Applying Communication for Development with a Gender Perspective to Family Farming.

LIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACTLIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACTLIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACTCopyright Universityof Reading
COMMUNICATION FOR DEVELOPMENT
with a Gender Perspective on Family Farming
1
School of Agriculture, Policy & Development
International Development Research Group

LIMITLESS POTENTIAL | LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITIES | LIMITLESS IMPACT
OUTLINE
• What is communication for development?
• What role can communication play?
• Communication in innovation
• Communication in family farming
• Communication in resilience and livelihoods
• Gender, innovation systems and communication
• Project findings: Innovation systems, agricultural growth and rural
livelihoods in East Africa
• Conclusions

DEFINING COMMUNICATION FOR DEVELOPMENT
ComDev is a social process based on dialogue using a broad range of tools
and methods. ComDev is about seeking change at different levels including
listening, building trust, sharing knowledge and skills, building policies,
debating, and learning for sustained and meaningful change. It is not public
relations or corporate communications.
World Congress on Communication for Development, Rome, 2006

DEFINING COMMUNICATION FOR DEVELOPMENT
The use of communication processes, techniques and media to help
people:
• Create awareness of their situation
• Create options for change
• Resolve conflicts
• Work towards consensus
• Plan actions for change
• Acquire knowledge and skills
• Improve the effectiveness of institutions.
(Fraser & Restrepo-Estrada, 1999)
4

FAMILY FARMING
• “Family farming includes all family-based agricultural activities, and it is
linked to several areas of rural development. Family farming is a means of
organizing agricultural, forestry, fisheries, pastoral and aquaculture
production which is managed and operated by a family and predominantly
reliant on family labour, including both women’s and men’s”.
» http://www.fao.org/family-farming-
2014/home/what-is-family-farming/en/
• Ownership and/or management of a farm by a family
• Family supplies most of the labour on the farm
5

FAMILY FARMING AND COMMUNICATION
Domain Examplesof communicationroles
Enabling policy environment:Recognition of family farmers’ multiple
contributions in national policies and dialogues;articulation of national
definitions of family farming
Creating awareness and promoting advocacy
Strengthening local institutions
Capacity building
Providing access to adequate knowledge and communication services
Communication and dialogue
Researchand data: collectnational data on the agricultural sectorthat
systematicallyincludesfamily farmers
Advocacy with institutional partners
Building networks and local capacity
Agricultural environment:targeted agricultural,environmentaland
social policy interventions;
Advocacy with farmer networks
Enabling socio-economicenvironment: demographic, economic and
sociocultural conditions;accessto markets; accessto finance;Access
to land and natural resources
Adjusting socio-economic activities
Capacity building
Working with farmers to test technologies, livelihood options and coping strategies
Identifying sound economic and marketing practices
Disseminate knowledge through a range of communication and extension strategies
Access to enabling information environment:access to technology and
extension services; specializededucation
Adjusting socio-economic activities
Capacity building
6

WHAT IS RESILIENCE?
• Resilience is the ability to withstand threats or shocks, or the ability to
adapt to new livelihood options, in ways that preserve integrity and do not
deepen vulnerability. This includes the ability to withstand threats and the
ability to adapt to new options.
http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/
cfs_high_level_forum/documents/Resilie
nce_HLEF_sideevent__13Sept12_.pdf

FAO RESILIENCE STRATEGY
• Enable the environment - Institutional strengthening and governance of
risk and crisis in agricultural sectors.
• Watch to safeguard - Information and early warning systems on food and
nutrition security and transboundary threats.
• Apply risk and vulnerability reduction measures - Protection,
prevention, mitigation and building livelihoods with technologies,
approaches and practices across all agricultural sectors.
• Prepare and respond - Preparedness for and response to crises in
agriculture, livestock, fisheries and forestry.

RESILIENCE AND COMMUNICATION
Domain Examplesof role of communication
Enablethe environment
Watch to safeguard
Apply risk and vulnerability reduction measures
Improving agricultural practices
Identifying sound economic and marketing practices
Prepare and respond
9

INNOVATION SYSTEM
• The institutions, organisations, individuals that influence (support or
constrain) innovation in smallholder agriculture
• Some elements may be planned (government policy, public sector
research, extension, NGO project, outreach by agribusiness, ….)
• But much of it is unplanned – and can only be identified and explained
by farmers
10

