THEME: It is difficult to ensure that irrigation provides direct and lasting benefits to women.
Access of women both to the irrigated land and to WUA membership was viewed in terms of:
Often women’s independent access to land, and especially to top-quality land, is highly unusual and challenges traditional land-allocation patterns and male control of high-value assets. In order to ensure that such benefits to women occurred, several of the projects tried to give women extra help. The measures taken included:
In spite of all the efforts made, experience has not been very encouraging. The study found that out of the eight irrigation projects with WUAs, which also had gender goals, active participation of women occurred in only five. Even in these, benefit to women were not always direct or secure. These projects were in Bhutan, the Dominican Republic, Kenya, Mauritania, and Tunisia. Among the eight projects, the gender strategy was not fully implemented in many cases. In other instances, the strategy succeeded only partly. In Mali, for example, high priority was given to women in the management of small market gardens. But the strong competition there resulted in the deprivation of the initial beneficiaries. In Ghana, considerable negotiations took place with traditional leaders and husbands, and a proportion of the irrigated plots were allocated to women. However, women’s plots turned out to be only about a quarter the size of male farmers’ irrigated plots, yet women still had to pay the same price for irrigation water, thus threatening their profit margin. In several instances, including where gender issues had not been addressed, women participated in the irrigation scheme (at the tertiary level) in construction or rehabilitation work. As a result, the number of women members of WUAs increased during the start-up phase. But in some cases, women’s membership declined after construction was completed. Under other projects, women could be members of WUAs, but it was unusual for them to take an active decision-making role or to be represented in the WUA executive bodies. In the Dominican Republic, thanks to the support of two NGOs, the experience seems to have been more positive. Several of the women’s associations that were formed undertook numerous production initiatives, and women’s participation in the WUAs increased. The review shows how difficult it is to direct benefits of irrigation schemes to women farmers. In the intense competition for valued land, women tend to lose out. One of the best approaches seems to be to give them considerable ongoing support, for instance, through effective women’s NGOs. There is a need for understanding the reasons why women who are initially involved later drop out or else lose their land and WUA membership rights after having acquired them. Adapted from: IFAD - Office of Evaluation and Studies. 2000. Thematic Study on Water User Associations in IFAD Projects. Rome. |
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In 2000, the Fund conducted a thematic study of irrigation water user associations
(WUAs) under IFAD-supported projects in all regions. The review found
that one third of the projects stressed gender issues and strategies.
Usually, the gender goals of the projects included: