GENDER ISSUES IN VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT PLANNING · 2011. 11. 14. · GENDER ISSUES IN VILLAGE...

GENDER ISSUES IN

VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT PLANNING

National Consultancy Report No. 7

Vu Thi Ngoc Tran

Nguyen Thi Nguyet Minh

August, 1999

CONTENT

0. Introduction 3

1. There are still wide gaps between men and women 3

2. Gender interests of men and women are different 4

3. Towards sexual equality 4

I. Gender-related impacts of project activities 5

1. Relevance 5

2. Training activities 6

3. Technical assistance 7

II. Gender issues in village development planning 7

1. Several characteristics of ethnic women in relation to Village Development Planning 7

a. Thai minority 7

b. H'mong minority 8

2. The need for gender consideration in Village Development Planning 9

a. Gender consideration is necessary 9

b. Women's role in Village Development Planning 9

3. Village Development Planning training 10

4. Village Development Planning training manual 10

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0. INTRODUCTION

Gender is a recent concept originating from English speaking countries by the end of the 60s and came to our country in late 80s. This concept is used to denote the difference between men and women from both social and biological aspects.

Gender is often coupled with the word "sex". It can be interpreted through comparisons with sex. These are two different but closely linked concepts. The differentiation between gender and sex as well as their linkage is essential in interpreting what "gender" is.

What is gender? Why do we need to mention gender issues?

Gender is a term that binds relationships between men and women in terms of their social status. In other words, gender refers to social differences between men and women. For instance, men are more likely to hold leadership positions while women often undertake subordinate work.

Gender issues need to be considered for the followi ng reasons:

1. There are still wide gaps between men and women

According to CEDPA, 1996:

� 65 % women are illiterate � 70 % children in school age that do not attend school are girls � 66 % girls are drop-outs at secondary level � 70 % out of 1.3 billion poor are women � 66 % work done by women are unpaid in industrial countries � Women’s income equates to 60-70% that of men � 10 % National Assembly representatives are women

Under GDI (Gender-related Development Indicator) ratings of UNDP, there is no country achieving absolute equality. Vietnam ranks 74th out of 130 countries with an indicator of 0.537, the leading country is Sweden with an indicator of 0.919 and the last ranking is Afghanistan with an indicator of 0.169.

As compared with many other countries, equality between men and women in Vietnam is better but still needs to be improved. This can be seen in 4 aspects:

a. Population 11

b. Education 11

c. Health 12

d. Economic 12

e. On assessing difficulties, obstacles and solutions of the village 12

5. Village Development Planning exercise 12

6. Monitoring and evaluation 15

III. Gender issue in 2000 Village Development Planning 20

1. Training 21

2. Technical assistance 21

IV. Recommendations 23

V. Table 25

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� Workload � Economic and political constraints � Stereotyping � Violence against women

Following are several figures on the inequality between men and women in Vietnam: (Source: UNDP, Vietnamese government):

2. Gender interests of men and women are different

Apart from the common ones, women may have different needs from men. These needs arise from their work in the existing division of labor. Women’s needs are more practical and close to the family while that of men may be more abstract and career-oriented.

Changes in behavior and institution might lead to positive changes in labor division, bringing about gender interests of women.

From a gender point of view, women are liable to quest for changes in the present irrational labor division to attain an equal status and a better harmonized relation between both sexes in the family and in society.

Gender interests of different groups of women may differ, depending on the specific social conditions. For instance, Thai and H’mong women may gain their gender interests through illiteracy eradication and capacity building by project activities. Less disadvantaged than women, men have less gender interests.

3. Towards sexual equality

Sexual equality means women have equal rights, benefit and responsibility under law and have equal access to resources, social and educational services. This issue is often considered in projects to avoid women’s lagging behind.

So far, there have been 4 world conferences on women held respectively in Mexico (1975), Copenhagen-Denmark (1980), Nairobi-Kenya (1985) and Beijing-China (1995). The Beijing Declaration said: "Although women have made many progresses, these progresses are still unstable, there still exists inequality between men and women" and highlighted determination by governments to move towards equality, development and peace for women. This proves that gender is a global issue and is everyone’s concern.

In Vietnam, gender issues have only been considered by international development projects, national projects hardly have any concerns or only superficially at best. Nevertheless, every development project or plan has in itself gender components as they are all aimed at serving human beings, men and women. Each development activity might have impacts on different roles by men and women and might affect men and women differently. They might also cause changes to gender relations through providing opportunities or conditions (similar or different) for men and women.

