Looking at MEV-CAM through a Gender Lens

The “Making Every Voice Count for Adaptive Management” initiative is an innovative approach that uses participatory methods of engagement to give a voice to community members and stakeholders alike, while documenting best practices and methods of change to share with other like-minded individuals. Being participatory involves using firsthand evidence from individuals themselves; otherwise, the intervention is purely secondary and only provides summarized information from a top-down perspective.  One of the characteristics that sets MEV-CAM apart is that it documents and shares first-hand information, using different lenses or perspectives to understand the true meaning of information as it is portrayed.  For this reason, MEV-CAM has dedicated a part of its participatory approach to utilizing a gender lens to understand the value of the perspectives of women, men, youth, and Indigenous groups, and how knowledge can vary according to the presenter.

MEV-CAM recently concluded its 12-month long training on participatory video (PV) and the different ways of using PV to document change, extract lessons learned, and capture best practices from community perspectives in the Global South.  As part of the training, participants carried out fieldwork to apply these approaches and initiate their participatory method of documenting change in the respective landscapes.

Feedback from the Field

MEV-CAM trainees Helena Santiago and Natércia Parruque worked with the recipients of the MozBio scholarships in Mozambique, which have provided an opportunity for young girls to attend school in Maputo National Park.  The girls shared their thoughts about having the possibility to educate themselves, particularly on sustainable land management, as opposed to staying at home and getting pregnant at such an early age.  Helena and Natercia noted that the girls might have felt more comfortable sharing their stories because they were women themselves, allowing the girls to feel in a safe space.

Gerald Gindo, M&E Specialist in Tanzania, commented on how it was difficult to encourage women to participate in the knowledge exchange on beekeeping practices, since the Hadzabe Community leaders determined who would have been a part of the PV process, favoring a higher number of male participants. Women often find themselves contributing to their communities without being noted or recognized for it, in what they call “invisible work.”  To overcome this, trainees used MEV-CAM's participative tools to advocate for women’s involvement to ensure the gathering of comprehensive information from this landscape.

Joao Domingos, Communications Specialist, discussed how women have leading roles as part of the Farmer Field Schools in the Provinence of Cunene, Angola. On the other hand, Harrington Nyirenda, District Coordinator in Malawi, discussed how a gender sensitive approach had been applied in the project’s preparation, resulting in women holding leadership roles in various community structures such as Block Committees, Agriculture Committees, a Village Development Committee, and so on; this facilitated women’s involvement in this process documentation activity and gave place to a what felt like a gender-balanced outcome.

As part of the Enhancing resilient livelihoods and food security of host communities and Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon through the promotion of sustainable agricultural development (MADAD) project, women from the Zaatari Refugee Camp described how their livelihoods improved after participating in cash for work jobs.  Syrian women in Zaatari explained during the River of Life exercise that since they can work for wages and provide for their families, their husbands have shown more respect for them.  They also learn new skills such as compost sorting, which they apply at home and create gardens with crops and vegetables for their families.  Men equally participate in cash for work jobs, where they also bring home income and learn new skills related to managing greenhouses, wastewater cleansing, and biogas creation.  While children are reluctant to go to school, their possibilities are endless with the opportunity to have more sustainable jobs so close to home.

Applying the Gender Lens

The Dryland Forestry Division and South-South & Triangular Cooperation Division’s WeCaN and MEV-CAM teams began working with the GEF-7 Dryland Sustainable Landscapes Impact Programme (DSL-IP) to foster gender transformative approaches in all 11 child projects.  As the DSL-IP kicks off its implementation across Asia and Southern Africa, WeCaN and MEV-CAM are guiding countries on how to apply a gender lens when using MEV-CAM's participatory work to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN).  In its initial workshop, participating countries identified gender-based barriers that arise when carrying out activities on the ground and analyzed the best tools to tackle them.  By strengthening the advocacy and gender competencies of committed stakeholders and identifying the existent practices, MEV-CAM and WeCaN will document change and upscale best practices into a wider approach to policy changes.  This inclusive and participatory process will challenge structural barriers to gender equality and foster equal power dynamics and control over natural resources, services, and decision-making.

Gender Roles and Related Expectations Across the Globe

Adopting a gender lens during MEV-CAM activities requires first self-awareness about gender relations, opportunities, barriers, and privileges.  Participants are asked to reflect on the question, “How have gender roles and the related expectations influenced your own life?” to highlight perspectives from different regions around the world.

In Kazakhstan, Sandugash Mussabekova, Programme Assistant, noted how women are usually underpaid and asked about their family lives when applying for different positions, a struggle that men do not face.  Harrington Nyirenda discussed how from his perspective, gender roles affect men too in Malawi, where expectations for each gender and what they should provide to the family are significant, “The gender roles set by the culture can be very tricky as boys are supposed to fish for example. Males are the ones supposed to be digging graves and women assist bringing water and cooking.”

From Mongolia, Gerlee Puntsag, National Land Management Specialist, added, "I have to work and cook, clean the home, and care for babies. Men’s responsibility is only to work and earn money.  In rural areas, it is different, men need to livestock animals, and women care for babies. In urban areas they are a family but live separately due to school access issues."

Lolita DeAlmeida, Junior Consultant, contributed to this exchange commenting on how in Namibia “Women and men understand experiences differently – therefore, when applying project activities such as MEV-CAM, considering women will enrich the result. Even if a man and woman grew up in the same household, they would have different perspectives and knowledge on it.” Gerald Gindo shared his experience applying the gender lens to MEV-CAM in the field, and how it helped promote women’s participation by actively requesting women to be included in the activities. It is particularly important to ensure women are engaged, especially in contexts where men are usually the ones to dominate a conversation.

A Way Forward

To ensure that MEV-CAM's process on the ground is effectively gender-responsive, the gender-based Reach – Benefit – Empower framework can be applied to the MEV-CAM's Engage, Learn, Inspire approach. The Reach – Benefit – Empower Framework[1] says simply reaching women (e.g. by including them in meetings or trainings) does not ensure that they will benefit from a project.  Even if women benefit (e.g. from increased income or access to services), that does not ensure that they will be empowered (e.g. in control over that income or assets. [2]

To Reach, facilitators are encouraged to bring marginalized groups into the process, guaranteeing their inclusion and active participation. For instance, a separate space can be created for women, men, youth, and Indigenous groups to contribute to the Story Circle, River of Life, and Storyboard, where these voices can also be specifically captured throughout the project’s implementation to monitor the impact at scale.  To Benefit, documentation and dissemination of the process through MEV-CAM’s participatory tools – PVs, leaflets, and reports​ – support marginalized groups in advocacy messages or upscaling practices.  To Empower, women, men, youth, and Indigenous voices are given a prominent space to share ideas and skills with other communities, are encouraged to advocate for their demands with the local institutions and explore how to communicate their knowledge through various innovative methods.  The Framework can guide the process to become gender responsive and often key questions such as ‘for who is this for,’ ‘what language,’ ‘who is left out,’ ‘who gains, who loses,’ and several others should be considered to adopt the gender lens.[3]

In the offset of 2023, MEV-CAM is excited to share its detailed guide on how to use participatory video, offering step-by-step details and recommendations for ensuring a gender lens is always utilized.  Stay tuned for more details on the launch of this toolkit!