Finally a report on gender issues that does not exclusively focus on women and covers all gender dimensions

Allow me start this blogpost with a personal note. When you commit to do social reporting, you need to be alert and actively follow the conversation and exchanges.  This means, no daydreaming and no way you can check your emails. You are a reporter. You need to listen, concentrate and proactively follow what is happening in the room. If the topic is one close to your heart, you have a less of a challenge, otherwise, you can easily get drained.

When I volunteered to do social reporting for launch of the FAO-IFAD-ILO publication Gender dimensions of agricultural and rural development: Differentiated pathways out of poverty, I was not too sure what to expect. While I understand and appreciate the importance of gender mainstreaming and being gender sensitive, I have to confess that I would not describe myself as a“gender diehard”.

I found  this well-attended, well-organized and substantive event quite refreshing and this was mainly because the participants and discussants while acknowledging the gender fatigue managed to move away from rhetoric and telling the same things over and over again rather highlighted the challenges facing rural men and women from a different angle. Kudos to the authors and the organizers.

“Today we’ve come together to celebrate the fruit of two years of hard work which has resulted in this evidence-based publication”, said Rosemary Varga Lundius, one of IFAD’s gender advocates. And indeed a celebration it was.

Henock Kifle, IFAD’s Chief Development Strategist, in welcoming the over 80 development practitioners and the numerous member country representatives highlighted that this joint FAO-IFAD-ILO publication and the accompanying seven policy briefs address fundamental questions such as:

• what do we know about the gender dimensions of rural employment?
• what are the gaps in data and research?
• are there examples of good practice that could inform national policies?

The main purpose of this research was to gather information on:

• the different tasks carried out by rural women and men
• the challenges they face
• the policy responses needed to reinforce their role in agricultural and rural development

“The research combines empirical data and good practices based on national and international experiences. The publication presents an updated analysis of development issues that are crucial for addressing rural poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals,” said Kifle.

The report and the accompanying seven policy briefs provide evidence that rural women have the potential to lift their households and communities out of poverty. But they are hampered by persistent gender inequities. These inequities limit their access to decent work, which they need as a vehicle for economic empowerment, social advancement and political participation.

Loretta de Luca, our ILO colleague, said the a copy of this publication should be in the offices of all member states and policy makers. I think the bigger challenge is how will they use the findings of the report and what actions will they commit to take to overcome challenges such as:

• valuing the contribution of rural women in bringing about economic growth and reducing poverty
• recognizing the economic role of women as farmers, wage labourers and small-scale entrepreneurs
• recognizing women’s “hidden” economic role as caretakers of children and the elderly

Soline de Villard from FAO brilliantly described the policy briefs.  She said: “the accompanying policy briefings are grounded in rural reality. They are ‘down to rural earth.’”

I’m sure developing the policy briefs was more challenging than putting together the 210 page report. This is because practitioners have the tendency to want to cramp far too much cryptic information and fall into the trap of losing sight of their audience needs.

The policy briefs are for people who do not have time to read something cover to cover. So the challenge is to package the wealth of information in such a way that conveys the essential messages in a simple, direct and compelling manner, thus allowing the policy maker to make the right decision and act in a timely manner.

Well, the seven policy briefs not only are ‘down to rural earth’ they are informative and written in a way that clearly outline what action is needed and what policy options are required for:

• promoting decent work that is fair to both women and men
• investing in skills
• promoting entrepreneurship among rural women
• supporting agricultural value chain development
• investing in infrastructure
• making migration work for women and men
• eliminating child labour

Villard in sharing the concept of ‘time poverty’ said:  “rural women work fewer hours than men in productive work, but all together they work longer hours than men - this both for domestic and productive work.”

“Rural women are relegated to under-valued and under-paid work. They do not have access to infrastructure and child care remains one of the key constraints to women proactively participating in rural labour markets”, highlighted Villard.

She also highlighted the fact that rural employment and women’s employment in particular are characterized by:

• time constraints in domestic and productive work
• informal, unpaid working conditions
• risks and isolation, but women are risk averse

Talking about gender inequalities in rural employment, Villard highlighted this inequality is only partially because of difference in assets. “90% of gender wage gap remains unexplained”, said Villard. “This gap could be contributed to gender discrimination and/or risk aversion.”


This made me reflect that perhaps a challenge to achieve gender equality is for both women and men realize that inequality exists.

During the chat show, moderated by own Cristiana Sparacino - who is born chat show host and is now elevated to the ranks of Oraph Winfrey - FAO’s Eve Crowley pointed out that “to alleviate rural poverty and ensure food security, we need to dig in and understand the root causes of the 90% wage gap between women and men.”

One of the findings of the report that I personally found interesting is summarized in this graphics - namely how being female amplifies rural employment deficits.

