Farmer field schools as safe spaces for empowerment and transformative change
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Farmer field schools (FFS) were developed over 30 years ago as an alternative to more top-down extension models so that farmers could engage in participatory learning, particularly through field experiments. While focusing on empowering farmers in general, FFS have often been successful in empowering women in agriculture, transforming the ways in which they act and are perceived within their communities. The evidence, while still limited (van den Berg et al., 2020), shows that FFS has a strong potential to transform gender relations at household and community level (Friis-Hansen et al., 2012).
On this basis, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has partnered with CARE to further integrate gender transformative approaches in the future of FFS. This comes at a pivotal time when FAO has launched a process of consultation engaging organizations worldwide to reflect on the future of FFS. The consultations provide an opportunity to include concrete gender objectives and launch an integrated plan to transform harmful gender norms across FFS programmes – so that organizations can now be more intentional in integrating women’s empowerment and gender equality intoFFS’ future.
The Global FFS Platform, in collaboration with FAO’s gender team, CARE USA and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), recently organized a webinar called “Sowing Seeds of Change: The Potential of Farmer Field Schools for Women's Empowerment” to discuss the relevance of FFS for gender equality and transformation More than 250 people attended the event, including practitioners, FAO representatives, IFAD and other interested national and international organizations. The webinar’s success stories, project statistics and panel raised key questions on challenges and opportunities for future improvement.
Lucie Chocholata, FAO’s Land and Water Division, talked about what are often called the "side effects" of FFS. These are results of programme implementation which are not part of its planned objectives; most of the ones she mentioned were social transformations, where changes in gender dynamics and women's empowerment stood out. Lucie emphasized that to achieve long lasting gender outcomes in FFS projects, such aspects can no longer be considered as side effects but must become fundamental programme objectives. Her work, based on two gender and social inclusion studies in Uganda and Senegal, as well as preliminary studies in Jordan and Tunisia, showed long lasting impacts of FFS participation on gender relations even 10 years after an intervention ended.
Queen Katembu, CARE USA, shared insights on CARE's gender transformative approaches and how these were integrated across their Farmer Field and Business School (FFBS) activities in Burundi and Uganda. Queen noted that by engaging directly with communities, it is possible to promote behavioural change on gender issues. She emphasized the importance of working with community leaders, influential and respected people who can become or already are agents of change, to make sure that the effects of FFS on gender are sustainable.
During the panel discussion, Moamen Gelany, FFS master trainer from FAO Egypt, shared the story of Safa, a woman who thanks to FFS support ended up running an FFS for 18 male farmers. Now she has become a highly respected leader in her community, this despite the initial difficulties she had in making her voice heard when first joining the FFS.
Deborah Duveskog, FAO Kenya, stressed the central role of facilitators for well-functioning FFS that lead to social transformations in communities. She also pointed out that it is the nature of the FFS process itself – for instance the fact that FFS meet over an entire season, that they work in sub-groups facilitating women in speaking up, that they revolve on building a culture of discussion and analysis that can spillover in household – that makes FFS so powerful for women’s empowerment and social transformation in communities.
Regarding women participation in the groups, Deborah mentioned that in her experience FFS tend toattract women spontaneously, often without any need for quotas. “We automatically get the high female membership. In East Africa, we have an average 60% female membership without any deliberate efforts to encourage female participation”.
Marie-Aude Even, IFAD, mentioned “We need to integrate gender focused goals a little bit more explicitly in FFS programme because changes in gender dynamics and relations happen, even if we don't think about it” The first steps of integrating gender more systematically are already being taken. Yet, it has become evident that there is a strong interest to start integrating a gender dimension throughout FFS programmes in a systematic way, including through the definition of clear gender objectives.
Abinet Tasew, CARE USA, closed the event saying: “I always start my trainings by asking participants to just close their eyes and think about a farmer, and when they share the picture they had in mind, it is mostly a male farmer working the land. I would then ask, would it be possible for one to design and implement policies, strategies and programs that are inclusive and considerate of the specific and special needs of women in their respective diversities when all you think about is just a male farmer?”
The answer is of course not. That is why, for FFS to empower women, strengthen gender equality and contribute to building more harmonious communities, programmes need to better account for women’s needs and priorities. To meet this goal, FAO and CARE USA are collaborating to develop a global gender strategy for FFS, including dedicated tools and trainings that will make it easier for practitioners to integrate gender systematically into FFS programmes worldwide.
Recording of the webinar is available here (passcode: FARM2023+) and the PPT presentations arehere.
Useful resources
Gender and social inclusion page - Global FFS Platform website