Even though a reasonable amount of time has not yet passed to evaluate the sustainability of the work, the recommendations regarding policies and the plan for institutional strengthening are being consolidated into the sector's guidelines. Moreover, the presentation of an official document is currently being planned where deadlines are stipulated for compliance of each of its objectives. With regard to sensitization and training activities of the farmer bases and specially of women and mixed groups, it is relevant to note that they have assumed dynamics manifested in organizational issues and in the greater demand for services necessary for the production and generation of productive projects. Even though distinct achievements have been made, it is evident that the efforts made up to now are only the beginning of a process which requires follow-up and continuity.
It is difficult to determine which is the entry point with the greatest probability of success to promote the incorporation of gender dimension in the actions of the involved sectors. In this specific case, the simultaneous work at various levels -- local regional and national -- and the participation of all the social actors -- farmer bases, officials, executives, etc. -- responsible for the ongoing process were particularly effective
The way to approach participation at this stage of the project was based on feedback among the various system levels, starting from the basis that possibilities of "bottom to top" influence are weak or inexistent, specially with regard to women farmers. The purpose, then, was to reinforce communication by increasing the flow of information among the various levels and activating the communication routes among the same, strengthening the participative capability of the bases in decision making processes, and finally, through the organizational capacity of the farmer bases, specially of women.
From a methodological point of view, strategic recommendations did not start from "what to do" but on "how to act" within an institutional restructuring and productive transformation ongoing process. The "what to do" searching for precise guidance for the incorporation of the gender perspective in the sector's actions belonged to the second stage of the process.
From the first stages of the process, particularly during the workshops, it became evident that in many cases the services offered to men and women did not establish any type of gender discrimination in explicit terms. However, the percentage of men who demanded them was much higher than that of women. Discussions and reflections about this showed that the obstacles to attain the services and control them were more at the demand than the supply level. It is possible that the existence of some gender stereotypes, lack of custom, and the scarce knowledge on institutional mechanisms conditioned the demand and access of women to services and resources. Limitations at the supply level, which were initially systematically denied by the sector's officials, were also brought to light during the group discussions on policy guidelines and institutional mechanisms. For example, it was observed that specification of men as heads of families frequently eliminated women as the demander of certain services and that access to credit was conditioned to a guarantee in land or other goods, which in general women do not own, etc. Identification of this situation was a determinant to search for ways to eliminate the obstacles that make difficult the support of women's role as productive agent. It was considered, therefore, that individualization and acknowledgment of the factors and mechanisms that condition both the offer and supply of services should be faced from the beginning of the project in the workshops and discussions with grassroot groups.
The methodology used during the project was derived from the ASEG approach. This option was based on motivations and the need to:
· Use a participative approach. The probabilities of executing a project's plans and recommendations are higher if the target population participates in the identification of the needs and priorities.
· Contextualize the approach. Incorporation of the gender dimension into the sector's actions made necessary the identification and acknowledgment of the socioeconomic development process guidelines. This allowed greater coordination between government policies and the project's objectives, taking advantage of the potential opening up of spaces and the indication of the necessary changes to valuate the productive contribution of rural women.
· Consider the different dimensions of reality. The various issues in themselves and the interrelations which influence a specific problem must be taken into account in order to propose appropriate solutions, Thus, for example, when addressing the obstacles found by women farmers in their search for access and control of productive resources, barriers linked to the culture immediately arise, as well as gender stereotypes; institutional barriers that generate from access mechanisms to resources; social barriers determined, among other, by belonging to a certain social stratum; limitations originating in the impossibility of acquiring certain productive inputs, etc. To be effective, the proposed solutions cannot ignore these different determinations.
· Adopt an inter-disciplinary approach. The inter-disciplinary approach is the most logical approach to deal with a reality that has multiple dimensions. In the formulation of policy recommendations for the mixed farming and environmental sectors, the presence of forestal experts, engineers, sociologists, economists, extension workers, etc., enriched the analysis and permitted the visualization of measures within a simultaneously broad and specific horizon of the problems being dealt with.
· Center on the less favored strata. Limit the role of the State as a highly hierarchical and vertical sector and let the producers have the principal role. As foreseen in the institutional restructuring and gender approach, those groups left behind, that is farmers in general and rural women in particular, need strengthening.
