10. Adapting existing checklists
Gender in the Project Cycle has four major questions:
• Who does what, when, and where? - in enterprises, off-farm, farm and household maintenance?
• Who has access to and control over resources for production, knowledge, technology, time and decision-making? Having access without control may mean great constraints and less flexibility in using the resource
• Who benefits from the existing organization of productive, community and household resources? This question is closely related to roles and responsibilities and control over resources. For example, technological innovations may increase women's workload without providing any direct benefit to them
• How and to what extent do cultural systems, poverty alleviation policies, development planning and technology projects address the practical needs and strategic interests of the community in general and women in particular?
Major concerns are:
Analysis of target group
• What are the main characteristics of the position of (different categories of) women, in relation to men, in terms of (a) gender division of labour, (b) gender-related access to and control over resources, (c) social-political dimension of the position of women, and (d) influencing factors?
• What are the views and expectations of women (and men) with regard to the proposed project interventions?
Analysis of institutional setting:
• What is the gender capacity of the institutions (to be) involved in the project, and are there alternatives with respect to the institutional set-up of the project?
Analysis of project idea/Proposal:
• Are gender issues correctly and systematically incorporated in the existing project idea or proposal?
• In what way and to what extent will the target group in general, and women in particular, be able to participate in the different stages of the project?
• What likely positive or negative effects will the project have on the autonomy of (different categories of) women?
Recommendation:
• How should the project be designed to ensure that it will optimally strengthen the autonomy of women? What recommendations can be made to the donor and (non) governmental organizations in this respect?
• What monitoring indicators can be suggested to monitor women's participation and the gender specific effects of the project?
The following questions are part of a paper by Sara Hlupekile Longwe of Zambia. We have excerpted the section called "Examples of Questions to Ask About a Project's Contribution
Towards Women's Development".
Question on Problem Identification
• Did the needs assessment look into the special or different problems and needs of the women in the community?
• For the problem selected for project intervention, how does this problem affect women and men differently?
• Were women involved in conducting the needs assessment, and were the women of the community asked for their opinion on their problems and needs?
• Has there been an assessment of women's position in terms of such possible problems as their heavier work burden, relative lack of access to resources and opportunities or lack of participation in the development process?
Questions on Project Strategy
• Is the project intervention aimed at a target group of both men and women?
• Have the women in the affected community and target group been consulted on the most appropriate ways of overcoming the problem?
• Is the chosen intervention strategy likely to overlook women in the target group, for instance because of their heavier burden of work and more domestic location?
• Is the strategy concerned merely with delivering benefits to women, or does it also involve their increased participation and empowerment, so they will be in a better position to overcome problem situations?
Questions on Project Objectives
• Do the project objectives make clear that project benefits are intended equally for women as for men?
• In what ways, specifically, will the project lead to women's increased empowerment? e.g. increased access to credit? Increased participation in decision-making at the level of family and community? Increased control of income resulting from their own labour?
• Do any of the objectives challenge the existing or traditional sexual division of labour, tasks, opportunities and responsibilities?
• Are there specific ways proposed for encouraging and enabling women to participate in the project despite their traditionally more domestic location and subordinate position within the community?
Questions on Project Management
• Is there a clear guiding policy for management on the integration of women within the development process?
• Are women and men of the affected community represented equally on the management committee?
• Is there a need for management training on gender awareness and gender analysis?
• Has management been provided with the human resources and expertise necessary to manage and monitor the women's development component within the project?
Questions on Project Implementation
• Do implementation methods make sufficient use of existing women's organizations and networks such as women's clubs, church organizations and party political organizations?
• Are women included in the implementation team?
• Are women the target group involved in project implementation?
• Are there methods for monitoring the progress in reaching women? For instance, by monitoring their increased income, increased occupation of leadership roles, increased utilization of credit facilities, increased participation in project management and implementation, increased influence over decision-making processes.
Questions on Project Outcomes
• Do women receive a fair share, relative to men, of the benefits arising from the project?
• Does the project redress a previous unequal sharing of benefits?
• Does the project give women increased control over material resources, better access to credit and other opportunities, and more control over the benefits resulting from their productive efforts?
• What are the (likely) long-term effects in terms of women's increased ability to take charge of their own lives, understand their situation and the difficulties they face, and to take collective action to solve problems?
• What productive and reproductive work is done by women and men? (Complete an Activity Profile)
• What resources and benefits do women and men have access to and control over?
(Complete Access and Control Profile)
• How appropriate is the design of the project given women's social and economic roles?
• What has the impact of the project been on women and men? How does this impact relate to project objectives?
• How could the project be changed to ensure more equitable participation and benefit for women and men; and to better address the strategic interests of women?
Activity Profile (an example)
ACTIVITY |
Hours per day |
Income per day | ||
women |
men |
women |
men | |
A. Productive Activities (producing |
||||
Income in money or kind) |
||||
- farming |
||||
- ploughing |
||||
- weeding |
||||
- fertilizing |
||||
- planting |
||||
- harvesting |
||||
- drying. |
||||
- storing |
||||
- cattle breeding (please specify) |
||||
-- |
||||
- home industry (please specify) |
||||
-- |
||||
- trading (please specify) |
||||
-- |
||||
- industrial work |
||||
- civil servant |
||||
- private company employee |
||||
B. Reproductive Activities |
||||
(non-remunerated work) |
||||
- food production for own consumption |
||||
- organizing household budget |
||||
- housework |
||||
-- cleaning |
||||
-- cooking |
||||
- washing clothes |
||||
- fetching water |
||||
- mending clothes |
||||
- collecting fire wood |
||||
- childcare |
||||
- health care |
||||
-- house repairs |
||||
- others…. |
. |
|||
C. Social Activities |
||||
- family welfare movement (PKK) |
||||
- village council |
||||
- credit savings and credit group |
||||
- farmer's group |
||||
- religious meetings |
||||
- others......... |
||||
D. Free Time |
||||
- recreation visiting relatives or neighbours |
||||
TOTAL |
||||
Profile of Access to and Control of Resources by Women and Men (an example)
RESOURCES AND FACILITIES |
Access by |
Control by | ||
men |
women |
men |
women | |
RESOURCES |
||||
- land |
||||
- water |
||||
- raw material (please state) |
||||
- capital/credit |
||||
- production inputs |
||||
- farming |
||||
-fertilizer |
||||
- pesticide |
||||
- seeds |
||||
- cattle/poultry breeding |
||||
- animal feed |
||||
- medicines |
||||
- hybrid stock |
||||
- for home industry |
||||
- thread/yams |
||||
- material |
||||
- others.......... |
||||
FACILITIES |
||||
- equipment for |
||||
- farming |
||||
- cattle/poultry breeding |
||||
- fish farming |
||||
- home industry transport |
||||
- as a seller |
||||
- as a buyer |
||||
- as a distributor |
||||
- information |
||||
- training |
||||
Key: H = high
L = low
0 = non-existent
The access and control of resources should be seen as "high" or "low" as a ratio between men and women's access control in any one area.
Example, men's access to land in area A could be classified as high compared with women's access to land in the same area. A could be relatively low compared with men's access to land in area B or C.
