Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Re: Rural women: striving for gender transformative impacts

On Question 3: How can we best achieve gender transformative impacts?

What approaches have proved successful to address deeply rooted gender norms, power relations and social institutions? 

Norms, power relations and social institutions are very context-specific and can differ from one community to another. Changing norms, power relations and social institutions is only achievable when people are defining the change process themselves. Empowering measures are the most effective approach where men and women are skilled and equipped to make decisions on the changes they are willing to see. In IFAD, an innovative and transformative approach based on participatory action learning system has been tested in the past ten years. It has been developed to tackle root causes of inequalities and social exclusion with a focus on gender justice: the Gender Action Learning System (GALS). All male and female members of the household are equipped with tools to lead change through visualization of the various areas of inequalities (power relations, division of labour, decision-making processes, access and control over resources and assets) and negotiate the solutions they want. The approach/methodology has now demonstrated transformative impacts on women and men such as redistribution of power, balanced workloads, improved relations and communication to make decisions that contribute to gender equality and sustainable poverty reduction. Tangible results and impacts are reported by the beneficiaries and encouraging IFAD to upscale the methodology.

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