This document is a report on the Sub-regional Training Course on Women and Wood Energy Development which took place at FAO - RAPA, Bangkok, from 27 November to 1 December 1995. The training course was organised by the RWEDP. Training Course participants were invited from the RWEDP-member countries in South Asia - Bangladesh, Bhutan, indict, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The course was meant for higher and middle-level staff from institutions and departments connected with wood energy planning, policies and strategies. Participants were from the forestry sector, energy sector, teaching institutes and NGOs, linking to the implementer level of projects and programmes. Two-thirds of the participants were women.
The Training Course was a follow-up to the Regional Expert Consultation on Gender and Wood Energy in Asia held in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in June 1995. At this Consultation the following RWEDP Policy Statement was discussed and endorsed by the participants.
Observations
The burden of providing traditional energy supplies for domestic use is commonly the responsibility of women. General trends towards higher woodfuel prices, lower woodfuel quality and reduced access to woodfuels increases their burden. Interventions in the energy sector such as landuse and fuel price reform often have disproportionately negative implications for women, especially those in the lower income groups. They have as yet insufficiently benefitted from the potential that wood energy development offers. In many countries of Asia the concerns of women are under-represented in shaping wood energy policies and strategies.
It is widely recognised that wood energy plays a part in the reproductive tasks that most women carry out, that is to say in the maintenance of the household. The development of cheap (or less time-consuming) and sustainable access to sources of wood energy and of woodfuel efficient cooking and heating devices will be of direct benefit to women in this role. But women increasingly also have energy needs in their productive, bread-winning tasks. Many women today depend on wood or other biomass energy for independent commercial activities such as food preparation for sale, or are employed in establishments which operate on a wood fuel base. Others are economically dependent on trading in fuelwood and charcoal. Moreover, where firewood is being sustainably produced either in woodlots or by planned off-take and management of natural forests by local communities, women very certainly are involved. The need to understand and to relate to women's needs in regard to these matters is thus of central importance in wood energy planning at all levels.
Policy
While appreciating that special projects specifically targeted at women can be beneficial in certain instances, RWEDP maintains that women's interests in the wood energy field can best be served by adopting a gender approach across all its activities. In this, women's role in wood energy supply and use is not considered separately but viewed in relation to men's (and children's) roles. The crucial factors to consider here are, who does what, and why; and who has access to and control over the sources of wood energy. This type of analysis needs to be applied both to the existing situation and to the implications of any planned wood energy interventions. Such types of gender analysis will provide the basis for the planning of ameliorative measures where necessary.
• Many wood energy projects are intended to be of immediate value to women in assisting them to meet their day-to-day practical needs. There is, however, potential for wood energy projects to work towards assisting in meeting the strategic needs of women also, particularly with regard to establishing women's rights in the sharing of both responsibilities and benefits from community land resource management programmes related to firewood, and RWEDP will seek to support these rights.
• RWEDP aims to stimulate the appreciation of gender issues in wood energy planning among all energy planners. It will support these aims through the development of training materials to cover both awareness raising on the need for gender analysis in energy planning, and on practical, operational tools for carrying out gender analysis and gender sensitive planning. Thus, the emphasis is not on special women's projects, but on providing general procedures for scanning and improving all wood energy projects, programmes and policies. RWEDP will endeavour to promote the use of these tools in wood energy planning organisations throughout the region by ensuring that suitable training is offered both at policy level and for implementer level, and will provide materials that can be used at national level for training field level workers. Furthermore, the training materials will be packaged in such a way that they will be accessible and usable by any organisation within the region which wishes to initiate gender and wood energy training itself.
• RWEDP will also promote the active participation of women in wood energy planning at all levels, both by preparing training materials which demonstrate in a highly practical manner how women at village level can be approached and encouraged, and what the benefits of this are likely to be; and by encouraging discussion about the need for a women's viewpoint at district and national planning levels. RWEDP will support attempts of wood energy planning organizations and relevant ministries to institutionalize gender issues in their work.
