The countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Albania, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Moldova are addressing the long-term effects of their abrupt transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy. Since the early 1990s poverty and unemployment have increased dramatically in these countries, which no longer have social welfare systems to provide support for the poor and unemployed. In an attempt to alleviate poverty, countries in transition have focused on urban development, neglecting rural areas where the collapse of state and collective farms left a large work force unemployed. Poverty is now widespread in rural areas, and the situation is aggravated by the legacy of the many conflicts that have torn the region.

Rural women severely affected by transition
To a greater or lesser extent in all of these countries, women are the poorest of the poor, and they bear the heaviest burdens of a difficult economic transition. Having sampled a degree of emancipation and equality under socialism, they now find themselves without jobs, forced back within the confines of the home and subject to the traditional patriarchal value systems that have re-emerged to become dominant once again, especially in more remote rural areas. The result is a severe limitation of women’s independence and their ability to develop business opportunities and participate in community decisions. Women have far fewer opportunities than men to move away from subsistence agriculture. They earn less, they have no capital and own few assets, and they are all too often excluded from livelihoods associated with the market economy. As a result of the conflicts in the region the number of households headed by women has increased sharply. And the high rate of poverty makes young women and girls vulnerable to human trafficking and prostitution. Yet most economic development initiatives carried out in these countries have not taken gender issues into consideration.

Integrating a gender perspective into IFAD’s activities in the region
The Gender Mainstreaming Programme for Central Europe and Newly Independent States has been in operation since July 2002. This three year programme has established links with ongoing IFAD projects in six countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova. Initially the IFAD projects in these countries achieved disappointing results in terms of attracting women participants. It became apparent that the reversion to traditional gender roles was making it difficult to reach out to and make an impact on the lives of women and men in an equal way. The Gender Mainstreaming Programme works to redress this imbalance, integrate more women into IFAD project activities and demonstrate ways in which women can gain greater economic autonomy and take on decision-making roles within poor rural communities.

The objective of the Gender Mainstreaming Programme is to build the capacity of IFAD and counterpart agencies to address gender issues and equal development opportunities for both rural women and men. The programme targets the most vulnerable and poorest rural families, in which women have less access to productive resources and fewer employment opportunities. It has the aim of reaching out to and empowering rural women in the region through technical assistance, training and pilot income-generating activities. The programme sets out to design and test small-scale, innovative projects financed by grants so that successful activities can then be expanded or replicated by governments on a much larger scale. The focus is on building women’s self-esteem and encouraging their participation in community development and other income-enhancing activities to address gender inequalities. With the right stimulus, women will become more involved in programme activities offered by IFAD and take on more active economic roles within the community, thereby improving their livelihoods and those of their families.

The Gender Programme also participates in and contributes to policy dialogue. In a broad sense, the programme intends to develop a better understanding of the relationship between gender, rural poverty and development in CEN countries.

Various activities have been initiated as part of the gender mainstreaming programme:

• surveys carried out for each country identified the specific difficulties faced by women in each
• 50 participants from 10 countries attended a gender workshop in Chisinau, Moldova in May 2004, held to sensitize and train staff in gender concepts and approaches and to create networks of women’s groups for sharing experiences and knowledge
• after the gender workshop, a gender plan of action was prepared for each IFAD country programme or project
• technical expertise was provided for newly designed projects and for mainstreaming gender issues in on-going operations
• programme staff’s awareness of gender equality issues was heightened and gender specialists were appointed to oversee gender mainstreaming activities in IFAD programmes and projects in the region and/or in specific projects targeting poor rural women
• a pilot grant-financed project for rural women was designed for each of the six countries, directly targeting approximately 580 households

Activities have shown that women can be involved in IFAD programmes in much greater numbers, and that they can become economically active and take on a greater role in decision-making within the community. This changes people’s perceptions of what women can achieve. When women begin to earn an income and participate more actively in decision-making at all levels, they gain increased self-confidence and self-esteem, which in turn propels them more frequently into positions of leadership. The programme’s innovative approaches have also shown that it is possible to reach the poorest of the poor.

Source: IFAD

IFAD country profiles Albania Armenia Azerbaijan Bosnia and Herzegovina Moldova Contact information Ms. Lenyara Khayasedinova Programme Coordinator Gender Mainstreaming Programme for Central, Eastern Europe and Newly Independent States IFAD Via del Serafico, 107 00142 Rome, Italy Tel: +39 0654592686 Fax: +39 0654593686 l.khayasedinova@ifad.org