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 internal coordination level, the project should implement the gender approach vertically and horizontally in all components. Each component and subcomponent should reflect the gender approach in its annual schedule of activities.

• 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.