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Gender Checklist: Agriculture : Gender analysis for subsectors
Gender issues in irrigation
Key Issues
- Do men and women differ in their water use and future irrigation needs, such as:
- types of crops irrigated (commercial corps, food crops, etc.);
- nonagricultural water requirements;
- preferred sites of water use; or
- distance (of home or fields) from water source?
- Do women with agricultural specializations need access to irrigation water?
- How will women be affected by intensified production as a result of the irrigation project? (Consider changes in labor requirements, changes in cash requirements for agricultural investments and concomitant changes in women’s labor allocation, etc.)
- How will changes in cropping pattern (e.g., cash cropping versus subsistence crop production) affect women?
- How will women be affected by the increased demand for labor and services created in the implementation phase?
- Are women now involved in water management? Do they have a role in the settlement of water management disputes?
- Are there water user associations? Can women join them?
- Are women members of water user associations?
- Does the executing agency (EA) have the capacity to mainstream GAD concerns?
- Does the EA have female extension workers?
Key Strategies
- Consider the different uses and users of water in the project area. Include measures to avoid potential conflicts among competing users or uses.
- Design improvements in the water system to overcome the agriculture time-use constraints specific to women and to men.
- Include cost-effective provisions in the project to meet the requirements of nonirrigation water uses/users (e.g., for livestock, fishponds, ablutions, laundry, domestic food gardens, and drinking water).
- If irrigation is associated with changes in land tenure, assist women in becoming co-owners of land with men.
- Involve the beneficiaries, female as well as male, in the design of the project and in decisions re-garding the location of canals and other infra-structure.
- Consider building and strengthening the capacity of the EA to develop and implement gender-inclusive projects.
- Include specific employment benefits for women in the project design.
- Facilitate women’s participation in water user associations.
- Consider setting targets for the inclusion of women in water user associations.
- Consider recruiting NGOs to mobilize and train women to participate in water user and water management organizations.
- If membership in water user associations is based on land ownership, explore opportunities for the joint membership of husbands and wives.
- If the executing and implementing agencies have few female field workers, consider recruiting women from the community as field workers.
Box 5 gives an illustration of the gender issues in irrigation and how these might be dealt with in a project.
Box 5 : Nepal Irrigation Management Transfer Project
The project is intended to benefit poor small farmers in Nepal by establishing sustainable and effective water user associations, and rehabilitating and improving irrigation and drainage facilities. It consists of 11 subprojects covering a total of 67,800 ha. Women have a critical role in agriculture and irrigation in Nepal. But their role has been largely undervalued, and they generally have less access to the benefits of agricultural development. The project therefore seeks to increase women’s involvement in project implementation and their participation in water user associations (WUAs).
Several steps have been taken, at both the policy and the project implementation level, to achieve this goal. The Department of Irrigation has held workshops to make its senior management more aware of the gap between policies and institutional mechanisms relating to women’s representation in WUAs. District irrigation office staff have been trained to provide support in the integration of gender issues in improving irrigation performance. The workshop and the training have helped bring more women, as well as men, into the operation and management of WUAs. A gender and development (GAD) training unit has also been set up for both women and men farmers.
A GAD strategy has been developed to address gender issues in day-to-day project activities. The project agronomist and the project sociologist are women. A gender specialist has been hired to assist the project staff and to ensure the proper implementation of the government’s irrigation policy, which calls for 20 percent representation for women in WUAs. Women field staff have been recruited to help mobilize women water users, and women’s groups have been assigned to collect irrigation service fees from these users. Women are being trained to head WUAs and to gain increased access to agricultural inputs and technology for women members.
To assist in gender mainstreaming, the project budget is itemized and a gender-disaggregated database for monitoring and evaluation is being planned.
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