The Socio-economic
And Gender Analysis Programme

for mainstreaming and increasing awareness of gender issues

The Socio-economic and Gender Analysis (SEAGA) Programme was established in 1993 to promote gender awareness when meeting development challenges. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Labour Organization (ILO) the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) initially undertook the development of the SEAGA materials.

• Aims

• Goal

• Guiding Principles

• Approach

• How does the SEAGA programme work?

• SEAGA Publications

• Target Audience

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Aims
To increase awareness of and sensitivity towards gender issues, as well as to strengthen the capacity of development specialists to incorporate socio-economic and gender analysis considerations into development planning.

Goal
To incorporate socio-economic and gender considerations into development projects programmes and policies in order to ensure that all development efforts address the needs and priorities of both men and women.

Guiding Principles

• Gender roles and relations are of key importance.
• Disadvantaged people should be a priority in development initiatives.
• Participation of local people is essential for sustainable development.

Approach

SEAGA emphasises the socio-cultural, economic, demographic, political, institutional and environmental factors that affect the outcome of development initiatives and the linkages between them from a gender perspective. Furthermore, SEAGA examines the linkages among these factors at three levels - macro (programmes and policies), intermediate (institutions) and field (communities, households and individuals).

Through this holistic vision of development, SEAGA provides an approach that seeks to:

• understand gender roles and relations,
• understand the socio-economic factors that affect development,
• account for and support disadvantaged people,
• ensure the active participation of all stakeholders,
• identify the linkages among different stakeholder groups,
• use bottom-up approaches to prioritise development initiatives,
• promote a participatory process in planning and implementing development activities and policies,
• facilitate network building among development workers and encourage the exchange of views and experiences.

How does the SEAGA programme work?

The programme:

• has developed a set of handbooks (Field/Intermediate/Macro Level) and guides and it continues to revise and update these publications based on feedback and experiences from its users;
• develops new guides that incorporate socio-economic and gender analysis into a specific sector/technical field;
• disseminates its publications to development specialists.
• Organises workshops in "socio-economic and Gender Analysis" and "Training of Trainers" worldwide;
• collaborates with other projects and programmes within FAO and with other external development initiatives in providing technical support in socio-economic and gender analysis;
• establishes a network of development specialists familiar with the Socio-economic and Gender Analysis Programme so that they may exchange views and experiences on integrating gender issues into development strategies;
• releases a newsletter that promotes the exchange of information amongst development specialists.

SEAGA Publications

The SEAGA publications offer practical tools and methods for integrating socio-economic and gender issues at different levels and within different technical areas.

• Macro, Intermediate and Field Level Handbooks

The three Handbooks provide practical information on how to undertake socio-economic and gender analysis at the respective levels. Each Handbook presents case studies and tools to help development practitioners collect, analyse and use information. Each Handbook also suggests methods for integrating the findings to policy programme and project identification and formulation.

• The Guides

These are issue and sector specific guides that integrate socio-economic and gender analysis. For example, the `SEAGA Sector guide on Irrigation' combines irrigation issues and practices with socio-economic and gender analysis concerns.

The emphasis is on `why' and `how' to plan activities in a participatory way. The guides use real examples and studies to illustrate main issues and the practical use of tools and concepts.

• The SEAGA information kit

These documents briefly illustrate what the programme is about and how it works.

Target Audience

SEAGA targets three levels of people who work in development.

• Field workers

Extensionists, government and non-government field workers, private- and public-sector development consultants, community organisers and leaders of local groups and institutions. The SEAGA Field Handbook assists these agents who work directly with local communities in the participatory identification of the needs and priorities of local men and women from different socio-economic groups.

• Development planners

Development planners in public and private sector institutions. The SEAGA Intermediate Handbook supports the identification and analysis of the linkages between macro and field levels. It also assists in the assessment of the institution's organisational mechanism from a gender perspective.

• Policy makers

Policy-and decision-makers who work at the international and/or national level; ministry officials, heads of non-governmental agencies or private institutions, who are involved in national or international policy making. The SEAGA Macro Handbook not only facilitates gender mainstreaming in programmes and policies, like the other SEAGA Handbooks it also provides a conceptual framework, methods and tools that support participatory development planning.