1 Outline for the day l Problem tree

1 Outline for the day l Problem tree l Your methodology / time line l Gender and environment l Exam: April 18 l Documentary (The End of Poverty? ) – this Wed @ 7 pm @ t l Readings (Earth Democracy – pages 1 – 23) l Next unit: 3 rd unit: NRM per resource l Bring in an article to discuss next week – for your research

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3 What about indicators? indicators should: Be developed within an accepted conceptual framework. Be clearly defined and easy to understand. Be subject to aggregation. Be objective. Have reasonable data requirements. Be relevant to users. Be limited in number. Reflect causes, processes or results

4 What about indicators? SMART Specific Aggressive but achievable targets Relevant Measurable Time-bound

5 What about responses? l See handout l Example: river water quality l A number of policy instruments, such as in situ treatment and water quality standards, could have positive or negative impacts on the state of the water quality. l Other impacts can come from the effects of municipal taxes driving as urban growth, infrastructure development reducing sewage discharges and food import programmes to compensate for a reduction in fish as a food source.

Example policy instrument scan for water quality of rivers 6

7 To summarize

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10 Problem tree analysis: Why?

11 Problem tree: Identify the problem Whose problem? – perceived as such by the community The following are the basic steps that should be followed with the community, in developing the cause-effect analysis leading to the identification of focal problems and their solutions through the problem tree: 1. Identify, define and select specific main problems or undesired situations within the project scope; 2. For each specific main problem selected develop a problem tree; 3. For each problem tree carry out a comprehensive cause-effect analysis of the situation identifying the focal problems;

12 Class exercise l Draw a tree. l Write the problem on the trunk of the tree. l What are the causes of the problem? l social, economic, and political causes l including attitudes, behavior, and other factors

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14 Your methodology l l Lacking in detail l Examine the questions l Detail the tools See: Livelihoods and Ecosystems Dealing with Complexity in Rural Development and Agriculture Resources and References (on the web)

15 Gender and Environment

16 l Readings for this section l Changing women’s roles, changing environmental knowledges: evidence from Upper Egypt (on the web) l Gender and the environment: readings from the book – gender and natural resource managementplease read chapter 1 , and optional: chapter 2, chapter 7 , and chapter 10

17 What is gender? l Gender is defined as a “culturally specific set of characteristics that identifies the social behavior of women and the relationship between them” and is regarded as an analytical tool in the study of the socio-economic process. l Gender refers to the socially constructed roles played by women and assigned on the basis of their sex. Over time, these roles can change with economic and social developments. l Gender equality implies inclusion and full participation of both men and women in all areas of private and public life. Gender mainstreaming is a strategy to bring gender equality issues into the mainstream of decision-making. Societies tend to have an innate male bias; policies often inadvertently result in gender inequality.

18 Theorizing gender and environment l Experiences of the environment are differentiated by gender through the materially distinct daily work activities and responsibilities of men and women. Consequently… l Gender is thus understood as a critical variable in shaping processes of ecological change, viable livelihoods and the prospects for sustainable development. l However l Relational perspectives on gender purport to give greater emphasis to the dynamics of gender, emphasizing power relations between men and women over resource access and control, and their concrete expressions in conflict, cooperation and coexistence over environments and livelihoods.

19 Gender and environment l Women's Action Agenda 21 l effectively linked concerns with women and gender with environmentally sustainable development l both having been traditionally marginal issues on the development agenda

20 Why Does Gender Matter? Seager (1995): 1. Environmental institutions are gendered 2. Individual environmental behaviour is gendered 3. Men and women have different relationships to the environment 4. Environmental degradation has a different impact on men and women 5. Environmental action / conflict / discourse is gendered.

21 Gender equality and gender mainstreaming l As mainstreaming focuses on gender equality as a goal rather than women as a target group, women’s development is not viewed as a sector; but rather, equality issues are integrated into sectoral analysis and not confined to isolated programmes. l The main components of an effective mainstreaming capacity include: l l l clarity about and commitment to the goal of gender equality; incorporation of gender issues in the planning and decision-making process; and availability of gender-disaggregated data.

