Unifem workshop final

Gender Equality in Access to Rural Service Delivery:

Governance at the Local Level Reflections from India Ghana and Ethiopia

Gender and Governance Research Team

Social and economic services and infrastructure in rural areas

Rural roads

Electricity

Drinking water

Health and education

Agricultural extension

Agricultural research

Background

• The poor receive poor services (WDR 2004)• Service provision is particularly poor in rural areas.

• .. and particularly poor for rural women.• Triple challenge:

• Market failure: Example: Extension for smallholder farmers• State failure: Services in rural areas difficult to supervise• Community failure: Elite capture and social exclusion

• Fourth challenge: Perception bias: “Women don’t farm.”• Governance reforms to improve service provision

• Decentralization, public sector reforms• Knowledge gap: What works where and why?

Gender and Governance in Rural Services Project

• Goal: • Assess strategies for improving agricultural and rural

service delivery• with a focus on providing more equitable access to

these services, especially for women

• Approach• Comparative study in India, Ghana and Ethiopia

• All three countries underwent decentralization.• Differences in political system, overall governance

conditions, socio-economics and gender roles• Mix of quantitative and qualitative methods

Research Team and Partner Organizations

• IFPRI: Afua B. Banful, Regina Birner (coordination), Peter Gaff, Tewodaj Mogues, Nethra Palaniswamy, Zelekawork Paulos, Katharina Raabe, Josee Randriamamonjy, Yan Sun

• Oxfam: Marc J. Cohen• India• K. G. Gayathridevi, Institute of Social and Economic Change (ISEC),

Bangalore; Madhushree Sekher, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai

• Ghana• Felix Asante, Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research

(ISSER), University of Legon, Ghana• Ehtiopia • Fanaye Tadesse, Economic Policy Research Institute (EEPRI)• Mamusha Lemma Woldegiorgis, Poverty Action Network Ethiopia

Leah Horowitz† May 23, 2009

Conceptual Framework

Types of strategies to make rural service provision gender-responsive

National / State-level Ministries (NM)

National / State-levelPolitical Representatives (NP)

Development Agencies / Advocacy

NGOs (DA)

Community-Based Organizations (CO)

Local Political Representatives (LP)

Household Members (HH)

Public SectorService Providers (PS)

NGO / Privateservice providers (NG)

Services

Short route

Long route

Political Parties (PP)

Accountability Framework based on World Bank (2004)








Services

Short route

Long route



Strategies to make service provision gender-responsive








Services

Short route

Long route



Strategies to make service provision gender-sensitive

Reserving seats for women in local councils








Services

Short route

Long route



• Supporting female political candidates

• Party quota• Women’s

manifestos








Services

Short route

Long route



Involving women groups in service delivery

Quota in user organizations








Services

Short route

Long route



Creating a gender machinery in the public administration








Services

Short route

Long route



Hiring female service providers,e.g., extension agents

Using gender-specific service delivery approaches








Services

Short route

Long route



Research Approach

Surveys (1) approx. 1,000 households(2) Local politicians(3) CBOs(4) Service providers

Case studies

What strategies did the three countries use?

And how effective were they?

Main strategy: Targeting local politicians33% reservation of seats in local councils

India

-all

India

- Kar

nata

ka

Gha

na

Ethiop

ia - D

istric

t

Ethiop

ia - K

ebele

0

10

20

30

40

50

Percentage female representatives in local councils

Percentage female members

Reservation Policy: Potentials and Challenges

• Potentials• Policy is enforced: Women have a “seat at the table” of

political decision-making - Goal in its own right!• Challenges

• Female representation in Gram Panchayats does not necessarily result in better service provision outcomes.

• Example: Public Works Program in Karnataka• Gram panchayat council members have to bargain for the

resources to be spent in the village they represent• Villages represented by women from scheduled castes

get significantly fewer resources• Policy implication

• Find ways to increase bargaining power – or use formula

User organizations in service provision –How inclusive are they?

