AGRICULTURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT 88830 N O T E S ISSUE 11 MAY 2014 Empowering Rural Women in the East Asia and Pacific Region Since the early 1990s, the East Asia and Pacific Region AGRICULTURE has seen remarkable economic growth and a significant MONGOLIA — Gansu and Inner Mongolia reduction in the number of people living on less than Poverty Reduction Project (1999–2006) 1.25USD a day (more than 50 percent decrease since This project focused on reducing absolute poverty in 1990).1 However the growth witnessed has not benefited remote and inaccessible villages of the Gansu and Qinghai men and women equally. Rural women in particular are Provinces and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region by still facing barriers in accessing productive assets, such as raising the households’ incomes through increased grain land, financial capital, and agricultural extension services. and livestock production. The project positively impacted The projects highlighted in this Note have used different women as follows: ways to identify rural women’s needs and introduced various ways to address them. As stated in the WDR 2012 The implementation of the rural water supply component “gender equality is both an important development reduced women’s labor intensity, improved sanitation objective in its own right as well as good development conditions, and lowered the incidence of diseases. In the policy.” project villages, the number of households within 100 meters of the water source increased by 14.5 percentage This Note discusses how World Bank projects have points, compared to 7.3 percent in the non-project villages. identified and addressed gender inequality in rural development in the EAP Region.2 Projects range from Gender inequality in schooling outcomes was reduced. agriculture to fisheries and rural finance. It presents While causality cannot be proven, schooling expenses planned actions and steps made toward women’s were significant, and the overall increase in household empowerment; and highlights lessons learned that could income is likely to have contributed to the decline in the inform future development interventions. gender gap in schooling outcomes. Country Project Gender impact Mongolia Gansu and Inner Mongolia Women’s labor intensity was reduced, sanitation conditions improved and the Poverty Reduction Project incidence of diseases lowered, while a decline in the gender gap in schooling (1999–2006) outcomes was documented. Papua New Productive Partnerships in Aims to increase support to female farmers in coffee and cocoa industries by Guinea Agriculture Project (2010–16) establishing agricultural partnerships with the explicit participation of women. Of the total number of beneficiary farmers (6,962) in partnerships, 1,028 are women, representing almost 15 percent of beneficiaries. Vietnam Coastal Resources for Sustain- Women will be offered skills enhancement training, linking them to the new able Development Project jobs emerging at landing sites and fishing ports. (2012–18) Vietnam Rural Finance III (2008–13) Of the 120,000 borrowers who invested in subprojects with a cost of about US$430 million, 42 percent were women. More importantly—40,000 were first-time borrowers. China Sustainable Development in Women benefit from agricultural training and training on financial manage- Poor Rural Areas (2010–15) ment and procurement. Solomon Rural Development Project Aims to benefit 110,000 women through small-scale rural infrastructure invest- Islands (2007–15) ments by increasing the capacity of existing agricultural institutions to provide extension services and veterinary services. Vietnam Second Northern Mountains Rural women’s needs in ethnic minority areas are addressed through literacy Poverty Reduction Project and numeracy training, providing business development skills. Over 1,000 (2010–15) training courses and workshops were conducted for about 42,000 participants, of which women’s participation was 32 percent. alternative cash-earning activity, establishing backyard farming as World Bank an alternative income source targeting women, ensuring women know about associations and potential linkages to markets and delivering awareness and training on HIV/AIDS, gender equality, and domestic violence. The next steps for the cocoa PMU is to develop indicators measuring changes in women’s income, equality of control over resources and women’s “voice” in family and community decision making. It also aims to increase the number of women in farming households reporting increased access to and use of information on improved farming practices, processing and marketing. FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE VIETNAM — Coastal Resources for Sustainable Development Project (2012–18) The project aims to improve the sustainable management of coastal fisheries by, among other things, promoting women’s roles in households that take part in fisheries co-management schemes. Under the project, women and children will be offered skills enhancement training on a demand-driven basis. This will Women of Patag Corona IA in Roxas Kuya getting ready for regular canal link them to new jobs at landing sites/fishing ports supported by maintenance work. the project that were also identified as important entry points for Through participating in project activities and various targeted gender mainstreaming. In addition, an Impact Evaluation will be training programs, women have enhanced their productive skills conducted and the gender aspect will be one factor assumed to and management capacity and they have become one of the main influence the fisheries co-management efforts, since