ما هو الدور الذي يمكن أن تلعبه خدمات الإرشاد الزراعي والخدمات الاستشارية في تحقيق المساواة بين الجنسين وتحسين التغذية؟
The Nutrition Working Group of the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS), of which FAO is a member, invites you to reflect on the role that agricultural extension and advisory services (AEAS) can play in contributing to reducing gender inequalities and improving nutrition. Gender equality and nutrition are quite intertwined, and there is compelling evidence that gender inequalities significantly undermine food security and nutrition objectives [i].
Integrated approaches connecting the design and delivery of programs across disciplines and sectors are instrumental to address such challenges, with their importance having recently been highlighted by the UN Decade of Action for Nutrition. It is in such context that agricultural extension and advisory services (AEAS) have been identified as being able to play a significant role in the push for increased gender equality and improved nutrition.
Agricultural extension and advisory services (AEAS) refers to any organization in the public or private sectors (e.g. NGOs, farmer organizations, private firms etc.) that facilitates farmers’ and other rural actors’ access to knowledge, information and technologies, and their interactions with other actors; and assists them to develop their own technical, organizational and management skills and practices, so as to improve their livelihoods and well-being [ii].
Over the past few decades the role of AEAS has changed substantially, shifting away from a production oriented, technology transfer model to a greater emphasis on broader development objectives such as improving rural livelihoods through a demand-led, participatory and market-oriented approach. It is in the context of this paradigm shift that a potential role for AEAS in promoting gender equality and supporting nutrition interventions has emerged.
Experience suggests that AEAS can play a role in promoting nutrition outcomes, enhancing the food and nutritional security of household members, and ensuring sustainable food systems that promote healthy diets. Whether supported by the public, private, or non-profit sector, AEAS are often seen as a potential channel for influencing the production and consumption decisions of farming households so that they grow, sell, and eat more nutritious and diversified foods and time-saving technologies to alleviate drudgery.
At the same time, addressing gender constraints and unequal access to services and technology is essential for AEAS to effectively contribute to improved diets and nutrition. The INGENAES project, funded by USAID to assist countries in building more robust, gender-responsive, and nutrition-sensitive extension and advisory services, has begun to address these gaps by supporting the adoption of policies that recognize gender equality and nutrition security as AEAS objectives, training AEAS institutions, and disseminating accessible materials for field-level staff. In Liberia, for instance, INGENAES is collaborating with the University of Cuttington and the Ministry of Agriculture to survey AEAS clients to better understand barriers to gender equitable services, and ensure that high-level policy is translated into action at the field level that meets the needs of both men and women farmers.
Concrete experiences and success factors, including approaches, methodologies and tools that work to enhance women’s and men’s equitable access to AEAS as well as nutrition results have however not yet been identified conclusively and examples of successful cases are still sparse.
Given the above, the objective of this online discussion is to collect experiences, methodologies, and lessons learned around gender-sensitive and nutrition-enhancing AEAS practices from all over the world.
We invite you to join the conversation by reflecting on the following questions:
- To what extent do you think should AEAS be involved in broader development, going beyond providing and facilitating access to knowledge, information and technologies?
- What specific challenges have you encountered that hinder AEAS from addressing gender inequalities and promoting nutrition?
- Do you know any examples of AEAS successfully addressing gender inequalities and supporting improved nutrition outcomes? What factors, including specific approaches and tools, led to success?
- What do you think the role and main activities should be of a global forum such as the GFRAS Nutrition Working Group in helping AEAS to become more gender-sensitive and able to contribute to improved nutrition?
The results of this discussion will inform the work of the newly-formed GFRAS Nutrition Working Group, which provides resources and effective coordination opportunities for practitioners and policy makers. We hope that through enabling a broad participation of experts in this exchange, we can stimulate the uptake of innovative gender-sensitive and nutrition-enhancing AEAS practices.
Forum participants will become part of the broad community of the GFRAS Nutrition Working Group. They will receive updates about the Working Group’s activities and also have the opportunity to contribute to future initiatives.
Thank you and we look forward to a fruitful discussion!
