ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This poster is made possible by the support of the American
People provided to the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for
Sustainable Intensification through the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID). The contents are the sole
responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the
views of USAID or the United States Government. Program
activities are funded by USAID under Cooperative Agreement
No.AID-OAA-L-14-00006.
Foregrounding Gender in the SI Assessment Framework for Systems Analyses
Penn State University (Lead) , University of Tennessee, ECHO Asia, Kasetsart University,The WorldVegetable Center,
ADDA, Royal University of Agriculture, University of Battambang
INTRODUCTION
CONCLUSIONS
The Women in Agriculture Network (WAgN) Cambodia project
seeks in part to provide a scientifically rigorous and
comprehensive understanding of the nexus of gender and
sustainable intensification.
Here we draw on emerging lessons learned and ongoing work
to show how gender issues cut across the SI Assessment
Framework. Our hope is to inspire other SIIL projects to
mainstream gender, and inform how this can be done.
SYNERGIES ANDTRADEOFFS:
GENDER ANDTHE SI ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK
SIIL’s Sustainable Intensification Assessment Framework
represents a rigorous and comprehensive mechanism to
conceptualize and measure the impact of SI packages along five
broad domains.
Gender is a social phenomenon, and gender inequity often
disadvantages women and society at large. Gender infuses all
aspects of life, including all five domains of SI assessment.
Understanding and recognizing men’s and women’s different
sustainable agricultural responsibilities, knowledge, and challenges
can make our projects more effective.
The radar chart provides a visually compelling way of conveying how
some SI packages might be superior to others in achieving positive
change along key indicators (synergies), and how generally superior
packages might fall short of control-group practices in some ways
(tradeoffs). While SIIL’s intended application is to compare farming
systems, radar charts can portray differences in indicator
achievement across all sorts of other groups.
THE BASICS: GENDER 101
What do we mean by gender?
• Gender is not equivalent to sex; it is not biological
• Rather, gender is socially constructed
• It involves roles and responsibilities assigned to men and women
• It is shaped by ideological, religious, ethnic, economic and cultural
factors
• Gender dynamics vary across space and over time (it’s malleable)
• Gender interacts with age, class, ethnicity (it is intersectional)
Why does gender matter?
• It’s a basic human rights issue (gender inequity in access to
resources, empowerment, markets, etc. hurts women, men, families,
the economy and society at large)
• Women are key to food security but their work is undervalued
• There is a feminization of small-scale agricultural production
• Women play a key role in agriculture but face challenges such as
constrained access to land, capital, extension services, etc.
• Women and men have different stores of environmental knowledge
• We can not do our jobs properly if we ignore it – it affects
outcomes – and yet…
• Data on gender relations and women’s role in agriculture are
limited
Who makes decisions about
selling versus consuming?
Is there gender equity in
participation in value chains
for SI crops?
SYNERGIES ANDTRADEOFFS:
GENDER IMPLICATIONS DIFFER ACROSS SPACE
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
No. Veg Crops
Off Farm Income
Sold to Middle man
Limited access to
credit, no fee
Borrow for Ag
Land over 1 Hectare
Lack of marketing
because of fear
Barriers, no time
Barriers, low price
Use Pesticides
Use Fertilizer
vegetable extension
Has personal decision
making power
Responses from Female farmers by Province
Kampong Thom
Siem Reap
Battambang
Are there gender differences
in seed saving or the use of
wild plantings?
A there gender differences in
nutrition within households?
Who is responsible for
cooking, obtaining food at the
household level?
Is there cooperation between
men and women?
Do women have a presence
and voice in producer groups?
Do crops differ by gender?
Who owns, feeds, cares for
animals (men, women,
children)?
The stylized example provided as Figure 1 in the framework guide
document portrays two hypothetical farming systems with System A
(in green) being superior to B (red) in all respects except along the
environmental domain. Exemplar indicators appear beneath each
domain.While “Equity/Gender” rightly appears under the social
domain, it is important to consider gender-sensitive indicators within
all domains. We have annotated the figure to add gender-relevant
issues within each domain.These also are examples only. From your
perspective, what could be added to each black box above?
Drawing on our survey data on farming households in Cambodia,
Figure 2 shows how indicator achievement differs between farmers
in Kampong Thom, Siem Reap, and Battambang provinces.Arrayed
east to west, and all bordering Cambodia’s great lake,Tonle Sap, the
regional differences are sizable.The data are for women farmers.
The graph suggests that farms in Battambang are larger and more
likely to use pesticides, those in Kampong Thom are more likely to
sell to a middle man, while those in Siem Reap are most likely to
avail themselves of extension training in growing vegetables.
Efforts to address gender inequity need to be informed by spatial
variation in synergies and tradeoffs at the sub-national level.To the
extent that the indicators vary by gender, the regional pattern may
suggest focal points for intervention.
Figure 1. Gender in the SI Assessment Framework
Figure 2. Differences in women farmers by province
How are gender
differences
sensitive to scale?
Project PI: Dr. Rick Bates, Dept. of Plant Science, Penn State, rmb30@psu.edu