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Implementing a process to include women
Once women's roles are visible and their knowledge about and dependence on tree and forest products recognized, ways to design and implement community forestry projects which include women become more apparent.
Generally, projects work best when they include women as an integral part of their family or community group, while remaining sensitive to women's special needs and resources. However, occasionally "women only" activities are needed. Ruth Dixon has developed a list to help designers evaluate when a "women-only" project may be required:22
- when there are strong taboos against unrelated males and females working together;
- where the effects of past discrimination need to be overcome;
- where many or most households are headed by women;
- where women specialize in tasks that could be made more productive with outside help;
- where women request a measure of self-reliance to avoid conflict or competition with men.
However, planning "women-only" activities may tend to isolate women and threaten their access to resources that men control. "Women-only" activities and projects can also be poorly funded and out of the mainstream of development activities. Some forestry projects that have a great-impact on the productive resource base upon which women depend, deal only with men.
In some cases a component such as improved fuelwood stoves is added for the sake of "including women". Care should always be taken to ensure that additional activities that are seen as being of interest to women do enter their priority areas of concern and do not exclude them from being considered in the project's main activities.
The main goal of including women in project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation is to assure that they have access to benefits that they value and that they are able to manage the resource base in a sustainable manner. It is of central importance that any project ensures that those involved will, in fact, benefit.
Project designers have tended to believe that if the project benefits men, then women will see it as a benefit to themselves through a "trickle over" effect. This has frequently proven a faulty assumption. Women are short on time, land, and money.
Participation in a community forestry project may contribute to their burdens. Therefore, the benefits they will reap must be made very clear to them. Perceived equitable distribution of project benefits cannot be overestimated in analyzing participation and activity sustainability. It is especially important to consider needs of the women who are in the poorest segment of the villages, for whom forest resources can be crucial. Two questions to be answered: What is the potential impact of the project on women, and how can benefits for women be encouraged?
Women in Lesotho planting out saplings in a reforestation programme
WHAT IS THE POTENTIAL IMPACT OF THE PROJECT ON WOMEN?
Project planners and local women must communicate in a two-way process before the introduction of a new technology, whether it be a new tree species or a forest management plan. Women will have important insights as to how the technology may affect them.
The more clearly women's circumstances are understood and reflected in the project's design, and the more women are involved in the design process, the more positive the impact of the project can be.
Gender analysis, by its very nature, demands interaction of the researcher, women and men at the local level. Their interaction helps to strengthen the project planning process and ensure that any planned activity is appropriate given local conditions.
HOW CAN BENEFITS FOR WOMEN BE ENCOURAGED?
Women, as well as men, respond to incentives - larger production from annual crops, multi-purpose trees providing needed products, a market for produce such as fruit or wood poles, and potential for local employment. The incentive must, however, reflect women's financial realities. For example, seed may be more cost effective than seedlings.
Knowing about the control and use of cash within the family is crucial to understanding who will benefit from project income. In some households, women control their own money; in others, men control household funds. When the latter is the case, women may want to pool funds or set up cooperatives in order to retain control of income from their activities.
Women without legal rights to land have no collateral to offer to obtain loans for equipment, seed, or fertilizer. When loans are necessary and women have no collateral, other means for women to obtain credit must be found.
In summary, implementing a process to include women in project design includes the following eight steps. In Restoring the balance: women and forest resources, these steps were outlined for consideration in developing community forestry programs. These should be reviewed by project designers as well as project implementors to be sure their work will also help restore the balance.23
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