updated: 19 January, 2007
IFAD
Gender
International Fund for Agricultural Development

THEME: Information planning would help to improve the targeting of poorer women.

Syria - Southern Regional Agricultural Development Project - Phase II - Women harvest parsley in the Damascus province. Rural women play an active role in agricultural production in the project area. Their main responsibilities are land preparation, sowing, weeding, irrigation, fertilizing, spraying, and harvesting. IFAD photo by Sahar NimehIFAD’s Syria Country Programme Evaluation of 2000-2001 has drawn some valuable lessons from the Fund’s experience in targeting women in Syria. These lessons are based mainly on what has been learned under women in development components of two projects. The types of activities that IFAD has helped to target to women in Syria have included: agricultural extension and demonstrations; literacy courses; skills training; training in setting up and managing income-generating activities; and credit for women, for both on-farm and off-farm income-generating activities. Generally, targeting women has been more difficult in Syria than in many other countries. Common targeting mechanisms such as group structures, participation criteria and operational NGOs would be capable of helping at the ground level but have not been available. This has affected the results.

IFAD’s mid-term evaluation of one of the projects (Southern Agricultural Development Project, SARDP I) has shown that women have certainly been reached and have benefited from a number of IFAD-supported activities. But it also recognized that, for future projects, the Fund must:

  • improve the consistency of the targeting approach between provinces and villages;
  • ensure that the poorest women are reached; and
  • pay attention to information aspects to improve targeting.

The experience in technical training and credit for off-farm income-generating activities illustrates both successes and weaknesses. The skills training reached a large number of women. The training can also be commended for being participatory and responsive to women’s interests. But closer analysis showed that many of those trained were the rural ‘elite’, who were interested in developing leisure-time activities that would improve their marriage chances, or provide gifts (such as those created in flower arranging, embroidery, knitting and sewing classes), rather than in earning extra income to feed their families. Where women in serious need of additional income received training, they often either did not make the best training choices (their activities did not have markets, or local markets were flooded by too many women taking up the same activity) or the women were not able to qualify for start-up loans.

For future programmes that try to benefit poorer rural women, the following general rules should be applied:

  • Clearly define the target populations for women’s development activities, with linkages to other project components.
  • Base the targeting strategy on an understanding of the social and cultural factors that affect women’s, particularly poorer women’s, demand or access. An example is the requirement for suitable loan guarantors, a requirement that can be impossible for poorer women to meet.
  • Apply the strategy for reaching and benefiting women consistently in all project areas, unless there is good reason for doing otherwise.
  • Include information planning as an element of the strategy in order to make sure that the poorer women know what is available to them and how to go about getting it. This gives them an equal chance.
  • If women are given the right to decide for themselves what they want, as in choosing a type of small business or technical training, provide them with as much knowledge as possible for making good decisions. Otherwise they may make choices they will later regret (such as choosing products that have no markets and therefore prevent them from paying back loans from the revenue generated).
  • Criteria for the inclusion or exclusion of women have to be clear and understood by all field staff. Otherwise, some staff will use one set of criteria, while others use another, as happened in interpreting household assets as indicators of the extent of poverty.

In Syria, targeting women is difficult, and targeting poorer women is even more difficult. While there are several areas for improvement, most relate to information aspects, either for staff or for the women targeted. Communication support components can enhance project effectiveness.

Adapted from:

IFAD - Office of Evaluation and Studies 1999. Syrian Arab Republic – Southern Agricultural Development Project (Phase II), Mid-Term Evaluation, Vols. I & II. Rome. May.

IFAD - Office of Evaluation and Studies 1999. Thematic Study on Rainfed Agriculture, Main Report, Appendices and Annex. Rome. October.