Research objectives

� Enhance participation of women in SFDP project area into Village Development Planning � Incorporate gender issues into Village Development Planning � Improve women’s capacity to participate in project activities

Research methodology

Illiteracy rate between 15-24: 7,4 % women (1990) 6,0 % men (1990)

Entry into 1st & 2nd grade: 61 % girls 71% men

Entry into 3rd grade (girls/100 boys): 39 (1990) 26 (1995)

Average number of school years: women 3,4 men 5,8

Women/100 men employed: 80 (1970) 82 (1994)

Women's earnings as compared with men's(%):

Rural area 69,2 Urban area 69,3

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� Participate in the training course on Village Development Planning in Yen Chau district, Son La province.

� Participate in Village Development Planning meetings in villages (1 old and 1 new village) in Yen Chau district.

� Meet with women groups � Conduct several gender survey with Hoard Analysis method, Time Use Survey, SWOT matrix.

Target groups and scope of research

� Thai and H’mong ethnic in Yen Chau, Son La and Tua Chua, Lai Chau. � Within the scope of work of SFDP, Village Development Planning exercise

I. GENDER-RELATED IMPACTS OF PROJECT ACTIVITIES

Assessment of gender-related impacts of the project was carried out in "old" villages where project activities have taken place.

1. Relevance

Asked about SFDP activities in their area, most Thai women in Chieng Sang village, Chieng Sang commune, Yen Chau district and H’mong women in Thon I, Hang De de village seemed positive:

� The activities are in line with local conditions and socio-economic development orientation of the district, the commune and the village.

� They are responses to urgent needs of villagers in general and women in particular. � Knowledge on forest protection, soil conservation and cropping techniques has thus been improved. � The local living standard has been one step forwards. � Natural resources have been better protected

Table 6 on gender-related impacts of the project’s different categories of activities shows most are positive, only their impact on women health is neutral as earning is increased but work load is heavier.

Demonstration plots for San uu 63 rice variety, VN10 maize and IPM are well received by women.

However, as project activities do not cover a wide scope and gender issues have not been strongly focused on, the total number of women participating in project is still limited and many do not know about them.

2. Training activities

Women participating in production technique courses or VDP meetings in the past accounted for 10-15% and recently (in the first and the second quarter of 1999), the figure has been somewhat improved to 20%. Meanwhile, women represent over 50% of the labor force, are involved in most production activities and work longer time than men. Causes to this limited participation are:

Objective causes: The project management as well as district, commune and village leadership have not really taken gender issues into account. This can be seen right in the initial step of training- invitation. Invitations to villages often address household heads, which automatically mean the husband. And women are willing to give priority to their husband on such matters as meetings, except when they are too busy or for some reason can not participate.

Subjective causes: In view of women’s own problem i) their educational level is too low to receive technological information and exchange opinions, ii) occupation with house work makes it more difficult for

Asked what IPM is, a Thai woman who attended a training course on IPM said: it is a method to control diseases and pests by using disease resistant varieties, appropriate technologies and regular field visit to check for pests and diseases.

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them to have time for training courses, iii) women themselves have not realised that it is their rights and benefits to participate in these training courses or other events. However, with due attention and explicit invitation for women, they can be willing to participate.

There are activities mostly taken up by women, e.g. 90% of the work in pig raising is done by women while participants to the pig raising course are mainly men. Such non-targeted training often leads to lack of linkage between training and application, causing wastes in resources.

Project staff do keep track of the number of men and women in training courses, which shows some attention to gender issues. But what matters is whether these figures have any implications on the following courses or not.

These causes to limited participation of women can be addressed by proper attention to ensure better women representation.

3. Technical assistance

Technical assistance is SFDP’s major field of work. Most women say the topics of technical training courses are close to their needs and it is easy for them to learn from demonstration plots. However, trainers should always try to suit women’s educational level by:

� Avoiding to use words that are alien to them, e.g. scientific names

� Avoiding to use measurement units that are complex and abstract to them For instance, instead of saying that mixed pig feed comprises of ...% maize, ...% rice , it is better to say there are ...kg maize, ...kg rice in 10 kg mixed pig feed.

� Using visual illustrations in training documents.

Besides, technical training courses for farmers need to be held close to the village and convenient for demonstration.