0

20

40

60

80

100

011 10

100

0 3 6

100

5 4

30

16Female chairpersonFemale secretarySC/ST Chairperson

Source: Karnataka survey (2008)

Main Strategy: Gender Machinery in the Public Administration

• Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs• District level gender focal point • Ministry of Food and Agriculture -Women in Agricultural

Development (WIAD) Directorate• WIAD unit in every district agricultural office - typically

headed by a female• Extension agents required to provide gender

disaggregated reports of farmer interactions• Informal female quotas of 30 – 40% for some political

appointments

Gender mainstreaming in public administration somewhat evident

ISEC / ISSER / EEPRI - IFPRISurveys

Gender composition of extension staff(% in sample)

Strategy has shown some success in reaching women

Extension service example: Female frontline staff serve more female farmers

Female Extension agents

Male Extension agents

00.20.40.60.8

11.21.41.6

Ratio of females to males amongst farmers interacted with

Strategy has shown some success in reaching women

Female extension agents serve relatively more female farmers

Impr

oved

see

ds

Agroc

hem

icals

Plant

ing

tech

niqu

es

Chem

ical f

ertili

zer

Posth

arve

st s

tora

ge0.00

0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

1.00Ratio of females to male amongst those taught technology

Female AgentsMale Agents

Forest Zone Transition Zone Savannah Zone0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

11.7% 12.3%10.9%

0.0%2.1%

0.0%1.8% 1.4% 0.5%

Male-Headed Households Female-Headed HouseholdsFemale Spouses

But … despite strategy women’s access to extension service is particularly low

ISSER-IFPRI Survey, 2008

Access to agricultural extension (% interacting with agent during the past year)

Policy implications for Ghana

• Extension agents need clear targets of number of farmers to reach.

• Targets should include female to male ratios for specific technologies and not just interactions.

• Female farmers more likely than men to receive advice on sanitation, water filtration, HIV/AIDS prevention from extension agents

• Increase proportion of female extension agents as they are more likely to serve women.

Ethiopia

Main Strategies in Ethiopia

• Gender machinery• Ministry of Women’s Affairs—at federal, regional, and

district levels• Women’s affairs departments in sectoral ministries

(e.g. Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development)—at three tiers of government

• Gender-specific design of service packages• Quota to reach rural men and women with

services

Strategy 1: Set quota to reach minimum percentage of women with services

EEPRI-IFPRI Survey, 2009

E

xte

ns

ion

vis

its

...

A

tte

nd

ex

ten

s...

V

isit

..

.

V

isit

...

T

rain

ed

at

...

S

erv

ice

by

...

A

gri

cu

ltu

ral

...0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

Men WomenPolicy: Agricultural extension for at least 30% of female farmers

Strategy 2: Tailor rural services to gender-specific needs

• “Women’s development package”• Offered by extension agents• Focuses on sheep, goats, poultry, home gardening,

and beekeeping• Inappropriate for many female household heads

• Often earn income by providing weeding services• Often busy with sharecropping arrangements

• Perception bias influences program design

Perception Bias: “Women Don’t Farm”

Satisfaction with agricultural extension(percent of respondents)

HH Heads Spouses0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

VerySat:

92.5

Very Sat:

95.4

Very dissatisfied

Somewhat dissat-isfied

Somewhat satis-fied

Very satisfied

Adoption of new technologies“During the past two years, did you start to use some farming

practice for the first time, such as a new variety, new crop, new input, new cultivation technique, new breed, etc.?”

Heads Spouses0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

10.3 3.5

89.7 96.6 NoYes

Strategy 3: Women in Leadership Positions in User/Service Associations

• All water committees include female members• But: In three of four case study sites, water committee

heads are men• Receive limited technical training• No training on “soft skills:”

• Community mobilization to maintain water systems and pay fees

• Community education and persuasion to use improved sources

• Limited technical and other support from district government

Policy Implications for Ethiopia

• Relatively ambitious directives through quota to reach men and women with extension• Women’s access to extension rates relatively favorably• Pilot innovative strategies (e.g. extension agents working through

women’s associations); Increasing female extension staff• Tailoring services to men’s and women’s needs

• Promising, but perception bias gets in the way of effectiveness• Evaluating agricultural extension services

• High satisfaction rates in spite of low adoption rates• Need for further methodology development, especially if satisfaction

data are to be used for management purposes• Making extension more demand-driven

• Balance better the trade-off between standardization (easier supervision) and local adaptation (services more relevant)

General Conclusions

• What is promising?• Each country had at least one very promising

strategy in place to make rural service provision gender-responsive

• Clear positive effects!• What needs to be done?

• Adjust gender strategies to country-specific challenges• Address general problems of rural service provision, which

differ across countries• Collect gender-disaggregated data on service delivery

outcomes• Find ways to create incentives to reward better

outcomes for women

Unifem workshop final

Documents

Transcript of Unifem workshop final