Presented by Ephrem Tesema at the Workshop on Gender and Value Chains in the LIVES Project, Adama, Ethiopia, 19-22 August 2013

1. Progress in gender mainstreaming in LIVES
Ephrem Tesema (ILRI)
Workshop on gender and value chains in the LIVES Project, Adama, Ethiopia, 19-22 August 2013

2. Outline
• Progress in LIVE Gender Mainstreaming Task
• Opportunities
• Challenges
• The Way Forward
• A Message for LIVES Team on Gender
Mainstreaming Secret for Success

3. Progress in LIVE Gender Mainstreaming Task
• Directly Project Related Activities
1.1. Familiarizing LIVES Staff with the Gender mainstreaming
guideline ( Presentation) May 30, 2013
1.2. Selection of gender in value chain reading materials to
be down loaded on E-readers and distributed to
partners for action research purpose
1.3. Supporting the knowledge management intervention
through commenting the knowledge
management guideline, the E-reader based data
collection questionnaires

4. Continued
1.4. Distribution of soft copies for headquarter and Regional
staff to share new insights, gender analytical tools and
innovative approaches
1.5. Involving in designing a research project call from the
World Bank with CRP 3.7. team to
• gain expertise to carry out a research in four PAs with the
objective of designing gender
• Self-determination and Empowerment path ways. The pilot
gender self-determination
• and empowerment tools will be tested in four value chain
projects located in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Tanzania

5. Continued
1.6. Supporting the LIVES Staff recruiting panel through
involving in the interview questions and by presenting
gender in value chain related questions during
Recruitment of Research Officers, Business
Development Officer
1.7. Contribution a part on gender disaggregated reporting
for a weekly reporting format prepared by LIVES’s
Programme Coordinator

6. Opportunities
• Coordination and Gender Infrastructure
 Past Experiences, Guidelines, Tools
• Proper Planning and Guidance
 Familiarization of staff, Co-planning with LIVES team
• Partnership and Resource sharing
 LIVES Gender Unit closely work with ILRI Capacity Building CG
Gender Consortium, CRP 3.7
 ATA, Agri-Hub Ethiopia, AGP, Ministry of Agriculture Gender
Unit, Individual Researchers on Gender, Gender and Nutrition
etc.
• Gender proactive Project Management Style and Good
Relation with Donor Agency
 Allocation of resources, space for influencing project pillars
and budget and logistic allocation for Gender Work
 Constructive Relation with CIDA

7. Challenges
• Communication and Information Flow
 Need improved communication with Regional and Zonal
Team
 The Understanding of the Gender Dimension of LIVES and
how to materialize Gender equity in the project pillars across
all intervention Areas
 Low Assessment of partnership building at Regional and
Zonal Level-Need to inspire, involve and support key
Partners in the Ministry of Agriculture-Gender Unit, Women
Affairs Offices, Cooperative Agent Gender Unit
 Minimum Resources and Capacity to uniformly address
gender issues across Project Areas( Pillars) from
Headquarter so far.

8. The Way Forward
• Gender Sensitive team building within LIVES
• Build Capacity of Gender LIVES Regional and Zonal Team
through coaching, mentoring and TOT Training
• Carry our Gender in Value chain analysis on the basis of
selected Commodities in each intervention regions/zones
• Creating partnership b/n LIVES regional and Zonal teams with
gender units in the Ministry of Agriculture, Women Affairs
Offices and NGOs with Gender and Agriculture related
intervention
• Capacitating key partners ( DA’s, Extension Agents and other
front line development partners) through gender
sensitization training, coaching and mentoring of gender in
value chain issues and gender in value chain mapping and
analysis
• Publication on Gender in value chain success stories and
Lessons

9. Gender Mainstreaming Secret for Success
• Readiness to discover the lost six sense within us
• Readiness to listen others perspective and capitalize on that
• Gender contributes a lot for Career building and to claim
professional excellence at individual level in the present
century Professionalism
• Gender sensitivity also add value to enhance the success of
ILRI and LIVES in its core competency areas
• Do Gender across all intervention areas and pillars with sense
not only with sense of responsibility but with high sense of
humour and

10. Facilitation Skills: Semi Structured Interview(SSI)
With Community
• The Basics of Gender Facilitating Skills
• Individual Interview
• Group Interview
• Key Informant Interview
• Focus Group Interview

11. • High Degree of Trust between The Field Workers and
Community
• This Requires Facilitation Skills
• It Empowers people equally
• It help men and women to assess and review their
environment and world views

