GenderNet practice notes: land and environment: agriculture

These short practice notes provide guidance on how to address gender equality and women's empowerment within agricultural development co-operation. Rural women's work in agriculture is crucial to the provision of household food security. Meeting basic food requirements for their families is a central concern of many women, along with care responsibilities, household/community services, income generation and community management. Agricultural interventions need to take into consideration women's heavy workloads, as well as the different roles men and women carry out in agricultural production. Discrimination faced by women also needs to be considered – for example, due to unequal distribution of resources they often lack access to secure land and other key resources preventing their increased productive capability. Even though many women in rural areas are involved in subsistence farming this receives less institutional support than cash-cropping, which tends to be dominated by men. There also tends to be little consultation with women on the development of new technologies. In addition, cultural factors mean women's agricultural work is often dismissed as having little economic value and is subsequently frequently overlooked in agricultural policy development and reforms.The notes provide suggested goals and objectives that could be included in agricultural programme and policy development:

• Goal: to promote equal opportunities for women and men as participants and beneficiaries of development interventions with an agricultural focus.
• Objectives : To improve women's access to economic resources and technical and professional skills formation; To promote women's participation and leadership in decision-making at all levels.
  

A number of guiding questions for the preparation and identification of activities and policies to assist programme design and evaluation are included. Questions are grouped under key areas of concern, such as: project objectives and target groups; the gender division of labour in agriculture; access and control of benefits of project impacts; women's social status and role of decision-makers.