From gender analysis to transforming gender norms: using
empowerment pathways to enhance gender equity and
food security in Tanzania
Alessandra Galiè, Gender Scientist, ILRI
Paula Kantor, Senior Gender Scientist, WorldFish
Jemimah Njuki, Senior Program Officer, IDRC
International Food Security Dialogue 2014: Enhancing Food Production, Gender
Equality and Nutritional Security in a Changing World, Canada, 30 April-2 May 2014

Presentation overview
-Research focus and key concepts
-Overview of the ‘Crops and Goats’ project
-Research methodology
-Main findings
-Discussion
-A methodology to operationalize GTA

Overall research focus
Background:
-Persistent gender disparities in access to agricultural resources,
markets and technologies
-Agricultural development to address the fundamental causes
and consequences of gender inequality, how?
Focus:
-Linkages gender analysis, GTA and empowerment
-Option for operationalizing GTA in AR4D
In the framework of the Crops and Goats project

Key concepts
Empowerment
Replacing the domination of circumstances and chance by the
domination of individuals over chance and circumstances
Sen (1990)
The expansion of people’s ability to make strategic life choices
in a context where this ability was previously denied to them
Kabeer (1999)
Gender transformative approaches (GTA)
Women and men critically examine unequal gender roles and
norms and act to challenge the underlying social structures,
policies and norms that perpetuate them

The Crops and Goats project (CGP): overview
Title: ‘Integrating Dairy Goat and Root Crop Production for
Increasing Food, Nutrition and Income Security of
Smallholder Farmers in Tanzania’
Partners: Sokoine Univ. of Agriculture, TZ; Univ. of Alberta; ILRI
Project duration: 42 months (February 2011 - August 2014)
Donors: IDRC, CIDA

CGP’s objective and outcomes
Objective: Improve household income, food security and wellbeing
of 112 poor and women-headed hhs in agro-pastoral communities
through a community-based crossbreeding program for dairy goats,
and participatory trials for cassava and sweet potato varieties
Gender-related expected outcomes:
• Increased ability of women to participate in value chains
• More equitable social relationships between men and women
• Enhanced gender relations and empowerment

Project villages
Kunke
Wami Luhindo
Masinyeti
Ihanda

Goat houses

Cassava and sweet potato fields

Main research question
Is the CGP project’s approach to gender
integration sufficient to progress towards
‘transformative outcomes’?

Methodology
1. Review of project’s gender strategy
2. In-depth interviews with involved livestock keepers:
• Aug 2013
Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) study
27 women and 23 men
• Jan 2014
Semi-structured interviews on changes in gender relations
17 women and 17 men

Fieldwork in Kunke village

Project’s gender strategy
-Gender analysis to assess the situation overtime
-Integration of gender in project activities & evaluation
Gender-specific activities:
• Gender transformative and awareness raising trainings
• Secure co-ownership of goats and access to seed
• Facilitate women’s participation in technical trainings
• Ensure women and men have the same access to and
control of resources, technologies, opportunities

Main findings from in-depth interviews
Division of labour: many farmers emphasized that
all activities are shared; dairy goats are mostly
looked after by women and children (after school)
Decision-making: mostly rests with the men
although some mentioned increased consultation
Independence: women mostly, and also men felt
milk (sold or consumed) reduced reliance on loans
Nutrition and food security: women in particular
valued the reliable access to milk and their control
of its consumption in the household

Discussion
1. Do gender trainings provide a space to question
gender norms or only a language of equity?
2. Is women’s increase economic independence
strategic or adds a further burden?
3. Is gender equity about sameness or enabling
choices and opportunities?

Discussion continued
4. Who decides what are desirable gender relations?
5. Is a non-participatory approach to empowerment
intrinsically disempowering?
6. What is the potential for larger-scale impact when
wider gender norms are not addressed?

A methodology to operationalize GTA
Individual level: Participatory empowerment pathways
Aim: question assumptions and practices; develop
aspirations for self-determination; enhance capabilities
to define needs, voice them and act
Societal level: Engage with media for social change;
leverage collective action through groups
Aim: catalyze questioning of gender norms towards less
strict normative frameworks to allow adoption of more
gender equitable behaviors

Proposed approach at individual level:
Participatory empowerment pathways
Participatory action research with value chain actors to:
-Define empowerment
-Formulate individual empowerment goals
-Identify opportunities and threats to achieving goals
-Diagnose constraints & solutions in value chains
-Define key indicators to monitor progress towards goals
-Learn from the outcomes of the actions

Proposed approach at societal level:
Media and collective action for social change
Media: Engage with innovative media for social change
Package messages interesting for youth as stories for TV
and radio, distributed as comics and on social media
Foster social acceptance of new behaviours
Collective action: leverage groups
Build solidarity, reach ‘critical mass’ to challenge
existing norms, avoid punitive sanctions

This work acknowledges the sponsor and host
Acknowledgements

The presentation has a Creative Commons licence. You are free to re-use or distribute this work, provided credit is given to ILRI.
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