· Work at different system levels. Incorporation of a gender dimension into the sector's guidelines implies entering into a relationship and feedback network inside the system. It is essential, therefore, to sensitize and train institutional senior executives, technicians and officials, ONG representatives and farmer bases, among others.
The working tools used during the process were of very diverse kinds and their action was mutually reinforced. Among these tools, it is worthwhile mentioning the following:
· Individual Interviews. At the beginning of the project, interviews were oriented towards obtaining information and documentation and, later on, they contributed to the evaluation and giving of opinions on the ongoing process. Among others, audiovisual techniques and schemes which summarized the context within which the sector's actions were developed were used.
· Meetings with focal groups within various contexts. Interviews were held with different specialists (for example with MINAE officials) and subsequently were complemented with others held at the ONG of the same area (Neotropical Foundations and UINC). These contributed new considerations to the problems under study and, in a subsequent phase, technical comments about the proposals that contributed to determine actions, clarify the delimitation of responsibilities and test institutional mechanisms.
· Bibliographical revision of official documentation regarding the strategic guidelines of the sector and the status of women farmers in Costa Rica and Central America. As is evident, a detailed revision of the official documentation is an essential requirement for the incorporation of gender dimension into the mixed farming sector and for drawing up action proposals. It also allows appropriating a language, useful in discussions with planners and technicians.
· Thematic Workshops. It can be affirmed that thematic workshops were centered on two issues: the first was oriented towards sharing specific knowledge and carrying out analytic work, and the second was aimed at generating a change in attitude, which is maybe the most novel of the experience. With regard to the second component, mechanisms were adopted to sensitize the participants on the topic of gender and to facilitate their familiarity and involvement with the same, particularly with regard to the tasks of their own sector. Work groups were established in most of the workshops which covered a specific area of the strategic axes of their sector. The result was positive since almost everybody participated in the discussions, the debate was specific and all items were dealt with exhaustively.
The conclusion from this experience, which would have to be compared with other similar experiences, is that group work is benefited by the "dynamics of small groups", which has been much studied by social psychology, by permitting greater cohesion which will influence the participants' commitment. Moreover, it has a beneficial effect on participation, facilitates appropriation of the results and benefits the joint work of such heterogeneous groups with regard to discipline, institutional membership and working hierarchy.
· Work Teams in the preparation and revision of proposals. The team work carried out by a three- person permanent group, which was joined by specialists on the thematic axes, proved to be a specially enriching tool. The existence of a stable core of participants provided continuity and group outlook to the work and integrated the organizations executing the proposed policies. The team members of specialized institutions, apart from contributing specific knowledge, acted as links with their own institutions, channeling the proposals through regular institutional proceedings.
· Support material. The official documentation and the conceptual and methodological elements used in interviews, courses and workshops, meetings with focal groups, etc. were presented in slides, graphs and diagrams. Moreover, videos were taped on women's agricultural work, covering, among others, subjects such as the sexual division of work, inequalities among the sexes, and the work context and its resources.
· Diagnosis and sensitization tools used in workshops. Role play, the watch technique (time use approach) and projections were used, among others, to establish links between direct personal experience and the provided theoretical and methodological tools. These tools have the power to create a distended climate and to give learning a play oriented character.
Strengthening of capabilities in institutions and farmer bases is essential, for the introduction and consolidation of the gender perspective within the guidelines of a sector. Within this context, the training of human resources was one of the central axes of the project. Executives and technicians of the planning institutions of the sector, regional personnel and extension workers, and farmer bases were sensitized and trained (training by levels approach). The most important issues of training by levels are:
· Prior knowledge and experience of various kinds are taken advantage of, such as that forthcoming from men and women farmers and executives.
· It provides a common language represented by the gender analysis.
· It enriches this common language through the particular experience of each one of the trained groups.
The process had to produce a horizontal and vertical multiplying effect. Horizontal, in which extension workers and technicians involve and train an increasing number of people in gender perspective. Vertical, in which the variety of knowledge and experiences is fed back through links created among the various actors. Although the gender experience of farmers had to reach high and medium decision making levels, indicating their needs and targeting policies, the experience of planners and technicians, in terms of supply and provision of services and formulation of policies, had to be transparent and adapt itself to the needs of the bases.
