The
guidelines were developed in the context of the Programme to Support
Gender Mainstreaming in IFAD Projects in Latin America and the Caribbean
(PROSGIP). The purpose is to provide guidance to project design
teams and project management units on how to incorporate gender
aspects throughout the project cycle.
Introduction
As
part of its strategy to promote gender equity in the development
process, IFAD has launched a programme to strengthen gender aspects
in rural development projects. Within the framework of this programme,
a seminar/workshop was held from 7 to 11 July 1997 in Antigua, Guatemala,
with representatives of IFAD-supported projects in the countries
of Central America, Panama
and Mexico.
One
of the programme’s outcomes has been the design of an action
plan to mainstream the gender approach in IFAD projects. The plan
calls for the formulation of operational guidelines to allow the
gender approach to be built into all project actions and components.
IFAD has thus responded to project demands by drafting a set of
guidelines that can be analysed and adapted to the actual conditions
of each project.
Objectives
of the Gender Approach in IFAD Projects
The
overarching objective of the gender approach in IFAD projects is
to ensure that rural men and women participate in project activities
and benefits on an equitable basis by creating the necessary enabling
environment and using appropriate tools and procedures.
Specific Objectives
The specific gender objectives are to:
1. ensure equitable participation by rural men and women
in technical assistance and technological transfer activities under agricultural
and microenterprise projects;
2. provide gender training to all project beneficiaries
(both men and women), project staff and coexecuting agencies involved
in project actions;
3. guarantee equitable access to productive resources for
both men and women;
4. create an enabling climate for women to play an effective
and broad role in all project-generated actions;
5. foster and ensure equitable access to credit for men
and women under IFAD projects;
6. introduce market information systems on the production
and marketing of agricultural products, guaranteeing equal access for
men and women; and
7. promote and disseminate the project’s gender approach
at all levels of beneficiary communities.
Strategy
The strategy for implementing the gender approach in IFAD
projects will seek to:
1. create mechanisms that ensure real participation by rural
women in all project components and subcomponents;
2. ensure that project services reach a significant number
of poor rural women;
3. improve the living conditions of women who are heads
of households and rural women in general; and
4. launch a process leading to greater equality and equity
between the sexes, both within the family and in the community.
Implementing the Gender Approach: Basic Considerations
A project’s gender content should reflect the following
elements:
- The diversity of the rural population.
Account needs to be taken of the differences in the target population’s
economic activities, as well as the head of household’s age, sex,
and level of education, the number of family members working within or
outside the household, and the differences in men’s and women’s
access to productive resources. All these factors influence the various,
differentiated positions and interests that come into play in development
actions.
- Family strategies. Given the diversity of and differentiated
access to social and economic resources, family members view and understand
development differently. As a result, they adopt specific, differentiated
productive and reproductive strategies. It is thus necessary to identify
the position and situation of men and women separately.
- Organization of on-farm work. The agricultural
tasks performed by men and women are both shared and differentiated,
depending on the type of crop and productive resources. Accordingly,
it is necessary to consider who does what on the farm, by crop and by
task, and who takes production-related and domestic decisions within
the household.
These considerations are the starting point that projects
must bear in mind in order to: (i) formulate gender strategies and
methodologies and apply them to specific actions by component and subcomponent;
and (ii) organize the project in such a way as to ensure the applicability
of the approach.
Strategic Conditions or Guidelines for Implementing the
Gender Approach in a Project
Basic conditions to be implemented in all projects
- Selection of project staff. When
interviewing candidates for technical and management positions, questions
should be asked that help to identify the candidate’s attitudes
vis-à-vis the gender approach and gender equity in project actions.
Preference should be given to candidates who not only possess specific
skills and experience but also show a positive attitude in this respect.
- Baseline study using the gender approach.
The baseline study normally conducted before project start-up should
target a sample of rural families in the project area, and should be
designed in such a way that each question is asked differently of men
and women. This will provide a clear picture of the internal workings
of family organization, family economic and social strategies, and other
factors that lead to differentiated positions and interests between
men and women vis-à-vis development processes and actions.
- Location of the gender specialist within the
project structure. The professional charged with providing
advice on implementation of the gender approach in the project should
be part of the project’s management team, so as to provide input
for decision-making on project actions and services for beneficiaries.
For projects already under way that have a gender or women-in-development
component or subcomponent, a committee should be set up that includes
the project manager and the officers in charge of the various components.
The committee should discuss and decide on actions for male and female
beneficiaries, and should be a forum for analysing each of the problems,
advances and obstacles that arise with regard to equitable participation
by men and women beneficiaries in the project.
- Field team. To support implementation
of the gender approach, especially in projects where coexecuting agencies
are providing services under contract, it is essential that the technical
specialists working in the field are duly trained and up to date in
the operational and methodological aspects of the gender approach; these
specialists should report directly to or work in close cooperation with
the gender adviser. The idea is not to have gender specialists in the
field but rather to provide intensive gender training to extension agents
and generally to all field staff, including credit agents, promoters,
etc. The gender specialist should provide ongoing monitoring and follow-up
for all field work. When the extension agents are hired by coexecuting
agencies, the project should include gender training for them and design
and implement an effective system for monitoring this activity.
- Content of induction workshops.
Projects should offer induction workshops early on in the implementation
phase for all professional, technical and administrative staff. These
workshops should focus on the gender approach, specifically the strategy,
objectives and targets in terms of equitable participation by rural
men and women in project activities.
- Systematic training in gender issues.
Projects should provide gender training on an ongoing and systematic
basis for all project participants, bearing in mind that each group
will need differentiated content and depth. Field staff and male and
female beneficiaries should receive the most extensive and systematic
training. Gender training should be one of the first actions implemented
under a project. For projects in Central America, RUTA could serve as
a hub for organizing a gender training programme. Given its relevant
experience in this area, the Agricultural Development Programme for
Small Farmers in the Paracentral Region of El
Salvador (PRODAP) could also lend important support in this sphere
to other projects.
- Gender indicators by component and subcomponent.
Another priority task of projects is to design gender monitoring and
evaluation indicators for each activity programmed in each component
and subcomponent, ensuring that all indicators and information on beneficiary-targeted
actions are broken down by sex. The indicators should be defined by
the project’s monitoring and evaluation unit, with input from the
gender specialist.
- Operating budget. Projects should
earmark funding specifically for actions to promote women’s participation
and to ensure that the gender unit has advisory assistance and the necessary
means to carry out its work. For instance, funds need to be available
to purchase gender training materials and to conduct specific studies
on the socio-economic situation of men and women in the project area
and/or of women beneficiaries in particular. Funds also need to be available
to set up day-care centres for small children of women beneficiaries
while the latter attend training events or other project activities.
Projects also need to have financing to provide women with low-cost
technologies that will help them to save time in household tasks, etc.
If project funds are not specifically earmarked for this purpose, the
project’s management team should provide the gender unit with an
amount each year to enable it to carry out these activities, which should
be analysed carefully. Women should be involved in identifying these
activities, so as to ensure a direct, efficient impact on their quality
of life and promote their participation in the project.
For the foregoing to be possible, the following considerations must be
borne in mind:
-
at the management level, there needs to be political
decision to apply the gender approach in the planning, implementation,
supervision and monitoring of project actions. This should be stated
explicitly and should also be reflected in cooperation agreements
and contracts with coexecuting agencies.
-
at the operations level, all project activities involving
men, women and organizations should establish conditions and include
specific activities to overcome limitations and existing inequities
between men and women, at least with regard to access to productive
resources and services.
