Insights into factors and trends affecting gender relations will, therefore, help to develop appropriate strategies which do not just address or kill symptoms
Where there is severe environmental depletion, pastoralist women have experienced increased vulnerability in their livelihood. Women's time in fetching fodder, fuelwood, water; their income, status in the family, quality of family nutrition (under-cooked or uncooked food due to shortage of fuelwood and time) and family welfare (absence of women from home engaged elsewhere) are affected by environmental factors.21
In Southern African countries male migration has placed the responsibilities of rural household resources and welfare on women. Nevertheless, this has not been followed by their access to development resources (such as credit, extension services, cooperative membership) and control over disposal of family property.
of women's problems but attack the root causes for reform, in line with identified strategic gender needs and interests of the target groups concerned. Persisting in following the conventional wisdom on time, labour and resources
and disregard of social dynamics for failure of projects will inevitably lead to missing some of the essential links in development analysis. The social dynamics to be taken into account include the conditions and terms for supply of and outputs from women's labour and impacts of these on productivity, welfare, empowerment and ultimate success. For instance, a look at the inter-relationship of labour, time, access and control of resources, and disparities in income and expenditure patterns, has critical influence on investment, productivity, human resources development and sustainable development.
Labour and Time: Time is a scarce commodity for women. There is generally over-use of women's and under-utilization of men's labour and time: constraint to improvement of well being /welfare and productivity.
Access to and Control over Resources: inequitable access to and control over productive resources - land, capital, income: Constraint to improvement of investment and productivity.
Gender differences in patterns of income and control over expenditure constrain the potential for improvement in human resources development.
Although project cycle analysis initially focused on planning through advocacy for `gender-sensitive planning' using sex-disaggregated data emanating from the activities, access and control profiles, discussed above, it is strongly recommended that analysis be undertaken at all cycles of a project or program - design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and reporting. Project cycle analysis would involve looking at:
1. Design stage: defining target groups (inclusion or non-inclusion of women), project impact on women's activities, access and control of resources;
2. Implementation stage: women's relationship to project and project area - project personnel, organizational structures, operations and logistics, including training, etc.;
3. Evaluation stage: collection and analysis of data disaggregated by gender.
Asking some general questions such as those given below have been found to provide the necessary insights and guidelines.
· Do the goal, purposes or objectives of the program explicitly refer to women or reflect women's needs and priorities?
· How can the program support women's current activities, strengthen their skills and improve their survival strategies?
· How can it increase the productivity of women's labour and expand women's skills?
· Do the planned components and outputs explicitly refer to or reflect women's needs and priorities?
· Do the project inputs identify opportunities for female participation in program management, in the delivery and community management of goods and services, in training opportunities, etc.?
· What new activities will need to be undertaken as a result of the project and how will they affect the work which both women and men do now?
· Does the budget reflect the change in focus from a gender neutral to a gender-sensitive approach?
· Do project performance indicators identify the need for data disaggregated by gender?22
The Empowerment framework differs from the other framework in that it conceptualizes development as being more than increased access to resources and improved welfare. Empowerment is seen as a process by which these benefits are obtained and sustained. Empowerment is a process by which people take action and control of their situation to overcome obstacles; it is both an individual and a collective commitment and action to improve one's/group's/community situation. It involves issues of power relations within families, communities and nations; it discusses WID in terms of the process of empowerment and not just in terms of material well being.
The framework can be understood in terms of concern with five levels of equality and with empowerment as a necessary part of the development process at each level. These levels mutually reinforce one another and are inter-related: welfare, access, conscientization, participation and control.
Material welfare relative to men (reduction of existing gender gap) in areas such as nutrition/consumption, food supply and income; indicators of material welfare may help identify the gender gap between males and females. Empowerment cannot take place purely at welfare level, although it is a start. Action to improve welfare entails increased access to resources.
Since the gender gap at the welfare level arises directly from inequality of access to resources, women's lower level productivity arises from their restricted access to resources for development and production. In many instances, projects have stated objectives of overcoming the gender gap in men's and women's access to essential goods and services (e.g. means of production, consumption) thus intending to bring about equity either through large-scale `main' projects or as an `add on' WID component or gender mainstreaming.
Strategies for enhancing women's access to credit and cooperative membership (generally denied them due to lack of property security) are expected to enable them to invest in profitable activities, and increase their productivity, welfare and status in their household and community. Special corrective measures such as affirmative action policy directed at enhancing the access of women to such resources as education and training would help close the gender gap where women lag behind in these and other areas.