II. GENDER ISSUES IN VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT PLANNING

1. Several characteristics of ethnic women in relat ion to Village Development Planning

a. Thai minority

Generally, Thai couples have close bonding, always working together in production and household matters. The wives do not feel that there is inequality between husband and wife and seem content with their husbands. But viewed from gender angle, some differences can be found:

� Husbands often takes up heavier work that requires more technical knowledge while wives work with simpler and more time consuming tasks.

� Production and household related matters are discussed among family members but the last say belongs to husbands, who are often household heads.

� Educational level of women is considerably lower than that of men, many women in working age are illiterate or re-illiterate.

� Thai households seem to have good family planning. The average number of children in households of recent generations is 2, which is an advantage for implementation of hunger and poverty alleviation programs.

� Major activities center around agro-forestry production, some communes have brocade weaving as an

Asked why she did not have a third child, a Thai women said: the field does not grow, what do we have to eat if we have more people.

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extra business but face with difficulties in consumption. � In Thai families, wives always keep the earnings but big spendings are decided by husbands.

b. H'mong minority

� It is noticed that H’mong women all wear the same outfitting and the same type of plastic shoes, which can be seen as an expression of their high sense of community and mutual agreement. Unlike Thai people in Yen Chau, H’mong people in Tua Chua are married early and have many children, the number of children per family often ranges between 7 to 12.

� H’mong people have various backward customs, such as spending too much money on funerals or weddings, which badly affect their production and economic welfare. A funeral may cost them 10 million VND with buffaloes and cattle being killed for villagers to eat several days. The family is likely to go broke afterwards. Another instance is the fact that H’mong women spend too much time to make their intricate embroidered skirt.

� Educational level of H’mong people in general and women in particular is low: average schooling for women in working age is 1st grade, illiteracy rate and re-illiteracy rate approximate 90%, only 20% of women can speak Kinh language and about 10% are fluent.

� In the family, the husband is household head and takes decisive role in both production and daily life. The H’mong husband seems to be more paternalistic than in other ethnic. They rarely discuss with their wives production-related matter as they often regard them as not having enough knowledge for discussion.

� Together with other prejudices from society and their family, H’mong women face with a lot of limitations.

2. The need for gender consideration in Village Dev elopment Planning

a. Gender consideration is necessary

The guideline on Participatory Village Development Planning, 1999 version of SFDP says:

" Participatory Village Development Planning mean: People discuss and work out long-term development objectives, identify annual activities based on the assessment of required resources for fulfilling these objectives in line with the local orientation for socio-economic development".

The term "people" includes men and women. There is a need for considering both in Village Development Planning to:

� Identify obstacles to women participating in Village Development Planning. � Identify who has heavier workload, who has more spare time. � Identify who needs training, and what to train � Identify appropriate technical options for each sex � Understand men and women’s access to resources � Which sex makes important decision within the project’s scope of work. � Who does housework.

b. Women's role in Village Development Planning

Women account for 50% of the workforce in both Yen Chau and Tua Chua and take part in most production activities. There are certain activities that are mainly done by women, such as sowing and transplanting, animal raising. Women’s role in Village Development Planning is important as they, in this exercise, have a chance to look at the socio-economic status of their village, know about their village’s potentials and limitations. Given women’s high participation in production, Village Development Planning with women’s involvement will be close to the village’s production capacity and reality.

Ms Co, wife of Mr. To, head of Thon 1, Sinh Phinh commune, Tua Chua district, has 7 children and is only 40 years old but already have a 3-year-old grandson. Her son got married when he was 16.

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In some of the villages, we could see that those women participating in the village meeting had relatively valuable opinions which sometimes were put in the annual plan and change the direction for production of the village.

With the participation of women in Village Development Planning, the village plan will:

� Include the needs for socio-economic development and production of both men and women � Have agreement on production orientation between men and women � Be practical and close to reality � Ensure that the village’s resources are efficiently utilized � Ensure democracy and equality between men and women � Create conditions for women’s capacity building and status improving � Ensure sustainability of the project.

Without women’s participation in Village Development Planning, the village’s plan might be disarrayed, causing negative impacts on production activities and project activities in particular, wastes of resources and widening the gender gaps.

Both men and women need to be made aware that participation in Village Development Planning is women’s right and responsibility and women’s participation is directly linked to the village’s production orientation. It is necessary and ensures equality for both men and women in production and at the same time gradually build women’s capacity.

