A lotus grows in the mud

Successful gender-inclusive schemes 

Maria and Richard left some insightful comments on my previous posts regarding the external actors such as NGOs and government agencies and how their roles are important when it comes to including women in water management.

Richard directed me to the following picture:

Photo credit: Grofutures 

This picture is symbolic of many of the water management schemes across Africa – there is evidently lack of women in water management. This post will explore what has been done and can be done by external agents to facilitate participation through financial and educational support. This post will look at a women-led vegetable farming project through the assistance of Lutheran World Relief(LWR) to show what a successful scheme looks like. The vegetable- farming project works with 500 female farmers in Bihar to participate in vegetable farming by teaching them innovative farming techniques, such as using poly-houses that provide perfect conditions for seedlings to grow.

One of the main characteristics of the scheme is effective targeting and prioritization – the project is led by women for women. The supports women in poor women in rural Bihar, including Dalit women who are often marginalized in society. This kind of targeting is important because agriculture is usually seen as masculine and secondly because many women in these communities do not have access to land, and subsequently water rights (see previous post). Such schemes go beyond subsistence farming but provides women with an opportunity to participate in economic activities by selling the vegetables they produce. One particular woman, Sumitra Devi earned 32,000 rupees from farming. When women are earning, they are not financially dependent on their husbands and so have greater bargaining power in the household (Van Koppen, 1998).

Another barrier in when it comes to full and active participation is confidence, especially when speaking public (Mohanty,2002). Through the vegetable farming project women are not only able to participate in farming but also hold group meetings within themselves which gives them a space and time to express their resource needs and build up their knowledge and confidence. One particular quote that is striking from Sumitra is “Before we came together, we used to not have any confidence or abilities to stand up for ourselves. Now we are able to talk to anyone: men, women, government, whoever”. 

In many resource management schemes, women are often reluctant to participate in management because they are fearful of speaking in public and people perceived to be of higher authority – men and government officials, therefore having women only and women-led management meetings will provide them with a platform to voice their opinions. 

Furthermore, while the Lutheran World Relief helps set up the project and assist in the running but it is sustained by community self-help groups (SCH). So the women are given the full control of the scheme, so they are not just participants but managers. The women have set up saving groups within the self-help groups. They use the credit earned by the savings and revolving SHG to setup and maintain micro- enterprises for vegetable farming. Therefore, the women are not fully reliant on their husbands or LWR, therefore further enhancing their confidence and independence.

LWR have replicated similar schemes in other areas, for example shallot production and marketing in Mali. The project provides women training in not only the production on high-yield farming practices but also the marketing of the shallots to maximize the number of sales to increase profit. This resulted in the production of 209 toms of shallots in over 5 years and an increase in individual earning from shallot farming from $55 to $300 per growing season (Lutheran World Relief, 2016).

In conclusion, external actors and organisations can help facilitate inclusive schemes through effective targeting of poor women who may not otherwise have access to land and water rights or women who are not already taking part in economic activities. The external agencies can provide technical support for example through training and educational material. Such participation will then help women feel more confident and independent and so willing and able to take part in community resource management. In addition, these projects need to allow top level, active participation – they should not be mere participants but active managers.