This publications is one of the few that I’ve come across that touches upon all gender dimensions and not only women issues.  I think that is why I found it so refreshing. Villard in concluding the presentation of the main findings outlined the need for:

• compiling sex disaggregated data
• creating more and better jobs opportunities for rural men and women
• eliminating child labour
• putting in place effective policies

Talking about employment opportunities, Claudio Lenoci, ILO director for Italy reiterated that ”decent work means equal opportunity for both women and men”. FAO’s Marcella Villareal underscored the fact the without addressing gender inequalities we will not be able to achieve the targets of MDG1 and cannot effectively reduce hunger and poverty.

Crowely, echoing Villareal reminded the participants that “to reduce hunger and poverty and ensure food security, we need to power women economically, create greater autonomy for women and reduce social inequality.”

“We need to transform agriculture into a sector that not only provides employment opportunities but also provides a better livelihoods,”added Crowley.  ILO’s Loretta de Luca passionately advocated that we need to make women protagonist and made the case that investing in rural women is good business.

Let me wrap up this blogpost with one last personal reflection. We often talk about the disconnect between theory and practice. This causes some tension between the practitioner who “dirties his/her hands” and the academic who hypotheses, writes articles which are then peer reviewed and published in prestigious journals. Well, during the chat show, I saw this dynamics in action. It was interesting to see an academic such as Deepa Joshi from Wageningen University citing and quoting from books and academic materials, and Norman Messer - an on-the-ground practitioners - sharing concrete on-the-ground examples.

I was left with the question whether there was any room to bridge this gap? and wonder how big is this gap?

At the end of event, I was satisfied and happy to have spent my Friday morning attending the launch of Gender dimensions of agricultural and rural development: Differentiated pathways out of poverty. I am sure we’ll be hear more about this report. It surely has gone pretty viral on Twittersphere. A big thank you to all the wonderful people who are tweeting and retweeting about this report. And once again kudos and congratulations to FAO-IFAD-ILO colleagues!

Cutting the knot of poverty and hunger

By Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development

If words and good intentions could feed people, there would be no hungry children in the world today. But as those of us working in development know all too well, malnutrition, hunger and poverty are bound tightly together in a knot that requires collective action to cut.

You cannot guarantee good health without a nutritious diet. You cannot ensure a nutritious diet without freedom from poverty. And you cannot free most of the world’s poorest people from poverty without improving the lot of small farmers, because most of the world’s 1.4 billion extremely poor people live in the rural areas of developing countries and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.

It is one of life’s tragic ironies that three-quarters of Africa’s malnourished children live on small farms. In Asia and Latin America, farm children also often go hungry. According to the Lancet medical journal, poverty is associated with inadequate food and poor sanitation that lead to increased infections and stunting in children. Children who suffer from malnutrition early in life are forever deprived of their full physical, mental and social development potential. This means that instead of being an asset to their societies when they grow up, they are more likely to be a burden.

To release the knot of malnutrition, hunger and poverty, rich and poor countries alike must invest in and support the poorest smallholders, creating the conditions to bring them out of subsistence and into the marketplace. Numerous studies show that GDP growth generated by agriculture is at least twice as effective in reducing poverty as growth in other sectors. And experience repeatedly shows – in China, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Ghana, Burkina Faso and elsewhere – that smallholders can lead agricultural growth.

Small farms are often more productive, per hectare, than large farms, when agro-ecological conditions and access to technology are comparable. Small farmers have a strong personal incentive to get the most from their land and from their own labour. Indeed, there is ample research to show that there are few economies of scale in the production end of farming. Family farms have very low management costs and are labour intensive, while large farms are either heavily mechanised - offering little employment opportunities - or have high costs for managing the workforce.

Cutting the knot also means not treating poor rural people paternalistically by doling out handouts. Smallholders need financial services to pay for seeds, tools and fertilizer. They need the protection of weather insurance. They also need secure access to land and water, and roads and transportation to get their products to market. And they need agricultural research and technology to improve their resilience to rapid economic and environmental changes. These are all things that national governments, with the support of the international community, can put into place for small farmers.

Access to basic technology can make a huge difference in farmers’ lives. In Zambia, the Zambia National Farmers Union worked with IFAD to introduce an SMS market information service to give farmers up-to date market prices, along with the names of buyers, for 12 major commodities. The farmers are now able to get higher prices for their goods. The project has been so successful that it is now being extended across the border to the Katanga Province in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. Congolese traders access the information in French by phone, while the Zambian traders and farmers receive the data in English through Africonnect.

It is also crucial for smallholders to have secure access to land. In Rwanda, the economic security of 5,000 households – half of which were headed by women – improved when the land of state-owned tea plantations was privatized and redistributed to the tea farmers. As a result, investment in the land has increased. A partnership with private investors has built a nearby tea factory, providing better market access for 2,600 of these households, and a second tea factory is under construction, to improve market access for the other households.

