67978 EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC REGION Social Development Notes I N N O VATI O N S , LE S S O N S , A N D B E ST P R A CTI C E Poor Rural Communities Development Project Gender Mainstreaming in China The Poor Rural Communities Development Project (PRCDP) is a rural development intervention covering some of the poorest communities in Guangxi, Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces in China. The project has a strong outreach to ethnic minority areas and aims to improve livelihoods security and achieve sustained participation of rural people in project design, imple- mentation, and monitoring and evaluation. It does this by heavily involving farmers in decisions on the kinds of rural infrastructure and livelihood activities that will be implemented in their communities. A facilitated process brings households together to dis- cuss the key challenges faced by their communities and to identify solutions that can be carried out with strong participation from the farmers’ themselves. Ensuring that local investments are responsive to women and men’s priorities is a key feature of PRCDP. As beneficiaries play a substantial role in project implementation, gender analysis carried out by the team focused on how women and men access basic services and on what their respective roles in decision-making at the community and household level were. The analysis was undertaken using qualitative research methodologies such as participant observation, key informant interviews and focus group dis- cussions. These were either separate discussions held with women or consultations with groups with a balanced men/women composition. The aim of the analysis was to identify entry points for women’s participation in the community-based activities promoted by the project. Gender analysis also focused on how the implementation arrangements proposed by com- munities would impact men and women differently. The key concern in this case was to ensure that implementation arrangements did not place an undue burden on women who already have a particularly heavy workload of agricultural activities and domestic work. The prepa- GAP funded gender equality as smart economics A World Bank Group Gender Action Plan 2 East asia and Pacific REgion — social dEvEloPmEnt notEs ratory analysis carried out by the project focused while men focus was integrated agricultural devel- on how women’s economic situation and develop- opment. By getting men and women to vote sepa- ment priorities are often wrongly assumed to be rately on their preferences facilitators were able to the same as those of other poor groups. It sought identify key differences in priorities to understand how: (i) local customs, beliefs and attitudes limit women’s participation, (ii) women’s In addition, PRDCP gives women a seat at the economic and domestic workloads pose important table when it comes to decision-making at vil- time constraints to their participation in commu- lage level. The project uses a 30 percent target for nity activities, and (iii) customs, policies and laws women’s participation in the village groups created limit women’s access to resources. to implement sub-projects. This is intended to make sure that beyond the planning stage women Creating space for women’s voices to be heard are able to benefit from the additional capacity was the next step in the process. Based on a building activities implemented by the project and detailed understanding of gender dynamics within are able to participate actively in village organizing, communities, the project then aimed to introduce in monitoring construction work and in mobilizing some key changes in the usual village planning pro- the community for the operation and maintenance cesses. A key change introduced on this front was of the sub-project investments. In order to support to ensure that women were present during village local facilitators in this, a project specific gender- meetings and were able to express their preferences check list was put in place as a step-by-step guide in terms of project investments. An analysis of gen- for gender-sensitive community planning. In addi- der relations in the Hongshui Township (Rongshui tion, a strong partnership with DFID, who provided County), for example, indicated that in the Miao grant resources linked to the project, meant that minority community, women customarily do not the gender dimensions of project implementation have equal rights to participate in social affairs and were systematically reviewed during supervision, decision making. Community planning processes discussed with county and provincial counterparts need therefore to create space for women to voice and captured systematically in progress reports. their opinions regarding sub-project planning. This was achieved through the introduction of Finally, a thorough methodology for participa- separate planning meetings with women in prepa- tory monitoring and evaluation was adopted by ration of public discussions. In addition, participa- PRDCP with a strong focus on assessing how men tory methodologies were used to highlight how and women perceive their participation and abil- women and men’s priorities differ when it comes ity to engage in community-level decision making to the selection of sub-projects for implementation processes. Specific interviews and focus groups dis- with community funds. In the specific case of the cussions with women and men participants (as well Hongshui Township, an equal number of women as with poor and marginalized groups within the and men participants were asked to vote for their community) provided insights regarding the qual- preferred sub-project using seeds of different col- ity of facilitation. In particular, collecting feedback ors (yellow for women and white for men). Women from women during project implementation also showed a strong preference for the construction of enabled them to explain the changes between the social infrastructure (health posts and schools) project plan and actual implementation. Women were requested to state their satisfaction with the planning process and to rate “how well they were involved in decision making�. In addition to the corrective action noted above, data collected by PRCDP also enabled the team to demonstrate how women’s participation improved over the years and allowed them to gain a better understanding of the factors that explain better quality of facilitation. Contact Patricia Fernandes, Social Development Specialist, EASER: 202-458-4057