The Instruments and Modalities used for Gender Mainstreaming/Gender Equity Initially, IFAD attempted to alleviate women’s domestic workload in order to reduce the drudgery in their lives. An example is the provision of improved stoves in projects that seek to relieve the stress on the health of women that is related to stove-smoke inhalation. Another example is the emphasis of IFAD-funded projects on drinking water schemes that are aimed at reducing the amount of time women spend fetching water. Sensitization on these and other problems among women has been achieved through the organization of workshops and meetings. The introduction of microfinancing projects has heralded a shift in the way the problems of women are addressed. These projects have not only helped women increase their incomes but, more importantly, they have contributed to the empowerment of women. While caring for the ‘patient’ through group development or sensitization initiatives, IFAD realized that the patient could become an agent of change. These microfinancing projects have included the Grameen Bank and the Smallholder Livestock Development Project in Bangladesh, the Income Generation for Marginal Farmers and the Landless Project in Indonesia, the Production Credit for Rural Women Project in Nepal, and the Tamil Nadu Women’s Development Project and the Maharashtra Rural Credit Project in India. Although microfinancing projects have succeeded in raising the incomes of women and gone some way towards empowering them, it is becoming evident that IFAD has not been able to resolve many intrahousehold problems. The lack of access to productive resources is one of the most serious constraints faced by women, who are often discriminated against by existing laws and social norms. Through the Oxbow Lakes Small Fishermen’s Project in Bangladesh, IFAD has been able to persuade the Government to provide access to lakes on a long-term basis so that landless people can undertake aquaculture activities.5 Prior to the project, the practice was to lease the lakes to the highest bidders. Subsequently, it was realized that even this approach did not relieve the discrimination against women, since men still controlled the access to the bodies of water and the income generated through the aquaculture activities. In order to remedy the situation, the project negotiated access for women to small ponds for fish farming. This tactic was later replicated through the Aquaculture Development Project in Bangladesh. Another intrahousehold issue of extreme prominence is domestic violence. In the Tamil Nadu Project area, women have reported cases of female infanticide. In the areas covered by the Grameen Bank programmes in Bangladesh, domestic violence has reportedly increased in recent years, although the programmes have had a positive impact on the incomes and the empowerment of women. A recent study carried out in the North-East India Project area has shown that the role of women diminished even in matrilineal and matrifocal societies following the privatization of community lands through afforestation.6 There is therefore an urgent need to look closely into these and other intrahousehold issues. IFAD-funded projects have not involved much reporting on domestic violence, despite the fact that this violence has become a major issue, especially in South Asia. Obviously, the Fund’s approach towards these problems must be thoroughly reviewed. Targeting Women are important project targets in all ongoing IFAD-funded projects in Asia and the Pacific Region. Microfinancing components in all projects are essentially aimed at women. A review has shown that most of ongoing projects pay prime attention to efforts to facilitate the access of women to credit as a means of starting or enhancing their own economic activities. This has been the result of the realization that women are often unable to obtain loans because they lack collateral and legal rights to land. In IFAD-funded projects, the project targeting of women takes different forms. The East Java Rainfed Agriculture Project is paying special attention to women-headed households. In the Dir Area Project in Pakistan, approximately 100 women’s organizations are to be established as focal points for all project development activities. Through the Third Rural Infrastructure Development Project in Bangladesh, women’s vendor areas are to be provided in about 280 improved growth-centre markets. The reasons for the success or the failure of IFAD projects in meeting targeting goals have not been analysed to any significant extent. In 1999, the Fund attempted to investigate this issue through a survey of three villages in the Maharashtra Rural Credit Project (MRCP) in India (Gaiha 1999). The survey found that there were quite a few affluent people in the self-help groups. These affluent women had initially been invited by poor women, and over time their number increased significantly. The reasons for this increase were (a) lack of awareness among women about the project and (b) the choice of the project institution, Maharashtra Industrial and Technical Consultants, which had no concern for the poor and had no experience in social mobilization. The study also reported that, despite some male domination, the status of women both within and outside the household had improved substantially because of the project. Women had not become mere conduits so that men could obtain loans. The contribution of the project in imparting to poor rural women a new self-image and a new role has been impressive. In the Cashew Project in Indonesia, despite the fact that so far the project has done very little for women, there is now an attempt being made to give them priority in the farmers training activities. Sensitization A review of 44 ongoing projects in 13 countries in the region has revealed that only a few projects actually involve gender-sensitization programmes. These projects are in India, Nepal and Laos. Gender-sensitization and gender analysis focus mainly on raising the awareness and the confidence of project participants and beneficiaries. In some cases, it is incorporated mainly into general training programmes. In the Andhra Pradesh Participatory Tribal Development Project (APPTD) in India, gender awareness and sensitization have been incorporated in staff training programmes. In the recently implemented Bihar Madhya Pradesh Tribal Development Project, the sensitization of all stakeholders about the issues of gender and equity has been planned, and participatory workshops will be organized to seek to change the attitudes of banking staff towards tribal communities. Similarly, in the Maharashtra Rural Credit Project, the Maharashtra Women’s Economic Development Corporation has started a gender-sensitization programme and assigned four media organizations to develop low-cost media materials on gender issues. In the Tamil Nadu Women’s Development Project (TNWD), greater awareness about gender issues has been instilled among project staff through formal training and group action. In addition, orientation courses have been organized for banking staff that cover gender sensitization issues and the project’s approach towards the mobilization of women and the improvement of women’s access to banks and credit. In the Northern Sayabouri Rural Development Project and the Xieng Khoang Agricultural Development Project II in Laos, gender-sensitization training programmes have been organized by the Lao Women’s Union to promote income-diversification activities. In the