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I have been following these discussions for a couple of weeks, and share with Clive Robinson surprise and concern that there has been little mention of gender issues so far. I would like to add to his excellent comments on the role of women in food production and family well-being. I am copying this message to the science and technology list as well, for the reason that although I may have missed something, I have seen no references to gender issues in discussions in this very important area. The Gender Working Group of the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development recognised in 1995 that despite the implementation of S&T for development over the previous 30 years, women were still finding it difficult to meet their own basic needs and the basic needs of their households. The Group found, in fact, that women have become disproportionately poor in relation to men in their communities during that period. The reasons for this are many, but in general, can be traced to the situation the gender-specific nature of development benefits, roles and opportunities are not adequately recognised and addressed. Despite these problems, technology has tremendous potential for enhancing women?s contributions to agricultural production. Low-cost, reliable sources of energy for processing, cooking, and lighting can make for less burdensome work, improved health, and more time. Selling or renting technology or using it for better market access contributes to income-generation. In response to the discussion on cooperatives, I'd like to emphasis that cooperatives and self-help organisations are important means for women to promote their concerns and perspectives and can even provide venues for marketing and production which might not otherwise be available to them. In groups,women are better able to develop their own arrangements in managing and sustaining new technologies. They can build their capacity for bargaining as individuals and find ways to retain the ownership and control of new technologies. Cases of technology development and application which take into consideration gender and social concerns are on the increase, for example, the development of fuel-efficient stoves which are designed in consultation with women and local artisans and which reduce women?s labor, conserve fuel, and decrease pollutants. Nevertheless, more needs to be done. (In addition it should be remembered that "gender" includes men, but involves a recognition of the varying roles, status in society and perceptions of women and men at different socio-economic levels.) The International Food Policy Research Institute provides an outline of areas to focus on in supporting more gender-equitable access to and use of technologies for greater food production and income generation, which produce specific benefits for women (to redress past inequities) and poor men, such as: 1. Food processing - Increased land productivity - Increased access to land rights - Independent income - Reduced drudgery, for example of hand pounding - Time savings and flexibility in time use - Additional income 2. Cookstoves - Improved stoves which use available biomass and do not cause respiratory problems - Reduce dependency on carbon sources and focus on small, flexible energy sources which also offer entrepreneurship potential 3. Pest Management - Integrated pest management strategies which increase savings on pesticides and reduce or eliminates harmful effects on human health and food in the natural habitat 4. Livestock: -Upgrading of poultry breeds - Use of local crop byproducts as ingredient for swine ration - Increased profitability of backyard swine production As CGIAR notes, most technologies are bound up in hardware and their products are goods to be sold or used. Questions of access and control are central in determining actual benefits to women. Twenty years of research on appropriate technologies for women and agriculture provide well-tested guidance on how to develop technologies to assure their acceptability to, likelihood of success for, and ability to empower women users. Such efforts require commitment and attention. They have the following elements: - Discarding assumptions about women's use of technology - Delineating target groups carefully. Women are not a homogenous group and often have different interests. - Forming multidisciplinary teams. - Using a gender-sensitive participatory approach Sophia Huyer, PhD Executive Director Gender Advisory Board, UNCSTD <address removed> http://GAB.wigsat.org <address removed> writes: > >3 In January I shared with DFID a prophetic concern that, one >small reference apart, there was no mention of gender in Unlocking the >potential. With the admirable exception of Per Eklund's contribution on >nutrition, there have been a couple of very passing references to women >in the two e-conference groups but I have read no gender analysis of the >role of women in agriculture. Agriculture places a huge labour demand on >women who are also responsible for most aspects of food utilisation. >Their productive and reproductive roles combine to make them, "farmer, >fetcher of water and woodfuel, caregiver to children, the aged and the >ill, preparer of meals and income-earner from off-farm employment" >(Government of Ethiopia Food Security Strategy, 1996). An Africa-wide FAO >survey reports that women contribute much more than half the labour to >food production, hoeing and weeding, harvesting and marketing, food >processing, storage and transport from farm to village, water and >woodfuel fetching. A recent survey in Eritrea has echoed findings >elsewhere that, though female-headed households dispose of fewer assets >than male-headed households, they consume slightly more food and achieve >better nutrition for their families (CARE, ERREC and WFP: Rural >livelihood security assessment, 2003). Enhancing women's access to and >control over resources, assets and decision-making is crucial to >improving the outcomes of agriculture. -- Sophia Huyer Women in Global Science and Technology 204 Ventress Road Brighton, Ontario, Canada K0K 1H0 Tel (1-905) 355-5124 Fax (1-905) 355-3229 <address removed> www.wigsat.org http://GSTGateway.wigsat.org ============================================================= To send a reply to this message that goes to all list members, make sure that you send your reply to <address removed> To unsubscribe from this list, send an email to "<address removed>", with the message body: unsubscribe science-and-technology <your-email-address>
Please visit dfid-agriculture-consultation.nri.org.