3. Village Development Planning training

The training course on Village Development Planning for project and district staff to support the exercise in the village was held in the Extension Station, Yen Chau district for 2 days.

Women represented 23% in this course and were from Son La provincial extension center, Yen Chau, Thuan Chau district and the Women Union of Yen Chau. During the course, 60% of the women contributed good ideas that were used to adjust the training manual.

Although there are less women in extension than men, the number of women in this Village Development Planning course was very low, not yet relevant to the work that they undertake. From a gender point of view, this rate should be at least 35%.

4. Village Development Planning training manual

The manual was well prepared and comprehensive. Gender issues were mentioned but not much. For the Village Development Planning training manual to include gender components, the following criteria should be added:

a. Population

Population should be gender-specifically categorized (men/women)

b. Education

Following criteria should be added:

� Average educational level of boys and girls

Take forest protection in Hang De de village, Sinh Phinh commune, Tua Chua district as an example. Women did not take part in Village Development Planning and did not know about their responsibility in protecting the village’s forest. Consequently, they did not react when outsiders come to destroy their forest.

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� Drop-out rate of girls

These 2 criteria are apart from the criterion " the rate of school age children going to school" as they are gender-related.

The first criterion shows the educational gap between boys and girls and together with the second one it might reveal gender imbalance.

With the feudal perception of valuing men better than women, parents normally prefer to invest in their sons. For instance, a family which have one daughter and one son in school age and cannot afford to send both of them to school would certainly give preference to the son and let the daughter stay at home. This might also be the result of the notion that "Daughters are others’ children".

This impartial viewpoint considerably affects gender development.

� A criterion indicating the illiteracy rate of men and women in working age (18-55) should also be added.

This criteria is important as it affects the reception of information through books, newspapers and brochures as well as technical knowledge that the project may wish to transfer. In general, the rates of illiterate and non-Kinh speaking Thai women are 25% and 15% respectively and, similarly the rates in H’mong area are 90% and 80% regardless of a great number of people who are illiterate again.

c. Health

To have a comprehensive picture of the village, several women-related criteria should also be considered:

� After-birth death rate � Malnutrition rate of children under 5

d. Economic

A criterion on the employment situation of women (enough or not) should also be mentioned so that based on which employment creation plans can be worked out for women, helping to raise their income.

e. On assessing difficulties, obstacles and solutio ns of the village

It is advisable to use the SWOT matrix (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats-Obstacles) for assessment.

If only difficulties, obstacles and solutions are assessed, it is not sufficient to reflect the village’s potentials and what might arise when solutions are implemented. This matrix is very much preferred by analysts.

What matters most is how to use the available data in Village Development Planning, avoiding ‘dead data".

5. Village Development Planning exercise

It shows a lot of attention from SFDP management to consider gender aspect in Village Development Planning with a view to enhancing women’s involvement in project activities. By taking part in Village Development

Education is all the more important as the biggest obstacle for H‘mong and Thai women is identified as high illiteracy rate and low educational level, especially in relation to the implementation of technical assistance project.

In her opening speech for the Village Development Planning training course, Ms Quang Thi Vien said: "... Raising people’s educational level is among the most important issues in the socio-economic development orientation of Yen Chau district for the year 2000 and until 2005."

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Planning, women will have an opportunity to know their village’s socio-economic situation and share their thoughts and wishes in the following year production.

During our visit to the project area, we took part in Village Development Planning meetings in the following villages: Chieng Sang village, Chieng Sang commune (a village that have already implemented Village Development Planning), Hat Sec village, Chieng Hac commune (which is a newly included village in Yen Chau district, Son La province and Thon 1, Sinh Phinh commune in Tua Chua district, Lai Chau province.

Very few women were in the key informant groups; there was only one woman out of ten people in Chieng Hac village and no women in Chieng Sang village. The women, if there is any, in this group are often Women Union representatives, which shows a gender imbalance.

Apparently a prior notice was made that there would be something on women in the meeting, quite a few women came in Chieng Sang village, accounting for 55%. In Hat Sec village, the figure was 24%.

In Tua Chua, 30% of villagers coming to the meeting of Thon 1 village, Sinh Phinh commune, were women and the average percentage in all villages of Tua Chua district was 19%. (It should be noted that Thon 1 lies in the district center and there are regular exchanges with the Kinh people both in economic and cultural' terms.

