The Hills Leasehold Forestry and Forage Development Project provides scope for addressing the need to integrate women into the mainstream of the project planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The project which is in its second year of implementation, realised the need to undertake a critical analysis of the project in its various aspects from a gender perspective.
Subsequently an independent consultant was hired accordingly for a duration of three months. This report contains the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the consultant in this regard.
INTRODUCTION
The Hills Leasehold Forest and Forage Development Project is implemented through a joint effort comprising of a consortium of line agencies notably the Department of Forest (DOF), the Livestock Division of the Department of Livestock Services (DLS), the Agricultural Development Bank of Nepal (ADBN) and the National Agricultural Research Council (NARC).
Financing arrangements consist of a mixed package of loan and grant. The combination comprises of a IFAD loan (63 $` of the project costs), a grant of US$ 2.53 million from the Government of Netherlands for technical assistance (initially for five years) through FAO and with HMG/ADBN contributing US$ 2.7 million.
The project has the twin developmental objectives of raising the income of the families in the hills below the poverty line and contributing to improving the ecological conditions in the hills. This would be achieved through leasing blocks of degraded forest land to the targeted groups.
The activities initiated by the project have been the identification of degraded forest land (170 sites), for 1160 houseshold, handing over the forest to the groups (942.55 ha) for land development, operational plan preparation (158 groups) and income generating purposes, providing training to the farmers, distributing loans, distributing lease certificates.
FINDINGS AND SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS
Finding (a)
The project appraisal is full of assumptions about the status of the Nepalese women which paints a very positive picture of the status of women in Nepal. It needs to be re-examined in the light of the facts from a gender perspective.
Recommendation (a)
A gender specific study should be undertaken by applying the gender analysis framework in all the districts to cover at present about seventy groups with the purpose of assessing the specific requirements of the males as well as the females in the project area according to their gender roles.
Finding (b)
The group formation process was found to be highly influenced by the SFDP loan repayment possibilities. This stands as a constraining factor for the target groups living in absolute poverty (poorest of the poor) and for the women to come forward to participate in the project activities since it requires land as a collateral.
Recommendation (b. 1)
Alternative forms of collateral acceptable should be explored and developed by the bank such as proven and certified skill or guarantee certificate from the local VDC.
Recommendation (b.2)
The project should adopt a participatory technique to identify groups which can be more democratic and acceptable by the community.
Recommendation (b.3)
Even if the formation of separate women groups is discouraged in the Appraisal, the choice has to be given to the target people themselves. If women prefer to have separate women groups it should not be discouraged.
Finding (c)
The project has made the provisions for specific credit facilities through the ADBN (Small Farmers Development Programme) to the female household heads. This facility is among others for hiring wage labourers for land development.
Recommendation (c)
The practice or experience of this type of loan should be examined from a gender perspective. Special provisions should be developed for soft loans for productive (with immediate return) purpose for such women otherwise the present type of loan may only serve to become an extra burden for them in the long run. However, the small livestock raising activities, (e.g. goats raising) supported by the bank loan has proved to be quite popular and can easily being handled by the rural women. More emphasis should be given to introduction of improved varieties of livestock and adoption of stall feeding practices.
Finding (d)
The training and workshops are being very helpful for the farmers in the field. However, the women prefer to have female trainers in the team. The venue is preferred by both men and women to be in their own village. The lecture method and certain technical terms cannot be understood by the farmers specifically by women. Technical training on veterinary skill have been a growing concern among the target communities taking loan for livestock development.
Recommendation (d)
The trainers' team should include a female trainer. The venue for the farmers', specifically for the women should be in their locality (this is in practice though). Additionally trainers must be trained in the participatory training technique and the training should include veterinary subjects for the community volunteers, women and men.
Finding (e)
The Project Appraisal mentions that since the Nepalese women have easier access to movement outside home and to decide on their own, the project does not encourage female extension workers. However this is a fallacy and does not hold true even in the tribal communities. Women feel free and more comfortable to talk to female extension workers. Based on this premise the project has recently recruited a few young women for the same in the mobile team.
Recommendation (e.1)
With a view towards empowering women in decision making, the project should create ample opportunities for them to be vocal and decide independently by learning through exercises. Certain activities such as "speak out programme", "women's meet", "exhibitions on women/men and the forest" can prove to be useful in helping women realising and discovering their own potentials. It can also motivate the men of the community to recognise the growing need to accept the changed roles of females in the changed context. Several opportunities to offer creating such forums should be taken into consideration by the project.