Hajnalka Petrics, Soniia David and Fatima Hachem, FAO
Edye Kuyper, INGENAES
[i] FAO.2017. Strengthening sector policies for better food security and nutrition results. Gender Equality. Policy Guidance Note. Rome.
[ii] Christoplos. I. 2010. Mobilizing the potential of rural and agricultural extension. FAO. Rome.
الموضوعات
- أقرأ 64 المساهمات
For a long time now, AEAS have been male dominated; due to mainly the patriarchy arrangements. Knowledge and exposure is perceived as a preserve of men. The problem is even deeper in rural areas where agriculture is the mainstay of people's livelihoods. This approach is however in contrast with the situation on the ground; women are more involved in provision of agricultural labor, they are responsible for providing food for the family. They are however doing all that with little or no knowledge as the knowledge is sitting with the man. The extension workers in most cases are male; who may have barriers to effectively connect with women to get to the underlying causes of the inequalities women experience and how these can be addressed. This is the gap and food insecurity continues to widen and deepen. Unless we begin to addressing the underlying causes which mainly touch on culture and tradition; unless we begin to transformatively empower women to understand their rights but also acquire reasonable levels of education and begin to create spaces for them to engage based on their needs; we will continue to experience these high levels of food insecurity and poor nutrition.
I would love to hear from extension practitioners, describing a very practical way in which they are addressing nutrition in their work. I bet many are doing so without necessarily explicitly referring to nutrition. For example, by assisting farmers in better managing their poultry flock and making sure children are not exposed to the feces, nutritional outcomes can improve.
The attached report on "Mainstreaming Nutrition into Agricultural Extension: Lessons Learned from the Integrated Agriculture and Poultry Nutrition Projects in Bangladesh" (jointly prepared by FAO/Bangladesh and INGENAES) gives lots of examples of how to integrate nutrition in agricultural development and extension programs.
To what extent do you think should AEAS be involved in broader development, going beyond providing and facilitating access to knowledge, information and technologies?
Agriculture extension and advisory services can play a tremendous role in influencing uptake of technologies and 'best practices' among smallholders:
Farmers have different information needs based on their context, and hence use different channels to access information. At the same time, the available sources of knowledge and information have an immense influence on farmers' activities and practices. As such, tailoring AEAS to specifically facilitate access and exchange of nutrition-focused content is one way through which improved nutrition for communities can be realised.
Decision making power and uptake of technologies are inextricably linked; Identifying the entry-point to women's empowerment and ability to make and implement decisions is fundamental to realize improved nutrition. AEAS can be organised to identify and work with local 'influencers' in the communities to devise engagement strategies that will tailor messages based on women's sphere of control. For example, could the key to improved nutrition be on developing and facilitating exchange of knowledge and information on production of small livestock such as chicken?
By employing engagement strategies that target and address women's interests and access to resources, AEAS can facilitate improved gender and equality and improved nutrition. From previous studies, it has been established that socialisation is a major process through which knowledge shared and converted within the small holder set up, with the main models used for knowledge dissemination involving the face to face interaction between the farmers and the extension agents.
See journal article attached.
Agriculture development plays an essential role in improving nutrition. In many development countries, women play a major role in agricultural production, a critical component of food security – women farmers bring to bear valuable knowledge in seed selection, vegetative propagation and the reproduction of plants and animals. A growing body of evidence in international development establishes that gender equality at the household and community levels leads to superior agricultural and development outcomes, including increases in farm productivity and improvements in family nutrition.
There is currently need to establish an effective agricultural extension services for food and nutrition security, health and to achieve a range of rural development goals. It helps to reduce poverty through improved nutrition and increasing family income through increased and improved agricultural production primarily for women and their children in developing countries.
Extension services help farmers to access information on technologies, markets, inputs, and finance, and upgrade their farming and managerial skills.
Urgent efforts are required to:
- enhance women’s and men’s access to and knowledge about new agricultural technologies;
- ensure that farmers and other actors in value chains can deal with changing markets;
- enable farmers to adapt to new climate change challenges;
- support rural communities to manage their natural resources more effectively;
- assist farmers to make optimal use of their available resources to ensure access to food and income for their families.
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