22 l l Since the relationships between increased employment and income, and economic empowerment and gender equality are not straightforward Therefore: l economic activity is not a sufficient condition for gender equality l and, not all employment is empowering.

23 Gender equality and economic activity l Economic equality is definable as “the ability of men and women to support the same standard of living for themselves over their lifetimes” l increased income for women does not necessarily lead to an improvement in their bargaining power in decision-making

24 Gender-aware economic analysis (a) At the macro level -- women’s unpaid labour must be included in the measurement of the size of the economy, in order to account for the total contribution of women to economic output and to assess the opportunity cost of resource transfers between sectors; (b) At the meso level (Government departments, intermediary institutions, product and factor markets) -- a need to recognize that neither resource allocation processes nor markets are gender neutral; (c) At the micro level, inequalities within the household regarding divisions of labour and decision-making constrain women’s access to and control over resources and the returns of their labour. Source: Sally Baden, “Gender issues in agricultural liberalization”, Bridge (development-gender), Report No. 41, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, 1998, www. ids. ac. uk.

25 Theoretical reflections on environmental policies and their gender impacts The disregard of women’s everyday-life l Different patterns of time use l Different share of non-market and market activities l Different kind of work Environmental policy tends to take women’s time for environmental activities for granted

26 Theoretical reflections on environmental policies and their gender impacts The disregard of the needs of vulnerable groups: Pregnant women, small children and elderly people are vulnerable groups, women are the main carers Risk definitions, threshold limits and critical amounts are oriented to the needs of a middle-aged healthy man

27 Theoretical reflections on environmental policies and their gender impacts The “feminization of environmental responsibility”: Women as “nurses to the ill environment” The burden of environmental responsibility is assigned to women

28 Theoretical reflections on environmental policies and their gender impacts The lack of “shaping power” of women: Ü Gap between the responsibility for the environment that is assigned to women and their real influence Ü Lack of shaping power (Schultz/Weller 1995): l What is the shaping power of women? l l the power to frame problems and fashion solutions, the power to create and shape knowledge, new technologies and environmental strategies and planning the possibility of influence on decision making processes the possibility of influence on the technical design of products or technologies

29 Conclusions for an environmental policy Environmental policy should (at least) l take into account the different every-day needs of men and women l take into account the different needs of especially vulnerable groups l develop concepts of shared responsibility and l increase the shaping power of women, especially with respect to all forms of decision-making.

30 Tools for gender mainstreaming l to eradicate the bias inherent in social attitudes and to assess the contribution of men and women to the agricultural sector, decision makers and analysts must acquire relevant skills through training in gender-sensitive analysis and participatory approaches. l (a) Statistics – designed to include gender-disaggregated data (where relevant) and with appropriate data collection methods; (b) Surveys – to trace current gender relations; (c) Cost-benefit analysis – carried out with a gender perspective in order to weigh the pros and cons of the impact of policies on both sexes; (d) Research – to identify current issues and trends in a specific area; (e) Gender impact analysis – to pinpoint the differences in the impact of specific policies or action plans on men and women.

31 gender as relational: involving the interaction of men and women, structured through norms and institutions, reconfigured through individual agency Work has centered on l gendered property rights (water and land) l gender dynamics in local participation in development programmes and community-based institutions l the micro- and macro-politics of collective action l geographical mobility ; gendered environmental knowledge l livelihoods and resource use ; history l and dynamics of gender in policy discourses and within environmental departments of development agencies

32 Gender and Natural Resources Management l gender is NOT primarily relevant only within households (a view that is often stated in mainstream environmental and political ecology research) l gender is salient within policy and practice across a variety of scales, and within institutions central to natural resource governance, from gendered property relations to the gendered positions of actors within organizations charged with governing or managing natural resources.

