2010:3 Gender Aware Approaches in Agricultural Programmes:

Description:
How can Sida’s development assistance in agriculture be designed and implemented to ensure that women farmers are reached, that their needs as producers are met, and that it has a positive impact on their livelihoods? To address this question the experiences from five Sida supported programmes are studied. The programmes are the Agriculture Support Programme in Zambia, the Sida Amhara Rural Development Programme in Ethiopia, the Agriculture Development Programme in Mozambique, the Agricultural Development Fund in Nicaragua and, the National Agriculture and Livestock Extension Programme in Kenya. The study finds examples of promising approaches in, for example, the Household Approach in Zambia and the Patio Approach in Nicaragua, that have been effective in tackling different gender constraints. However, the study also finds that in no programme was gender mainstreamed across all components and no programme prepared a coherent gender strategy to implement gender equity as a means of achieving better agricultural outcomes. Apart from gender mainstreaming the study specifically looks at gender in relation to extension services, control over assets, food security and markets.