According to several staff working for a long time in Tua Chua, this figure has already shown some progress as compared with previous years, which was estimated at only 10-13%.

It is easy to understand what this woman said. Table 5 shows most social activities are in men's domain. Besides, women are often shy to speak in front of many people, which also help restricting them from participating in meetings.

However, they do have their opinions and participate in assessing their condition and making plans for production as long as they are asked to.

In Thon 1, Sinh Phinh commune, Tua Chua district, a woman had an opinion on production orientation of the village and was accepted by the whole village. She said she would not use TSB2 for the next crop as it yielded low and had bitter taste and could only be used to feed animals. Or when training plan was made, some women voiced their opinions that they wanted to be trained in livestock raising, especially in disease prevention and livestock tending as these issues directly affect their work.

In villages where we went to, women did not seem to do their part on assessing difficulties, obstacles and solutions of the villages, possibly due to several reasons:

� This is still new to women � Time was too limited for such comprehensive review of the village � The meeting leader did not ask them to

Women should be given a chance to voice their opinions on their village's problems and solutions. The "key informant group" cannot do it for them.

By doing so, women can see the situation in their own village, what are outstanding problems and can have their say in what they think as necessary to be done. This might be difficult in the beginning but it does not mean they cannot do it. Furthermore, by participating in such activities, women's capacity will be step by step improved.

Asked why she came to the meeting this year while last year she was absent, a Thai women said because she was invited explicitly this year. Last year, her husband went as the invitation was general and it was better to let the husbands discuss big things of the village!

In Hat Sec village, Chieng Hac commune, 100% of villagers raised their hand in agreement for shifting from rice to maize growing, 6 of them were women.

But the women raised their hands out of their own opinions or just followed others?

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To save time and make it work efficiently, the Village Management Board should give women prior information on what they need to assess so that they can have time to think and discuss.

Major obstacles to Thai and H'mong women participat ing in Village Development Planning:

Workload

Table 5 (on daily time use of men and women) shows men and women spend the same amount of time on production activities but women spend more time on reproductive work, which are "nameless work" like childcare, housework, livestock raising. These activities are very time and energy consuming, making it more difficult for them to take part in community activities like meetings, e.g. Village Development Planning meetings.

Limited educational level

With their low educational level and lack of Kinh language skills, many are still illiterate, ethnic women have big problems in communicating and discussing in meetings. Many women believe that Village Development Planning is far beyond their reach and quite a few do not know what Village Development Planning is and what it is for.

Women characteristics

Partly due to their limited knowledge, women are shy and unconfident. This greatly affects their participation in discussion and planning within Village Development Planning.

Social prejudices

In both Thai and H'mong families, men are often household heads and make decisions on major issues in production and daily lives. As compared with women, men seem to be a little more knowledgeable. Time is a constant, if women have to spend their time on reproductive work, they will have little time for social activities and vice versa, men have time to take part in community work, such as meetings, festivals or training etc because they do not have to share much of their time for reproductive work. Besides, men tend to think it appropriate for them to attend meetings or training, as they are more capable to learn or to discuss. It is widely believed that women's place is the kitchen and housework their domain. This prejudice not only exists in the project area but also prevalent in Vietnam, hindering women from participating in social activities and Village Development Planning is no exception.

Lack of attention towards gender issues from proje ct staff as well as leadership at district, commune and village levels

Due attention from leadership can facilitate women's participation in Village Development Planning. Reality shows women can be actively involved with encouraging signal from leaders.

To motivate women in Village Development Planning, it is necessary that village leaders encourage women to have opinions, listen to them patiently and respect their opinions.

There should be at least 35% of women in the Village Management Board, which means apart from the Women Union representative, there can be, for instance, a woman farmer who has good skills in production and or economic calculation.

6. Monitoring and evaluation

Monitoring is an activity conducted throughout the life span of a project to provide information for management

Asked if her husband told her anything after the VDP meeting, a woman in Dong Phi 1 village, Muong Bang commune said she asked her husband about it but he said even if he told her anything, she would not understand.

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decisions. Monitoring starts at the time of input distribution to see whether labor and other resources are efficiently utilized, negative impacts improved or equality ensured. To sum up, monitoring helps to better manage resources in fulfilling set goals and objectives.

Monitoring and evaluation are used to measure changes in social, economic and political terms since the start of a project or program. With quantitized inputs, activities, outputs and impacts are noted and measured against the initial status.