The gender gap at this stage is not empirical. It is a belief gap and action towards conscientization entails sensitization for recognition of `nature of women's deprivation and subordination', i.e. it is not part of the natural order of things but is imposed by a discriminatory system of relations. This is the process of acquiring the ability to critically analyze society, examine assumptions and recognize as discriminatory practices those that were previously accepted as normal or unchangeable. Among the Boranas, examining one of the food taboos which deprives girls above the age of six of the right to drink milk and realization of the discriminatory nature of the practice demonstrates a level of conscientization.
The gender gap at this level is easily quantifiable: number of women in the legislative assembly, in management, enterprises, decision making, etc. The concern at this level is equal participation in decision making. Action required includes increased mobilization to push for increased representation in all spheres. In general, livestock development programs in arid and semi-arid areas which emphasize rangeland improvement, dairy processing, fodder bulking, and ranching, production and/or marketing cooperatives, slaughter trade, processing of hides and leatherwork and well sinking have not been women-friendly. The resistance to women's participation in decision making bodies among agro-pastoralists can be seen from the incidence observed during a planning exercise in Somaliland.
Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) exercise in Somaliland found that male members of the village team resisted women's involvement. Elderly men felt annoyed by women's presence despite prior agreement. Systematic awareness raising and community education resulted in women's representation in ranking of community needs.23
A review of the Rural Dairy Development Project (RDDP) in Kenya funded by FINNIDA showed that barely 5% of the members of the Cooperative were women and hardly any were in the committee. Emphasis on cooperative promotion, without knowledge of the special situation of women and the barriers to their representation and lacking appropriate strategies to ensure their fair representation in and benefits from this institution, could only serve to perpetuate their marginalization.24
The Gender gap is manifested by the unequal power relations between women and men. Equality of control means a balance of power so that neither is in a position of dominance; it means that women have power alongside men to influence their destiny and that of their society.
It should be noted that equality of control enables women to gain improved access to resources and, therefore, makes possible improved welfare for themselves and their children. It is equally important to realize that welfare goals are not lesser or lower level goals; rather, that equality of participation and control are the necessary pre-requisites if progress towards gender equality in welfare provisions are to be made. It is very important that the five levels be considered as an inter-connected cycle and not as a linear process. Empowerment is a self-reinforcing process; success at one level provides a better basis for success at other levels.
These levels represent different dimensions of the development process and ought always to be found in a project if it is to contribute to the process of overcoming gender inequality and unsustainable development.
Program/project interventions should take account of the existence of gender distortion and/or barriers, and their consequences on macroeconomics. The objectives of programs and projects should begin with the premise that reduction of gender inequality is not only a goal in itself but is also critical for the attainment of sustainable and equitable economic growth.
Another way of looking at gender as it defines, distorts and hinders equitable development and efficiency is to examine the Knowledge, Activities, Resources and Incentives (KARI) in a particular sector and community. Rapid gender analysis on knowledge, activities, resources and incentives was developed and unitized by FINNIDA for its rural development projects in Third World countries. This is discussed below.
There is now increasing emphasis on identification, consideration and building on existing indigenous knowledge as the aim and means of development assistance for a particular localities. What knowledge exists among men and women? Ask key questions to find the knowledge base of the community, for instance women's knowledge about such things as: seasonal activity patterns, natural resources (forests, land, water, soil, crops, wildlife, etc.) and their uses, existing technology for exploiting these, constraints and relations to the sector under study; existing social institutions, internal and external power relations and organizational linkages; major community problems and coping mechanisms, etc. Men and women have different knowledge bases and reference points about the above questions. Examples from ranking of priorities during PRA exercises often demonstrate this.
The introduction of appropriate technology, developing existing resources, and a methodology for enhancing participation and exploitation of local opportunities, or the removal of barriers - all these need to be grounded in indigenous knowledge and local realities. Knowledge on animal feed, health, quantity and quality of milk; processing technology for dairy products and hides,25 use of forest resources for food, medicine, cosmetics, etc. are bound to reveal different knowledge bases between women and men. Coping mechanisms/systems by households in times of resource shortage, epidemics, as well as existing indigenous technologies can be obtained and used as a basis for project design.
Village data through Rapid Gender Appraisal (RGA) of a livestock (goat) project in Tanzania revealed that women have substantial association with and knowledge of livestock but that their benefits are unequal with men. Women were, therefore, shown to be more eligible to loans for goats than was originally assumed by the male members of the study.29 The knowledge base of women often remains subsumed in male assumptions and ignorance of the actual situation. A project is thus, made poorer by ignoring women's knowledge and inputs.26
Women's association with animals: monitoring their temperature and deliveries, feeding calves, cleaning them and their sheds, tending to the sick, applying local herbal medicine, etc.), including sheep, goats and chicken, all indicate indigenous knowledge they possess. Their knowledge is therefore critical to planning livestock production and veterinary services in a locality. Experience has so far shown that where vet scout ideas are introduced, the tendency has been to identify men with hardly any consideration to women. Environmental conservation and/or forest resource development programs have also been guilty of disregarding the gender gap in ownership of indigenous knowledge of species and seasonalities of supplies of certain resources, thus depriving programs of the benefits of female wisdom and interests.
