Learning-workshop 4 gender

imGoats project: Learning and reflection workshop

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Our lessons learnt about gender

Facilitator: Kees Swaans

Participants from both India (Rajasthan, Jharkand) and Mozambique

Note takers: Kees Swaans / Birgit Boogaard

Group discussion centered on the following questions:

1. What is gender? 2. How do we see gender in our daily lives? 3. How do we see gender in imGoats? 4. What are some constraints/opportunities? 5. What have we done about it and what are lessons learned? 6. Communication

1. What is gender? It is about men and women; about decision making; contribution by both; it is about the relation between men and women; recognize differences between men and women, but should be equal; no discrimination, equal opportunities; different roles and activities, and expectation/norms; norms/values related to socio-cultural context; to be a women (or man) means something else in different countries.

2. How do we see gender in our daily lives? India: The role of women is mainly related to housework (cooking/cleaning) and inside house; men go out to make money; decision making can be done jointly, but the man make the final decisions/approves; in rural areas it is still like this, but in urban areas it is changing (important to mention that in ’91, the economy was opened up, which creates/created more opportunities for women as well).

On a question how it was in the Netherlands when both men and women work, Kees explained how after the Second World War, people got more money and family size decreased; that opened up opportunities for women as well in terms of education; during the 1960s and 1970s there was a long struggle to fight for women rights in the Netherlands. If men and women go to work, they have to make use of grandparents (or others) taking care of children or they can make use of day-care facilities (so facilities need to be in place as well). Despite the progress, there are also problems; higher position in government and companies are still largely men dominated.

Mozambique: The Government of Mozambique is paying more attention and awareness to gender issues and women rights. Women are getting more opportunities and they can defend what they stand for; this is mainly since policies have changed, e.g. when women want to divorce, they will keep the house (before they would lose everything); also women are well presented in high positions and ministries; often men have two wives. This is still happening in rural areas, but less often in urban areas now; polygamy is related to historical context; as women often have and work on land for crop production, it made sense to have more than one wife to get more food; but in urban areas it is expensive to have more than one family, and people usually stick to one wife.

A general conclusion/key issue that emerged is that we need to understand the historical context to understand gender relation and constraints/opportunities for women; and it may take a long time to address them.

3. How do we see gender in imGoats? India: goat production is mainly done by women (rearing, feeding, health management); decisions of sale are usually taken together by both men and women, but it is often the man who decides on money issues and is involved in trading. In terms of decision making and control over money, some women are allowed to keep the money from selling goats themselves, and decide what to do with it; also, in case of milk productions, when there is extra milk, which is being used for processing by women (to make butter etc), women can keep the income from that (remark: related to cow milk, not goats). If a female producer wants to sell a goat, she can do so in her village, but the price is usually low. She can go to the market for a better price and negotiate there. However, there are strong differences between provinces. The trading of goats is man-dominated. All traders are men, and women cannot participate in this. Even if animals are aggregated and have to stay for a week (or more) in one place before being sold, it will NOT be a woman who takes care of the goats, but it will be an assistant of the trader.

Mozambique: The situation is similar in Mozambique, but there are also many households where husband has left or is not around (female-headed household), which means that women make the decision; in case men are still at home, women will consult the men before selling and husband makes final decision/approval. Money from sales will go to household income, and the woman has to ask the husband whether and how the money can be spent. Both men and women can go to markets (woman can be sent by her husband to sell goats on market).

What are some constraints/opportunities? Mozambique: Women are used to work on crop land; they have understanding now that livestock can provides opportunities as well; main assumption of the project was that women can be involved and gain income by working with on small ruminants; however there appeared to be differences in districts…normally men are involved in large ruminants and women in small ruminants, but in the project area cattle are largely absent, which means that men are also involved in goat keeping; this means that men are also involved in production activities, although it is unclear to what extent. Some tasks like water fetching is done by women; also children – despite that people say that they go to school – are probably still playing an important role in some activities such as collecting feed.

Key issue/risk reported was that in the case of cashew nut production in Mozambique which was formerly a women's task. Men started to take over the production when it became more commercial; the question is how that would be with goat keeping.

India: capacity building among women is a priority issue in the project; furthermore there is a striking different in Jharkand versus Rajasthan in relation to field staff. In the former, 12 out of 20 and all supervisors are female, while in the latter, only 2 out of 27 and none of the supervisors are female. One issue here seems to be that women on Rajasthan are not allowed to travel independently (without husband); in Jharkand this seems to be more accepted, and it was further argued that women were not involved in Rajasthan, because of their low education level. In Jharkand, education level of women was also low, but slightly higher than in Rajasthan (although disputed by someone in plenary session). In Rajasthan, women can however participate in producer groups as they are taking place within the village.

Mozambique: In Mozambique, all the field guides are male; most of the services provided by them are normally practised by men. Furthermore, when selecting paravets, it was explained that training would take place twice a week, and it was considered impossible for women to leave their home for that long time. Within the production group both men and women participate in a positive way, but during trainings, women are often sitting on the floor, and men on chairs; although the extension officers are in front of the group, it is often easier for them (as they are men) to interact with the male participants.

4. What have we done about it and what are the lessons learned?

Mozambique 1. Important at the launch of the project to explain to communities the importance of gender and of increasing income for women 2. Assumption was that it would be easier for women to work with small ruminants, but actually it may have been easier to work for example on chicken with them in the project area. I.e. it is important before the project to identify which livestock species actually offers opportunities for women. 3. Important to train extension officers how they can deal with gender and involve women more actively 4. Care has gender strategy, but important to start with trainings on gender from start of project. 5. Link/connect to policy/government strategies on gender if possible (enabling)

India 1. It was argued by Jharkand that field guides should be female, as they have easier access to goat keepers who are often women; at the same time it was acknowledged that it is more complicated for supervisors, in case there men working as field guides (then a women has a supervise a man, which may not be accepted). 2. In Rajasthan they try to involve more women in production groups and IP meetings (40%); there is less scope for their involvement as field guides/supervisors (for reasons mentioned above). 3. There are religious festivals/national days where usually women come; those occasions can be used for awareness raising among women. 4. Involve more women through training. 5. Expose to other goat keepers, including women, e.g. use female model farmers

General It is important that BAIF and CARE also reflect/look at themselves in how they deal with gender and how they can change their practice if necessary.

5. Communication Was not discussed, but some issues which seem to be relevant are:

• Higher level discussion on relevance of gender, based on practical examples
• Practical guidelines for field guides/supervisors how to deal with gender issues in their work.
• Gender capacity training (practical)