Monitoring and evaluation are not the same. Monitoring is a daily activity to ensure inputs are distributed timely, resources managed wisely and problems or constraints identified for improvement of activities. Evaluation is a regular activity to assess:

� Short-term outputs � Medium-term results � Long-term impacts

Gender M & E in SFDP and in Village Development Planning in particular has not been implemented. Gender equality should be monitored and evaluated, especially in Village Development Planning, to ensure good implementation of activities.

Following are gender M & E criteria for Village Development Planning:

1. Number of women in technical training courses

2. Number of men/women in Village Development Planning

3. Times of giving opinions in Village Development Planning

4. Number of opinions by men/women accepted

5. Number of men/women among the key informant group for Village Development Planning

7. Number of men/women in the Village Management Board

8. Number of men/women participating in project activities

9. The adoption rate for project activities 10. Employment situation (before and after the project has been implemented)

Each criterion is specified in tables in the next page.

Monitoring and evaluation tables for gender aspect in Village Development Planning and other project activities will be a basis for adjustment in women's participation for the following year.

Criteria 1: number of men/women in technical traini ng courses

Date...../......./

District:.......................................Province:.......................................

unit: person

No. of in which

No Village Commune No. of household

participants Men Women % women in total

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Monitoring staff:

Criteria 2: number of men/women in Village Developm ent Planning meeting

Date...../......./


unit: person

Monitoring staff:

Criteria 3-4: number of opinions and accepted opini ons in Village Development Planning meetings

Date...../......./


Monitoring staff:

No No. of In which

Village Commune No. of HH Participants Men Women % women in total

Total Opinions Accepted opinions

No Village participants Total in which Total in which

(person) Men Women Men Women

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Criteria 5: number of men/women in the key informan t group in Village Development Planning

Date...../......./


unit: person

Monitoring staff:

Criteria 6: number of men/women in Village Manageme nt Board

Date...../......./


unit: person

Monitoring staff:

Criteria 7: Number of men/women participate in moni toring Village Development Planning

Date...../......./


Key informants

No Village Total of Total in which

HH Men Women % women in total

Village Management Board members


HH Men Women %women in total

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unit: person

Monitoring staff:

Criteria 8: Number of men/women participating in pr oject activities

Date...../......./


unit: person

Monitoring staff:

Criteria 9-10: adoption rate of project activities & employment situation

Date...../......./


People participating in Village Development Planning monitoring


HH Men Women % women in total

Total in which Percentage of women/

No Village Men Women Total

No Village Total of Adopting project activities Employment situation of women

HH Men Women Total women Employed Under-employed

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Monitoring staff:

III. GENDER ISSUE IN 2000 VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT PLANN ING

1. Training

� Increase women's participation in technical training courses relevant to the work that they undertake. � Organize several separate training for women. � Consider training a certain number of capable women as core members to women groups.

2. Technical assistance

Table 3 reveals most chores in livestock raising are done by women. This activity seems to be an appropriate option for the project area as there is an abundance of animal fodder and the maize yield is high. Animal husbandry development is suitable to the wish of women as it can generate considerable income, help to improve children's nutrition and constitute a source of organic matter for fruit tree plantation. Nevertheless, women are confronted with a big challenge, which is animal diseases and they are very keen to have opportunities to attend training courses on disease identification, prevention and how to take care of new livestock.

Anyway, women generally wish to learn directly how to identify and prevent diseases.

Most women do not recognize the importance of investing in fruit trees. Although fruit trees can bring about a good source of income for the families, Thai households and women in particular tend to leave their fruit tree free to grow without any intervention, causing the trees to degrade and fruit quality lowered. Not many people seem to think of a simple act of applying cattle manure, which is left unused in many places, to their garden.

Apart from training for the whole village in 2000 plan, it is recommendable to give more attention to the following topics:

� Disease prevention for livestock, especially pigs, fish, chicken, cattle � Introduction of new seeds and animal breeds and their tending methods � Improvement of fruit tree gardens � Soil conservation measures � Bee-keeping

So far, Tua Chua Extension station has organized 9 bee-keeping groups with 135 members, all of whom are men. Extension staff told us that bee-keeping techniques are simple. The local breeds are disease resistant and can be found in the forest. It does not cost to keep bee and at the same time, the bees can be a good source of income. Women are certainly capable of doing this activity. When their husbands are away, 3 women often take over to look after the bees. If this activity is to be disseminated to women, study tours to good bee-keeping groups should be held, especially to groups already having women participation to show women what they can do. Women coming back from these study tours can later help others. In 2000, it has been plan to promote this activity to women.