For knowledge about forest resources, for instance, the Tsamako women in Ethiopia are responsible for gathered food resources such as incense (dengare, deraayte/ababa, edye) and wood for fire. Their indigenous knowledge about these resources essential to their livelihood is indispensable to design projects aiming at improving environmental conservation, livelihood security and empowerment.27
By asking key questions such as : What do men and women do? What different activities and/or areas (agriculture, livestock, other) are women and men responsible for? Assessment of the gender division of labour by crop and activity relating to crop production, by livestock and type of livestock and tasks related to livestock production, household tasks, etc. will give information on labour allocation, time use and inter-relationship where there is cooperation and/or conflict of interest in household labour allocation. Productive, reproductive and community management activities can thus be assessed.
The results will facilitate planning approaches determining target groups, including project activities to include essential inputs to increase productivity, reduce workload, and improve income and welfare in a realistic way. Related to the activities assessment is information on women's and men's economic decision making domains; household expenditures; income and labour use; cultural and ceremonial ties and obligations; etc. The proportion of work and responsibility burden on men or women can thus be determined prior to project design or revision.
In Luapua project in Zambia, "the heavy workload of women leaves them very little time to oil social relationships and forge linkages with agents of outside development such as extension workers and suppliers of credit and inputs.28
In a dairy development project, if information reveals that 100% of the ghee processed and sold is by women, then this information is of paramount importance to project design, implementation and success.
In a community where 50% or more of the fodder is secured and carried by women, their involvement in fodder development projects (production, processing, packaging and management) cannot afford not to target women and make the appropriate provisions for their participation.
Also questions can be asked such as, `which household expenditures are women responsible for? and which by men? Is there a fair proportion of work load on men and women? What are the burdensome tasks of women and their constraints to participation?' Such questions are bound to generate information on the existing situation, on the basis of which realistic and appropriate interventions could be planned and projects revised.
More questions in assessing activities to determine gender division of labour, as well as relations of production and consumption, are given in the Annex. Further relevant questions could be thought of and included by practitioners as their gender awareness increases.
Assessing the social relations of production and consumption (access to and control over means and benefits of production) should show resource management and constraints among men and women in a project community. Access to resources (land, labour, water, capital, tools, livestock, food, energy, trees, etc.) and benefits from these are determined by socio-cultural norms.
Resources also include training, extension services, credit, technology, membership to decision making bodies, skills, etc. Men's and women's access to and benefits from these have serious implications for a project that seeks to target men and women and bring about equitable benefits to both. Male and female children, ethnic groups or clans and their entitlement to and deprivation of household and community resources for survival and development need to be assessed.
Except for small ruminants (goats, sheep, chicken), household livestock resources are generally owned by men. Customary laws impede women's inheritance of household property thus leaving them dependent on males.
In many societies women are resources owned by men. Men have control over the labour of female household members, such as in the Tsamako households in Ethiopia where availability of female labour to grind grain and to brew local beer determines the size of land cultivated and the produce thereof.
Power over the sale of small animals, including eggs and milk, rests with women who own these resources in most pastoralist households. Note, however, that increases in milk production or poultry realized by the introduction of technology have shown a tendency for male takeover of the outputs - a strong suggestion that technology has so far favoured men and is considered a `male resource'.
Access to local organizations and leadership positions are also resources determined by gender relations. Membership of men and women in cooperatives and entitlement of resources commanded by the organization, including credit provision for oxen, cows, calves, goats; nomination for training courses, leadership skills development, representation are governed by socio-cultural factors. Information on these are likely to affect project planning. Women's and men's access to extension services (resources) are likely to reveal impediments and indicate the need for change of approach to reach more women.
The extent of participation in project activities depend on the incentives they provide to men and/or women. What relationship project objectives and activities have to women's daily life requirements and their interests in their gendered position is what will motivate them to become involved or not. In a participatory needs assessment exercise in a settlement in Ethiopia, where the males as members of a producers' cooperative ranked tractors and `combiners' as their priority, women's group reported that repair of the grain machine and additional mills as well as water wells would motivate them to support any outside development intervention.29
Enhancing their access to water, fuelwood and technologies relating to these are therefore bound to attract women's interests and participation which differ from what motivate men. It has been found that leadership positions, visibility and power prospects from project involvement, for example in committees, tend to motivate men more than women. Technologies for lessening household burdens are priorities of women rather than men; technology has thus far been grounded on the `productive' functions/work of men. Therefore, asking questions such as, `what will interest men and/or women and motivate each to get involved in program activities' are useful guides.