Discussion on the best ways of formulating and implementing gender policies led to the following recommendations:
• To administer and monitor the implementation of gender policies there should be institutions with responsibility for gender matters at all levels, from planning down
Gender-based responsibilities should be written into the duties and terms of reference of different staff
• There should be a gender sensitization programme for ail staff, and this could begin with gender analysis training
• It is necessary to have greater involvement of women at all levels, including the higher positions
• Gender sensitization of all staff and greater involvement of women at a levels are not mutually exclusive measures: both need to be implemented together.
Objectives
It was with this background that the Training Course was conducted. The general objective was to familiarise trainees with the use of gender analytic tools and review and assess their appropriateness. The specific objective was to provide trainees with the means to select, modify or design operational procedures to ensure that gender issues are covered in project design, appraisal, implantation and evaluation processes.
Course Contents
The main subjects covered in the course programme (all with respect to wood energy) were:
• Personal awareness of gender -- i.e. perceptions about gender and development
• Placing gender -- or understanding different possible approaches to issues of women and development which have different implications for the kinds of interventions that are selected
• Gender analysis tools -- step-by-step methods and procedures with respect to planning, assessing project proposals, etc. to check possible impacts on women and men
Adapting existing checklists -- how to adapt checklists to local circumstances
• Gender analysis field tools -- tools and procedures which are useful in the fundamental redesign of projects using gender principles.
Along with expert inputs from the resource persons there were a number of case studies which the participants analyzed as a group exercise. A number of videos were also shown to the participants.
The Training Course Programme was as follows:
Monday 27 November |
|
09.00-10.15 |
Opening ceremony |
10.15-10.45 |
Coffee break |
10.45-12.00 |
Objectives and programme of the course Results of Chiang Mai Workshop Statements |
12.00-13.30 |
Lunch break |
13.30-14.00 |
Video "Gender analysis for forestry development planning", FAO |
14.00-15.00 : |
Case study/exercise |
15.00-15.30 : |
Tea break |
15.30-17.00 : |
Case study/exercise (continued) |
Tuesday 28 November |
|
09.00-10.15 |
Placing gender |
10.15-10.45 |
Coffee break |
10.45-12.00 |
Gender concepts |
12.00-13.00 |
Lunch break |
13.00-13.30 |
Video "Community Forestry in Nepal" |
13.30-15.00 |
Personal awareness of gender |
15.00-15.30 |
Tea break |
15.30-17.00 |
Case study: Stove Dissemination Programme, Sri Lanka Video on same topic |
Wednesday 29 November |
|
09.00-10.15 |
Gender analysis field tools |
10.15-10.45 |
Coffee break |
10.45-12.00 |
Gender analysis field tools (continued) |
12.00-13.00 |
Lunch break |
13.00-13.30 |
Video: PRA for Community Forestry |
13.30-15.00 |
Gender analysis tools |
15.00-15.30 |
Tea break |
15.30-17.00 |
Gender analysis tools (continued) |
Thursday 30 November |
|
09.00-10.15 |
Adapting existing checklists |
10.15-10.45 |
Coffee break |
10.45-12.00 |
Adapting existing checklists (continued) |
12.00-13.00 |
Lunch break |
13.00-13.30 |
Video: Improved Stoves Programme in Bangladesh |
13.30-15.00 |
Video: Agricultural research with women farmers, ICRISAT |
15.00-15.30 |
Tea break |
15.30-17.00 |
Group exercises: Applying checklists to project cases |
Friday 1 December |
|
09.00-10.15 |
Presentations of group exercises |
10.15-10.45 |
Coffee break |
10.45-12.00 |
Review outlines of RWEDP gender training modules |
12.00-13.00 |
Lunch break |
13.00-15.00 |
Evaluation, conclusions, recommendations |
15.00-15.30 |
Tea break |
15.30-16.30 |
Closing session |