IV. RECOMMENDATIONS

One question was put to a woman: SFDP has provided each village with a veterinary toolkit, why don't you ask the veterinary worker to help when your animals are sick? The answer was: We only have one veterinary worker for the whole commune, who is very difficult to find. When the person is found, my pig would have been gone for long.

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1. A gender awareness training course should be held for project staff and, if possible, to local leaders or staff related to the project so that gender issues can be gradually incorporated in Village Development Planning and other project activity.

Most project staff and local leaders do not have a good understanding of gender issues. With this vague understanding from people who are in management positions, it is very likely that impartiality may happen.

2. Several gender-related data should be added to the village data base:

� Population by gender (men/women) � Average educational level of boys and girls � Dropout rates of girls � Illiteracy rate in working age (18-55) of men and women � After-death birthrate � Child malnutrition rate under 5 � Employment situation of women (sufficient or insufficient)

People who develop the PRA training manual for Village Development Planning tend to simplify as much as possible but if these criteria are not mentioned, it can be said gender issues are neglected.

Basic data collected should be used for making long-term and annual plans, avoiding the fact that data are collected without being used and gender issues just mentioned in fashion.

For instance, some gender-related criteria are mentioned in the village database, such as:

� Number of HH headed by women � Total women laborers � Women groups (name/ number of members)

What implications do these data have on Village Development Planning?

3. Women participation in Village Development Plann ing should be enhanced:

� Women participation should be 40-50% in Village Development Planning meetings � There should be 35% women in the key informant group � There should be 35% women in Village Management Board

Note: Stress the need to invite women when invitation is sent out

4. Timing , location for Village Development Planning meeting s as well as training courses should be appropriate for women to participate. ( The meeting in Thon 1, Sinh Phinh commune, Tua Chua district, Lai Chau province lasted from 9:00 to 15:30. In the end half of the women left and the ones who remained did not bother to give answers when asked).

5. The number of women in technical training courses should have a percentage of women relevant to their participation in production activities. For instance, there should be at least 80% women in courses on livestock raising, especially pig raising as this activity is mostly undertaken by women.

6. The number of women in training courses directly related to pr oduction activities mostly done by women should be increased:

� Disease prevention and treatment for animals � Improvement of mixed garden, fruit tree gardens � Some good production models that show high economic efficiency � Soil conservation measures (fertilization, hedgerow planting...) � Bee-keeping

7. Training methodology should be simple, understan dable to farmers, using visualization, demonstration and on-site practices with the principle "Seeing is believing". Ideally, trainers should be able to speak local languages. Normally, ethnic women would not show that they do not understand a certain matter to outsiders.

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8. The number of women should be increased in study tours to good production examples, especially those with women's active involvement, to encourage their confidence and dismiss the myth that only men are capable of doing such things.

9. Gender-related criteria/activities should be mon itored and evaluated. T his can be done together with general M & E of the project. Without M &E, gender issues in Village Development Planning cannot be improved.

10. "Knowledge is the key to science and technology "

One of the major obstacles that women in the project area are confronted with is their low educational level while most SFDP activities are technical assistance. At the same time, "the objective of improving local people's knowledge" does not belong to SFDP's field of work. However, to facilitate technical assistance activities, the project should co-operate with several district organizations such as the Women Union by inviting them to get involved in project activities.

Table 1: men and women's participation in productio n activities

Village: Chieng Sang

Commune: Chieng Sang

District: Yen Chau

Province: Son La

Activity Rice Maize Cassava Mango Longan Tambourine

Land preparation M

Hole digging M M M M M

Seed (seedlings) selection

M M M M M M

Seed processing M M M M M M

Sowing/planting F FM FM M M M

Weeding F F F

Animal manure use F F F

Chemical fertilizer use M M M

Spraying M M M M M M

Watering MF MF MF MF MF MF

Field visit F F F F F F

Harvesting FMc FMc FMc Mfc Mfc Mfc

Transporting FMc FMc FMc

Rice trashing Fc

Drying and storing F F F

Processing/ milling Fc

Product selling M M M M M M

Money keeping F F F F F F

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M: mainly done by men F: mainly done by women MF: equally done by men and women Mf: mainly done by men with assistance by women Fm: mainly done by women with assistance by men C: mainly done by children c with assistance by children