It cannot be assumed that the multiplying effect has its own inertia and that training a few automatically implies the training of a specific group or community. It is important to facilitate this effect through the creation of institutional mechanisms that favor transmission of knowledge and experiences both horizontally and vertically. Various significative lessons resulted from this experience. First, it was verified that training cannot be given as an isolated experience, nor temporarily or spatially. It requires continuity in learning through frequent workshops (semestral, with the opportunity of specific events as a routine that sets its own deadlines, etc.).
Second, it was observed that the process is enriched and contextualized in each person's daily and professional activities, acquiring meaning. These experience elements, added to the initial learning, must be analyzed in the new training sessions and integrated into the knowledge corpus when relevant.
Finally, the need to take into account how gender stereotypes assume different shades, depending of the sphere where they manifest themselves, was demonstrated.
Some Characteristics of the Participation of Women Farmers
Most of the farms in which Costa Rican women work have less than 10 hectares. The tenancy mode is usually ownership and the farms are registered under the name of their husbands or common-law companions. As a result of the IDA programs, access to land is scarce (in 25 years of existence, only 11.8% of the beneficiaries have been women and they have been assigned around 16.4% of the total hectares26). Women farmers's access to credit is very limited (according to the Rural Credit Department of the Costa Rica National Bank, of the 8,000 credits granted, only 20 corresponded to women and of these, only 10 were used by those who requested them. The remaining 10 were legalized in the name of a woman to be used by men27). Extension and training programs are generally aimed at men who are considered the head of the family. The extension and training model used is targeted to the main activities of the productive unit, leaving aside others that contribute to the family income, such as orchards and the handling of small livestock, generally in charge of women. In spite of their participation in all stages of mixed farming production, women are not generally involved in the commercialization process.
Lack of Information on the Thematic of Gender
The sector's planners' and technician's lack of information on gender distorts the planning process and confuses the debate on rural development. It is interesting to note that there is rich research experience in the region on the subject; whose knowledge and synthesis permits reconsidering points of view and comparing stereotypes in the light of empirical data. Within the scope of the project, a document was prepared that served as basic material for discussion in the Gender and Policy Workshop. The contents shared with the participants is related to the fundamental role played by women in multiple activities, and the subvaluation of women's agricultural work, among others.
The principal role played by women farmers in agricultural production, within the framework of small production units, has been traditionally subvalued, which is reflected in the subrecording in official statistics. Apart from the activities intended for reproduction of the labor force and communal participation, rural women usually work in family orchards (self-consumption, animal breeding, commercialization) They participate in farm tasks (family manpower, self employment or paid) and in agricultural production. They engage in paid activities in nontraditional export industries and perform non agricultural work in rural areas (providing services, in bond assembly, informal sector).
Women are the mainstay of the survival strategies of farmer economies. Through the simultaneous performance of a multiplicity of tasks, she helps face the problems caused by the deterioration of salaries, the rise of the basic food basket (CBA), and, therefore, the decrease of the per capita global income. The main strategies are production and income source diversification, production for self-consumption, family and communal solidarity and greater incorporation of the family labor force into the production of the land lot28.
In fact, women participate actively in the production of basic grains. This is the basis of food security, contributing 34% of the calories and 38% of the proteins of the Costa Rican diet29. Small men and women producers provide 73% of the corn production, 70% of the bean production and 14% of the rice production30.
The decrease in the production and commercialization of basic grains and the impoverishment of the grain producing areas has led women to link themselves more with the paid work force. In the last decades, this option has been encouraged by the commercial opening for nontraditional products (ornamental plants, flowers, tubers, roots, fruit and vegetables). Although these nontraditional crops have increased the demand of paid female workers, it has not created a real possibility for the insertion of women into the new productive scheme due to the exigencies in investment and technology. Thus, with regard to the production of nontraditional goods, farmer units have limited themselves to root and tuber crops which adapt themselves better to productive possibilities and do not demand farm specialization31.
