On Gender-sensitive Training

The analysis and incorporation of gender issues is rarely included in extension work. Yet, women are the primary agricultural labor force throughout the world and perform agricultural tasks with fewer resources, less access to technology and the added responsibility of child and family oversight. The vast majority of extension agents are male, and are not trained in how to work with women farmers. Few recognize the contributions that women make to agriculture, nor are they aware of how best to serve this population’s needs. As extension remains a significant resource of information for limited resource farmers, (the majority of whom are women), the inclusion of methodologies and approaches that address gender is critical for extension’s success.

See also the International Livestock Research Institute’s training manual, “Closing the Gender Gap” from April 2013.

Increasing interest in strengthening producers’ links to markets over the past few years has been paralleled by greater attention to the gender dimensions of value chain development and operations. A gender and value chain analysis examines the different levels and categories of men’s and women’s participation, performance, and access to benefits in value chain activities. Most current approaches include attention to both qualitative and quantitative data to address different dimensions or domains of social life that either shape or are influenced by development interventions.

While no single framework is required to guide the data collection and analysis for a gender and value chain analysis, the training workshop proposed for the Bangladesh agricultural extension officers and other partners will employ the methodology documented in USAID’s “Promoting Gender Equitable Opportunities in Agricultural Value Chains” handbook, known as the Integrating Gender Issues into Agricultural Value Chains (INGIA-VC) approach (Rubin, Manfre, and Nichols Barrett 2009).

The INGIA-VC Methodology:  The INGIA-VC approach uses mixed methods and the Gender Dimensions Framework (GDF) to examine gender-based constraints related to three aspects of value chains:

1. Barrier to entry and/or requirements for men’s and women’s participation in the value chains.
2. Differences in men’s and women’s ability to maintain or improve their position in the value chain, referred to as performance.
3. Differences in men’s and women’s ability to access and control the benefits derived from value chain participation.

The proposed training schedule has three components. The first components involves two days of classroom sessions. These sessions typically involve a combination of interactive lectures and exercises and cover such topics as basic principles of value chain development (including differences in men’s and women’s engagement as noted above), key gender concepts and applications, as well as issues related to the importance of gender in agricultural development more broadly, with examples drawn from experiences in the focus country (Bangladesh). In addition, the session includes presentation on a framework for gender analysis in value chain development, the Gender Dimensions Framework or GDF, looking at four key dimensions of gender relations: Access to and control over Assets and Resources, Knowledge and Beliefs, Practices and Participation (including attention to time allocation), and Laws, Policies, Regulations, and Institutional Practices. The cross-cutting issue of power affects each of these four dimensions.

A case study helps participants to learn to use the GDF to practice both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis, value chain mapping, and identification of gender-based constraints.

The second set of sessions, typically for two days, involves field visits with actors at each node of the value chain. Key informant interviews and/or group interviews with relevant stakeholders in the value chains (e.g., input suppliers, traders, financial institutions, etc.) are conducted. As needed, it may be necessary and appropriate to organize both same-sex and mixed group interview sessions, particularly with producer associations and community groups.

The final component takes one day to conduct a workshop to apply the gender analysis framework with the field data in order to identify key gender-based constraints at each level of the chain. Participants work in small groups to identify the most important gender-based constraint they had found at a single node of the value chain. They prepare short presentations to summarize the work they completed during the training, the information they collected during the field visits, and their conclusions, including a map of the value chain investigated and the data collected for men’s and women’s participation at each node. The workshop concludes with a discussion about the possible processes to identify actions that will overcome identified gender-based constraints or disparities and to identify indicators that measure the success of such efforts.