Table 2: Men and women's participation in productio n activities



District: Yen Chau

Province: Son La


Table 3: Decision making in production



District: Yen Chau

Province: Son La

Activity Buffalo Cattle Pig Chicken Fish Bee

Shelter/pond prep. M M

New breed selection M M M M M

Fodder buying/ gathering C C Fc F F

Feeding C C F F F

Taking care F F F F F

Disease prevention M M M M M

Manure collection

Harvest

Selling M M M M M

Money keeping F F F F F

Activity Wife Husband Others

Plant composition M

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Table 4: Labor division between men and women



District: Yen Chau

Province: Son La

Unit: %

Rice variety selection F M

Forestry seedling selection M

Fruit tree seedling selection M

Disease treatment for animals M

What types of fertilizers to use M

What types of pesticides to use M

Spraying time M

Animal breed selection M

Technical option application M

Who goes to meetings/ training

Activity Wife Husband Others Frequency

1. Production

- Land prep.

- Rice harvesting

- Fishing

- Pig raising

15

50

-

90

85

50

100

10

crop

crop

2. Reproduction

- Childcare

- Water fetching

- Cooking

90

100

100

10 everyday

everyday

everyday

3. Management, decision making

- Production orientation

10

90

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(*) Frequency: every crop, daily, weekly, and monthly.

Table 5: Daily time use of men and women in one fam ily



District: Yen Chau

Province: Son La

� Product selling

� Child education

� Purchasing

� Others

20

70

70

70

80

30

30

30

4. Community

- Village road making

- Village sanitation

- Meetings

- Training

20

-

10

10

70

-

90

90

10

Women Men

Time Activity Time Activity

4:00 Getting up

4:00-6:00 Cooking

Feeding livestock

6:00 Getting up

6:00-

7:00

Breakfast

Go to the field

6:00- 7:00 Breakfast

Go to the field

7:00-

11:30

Work on the field 7:00-

11:30

Work on the field

11:30-

14:30

Home, cooking, feeding livestock, lunch, lunch break

11:30- 14:30 Home, lunch, lunch break

14:30-

18:00

Work on the field 14:30-

18:00

Work on the field

18:00- 18:30

Home 18:00- 18:30 Home

18:30-19:30

Cooking and feeding livestock 18:30-19:30 Break or knit something

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Table 6: Project impacts on gender issues



District: Yen Chau

Province: Son La

Symbols: Impacts

+ Positive - Negative 0 Neutral

Working schedule of the gender study group in Villa ge Development Planning

21/7 - 19/8/1999

19:30-

20:00

Dinner 19:30-

20:00

Dinner

20:00- 21:30

Take care of children, mend clothes 20:00-

22:00

Attend meetings or visit neighbors or watch TV

21:30 Sleep 22:00 Sleep

Economic Social Environmental

Activity Income Food security

Hunger eradication

Employment Health Capacity Land Water Air

Forestry + + + 0 + + + +

+ + + + 0 + -

Foodstuff crops + + + 0 + -

Fruit trees + + + 0 + -

Husbandry + + + 0 + -

Other occupations

+ + + 0 +

Day Activity

21-22/7 Read documents

23/7 Go to Son La

24/7 Participate in project meeting on Village Development Planning

25-26/7 Discuss and prepare for Village Development Planning training

27-28/7 Participate in Village Development Planning training in Yen Chau Extension Station

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29/7 Visit Chieng Sang village, Chieng Sang commune, Yen Chau district

30-31/7 Visit Hat Sec village, Chieng Hac commune, Yen Chau district

2-3/8 Study and discuss with Mr. Ulrich Apen community forestry advisor

4/8 Go to Tua Chua district, Lai Chau province

5/8 Visit Thon 1

6/8 Visit Hang De de village

7/8 Visit Dong Phi village, Muong Bang commune

Discuss with Mr. Wim Spiehrings, Agriculture advisor

8/8 Discuss recommendations with Mr. Cheo Cu Xuan, district coordinator

9/8 Go back to Son La, prepare draft report

10/8 Discuss with Mr. Co, Yen Chau representative

11/8 Go back to Hanoi

12-15/8 Prepare final report

19/8 Present final report

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GENDER ISSUES IN VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT PLANNING · 2011. 11. 14. · GENDER ISSUES IN VILLAGE...

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