The project has an eminently participative orientation. Throughout the process, all involved actors (men and women farmers, technicians and planners) worked closely and carried out simultaneous activities at different levels. Within this context, the adopted methodology and tools used (consultation, workshops, interviews and group work) facilitated and promoted the establishment of the following links:
Mechanism, strategy or activity that favors the creation of links. |
Links |
Develops a joint work agenda. |
Among the various organisms of the sector both in the Huetar Atlantica region and with other OSM offices of the institutions and planning areas. |
Activities oriented towards the sensitization and training of the social actors committed to the process created a dialog and cooperation space. |
Among the informal groups of women farmers, farmer organizations in the work area, CABs and regional technicians of the various organizations, |
Consultations, seminars, courses and team work. |
Among those in charge of the sector's policy and the gender policy. |
Identification of problems and proposal of objectives and development targets. This was translated into a women farmers regional association. |
Among women groups from various communities and municipalities of the Huetar Atlantica region. |
Search and establishment of institutional links |
Among the Academy, the ONGs, women and men farmer organizations, syndicates and municipalities and the channeling of feedback towards the project's objectives. |
The institutionalization of the incorporation process of the gender approach into the mixed farming and environmental sectors is an essential requirement for the consolidation and sustainability of the achievements made. Within this context, the project benefited from the institutional restructuring ongoing at the time in Costa Rica as a result of the modernization of the mixed farming sector. Moreover, various actions were undertaken that provided feedback for each other.
The government adopted reforms and strategies, subsequently supported by the project, to strengthen farmer bases (one of the most vulnerable sectors of the population) and to ensure their participation and increased responsibility in the development process.
The decentralization, deconcentration and service integration strategies provided new dialog and cooperation spaces, favoring the convergence of technicians and producers. This facilitated, among other things, identification of production needs within the farmer unit and permitted the institutions responsible for covering these needs to obtain information from the bases themselves. Thus, local institutions became participation centers to which women rural producers could easily have access to, both in terms of mobilization and transport, and regarding the establishment of direct interpersonal relations with the sector's officials.
In order to face the challenges imposed by the new mixed farming model, "work teams were created of technicians from the different institutions and producers that play the main role in the management of their own development through their participation in decision making"32. Three elements are implied from this proposal that permit or assume integration of the gender approach:
· First, the idea of shared responsibility assumes acknowledgment and valorization of the activities carried out by women and improvement of their participating conditions. The strategic center towards which all shared responsibilities flow is CAB, which demands as requirement to carry out its functions the organization of its men and women producers.
· Second, the concept of active and organized participation of men and women users in the services offered b the State, emphasized the need to strengthen farmer organizations and ensure their equitable composition.
· Finally, the idea of self-management makes necessary an increase of women's representativity in the decision making and negotiation institutions and their technical and organizational training for the effective management of development.
The various institutions of the sector, from the different specialization areas, follow common strategic guidelines. This supports and gives coherence to the institutionalization of the gender dimension, by providing a homogenous reference framework and exact directionality to the process. Likewise, it contributes to favor execution and follow-up through the coordinated work of the institutions.
As a result of the political will of the Costa Ricans to introduce the gender dimension into the actions of the mixed farming and environmental sectors, ad hoc offices were created, such as the Gender Unit in SEPSA and the Women's Office in MINAE. Moreover, a gender training committee was formed by the officials of IDA, MAG and CNP sent to the Huetar Atlantica region33. They favored diffusion of the gender approach to the base groups (CABs, Cantonal boards, producer associations) and its incorporation into the programs and projects of each of the participating institutions. Sensitization, diagnosis and planning of future action workshops were carried out at both regional and national level.
On the other hand, the gathering power of the Women Ministry and Sector offices permitted the representatives of different decision making institutions to involve themselves in the discussions and actions. This power was demonstrated in the Gender and Policies workshop and in the multiple initiatives of the project since it had the constant and active participation of the local and sector technical personnel.
Even though many officials have not received gender training and others have been reticent about the subject of gender, many of them have been systematically and commitedly present in the discussions and drawing up of proposals. In fact, the managing organisms and decision making institutions, particularly SEPSA, at the sector level, and CMF at the national level, participated throughout the process.
As conclusion, it is worthwhile mentioning that through adhesion to international agreements and the Beijing Platform, the government has assumed commitments for the incorporation of the gender approach into the sector's guidelines as part of the Plan for Equal Opportunities and the national policy.