12. Individual Interview
• Connected with an opportunity sample of purposely-
selected individuals
• It may include leaders; innovative persons, women
household heads, resource poor farmers
• Interviewing a number of farmers on the same topic will
quickly reveal a wide range of opinions, attitudes and
strategies
• It is advisable to ask individual respondents about their
own knowledge and attitude

13. Group Interview
o Provide access to a larger body of knoldge (
or community level information)
o Provide an immediet crosscheck on
information, for it is received from others
in the group
o It is difficult to mange a larger group at a
time
o As a rule of thumb keep the size from 20-
25

14. Key Informant Interview
• Can be done with any one with Special knowledge on a
particular topic
• Key informants are expected to be able to answer :
• Questions about the knowledge and behavior of others
• Especially about the operations of the broader system
• Crosschecking is necessary to avoid risks of mislead by key
informants
• Outsiders who live outside the community can be valuable key
informants

15. Focus Group Interview
• Helps to discuss specific topics in details with small
groups of people
• Keep the size of interviewees from 6 to 12
• They should have intimate knoldge about the topic under
considerations
• The facilitator make sure that:
1. The discussion does not diverge too far from the original
topic
2. No participant dominates
3. No participant ignored
4. Eye contact
5. Responsive gestures/para-liguistics
6. Selecting words and probing not arguing

16. How to Conduct Semi-Structured Interview
 Def.:SSI is a form of guided interviewing where only some
questions are predetermined
 There are three types of Questions
 Leading Questions: Imply the kind of response that is
expected: the speaker may try, consciously or
unconsciously, to get the listener to agree with or support the
speaker’s point of view
 Direct questions: Usually aimed at obtaining specific points of
information. Usually they are prefaced by: How many, How
much, How often, Who, When, Where
 Open questions: are key questions in dialogue on innovation.
They give free rein expression without explicitly directing
interviewee's response

17. Preparations
 Select an appropriate team of interviewers. Assign
responsibilities i.e. note taker, observer and moderator
 Formulate questions clearly. Agree on how to conduct the
interview: Focus Group, Key informants, individual
 Prepare yourself for the interview
 Prepare a check list

18. Before Interview
 Begin with traditional interview
 Explain who you are? Your name, job, purpose of visit
 Began your Qing by referring to something or some
visible entity
 Be sensitive and respectful
 Take a sit as same level with the interviewee
 Do locally accepted polite talk
 Find the right place to sit
 Avoid language barriers
 Dialogue/ casual conversation
 Rapport between interviewee and facilitator dictates the
quality of data
 Spend some time for casual conversation
 Observe,keep eyes for patterns, behaviours differences,
usual things and non-verbal indicators

19. During interview
• Ask one questions at a time
• Most interview should be open ended with broad
questions to allow respondents to discuss the topic in
their own terms, not the interviewer's
• Use words phrased like Why, Who, Where, When, How.
• Probe responses
• Do not suggest answers
• Avoid lecturing and advising
• Carefully lead up to important or sensitive questions
• Take your time, allow your respondents to answer
completely before moving to another point

20. Closing the Interview
Summarise the discussion
Do not refuse drinking water or local drinks
Do not take a photograph of people unless
you ask and receive their permission
Finish the interview politely
Thank the interview

21. Recording the Interview
 Devide the page of your note into two columns
One, for responses and the other for observations
Ask permission from your informants before you start
writing things
Record what is being said
Details of an interview
Important points
Who was interviewed?
Was it in a group?
Where was the interview held?

22. Please understand
• Both types of knowledge ( local and scientific) merit
mutual respect
• The rural people practices, and whole way of life, are
respected and esteemed by the outsiders
• The rural people need to understand the discussion that
is going on, and therefore has the right to ask questions;
they are entitled to explanations and justifications of the
discussion
• The outsiders are motivated to learn the rural people who
will therefore teach as well as learn
• The rural people will be responsible dor decisions that
can make or break the success of the field work/data
collection

23. Points to remember for FGI/SSI Facilitators
• Plan ahead of time and relax as it is a journey in
another realm of knowledge from the formal one
• Consult community members and leaders
• Identify the necessary composition that fulfills
your purpose
• Understand that it is not a last resort to your
problem then relax if the first attempts fails
• Re-plan your interview after thorough evaluations
• Thank participants for their time and knowledge
• Organized your not immediately after interview
• Do it with one team members

24. Thanks
Together We Can!! Thaks!!
www.lives-ethiopia.org

25. Thanks