By creating the conditions for poor rural people to develop profitable businesses, and by fostering their entrepreneurial spirit, we will be able to create a vibrant rural sector. A dynamic rural sector will generate local demand for locally produced goods and services. This, in turn, will spur sustainable non-farm employment in services, agro-processing and small-scale manufacturing. With better access to higher quality food in childhood, young people will be able to contribute to their societies. And with a greater range of rural employment options, poor rural youth will have an incentive to become the farmers of tomorrow instead of abandoning their communities – as they do now – to look for work in the cities.

At a time when budgets are tight, it may seem prudent to cut back on investments in key sectors such as agriculture and development. But this would lead to greater world food insecurity and slower economic growth. Indeed, the world’s poorest people need support now more than ever because the financial crisis has had a severe impact on the economies of developing countries, which have seen export revenues fall, private capital flows diminish and remittances decline.

This year, I hope world leaders will accelerate their efforts to meet the commitments made at L’Aquila. I hope that the leaders of nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America will take the steps they need to create vibrant rural economies at home.

By doing this, they will be able to loosen the knot that binds malnutrition, hunger and poverty together and create a world free from poverty, hunger and desperation.

Arid lands ecosystem and climate change: Livelihoods of more than one billion people are at stake

How can the impact of climate change on arid lands and on the poor people living in such areas be minimized and their sustainable livelihoods protected?

This was the subject of a UNFCCC COP15 side event organized by IFAD on 11 December, within the framework of the IIED Development and Climate Days.

The Dr Byen University setting, only two metro stops from the Bella centre where the Copenhagen Climate Change negotiations were taking place, provided a perfect setting for bringing together a large number of participants, observers from the negotiations and academicians from the University, and foster a constructive discussion on the implications of climate change in arid lands.

The panel consisted of members from International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Global Mechanism (GM). The session was chaired by Rodney Cooke, Director of IFAD's Technical Advisory Division.

The event provided a unique opportunity to share IFAD’s own experience in integrating climate change issues in project portfolio through Country Strategic Opportunities Papers (COSOPs) such as that in Viet Nam and Chad as well as environmental screening of IFAD projects and the development of IFAD’s corporate strategy towards the mainstreaming of the climate change dimension in its project activities. The event also highlighted the relevance of drylands ecosystems with regards to rural development, and addressed the specific impact of climate change on these particularly fragile environments. Panelists discussed how climate change resilience can be promoted in arid lands ecosystems, through investments or otherwise.

Atiqur Rahman, Policy Coordinator, opened the session by providing a detailed overview of the magnitude of the problem, and addressed the adverse impact of climate change on the more than one billion people whose livelihoods largely or totally depend on arid lands ecosystems. He outlined four sets of issues which were then discussed in details by the other four panelists.

Peter Holmgren, Director, Environment Climate Change and Bioenergy Division , FAO, discussed the potential for mitigation in arid areas, notably through sustainable land management, afforestation, and agroforestry.

Ced Hesse, Principal Researcher, Climate Change, IIED, gave a vivid account of the crucial social and economic role played by pastoralists in Africa’s drylands. He emphasized their importance in ensuring economic development, sustainable land management and peace in a changing, increasingly unstable and variable environment.

Nadim Khouri, Director of IFAD’s Near East and North Africa Division, emphasized the need to build on vulnerable people’s own livelihoods strategies to devise efficient investments under harsh climatic conditions. He stressed the urgent need for better models to be developed in order to be able to predict the impact of climate change, specifically for arid areas, and for countries and rural communities to internalize such models in their development strategies.

In the concluding intervention, Alejandro Kilpatrick, GM’s Programme Coordinator for Latin America and for the Climate Change Programme, highlighted the value of drylands, to be seen in its economic, social , and financial dimensions. He gave a detailed overview of the current and anticipated sources of funding available to arid land ecosystems, and their relevance in addressing the adverse impact of climate change in these areas.

The presentations were followed by an interesting discussion with members of the audience. Issues were raised on the possibility of using local and indigenous knowledge and whether large scale investments could crowd out local initiatives which provided the backbone of autonomous adaptation for centuries, the need to adjust to increasing variability of climate both in terms of institutional development as well as using flexible project designs, the use of land rights and access to resources in innovative ways to overcome the ‘tragedy of the commons’, the developing early warning systems, and the reuse of wastes through anaerobic systems.

Most of the populations living in drylands are, in fact, amongst the poorest of the poor: investing in drylands is therefore crucial, and so is the recognition of the value of drylands ecosystems and traditional activities such as pastoralism.

The chairman concluded the session pointing out towards the opportunities to harness financing for climate change in support to drylands, both from the carbon market and from the funding for adaptation to climate change, but there is a need to better position the issues at stake into the development agendas of donors and governments. The UNFCCC COP might identify more opportunities that are emerging, such as REDD, REDD+ and adaptation funding.

Atiqur Rahman