Hills Leasehold Forestry and Forage Development Project in Nepal, sensitization and awareness-raising training programmes have been organized to encourage men to recognize and value fully the contribution of women to family income. In the Production Credit for Rural Women Project, also in Nepal, the staff of the Women Development Division have provided training to bank managers and women development officers in female literacy, early childcare, community health, population education and reproductive health, and the management of savings and credit groups. Capacity-building and empowerment Capacity-building and empowerment among women are important goals in most IFAD-funded projects in the region and certainly in all microfinancing projects. A few examples of the progress achieved are discussed below. In the TNWD in India, an evaluation study has shown that social empowerment has increased among the target groups and that these groups feel more confident. They have acquired access to credit, and many are now free from the need to go into debt with moneylenders. Regular savings and emergency borrowing facilities have been common reasons that people have been attracted to participate in the project, and the majority of women have complete freedom to utilize the income they generate, thereby obtaining a means to achieve economic empowerment. In the APPTD in India, women constitute between 50 and 70% of the total project beneficiaries, and the actual number of women who have participated in project activities has been much greater than the directly targeted groups. In the Production Credit for Rural Women Project in Nepal, women stated in interviews that they had become empowered to organize themselves, thereby meeting other women outside their homes.7 These women are regarded as successful and more knowledgeable by their husbands, families, neighbours and communities, and they have also gained easier access to extension services. In the Smallholder Livestock Development Project in Bangladesh, the genuine empowerment of women through the transfer of skills, knowledge and resources and income-generation has been reported. The staff of the supervision mission have met with women beneficiaries of the project and have confirmed that the quality of the lives of the women has improved significantly as a result of project interventions. One substantive area of impact has been the confidence gained by the women in managing their own affairs. The Interim Evaluation of the First Eastern Zone Agricultural Development Project (Bhutan) in October 1997 (IFAD 1997) makes reference to the project design. The project was to generate benefits in institution-building by creating linkages among rural women, extension staff and banks (among other linkages). It was also to improve the access of rural communities to government health and nutrition services and increase the national awareness of the benefits of women’s self-reliance and self-esteem and their contributions to national development. A process of empowerment emerged spontaneously among women’s groups, and this demonstrates that women, rather than being always victims, can become effective agents of change if they have the opportunity to manage their own lives. Group formation The formation of self-help groups is an important prerequisite for the provision of credit and other support services to the women beneficiaries in IFAD-funded projects. IFAD’s experience in India has been particularly interesting in this respect. For example, the TNWD project in India has formed 40% more women’s groups than originally planned and helped develop among group members the habit of saving systematically. The project has also made it possible for women’s groups to open savings accounts with local banks and has facilitated the acceptance of women customers among bank branches. The success of the women’s groups has led to the formation of men’s credit groups, thereby extending the benefits of group formation to men as well. In the Income-generation for Marginal Farmers and the Landless (P4K) Project in Indonesia, more than 40% of the 40 000 self-help groups are women’s groups, and these are among the groups that are achieving the best performance. All projects in Vietnam have credit-based activities for women’s groups, which are organized and trained by the Vietnam Women’s Union. A new attempt to establish commune revolving funds directly administered by women will be undertaken through the new Ha Tinh Project. Gender staffing Although women constitute a significant proportion of the agriculture labour force in most countries of the region, they are underrepresented in IFAD-funded projects and extension systems. Many supervision missions have identified the lack of female staff as a major problem in many projects. In some IFAD-funded projects in Asia, specific targets have been set for the recruitment of female staff for project activities. Even in these projects, however, women’s recruitment tends to be limited to the women-in-development components of projects. In addition, progress has been far short of the target. For example, in the Northern Areas Development Project in Pakistan, the plan was to recruit female extension officers for all community organization units, 300 female village stock specialists and a women-in-development specialist. However, the project so far has been able to recruit only three staff members – one women-in-development officer, one woman extension officer and one female social organizer. The restrictions on overnight stays in the core project area and difficulties in communicating with male colleagues have been cited as among the constraints faced by women staff. In the P4K Project in Indonesia, there has been an effort to hire more women field extension workers, who are responsible for the formation and training of the project groups. Policy dialogue In this area, IFAD’s strategy in Asia is to implement an innovative approach and then attempt to influence national policy through a demonstration effect and lobbying. Networking with like-minded donors to scale up successful initiatives is another strategy, which can eventually facilitate policy changes. IFAD has had a few revealing experiences in policy dialogue with governments that have led to policy changes. The leasehold forestry concept was introduced by IFAD in Nepal. The approach allows the landless, including women, to acquire long-term leases on degraded forests so that can raise livestock and carry out other income-generating activities. The approach has now been accepted by the government, donor agencies, NGOs and rural communities as a valid tool for addressing poverty in Nepal (UNOPS 1999a). In the last two years, the number of leasehold groups has increased to 1 293. The process of replication will become much smoother as more experiences are gained. The supervision mission found that the ‘ownership’ of the concept model and the modalities of implementation is increasingly being absorbed by the Ministry of Forestry and Soil Conservation in Nepal. In the Cashew Project in Indonesia, efforts are being made to issue land certificates in women’s names. This will be a major achievement if the efforts are successful. In the area of microfinancing, IFAD is promoting policy dialogue with governments and other stakeholders in various countries so as to achieve the following results:
5/ UNOPS. 1992. "Oxbow Lakes Project Supervision Mission Report", November, cited in IFAD (1994).
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