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Women and Development Unit
About
the Women and Development Unit
Projects & Activities
Meetings & Events
Publications
Contacts
About
the Women and Development Unit
The
Women and Development Unit represents the Women and Population Division
(SDW) at the FAO Regional Office for Africa (RAF) . Like SDW, the
Women and Development Unit has a dual mandate. On the one hand,
it supports the mainstreaming of gender and population issues into
the work of RAF, in collaboration with the other technical Groups.
On the other hand, it provides direct policy advice, technical assistance
and training to FAO Member Countries in the Region on mainstreaming
gender and population issues into national agricultural and rural
development policies, programmes and projects.
Mission
statement
Ensure
support to rural women and men in their efforts to achieve sustainable
agricultural development and enhance the capacities of policy makers
and development agents to address gender issues at national, regional
and district levels.
Work
at the Women in Development Unit is carried out by:
Further
information:
Women
and Population Division
English:
http://www.fao.org/sd/SDW_en.htm
Gender
and Food Security Web Site:
English:
http://www.fao.org/gender/gender.htm
French:
http://www.fao.org/gender/GENRE.htm
Spanish:
http://www.fao.org/gender/GENERO.htm
Projects
and Activities
1.
Providing support to mainstream gender
and population issues into the work of RAF is
an important task of the Unit. The Unit provides support to
other Technical Groups within RAF with the implementation
of the FAO Gender and Development Plan of Action (2002 - 2007)
and provides documentation, consultations and technical backstopping
on gender concerns in the different technical fields included
under FAO's mandate. The Unit, for example, provides technical
backstopping to the Special Programme Food Security (SPFS)
projects.
2.
As a follow-up
to the 4th World Conference on Women,
the Unit provides support to the Ministries of Agriculture (MoA)
and Women's Ministries, to prepare National Gender and Agricultural
Development Strategies. This approach not only allows for a
sector specification of the National Plans of Action on Women,
prepared in the aftermath of the Beijing Conference, but also
provides room for a structured MoA in-house reflection on possible
gender biases in agricultural service delivery and means to
address these biases. Moreover, it contributes to the development
of a receptive environment for enhancing planning capacities
through socio-economic and gender analysis training and provides
a framework for further project/ programme development.
3.
The unit collaborates with NGO's, multi-lateral,
and bi-lateral Agencies . Joint actions vary, depending
on each organisation's expertise. Examples: collaboration with
the African Development Bank: organising an International Consultation
on women's access to credit (1993); collaboration with the Economic
Commission for Africa ,: workshops on agricultural women Dakar
(1994) and Addis Ababa (1999), in connection with Regional Conferences
on Women preparatory to related global Conferences ; support
to the International Federation of Home Economics to their 2000
World Congress, Accra, Ghana.
4.
The unit supports the integration of gender
concerns in agricultural statistical data collection
exercises. The objective of this activity is to enhance the
availability of sex disaggregated data in the Region required
for gender relevant planning of agricultural development programmes.
5.
In line with new global trends towards more decentralised patterns
of development and the declining roles of governments, the unit
has started preparing itself for policy
advice to Member Countries on how to integrate
gender concerns into decentralisation processes of Public
Administrations. Decentralisation processes provide an excellent
framework for the introduction of socio-economic and gender
analysis training as they aim to enhance planning capacities
at decentralised levels and to increase the effectiveness of
the planning and implementation of development programmes. The
unit has published case study material depicting an illustrative
experience in Uganda and has been involved in the implementation
of Participatory Community Planning Exercises in the oncho-freed
zone of Ghana.
6.
The unit works towards the elimination of legal and customary
constraints hampering women's access to resources, notably
land. This is done in conjunction with the Women and Population
and the Rural Development Divisions . The unit collects and
prepares background and training materials on activities aimed
to enhance women's secure access to land tenure in anticipation
of future field activities with National structures interested
in addressing this issue.
7.
The unit has developed practical numeracy and simple bookkeeping
training manuals to enhance managerial skills of illiterate,
small scale (female) entrepreneurs. The manuals were developed
for the Ghanaian cedis and the West African Franc CFA. Current
actions focus on a wider distribution of the materials and their
adaptation to the monetary systems in different countries.
Meetings
and Events
- From October 1991 to May 1996 the unit
maintained an informal network of multi- and bi-lateral organisations
working in the field of gender and development in Ghana.
- The unit supported a similar effort in Benin
(1995 - 1998).
- International Consultation entitled "Improving
rural women's access to credit", Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire 13 - 15 December
1993, together with the African Development Bank.
-
Technical Workshop on Women in Agricultural and
Rural Development, Dakar, Senegal, 15 November 1994, in connection with
the 5th African Regional Conference on Women ; preparatory to the 4th
World Conference on Women.
- User-Producer workshop on gender disaggregated
agricultural data, Zimbabwe" Harare. Zimbabwe , October 1997.
- Parallel
meeting to the 6th African Regional Conference on Women, entitled
"Beijing+5: What do National Plans of Action contain for rural
women", Addis AbabaEthiopia, 24 November 1999.
Publications
Figures
for Bookkeeping
RAFR/WID/002-1/93
Simple
Bookeeeping and Business Management Skills
RAFR/WID/002/94
Contacts
Diana E. Tempelman,
Regional Officer,
Women in Development
Telephone: 233.21. 67 50 00
extension 3131
Facsimile: 233.21. 66 84 27
e-mail:
Diana.Tempelman@fao.org
Caroline Brants,
Associate Professional Officer,
Gender and Development
Telephone: 233.21. 67 50 00
extension 3129
Facsimile: 233.21.
66 84 27
e-mail: Caroline.Brants@fao.org
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