FAO has just released a new handbook, “Communicating Gender for Rural Development.” This handbook contains good materials and clarifies some concepts. “Gender is at once a sociological concept, a development approach, an operational strategy and an analytical method”. Have a look especially at the schematic on page 16.
This Expert Paper by Christine Okali of University of the University of Sussex is well worth reading. It was prepared for the UN Women Expert Group Meeting on Enabling rural women’s economic empowerment: institutions, opportunities and participation that is now being held in Accra, Ghana, in cooperation with FAO, IFAD and WFP.
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw56/egm/Okali-EP-8-EGM-RW-Sep-2011.pdf
Achieving Transformative Change for Rural Women’s Empowerment
Here is the paper’s conclusion:
“In terms of who can do what, organisations at different levels each have roles to play. UN agencies and other macro-level organisations have a key role to play in changing the way in which women are portrayed, narratives about gender relations, and even more basic understandings about who does what (that has been made central to planning). This may be one of the biggest challenges given the way in which this information has been used to date to promote a feminist agenda. However, a shift is already evident in the 2010 FAO SOFA. Meso-level organisations have a similar role to play but in addition they need to build capacity in the gender analysis that goes beyond comparisons between men and women on roles played and assets owned. What little information there is suggests that agricultural research organisations at this level need to incorporate a gender relations understanding within their participatory strategies, and to contribute insights into the understanding of the role of spouses and others in individual decision-making on say technical change. In terms of highlighting change pathways for achieving women’s economic empowerment, there are gaps in information, especially about supportive environments for change. A starting point for this work would be to identify existing formal and informal institutions that enable women’s agency, voice, claims and opportunities.”
“Community listeners’ clubs: Stepping stones for action in rural areas”
Invented in Niger and the Democratic Republic of the Congo by NGOs and FAO, community listeners’ clubs are creative new institutions that help rural women and men access and share information by radio to improve their lives and solve their farming and other problems and learn about new chances. This new FAO publication describes and illustrates how they operate. Although no fisheries and aquaculture examples are included, many fish sector people share the common rural challenge of communication.
As some of the creators of the new clubs describe it: a community listeners’ club is “a group of men and women who wish to listen to radio programmes actively and systematically with a view to discussing the content and above all putting into practice the lessons learned”.
Download the publication: http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/am604e/am604e.pdf
GENDER IN AQUACULTURE AND FISHERIES 