Recommendation (e.2)
In order to achieve such an objective, the project should review and modify the statement made in the appraisal relating to female extension workers. Local potential women should be developed as the community leaders and experienced female extension workers should be recruited by the project. Female extension staff already recruited in the project mobile team should be provided close moral and technical support through constant guidance by the senior supervisors.
Recommendation (e.3)
So far the project has been able to involve 21 % women as leaseholders only. It is recommended that the project should recruit a senior female sociologist/gender expert for at least two years to monitor and guide the activities and policies for mainstreaming women meaningfully in the project both in the policy level as well as in the implementation level.
Finding (f)
The project encourages a husband-wife partnership programme in each of the project activities. However in practice, in several cases, the wives send their daughters (not daughters-in-law) due to their intensive involvement in household chores.
Recommendation (f.1)
The process and result of the above mentioned case be closely monitored and if necessary the provisions be reviewed on the basis of "who does what", "who has what", "who gets what" "who controls what. and the basic constraints for women participation are identified in order to help them minimise.
Recommendation (f.2)
The project should consider the requests of the women with regard to time saving devices and at the same time, appropriate technologies should be introduced to minimise their workload. Topics related to reproductive health of women should be a part of the non-formal education classes; in a similar vein education on reproductive health / family planning for all men and women should be a part of training which can contribute towards furthering the cause of ecological protection/improvement.
Finding (g)
The trainings conducted by the project are geared more towards imparting the technical know-how to the group members about forestry development, agro-forest based income generation skill promotion, credit, livestock promotion etc. which are important for the success of the project. However the sustenance of these activities depend on the development of the capacity of the group members to manage these activities on their own. Since the project considers women's involvement, the case is more challenging because generally they have no prior experience. The development of local management and leadership for organising and undertaking developmental activities, planning and implementing programmes using local resources, cultivating group dynamism etc. are not being given significant attention as an important training requirement. The institutionalisation of the local management and leadership capacity appears to be receiving lesser significance as compared to technical skills.
Recommendation (g)
It is recommended that the project should organise trainings through NGOs on the following subjects to empower men and women for their personal development:
a. Community leadership development
b. Community management
c. Saving and credit
d. Gender sensitization
e. Proposal development for micro level forestry project
f. Veterinary skills training for more and more community volunteers
Finding (h)
The project activities include development of herbs in the leased area.
Recommendation (h)
The project should take up initiatives to develop processing of herbs as an income generation activity for women's groups and the landless households.
Finding (i)
The project monitoring and evaluation activities have been designed to monitor performance of the activities according to the targets set by the line agencies and the NGOs. The monitoring system is result oriented and based on physical performance. This is of course essential for the project to monitor. Although the reporting and monitoring system in practice mention about the involvement of the types of farmers, men or women, ethnicities, the format already developed is objective which is inevitable to get a clear picture of project performance. However, there is an absence of a proper mechanism to monitor the performance based on gender considerations.
Recommendation (i.1)
The monitoring and evaluation of the project input/output should take into account gender considerations which could serve as a genuine subjective/objective combined analysis of "who does what?", "who has what?", "who controls what?" "who benefits what" etc. This will help the project to monitor the track of participation by gender and the trend of distribution of benefits accordingly. Then the project can take actions for developing gender sensitive, pragmatic and appropriate strategies for timely improvement.
Recommendation (i.2)
An annual feedback workshop or meeting should be organised each year in the districts to include the community leaders involved in leasehold forestry groups, project staff and the officers of all the four line agencies in order to undertake an assessment of the projects performance in an open and critical way for timely improvements.
CONCLUSIONS
The project has the twin objectives of poverty alleviation and ecological development. The strategy adopted by the project is to transfer the degraded portion of land on lease to such section of the population. The whole concept of the project is an innovative one and thus, it is still too early to assess its strengths and weaknesses.
The project implementation process could be more participatory by drawing on the involvement (not only physically but intellectually) of the genuine target groups, the actual users of forest products. There is plenty of scope for attracting the target groups for a short term involvement.
However, long term impact should be the objective of not only the project but also of the target groups. Thus, the need as has been perceived is that of introducing participatory appraisal combined with gender analysis in every step of the project cycle. This could help people discover what is working and what should be improved in order to close the gaps between the actual contribution and the benefits derived from the project by the women and men. For the sake of good order it should be noted that gender analysis is not an end or the only solution; it is rather one among other means and factors which can lead to the long term success of the project.