COMMUNICATION AND INNOVATION
• Change needs new institutional arrangements and processes to support
the changing context of farmer needs
• It needs communication intermediaries
• It should extend beyond the sphere of activity of farmers and
technology suppliers
• Networks need to be embedded or accompanied by communication
services and strategies

INNOVATION SUPPORT SYSTEMS
Innovation support systems should be able to support:
1. Network building
2. Social learning
3. Conflict management
Likely to be a mix of communication services

INNOVATION AND COMMUNICATION
Domain Examples of communication
Network building Network brokering
Process facilitation
Exploration of opportunities and constraints
Organizing interaction and participation
Support to institutional learning for technical change experiments
Diagnosis and visioning support
Social learning Demand articulation and knowledgebrokerage
Process facilitation
Interactive design and experimentation
Learning-oriented monitoring
Organizing interaction and participation
Professional development support
Change management support
Reflective learning support
Advocacywith farmer networks
Establish and support national agricultural innovation capacity support units
Conflict management Process facilitation
Conflict management
Advocacywith farmer networks
Change management support 13

INNOVATION SYSTEMS, AGRICULTURAL
GROWTH AND RURAL LIVELIHOODS IN
EAST AFRICA
• Funded by: DFID-ESRC Growth Programme
• University of Reading researchers: Chris Garforth, Peter Dorward,
Sarah Cardey, Graham Clarkson
• Overseas partners:
• University of Nairobi, Kenya
• Makerere University, Uganda
• Ahfad University for Women, Sudan
• University of Kiel, Germany
• George Mose Consultants, Kenya
• Start and end date: 16 June 2012 – 30 October 2014
14

AIM OF RESEARCH IS TO FIND OUT:
• How different institutional arrangements for supporting smallholder
farming affect the innovation behaviour of men and women members of
farming households
• In what ways, and to what extent, innovation by smallholders affects their
incomes and livelihoods, and the local agricultural economy.
• Innovation:
• product (a new [to the farmer] practice, technology or input)
• process (the steps, influences, interactions that lead to a change
taking place on the farm)
15

OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH
• Document existing landscape and trends in provision (financing and
delivery) of innovation support
• Develop a detailed description and analysis of agricultural
innovation systems and processes for men and women in
smallholder farming households, leading to hypotheses linking
innovation support to innovation outcomes
• Test hypotheses through economic and gender analysis of the
impact of innovation on productivity, incomes and livelihoods in the
three countries, at household level and in the local rural economy
• Develop evidence-based conclusions on the potential and
limitations for enhancing support for SHFs’ innovation
16

METHODOLOGY
• Methodology is based on innovation system framework:
• The institutions, organisations, individuals that influence (support or
constrain) innovation in smallholder agriculture
• Some elements may be planned (government policy, public sector
research, extension, NGO project, outreach by agribusiness, ….)
• But much of it is unplanned, moulded by farmers in search of solution,
and can only be identified and explained by farmers.
1. Literature review and key informant interviews
2. Timelines, innovation histories, communication maps
3. Survey and participatory farm management methods
Innovation systems, agricultural growth and rural livelihoods

WHY GENDER AND INNOVATION?
• Men and women face different opportunities and constraints within the
agricultural sector
• Gender is not just about women; it is about how ‘female’ and ‘male’ are
defined, how those definitions are sustained and change over time, and
how they affect men’s and women’s opportunities
• Gender inequalities mean constraints for men & women:
• gender dynamics within the household may make it difficult for men to
take up a new agricultural enterprise or technology that increases the
requirement for household labour unless gender roles can be
renegotiated to give women a share in the benefit from the innovation.
• However, gender relations within households are complex and
heterogeneous.
18

• Women and men do not receive similar levels of benefits from agriculture
• Arises from:
• way in which institutions deal with gender,
• from attitudes towards the respective roles of women and men
• government policies which do not do enough to create an institutional
environment in which women and men have equal access to
opportunities to improve their farming.
19

• New technologies and innovation processes tend to benefit men more
than women because:
• They lessen the workload of men and increase the activities linked to
women’s roles
• They are not gender neutral
• They are not available to both women and men in equal measure.
• Practices often don’t make it into women’s hands
• Gender inequalities run the risk of being reinforced
20

INTERESTING FINDINGS - ACTORS
• Dynamic farming systems; external and endogenous innovation
• Farmer – farmer learning (including migrants) is a major influence
• Observation
• Discussion
• Trial and error to optimise on-farm management
• Sharing planting material
• Role of private sector in some enterprises (vanilla, cotton, …)
• Markets (access; price changes) influence innovation behaviour
• One change may preclude others (e.g. oxen [men] v. dairy cows [women])

