Main Achievements

In pursuit of improving the focus of ongoing projects to reach poor women and men more effectively, the Programme has achieved the following outputs:

• Country-specific knowledge generation: a substantial body of knowledge has been generated about gender roles and relations in rural communities and poor households, and how they have been handled at the project level, in several countries in the region.
• Thematic knowledge generation: in response to the new Regional Strategy and the principal thrusts of the Division's work specific information has been generated about the gender and poverty aspects of market linkages
  in Zambia - villages of Muvwela, Libuko and Kanyenda; Mozambique - villages of Manrasse, 25 Junho, Ocua; and Uganda - villages of Buraru, Lunyerere and Otorongole.
• Knowledge sharing: results from in-country field and the thematic surveys have been disseminated through workshops held in the region (meetings and workshops in Tanzania and meetings and workshops in Malawi) and in Rome (market linkages workshop).
  
  Capacity building through skills development: field manuals have been prepared providing practical guidance and tools for improving the gender and poverty focus of diagnostic studies in general (a Manual for Gender-focused field diagnostic studies and Appendices) and for market linkage operations in particular (a Sourcebook, Toolkit, and Synthesis report). Project staff have been trained in field diagnostic study methods.
• Technical support to individual projects: technical assistance and pilot activities have improved the focus of project interventions and generated lessons for future project design.
• Awareness raising: awareness has been raised about gender issues from project communities through project staff in-country to HQ staff. Staff are now more aware of the need to integrate gender considerations into project design and community mobilization initiatives, and the benefits of using gender sensitive monitoring and impact assessment techniques.