33 Gender in the neo-liberal agenda l There are links between economic reform (doi moi), natural resource management policies and gender in Vietnam, where privatization of coastal aquaculture has brought about a transformation of resource access and control. l Because of gender biases that run through the new institutional arrangements associated with economic reform, this process has built on and reinforced social hierarchies within communities, and converged with a wider reassertion of patriarchal power and family ideologies in Vietnam to create gendered exclusions around access to natural resources. l Despite women's expanded role during the war years, gender biases in the reform process itself, coupled with a revitalization of male-dominated kinship relations, are undermining any gains achieved. l Gendered power is thus multi-scalar and is at work in various ways and at various levels.

34 homework l Please email me, based on the readings (and you can read more) – how: (1) what new light/perspective you’ve attained re: gender and environment? (2) what are the many multi-sectoral links between gender and NRM? (3) how it applies/you can apply it to the Arab world?

‘gender in agriculture and agro-processing in Lebanon. ’ UN – ESCWA. 2001 l The Beijing Platform for Action (1995), an agenda for women’s empowerment, calls on Governments and active players to promote a policy of gender mainstreaming. l Gender mainstreaming focuses on gender equality as a goal and not women as a target group. l Inadequate gender-desegregated data is a major constraint to a full understanding of the roles and responsibilities of women in the agricultural sector. Specifically, the data on Lebanon regarding the status of women in agriculture and agro-processing is inadequate and based largely on surveys that vary in their assumptions and use of analytical techniques. l As a consequence, available statistics are often inconsistent and cannot therefore provide a reliable basis of comparison. 35

36 Gender and agriculture – in Lebanon l the risk of poverty is higher among rural women than among men. l Usually women have a harder time coping with and overcoming poverty.

Gender and agriculture in Lebanon: bias in access to resources l Women do not buy land inheriting land, especially agricultural land, is restricted for women by (sectarian) law and/or by social norms; land ownership is predominantly exclusive to men. l Women’s access to credit is restricted by the unavailability of land title as collateral. Training, extension services and technological innovations do not normally target the needs of women and women are seldom encouraged to participate. 37

38 Gender and agriculture: household income l Women tend to spend more of their income on food, education and health. l As traditionally women’s loan repayment rate is higher than men’s, donor agencies and NGOs have actively pursued female clients. l l Group lending has become a common venue for extending credit in both rural and urban areas— especially to women. The advantages of group lending include: a reduction in institutional transaction costs; encouragement of the poor—women, in particular—to work in groups for financial and social reasons; and a better repayment record because of peer pressure and group solidarity. Rural women often supplement the family income by producing dairy products and food preserves.

39 Gender and food security l the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) maintains that women play a crucial role as producers of food, managers of natural resources and prime executors of household food security l maintaining the three pillars of food security, l food production, access to available food and nutritional security. l women often face social, cultural and economic constraints that impair their ability to carry out this role.

40 Gender and food security: obstacles l Food production l insecure land tenure, l inability to use land as collateral for credit, l lower educational level, and l insufficient agricultural extension programs geared towards women farmers

41 Gender, poverty and rural development l Despite its shrinking contribution to gross domestic product (GDP), the agricultural sector remains the mainstay of a relatively high proportion of the labour force in Arab countries l Work is defined by The World Women 2000 l l “the participation of individuals in productive activities for which they either receive remuneration (in cash or in kind) for their participation or are unpaid because they are contributors to a family business enterprise. It also includes subsistence production of goods for their own households and non-economic activities such as domestic work…” In Western Asia - 34 % of the female labour force are contributing family workers, and therefore unpaid, as compared with only 7 % of the male working force.

42 Gender, poverty and rural development

43 Sources of useful data l (a) Labour force surveys l (b) Poverty assessments l l l (c) Household sample surveys (d) Agricultural censuses (e) Other sources: studies in international journals, university thesis and research projects may be useful sources of information.