integrating gender into small-scale cotton development rekha mehra, ph.d
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Integrating Gender into Small-Scale Cotton Development Rekha Mehra, Ph.D. Workshop on Gender and Market-Oriented Agriculture (AgriGender 2011) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia January 31, 2011. ICRW: Who We Are. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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Integrating Gender into Small-Scale
Cotton Development
Rekha Mehra, Ph.D.
Workshop on Gender and Market-Oriented Agriculture(AgriGender 2011)
Addis Ababa, EthiopiaJanuary 31, 2011
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ICRW: Who We Are
A non-profit organization dedicated to reducing poverty and promoting development with women’s full participation.
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ICRW: Who We Are
• Established in 1976• Offices in Washington, D.C., New Delhi and
Kenya • Global technical staff >50% Ph.Ds • Economists, demographers, public health,
medical doctors, management experts, etc.
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ICRW: What We Do
Develop practical, evidence-based solutions to empower women to control their own lives and shape the future of their societies;
Work with partners on research, advisory services, capacity building and advocacy
On issues affecting women’s economic, health and social status in low- and middle-income countries
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The COMPACI cotton program
• Program of DEG/GTZ and private sector partners in 6 countries of West and East Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia
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Socioeconomic and Gender Context
• Low Income: Ranging from 38 percent in Benin and Uganda to a staggering 70 percent in Zambia
• Gender-based violence and polygamous households affects household labor allocation and decision-making including cotton production
• Land is a critical asset: Legal remedies to address gender discrimination in accessing land often clash with traditional customary practices
• Women lag behind men in education and literacy rates, which limits a producer’s ability to read and understand contracts or materials relevant to agricultural production
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The COMPACI cotton program
• Cotton is a major cash crop and main source of income for low-income producers
• But cotton facing problems: low yields, low returns, lack of access to inputs and credit and lack of market access for small-scale producers
• Goals of the program are to increase income and productivity of small-scale farmers on a large scale--250,000 farmers
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Program Interventions
• COMPACI offers a “package” of inputs and services such as:
- Training in environmentally-sound farming practices
- Access to seeds, fertilizer, pesticides and other inputs
- Credit to buy equipment- Information on how to comply with “Cotton
made in Africa Initiative” (CmiA) criteria and the verification process.
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Cotton Sector Program Challenges
• Challenges from privatization and decentralization:- Side-selling by producers and gin operators - Farmers are using cotton inputs for other
crops- In some cases, farmers have abandoned
cotton production altogether. - Cotton companies face problems such as
delivering sufficient seed to growers (Uganda).
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Roles and responsibilitiesA common reality:
WOMEN• Women provide labor for all
aspects of cotton production: from planting to harvesting
• Also land preparation especially when done by hand (cases in Zambia Eastern Province where women also seen owing and plowing)
• Polygamous HHs: cases in which women cultivated cotton plots separately from husbands
MEN• Men control decisions
relating to crop management, marketing and cotton income
• Land preparation: done by men especially when using oxen
• Men dominate use of pesticides (women involved in hauling water for sprayers) + marketing and sale
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Goals of Gender Studies
Goal:
• Devise gender strategies to ensure both women and men – participate in project activities and – benefit from improvements in productivity
and incomes.
