Gender,
transport and information communication in the developing
world.
Week 2: Gender, transport and information communication technologies: empowering women farmers
This seminar will explore the role that information communication technologies aligned with transport provision can make to women farmers. Women farmers are often disadvantaged in terms of their information and transport opportunities within the developing world: this seminar will explore how new information communication technologies aligned to transport can make to women�s abilities to capture better market prices for their products.
The key readings are:
The first reading provides information on the operation of veterinary extension services in Zimbabwe with specific attention to the gender dimension. It reaches the following conclusion:
Despite gender-neutrality in provision of services, there is a definite gender bias in the client population, and farmers do not request the assistance of female VLTs to attend to sick animals as frequently as they do male VLTs. Farmers may not have full confidence in the skills (or in the case of bovine castration, the cultural appropriateness) of female VLTs, and therefore ask less of them.
After attending Master Farmer training or the animal husbandry demonstrations held by the VLT, where they presumably are exposed to the VLT�s abilities, farmers are more likely to request the assistance of both female and male VLTs.
It is likely that, with time and after increased exposure of the farmers to the abilities of the female VLTs, the existing client gender bias will decrease.
Female VLTs who are on foot could facilitate this process by to using a bicycle to improve their mobility and provision of services.@ http://repositories.cdlib.org/uciaspubs/editedvolumes/5/3/
The second reading provides us with an assessment of the importance of women in African agriculture and an evaluation of the extent to which the gender specific requirements of African agriculture have not been adequately addressed by policy agencies. It makes the argument that modern communications technologies can be harnessed in redressing the existing deficiencies in transport and other forms of service organisation:
A first step must surely be to integrate the existing evidence on gender differentiations in African agriculture and to use this material to shape appropriate research instruments for use in extensive gender needs assessment exercises within African agriculture. Not to do this fails both technical tests of expertise (the fit of theory with practical reality) and fails the needs of African female farmers.
A second step must be to take both research and operational budgets closer to the female farmers themselves and allow the local scrutiny of the way in which resources are going to be spent 'in the interests' or 'for the wellbeing of' locals. Frequently, the rationale for external intervention or resource endowments is the 'wellbeing of women' without the precise impact of the intervention on this wellbeing being itself measured or even followed up upon. Evaluative procedures are weak and currently rarely involve those who are meant to benefit from the intervention and who in fact often suffer from the consequences of poorly thought out interventions in local practices.
Agricultural projects often increase the power distance between local women and local men in favour of local men. Rarely are any attempts made to measure the power distances which exist at the beginning of a project and those which exist at the end, however, with appropriate and skilled social science expertise precisely this type of evaluative exercise could be usefully performed.
By creating direct local access to development resources rather than through the expensive channelling of resources through expat experts and by providing for direct local accountability on the use of resources - accountability which is transparent to donors - major changes could be made that free up scarce resources for agricultural development in Africa. Creating feedback channels between all parties in the development equation enables the power equalisation necessary to the full participation of African female farmers in the economic benefits of African agriculture. Not to enable such participation holds down the level of production amongst African female farmers with negative consequences for the African economy.
Agricultural development is not simply an issue of diffusing the highest yielding crops but rather is a complex social issue which requires clear and precise social analysis before either acceptance or diffusion of the new and more efficient can be put in place. Better understanding of the gender dimensions of information diffusion and better practices of agricultural extension and outreach directed at Africa's female farmers are a matter of urgency for a continent where food security is largely women's responsibility. The old paradigm is redundant in terms of its operational value: the question must be what are the barriers to the adoption of the new local gender sensitive paradigm and how are these most effectively removed.
Resourcing African women for participation in agricultural decision making and leadership in Africa, given the failure of the expert scientific community over the last two decades to produce any shift in the operational paradigm, represents the most appropriate and effective path forward. The virtual resourcing of African women is a step which must be taken by academics and development professionals on that road. @ http://www.geocities.com/margaret_grieco/femalefa/genagri.html
There are three main contributions information communication technology can make in respect of gender and transport in the case of African female farmers.
Suggested further reading:
Click here to return to the seminar course outline.
e-mail at [email protected]