INTERESTING FINDINGS (2) - ACTORS
• Problems with some external innovations
• Resource constraints (e.g. fodder, water)
• Lack of information
• Inappropriate / unsuccessful innovations
• External actors important sources of new varieties
• Markets stimulate innovation
• Women and men act to overcome constraints

INTERESTING FINDINGS (3) -
CONSTRAINTS TO INNOVATION
• Absent or inadequate support institutions
• Gender based constraints
• Men forcibly take benefits from women’s innovations
• Men shift burden of household expenses to women when they know
women have some income
• Women’s inadequate access and control over resources
• Communication and information constraints
• Institutions based on culture remain constraints, but can change in
response to pressure from within communities

KEY THEMES (1)
• Understanding the notion of ‘uptake’ is important to design effective
policies and interventions to support family farmers
• ‘Uptake’ of technology and innovation from an institutional (‘top-down’)
perspective is very different from farmer’s experience
• Key informants and literature continually refer to ‘uptake’ as a linear
transferal of technology; the experience of farmers is very different and
more nuanced
• Farmers are actively looking to improve their livelihoods and their
individual farm enterprises; they seek, adapt and improve technologies to
fit their own individual context
24

KEY THEMES(2)
• Men and women family farmers innovate through different processes,
using different technologies
> some by choice and some due to the influence of policies /
intervention
• Innovation is influenced by factors of social differentiation
• Main constraints to innovation are input and output markets
• Family farmers’ propensity to innovate leads to measurable differences in
income and expenditure at household level
• Smallholder farmer innovations drive important improvements in
individual and household welfare and quality of life
25

KEY THEMES - GENDER
• Gender differences in communication networks
• Formal versus informal linkages
• Linkages with rural communication services versus interpersonal or
informal support
• Gender differences in access and processes of engagement with rural
communication sources
• Gendered support for crops (cash vs food)
• Assumptions about what will be done with income, therefore
innovation at different points in value chain
26

KEY THEMES – GENDER (2)
• Exacerbating gender inequalities by not understanding gender dynamics
• Project focussing on women increasing women’s work
• Undermining gender relations/adding conflict
• Women vs men coming out ahead rather than focussing on gender
relations and inequalities
• Still differential/unequal engagement with communication and innovation
processes and opportunities
27

KEY THEMES - GENDER (3)
• Political will and policy context
• “gender” streaming policies and embedded assumptions about men
and women’s role in agriculture
• Highly heterogeneous contexts
• Institutions regionalised
• Households differentiated
28

IMPLICATIONS FOR COMMUNICATION
• Dynamic communication needed to cover farmer-led change
• Interpersonal farmer-farmer learning is key
• Role of range of actors – not just extension
• Relationships between changes needs to be understood & mediated
• Different stakeholders have different – sometimes conflicting –
understandings of innovation
• Multiple stakeholder engagement is key to best serve farmers
• Institutional capacity building is important
• Linkages and networks between institutions
• Ability for institutions to act collaboratively
• Internal/external information important to stimulate information
• Information constraints continue to exist
29

IMPLICATIONS FOR COMMUNICATION
• “Uptake” must be understood from multiple perspectives
• It is not neutral
• It means different things to different actors
• It is not about persuasion but adaptation
• Farmers are active in communication processes, and fundamentally
innovative – must be engaged with communication design and delivery
• Different farmers have different assets and constraints, often conflicting
• Communication has a role in bringing together farmers and network
actors
30

IMPLICATIONS FOR COMMUNICATION - GENDER
• Unpack assumptions about gender roles to avoid reinforcing inequalities
• Unpack communication dynamics based on social differentiation
• Communication needs to understand gendered
• Technologies
• Communication processes
• Make gender distinct in policy to avoid assumptions
• Understand regional dynamics of gendered differentiation
31

CONCLUSIONS
1. We need to mainstream communication in policy and programs vs. only
looking at extension services -- more dynamic understanding of
communication processes
1. Demand-driven
2. Actively engaging with voices of rural communities
3. Recognize the role for rural institutions in communication (i.e.
banking, civil society, private sector, rural organizations)
2. Need to operationalize rural communication services to link the
different experiences of different institutions and farmers
3. Need to support capacities in rural communication services
1. Farmer capacity
2. Policy maker capacity
32

Thank you
s.p.cardey@reading.ac.uk
33

Applying Communication for Development with a Gender Perspective to Family Farming.

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