Gender in policy and planning Women in Zambia read market price data published in a local newspaper FAO/17821 /A. Conti Often the most fundamental problem in policy and planning for the food and agriculture sector is to get those in decision-making positions to agree that there is a gender issue. Decision-makers either consider that 'gender' is not a useful category for the purpose of economic policy and planning or refer to the lack of gender-disaggregated information and data as preventing the incorporation of gender in analytical work. Increasing attention has been paid to the negative impact of structural adjustment policies (SAPs) on rural women. Under SAPs large-scale farming and commercial crop production are promoted, and the subsistence sector is neglected. As a consequence, resources - land, labour, inputs - have been reallocated from subsistence production to the production of export crops. The implications of this shift are numerous, especially for women who are concentrated in the subsistence sector. SAPs focus on the reduction of public spending and price supports, liberalization of markets, reduction and elimination of agricultural and food subsidies and the elimination of marketing and transportation controls. A reduction of government involvement, in such areas such as marketing and pricing subsistence agriculture, leaves farmers responsible for areas in which they have no experience or training. In addition, SAPs generally involve reduced government expenditures on social services such as education, health and rural infrastructure, which means that further demands are made on women's time and energy to make up for shortcomings in these areas. Why gender in policy analysis? Yet, there is a growing body of evidence and experience that warrant bringing in a gender perspective to policy analysis, both in terms of equity and economic efficiency. For example: Women's ability to reallocate their time to other activities in response to changes in market opportunities ( such as increased producer prices or job openings) may be hampered by the societal norms that delineate different economic and social roles for men and women, thus restricting the substitution of male and female labour time. The household economy, with its asymmetry in the control over income, may make impossible the transmission of changing price an incentive to women. Reductions in export taxation combined with exchange rate devaluation provide incentives to increase cash crop production at the expense of subsistence crops, often a non-tradable good, in most cases under the responsibility of women. The increased commercialization of agriculture may result in increased demand for family labour, thereby lowering the benefits of education relative to the benefits of using child labour (even more so for girls). In addition, it may increase women's responsibilities in the 'unrecognized economy', i.e. household management (production of more household goods 'in-house', purchase of less prepared, more time-intensive foods). This may have negative effects on human resources in the long run. Government expenditure policies involving the reduction of social infrastructure, such as health care and sanitation, may imply a transfer of the costs of care from the paid economy to the unrecognized economy of the household and in particular to women. Gender in decentralized rural development planning? Within a national context that favours economic, legal and regulatory policies to equalize women's access to productive resources and to labour and capital markets, planning at the area or district level has the most potential to translate such policies in projects and programmes that can integrate a gender perspective. For a number of reasons: First, the district is the most appropriate level to obtain detailed information of the area, the community, the households and to incorporate this information into project or programme design. Staff at district level generally have a reasonably good knowledge of local conditions and, if the information needed is not immediately available, they can find ways of obtaining it relatively easily; conversely, it is the level where communities or pressure groups can voice their opinions. Second, it is at the area-district level that projects and programmes are implemented and where, therefore, implementation problems related to gender can be identified and rectified. Third, the district is the appropriate level for a participatory approach to planning, enabling local governments and organized communities and pressure groups to interact for the allocation of public resources. In many cases attempts to improve women's access to resources begin as organized pressure groups composed primarily or entirely of women. Government officials may become involved, usually at the final stage of planning exercises conducted autonomously by such groups.            Further information  Investing in women Gender in policy and planning                 Subcategories  credit economic policies rural development planning women in development/gender policies   Sustainable Development Department Homepage