Summary of gender strategies for ZFAP
The following strategies have been included in Volume 3 of ZFAP report.
1. Participatory Forestry (ZFAP)
1.1. Framework for Participatory Forestry
At the heart of participatory forestry are people; women, men, girls and boys. Participatory forestry aims to build upon the existing interactions between people and forest resources. It promotes rural women and men as the agents and beneficiaries of forestry activities. Policy for participatory forestry builds on the knowledge of local women and men, their needs and priorities, and integrates forestry with agriculture, livestock production and small-scale industries.
1.2. Tool for Participatory Forestry
Implementation of participatory forestry requires detailed knowledge of what women, men, girls and boys do, what resources they have to do it with and who benefits from their activities. This kind of detailed information about the lives of rural communities is seldom available. Gender analysis is a tool to help fill this information gap.
2. Capacity Building (FETP) The identified gender strategies cannot be operationalized with current capacity. Their implementation requires that the staff of the Forestry Department as well as its partners are familiar with participatory development in general, and with gender analysis in particular. Gender analysis training increases institutional capacity to address both social and environmental concerns of forestry development. This contributes to more sustainable, equitable, and effective forestry development.
2.1. Training of Trainers
The starting point is Training of Trainers. Potential trainers should be identified among the staff of the Forestry Department, in the NGO sector and Zambia Forestry College. It is important that the selected trainers are in a position to carry out training of one or more of the key stakeholder groups, are both women and men, and are representative of Zambia geographically.
The Training of Trainers should cover the following: Participatory forestry, gender analysis, and organization of training.
2.2 Trading in Gender Analysis
Gender analysis training raises awareness about what gender is, how gender roles manifest themselves, and how gender roles interact with forestry.
2.2.1. Forestry Department All Forestry Department personnel, especially the extension service, should be trained in gender analysis as a matter of urgency. The new forestry policy adopts a participatory approach to forestry through such strategies as joint management of forestry resources. If forestry personnel does not have the skills to sustain participatory processes and to ensure gender sensitive planning, there is a grave danger that current gender imbalances will be further reinforced in the sector.
2.2.2. Zambia Forestry College and School of Forestry and Wood Science, Copperbelt
University
The institutions of higher education are key entry points to redressing gender imbalances that have been identified in the forestry sector. This can be done in the following ways.
• Ensuring increased intake of women students at the College and at the University through quotas. The purpose of the quota strategy is to ensure that attention is paid to the aspects that are currently constraints to equitable access to education in forestry. The established quota should be regarded as a goal. Two suggestions for addressing current constraints are: 1) establish separate admission criteria for those students electing to prepare themselves for the less science oriented fields of forestry, e.g. extension, small business development etc. Admission criteria should include performance in subjects such as sociology, economics, anthropology etc., and 2) establish a bridge term at the College for those candidates who need to upgrade their science skills before entering the regular programme
• Ensuring increased numbers of women receiving forestry training through improvement of physical facilities at the College and the University.
• Providing gender analysis training to all who teach at the College
• Developing and using gender sensitive teaching aids and materials
Reviewing curricula to strengthen an understanding of the roles of women and men in forestry, and to develop skills in using gender analysis
2.2.3. Other stakeholders
NGOs are a substantial resource for participatory forestry. It is important that they are involved in gender analysis training both as trainers and trainees to ensure that the partnership between the Foresty Department and the NGOs continues to be strengthened.
Gender analysis training should also be accessible to those working to strengthen the linkages between the Forestry Department activities and the private sector. The private sector development has a particularly strong role to play in poverty alleviation, and could have a significant impact on women.
3. Structural Transformation (Forest Sector Policy and Institutional Reform) The gender inequities in the forestry sector in Zambia have been well articulated. Structural transformation of the forestry sector should, therefore, concern itself not only with accommodating women in the programming but with explicitly strategizing for increasing women's access to and control over the forestry sector.
3.1. Gender Guidelines for Forestry Department
Forestry Department should develop clear departmental guidelines for integrating gender into its day-to-day activities. The Gender Guidelines would demonstrate the Department's commitment to consciously addressing existing gender imbalances. The Gender Guidelines should concern itself with such issues as the status of gender participation in the sector, its impact on participatory forestry, strategies for integration of gender in forestry activities, and criteria and mechanisms for monitoring integration of gender.
3.2. Ministerial Gender Co-ordination Unit A Gender Co-ordination Unit should be established at the Ministerial level to:
• develop Gender Guidelines for Forestry Department co-ordinate gender analysis training
• develop and strengthen links to NGOs and the private sector
• develop and strengthen links to other sectors
3.3. Departmental Gender Focal Point In accordance with Zambian Cabinet instructions that the gender focal points be senior managers, it is suggested that the Departmental Gender Focal Point should be the Chief Conservator of Forests or the Deputy Chief Conservator of Forests. S/he would be responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Gender guidelines throughout the Forestry Department.
4. Operationalization of Integration of Gender Issues (PMEP, FREP)
4.1. Review of Terms of Reference and Performance Evaluations
The Terms of Reference of forestry extension staff, forestry rangers, assistant chief conservators of forests and the chief conservator of forests should be reviewed to include explicit tasks related to the integration of gender issues in the forestry sector.
Performance evaluation of the Forestry Department personnel must include explicit criteria for assessing achievement in the areas of participatory forestry and integration of gender issues in the forestry sector.
4.2. Review of Reporting
Reporting by the Forestry Department personnel must be developed both to provide a tool for Performance Evaluations and, more importantly, to collect gender disaggregate information relating to community level forestry activities.
5. Outreach and alliances (IFMBP, TFDP, FIDP, WEDP, FREP, PMEP)
5.1. Public Awareness
As the Forestry Department is undergoing structural transformation as well as fundamentally changing its approach to implementing forestry policy, it is vital that public awareness campaigns are strengthened to ensure that the public is aware of the new expectations that are directed at them and their participation in the sector.
5.2. Gender Disaggregation of Information
As new data bases and Management Information Systems are being established for the forestry sector, it is vital that from the beginning all information pertaining to human interaction with forests is gender disaggregated. Currently the lack of such information is a major obstacle to effective planning of participatory forestry. All forestry research must explicitly seek to understand the contributions already made by women and men in the sector and consequently develop strategies based on these contributions.
5.3. Strengthening the links to the. NGO community
The current resources of the forestry sector to carry out participatory forestry are extremely limited. It is vital that the Forestry Department works together with NGOs, some of whom have substantial experience in participatory approaches, to develop an institutional understanding of the stakeholders and their roles in the forestry sector.