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Goals of Gender Studies • Understand gendered roles and responsibilities; constraints
and opportunities
• Identify entry points for interventions—remove constraints; tap opportunities
• Develop 6 gender strategies in tandem with COMPACI goals
• Develop a small well-targeted set of gender indicators that fits with the COMPACI indicators and M&E plan
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Gender Assessment Methodology
• ICRW conducted field research from Jun-Dec 2009 • Rapid assessments
• Document reviews; key informant interviews; focus group discussions
• Company and project staff; field staff (e.g. distributors), ginnery staff (employees and managers); farmers (women and men)
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Female-headed Households (FHH)A special case:
– Wives in MHH are the norm– FHH of all types—widows, divorced, single, polygamous– Have higher labor costs and less equipment than MHH– Credit constraints have a larger impact on their capacity to
expand cotton production– Conflict and world financial crisis have driven # of FHHs up
in many locations (e.g., Cote d’Ivoire, Uganda)
“Single women grow just a little cotton below yields, because we have no rotations. We cannot buy (seed to plant) for rotations. So we remain beggared” (Widow from a focus group in Mumbwa)
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Gender Study: Findings
Women are underrepresented – as outgrowers and on project staff– on contracts – in access to inputs– in attendance at trainings– in farmer group membership
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Sex distribution of farmers:Zambia and Uganda
* estimates based on names of contractees - 57% unambiguous – 43% missing values ** data provided only for farmers with 2009 contracts => proxy for sex ratio of farmers
Outgrower networks (Z)* Men WomenFarmers 52% 5%Distributor/buyer-agents 95% 5%
Outgrower networks (U) Male WomenRegistered Farmers 76% 24%PO members 68% 32%Farm acres inspected** 80% 20%
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Sex distribution of staff in operations
** based on all nine regions. *** based on 4 regions **** Few women in full time positions are data entry clerks and office cleaners
Outgrower operations (Z) Men WomenAgricultural operations managers** 100% 0%Shed managers** 92% 8%Shed workers*** 95% 5%
Outgrower operations (U) **** Men WomenManagement positions in Kitgum/Kampala/Pader 100% 0%Field agents (29 area managers, 170 site coordinators) 100% 0%Buyer/agents 100% 0%
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Attendance in trainings Shire Valley (Malawi)
Block Male Female %Female Male Female %FemaleEastbank 570 328 37% 258 168 39%Westbank 252 50 17% 184 80 30%Westbank 2 167 19 10% 64 13 17%Bereu 181 137 43% 204 76 27%Therere 355 150 30% 283 144 34%Ngabu 457 164 26% 144 34 19%Miseu 4 417 114 22% 151 19 11%Thendo 514 83 14% 358 45 11%Nsanje 256 147 37% 67 81 55%Total 3169 1192 27% 1713 660 28%
Planting Spraying
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Access to inputs provided on credit(Malawi)
Region Female Male Total % FemaleBangula 802 4097 4899 16%Balaka 1367 4339 5706 24%Salima 222 1364 1586 14%Total 2391 9800 12191 20%
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Returns to cotton farming
• Accrue directly and, in some cases, exclusively to men
• Men reported sharing with wives 10-20% of income earned from cotton (e.g., )
• Men and women reported that women provide the bulk of the labor (all countries)
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Why do returns to women matter?Vis-à-vis COMPACI project objective to increase
yields, incentives matter:
• Reports that women adjust their labor on cotton in response to incentives (e.g., Zambia)
– Women reduce labor on cotton when they are not able to access income and participate in decision-making
– Women reduce their own cotton production and focus on other crops when price is low, payments come late, or returns are not shared from their work on “men’s” cotton plots
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Why do returns to women matter?Women need income and find ways to earn it:
– Where cotton related income and decision-making are more shared: women dedicate some of their own plots to cotton and also perform waged day labor for cotton harvests (e.g., Mossi women farmers in Burkina Faso)
– Where cotton related income and decision-making are less shared: women reduce their labor on cotton and concentrate on other crop production, and related micro-producer groups (e.g., Katchéma women farmers in Burkina Faso)
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Key Findings: Summary
• Women farmers have critical roles in production; limited role in marketing
• FHH face different challenges from women in male headed households—must be considered separately
• Women have limited role in allocation of project resources, input access and trainings
• Women farmers have limited access to returns from cotton
• Limited or no gender disaggregated data available
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Gender Action Areas
4 key areas for gender integration: • Access to project inputs—farm input delivery,
credit, training• Contracting or producer group membership • Payments to women farmers• M&E to show results
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Win-win Gender Strategies
Entry points based on emerging changes in farmer norms & project practices
1. Addressing returns to women farmers
• Contract with married women farmers– growing acceptance in Katete (Zambia); – may be helpful to limit side-sellingMobile
banking
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Win-Win Gender Strategies
1. Returns to women farmers:
• Separate plots for women--some men willing (Zambia)
• Transparency in payments—right to information/equality in decision-makingclauses in Uganda organizations/sanctions
• Gender dynamics training—build into training curriculums—already happening
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Win-Win Gender Strategies
2. Access to farm tools and training• Lease arrangements; could engage NGOs on
contract• Enroll couples in training or organize separate
trainings for women• Women lead farmer demonstration plots
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Win-Win Gender Strategies
3. Monitoring and evaluating results
• Sex-disaggregated systematic data collection—improves tracking and management/easy to do
• Baseline gendered understanding—input provided
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Adopt gender indicators and set targets
Win-Win Gender Strategies
Indicators: No. of W/M:
at cotton trainings
lead farmers
members in producer groups
leaders in producer groups
credit recipients
receiving payments
in CMiA trainings
Set targets
• % women for all indicators?
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Next Steps
• Transform gender strategies into gender action plans
• Officially adopt policies-strategies-plans; communicate to project staff
• Designate resources– Gender resource person – Budget allocations
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