Gender in the dual purpose cattle value chain
Nicaragua
María Alejandra Mora
Livestock and Fish Gender Team Meeting
Ascoli Piceno, Italy, 15-16 September 2014

Presentation outline
• Main activities in 2014
• Challenges and lessons learned
• Next steps

Capacity Development
• January 2014, 6 partner organizations (Research institutions,
universities and development agencies-CATIE, UNA, Heifer,
INTA, Nitlapán, CRS)
• Objective: Provide and share methodologies and experiences
of gender work in areas related to dual purpose cattle value
chains.
• Main topics:
– Basic concepts and perceptions on gender equity.
– Women´s participation in the cattle sector and its value
chains.
– Gender mainstreaming in organizations.
– Gender and value chains (experiences and methodologies
shared by organizations).

• Gender trainings in bilateral projects:
– -Nicacentro milk cooperative-Solidaridad project
– -National Agrarian University-ADA-Genetics project
• Main topics:
– Basic concepts of gender.
– Women´s participation in the cattle sector and its value chains, and
why it is important to be inclusive of women.
– Tools and considerations to include gender in their work.
• Mapping of organizations working with women in the program sites.
• Women´s groups and organizations working with women farmers identified
as partners in both sites.
• A final report will be available next month.
• Gender capacity gaps survey for partner organizations
• Main gaps: Lack of resources, training, and tools to implement gender in
their work.
•

Access and control of resources
Gender analysis in the DPCVC of Matiguás y Camoapa (research and
activities).
1. Multi-country study- Perceptions of ownership and its implications
in Food Security (Ethiopia, Tanzania and Nicaragua).
 In Nicaragua, respondents associated ownership with the power to freely decide over
resources, which was in turn linked to having knowledge. Men were generally
considered to be more knowledgeable than women regarding livestock and farm
management, which reduces the efficiency of food security strategies for women,
because they rely on men being in charge of the farm.
2. Baseline tools (2) reviewed and modified to include gender.
3. Focus groups and interviews with women involved in the DPCVC to
identify their main constraints and opportunities, using the VCA
toolkit.

Focus groups/interviews- broad findings
 The main constraints expressed by women were the lack of access to credit and land because
they have less collateral than men.
 Technical assistance in cattle farms is mostly directed towards men. There are no projects aimed
to improve women´s access to resources in the cattle sector.
 Women are doing many activities related to cattle raising: milking, animal care, feeding, cleaning
the milking area, planting pastures, cooking for farm workers, etc. but not recognizing themselves
nor being socially recognized as producers.
 Most women are processing milk to make artisan cheese to sell locally, but lack support to
improve the quality of the product and sales.
 It is culturally unusual for a woman to be in charge of a cattle farm. Usually men are making the
most important decisions and are organized in milk cooperatives. This reduces women´s access to
resources.

Lessons and challenges
On an organizational level:
• Most organizations in the territories are open to linking
some aspects of the gender strategy to their activities but
consider gender a “sensitive and very difficult” issue to
address with actors in the cattle sector. Further, there is very
little to no sex-disaggregation of data.
• It is important to identify the “gender needs” of
organizations, to provide the right kind of training/tools and
strengthen partnerships.

Next steps:
• Gender needs assessment with local organizations based on gender gaps.
• Contribute to rapid assessment tool to characterize gendered-intra
household patterns for animal-sourced food consumption.
• Finalize gender assessment for the DPCVC in Camoapa and Matiguás,
including the information obtained from the base line surveys and other VCA
activities/research.
• Strengthen partnerships with organizations and develop joint initiatives, such
as Gender promoting groups.

Thank you!
m.a.mora@cgiar.org