women’s sources of household income. participation is expected to enhance the project’s success at household and community levels. Understanding women’s roles in PAPUA NEW GUINEA — Productive Partnerships in the context of fisheries co-management is not limited to Vietnam, Agriculture Project (PPAP) (2010–16) as this knowledge can be replicated in other Asian countries. Women are responsible for a large share of agricultural production This project will be a good case study for gender in fisheries co- in Papua New Guinea. PPAP, an ongoing project, supports women management and the rural sociology of fishing communities. in cash-crop agriculture and seeks to improve agricultural outcomes for coffee and cocoa farmers. In addition, women RURAL FINANCE participate in developing the targeting systems aimed at ensuring VIETNAM — Third Rural Finance Project (2008–13) an equitable distribution of project benefits. The objective of the Third Rural Finance Project for Vietnam was This project increases support to female farmers in coffee and to increase economic benefits to rural private enterprises and cocoa industries by establishing agricultural partnerships with households by ensuring and increasing their access to finance. This the explicit participation of women (so far in at least 17 out of was achieved by enhancing access to financial services for rural 35 partnerships). For the cocoa subsector all the partnerships entrepreneurs, greater capital investment and employment made include activities increasing women’s participation in remunerative by the rural entrepreneurs, as well as increased lending, particularly cocoa production. This may involve income-generating activities term lending to the rural private sector for capital investment by targeting women, while in all cases the participating farmers are all participating financial institutions (PFIs) on market-based terms. offered gender-awareness training. In over half the established The project also had a significant gender focus: it was mandated agricultural partnerships, a women’s group with distinct entity that for the short-term loans for household and micro-enterprises, is participating. Of the total number of beneficiary farmers in the share of women in the borrower pool should be at least 40 partnerships (6,962)—1,028 are women, representing about 15 percent. Of the 120,000 borrowers who invested in sub-projects percent of the beneficiaries. Activities aim at empowering women with a cost of about US$430 million, 42 percent were women. by, among other things, facilitating floriculture by women as an More importantly, 40,000 were first time borrowers. The overdue 2 amount as a percentage of loans outstanding was less than 0.40 VIETNAM — The Second Northern Mountains Poverty percent, indicating a very high repayment rate. Reduction Project (NMPRP-2) (2010–15) NMPRP-2 seeks to address rural women’s needs in ethnic minority RURAL LIVELIHOODS areas, barriers they face in local governance participation and lack SOLOMON ISLANDS — Rural Development Project of representation in decision-making and managing projects. The (RDP) (2007–15) project supports the financing of specific activities for women, The Rural Development Project aims to benefit 110,000 women which may include strengthening Common Interest Group through small-scale rural infrastructure investments by 2015. This structures, literacy and numeracy training, support for livelihood will be achieved by increasing the capacity of existing agricultural improvement (including business development skills), and support institutions to provide extension services and veterinary services, for specific social protection issues. The project’s Component 2 and by revitalizing the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock focuses on commune development budget, by providing block (MAL). It also entails financing, training and technical assistance grants to communes to finance small-scale sub-projects at the to rural businesses. Gender disaggregated data will be collected village level for productive infrastructure and activities that are and an impact assessment will be undertaken to evaluate the identified through participatory planning processes. About 7 project’s impact on women. This will inform the second phase percent of the total project cost is used to support women’s of the project which will potentially include women’s training, social and economic activities, as well as social protection-type value chain improvements for cocoa and coffee production and interventions. Women will choose economic activities that will women’s engagement in these commodity crops. As of July 2011, enhance their economic and social status, under the Commune in 70 percent of the villages surveyed, women said that “all” or Women’s Union lead. In terms of capacity building activities, over “most” of the women participated in project selection. Through the 1,000 training courses and workshops were conducted for about outreach program of the MAL, extension staff work with farmers to 42,000 participants, of which women’s participation stood at 32 provide training and research support. To date, 31,654 farmers have percent. The Gender Action Plan provided financing for enhancing participated in training, with nearly half of these farmers being women’s participation in the project, including promoting women. women’s subproject prioritization and requiring at least one out of two village representatives in the commune development board CHINA — Sustainable Development in Poor Rural Areas to be a woman. (2010–15) Lessons Learned This project aims to provide public infrastructure to rural communities that are rarely reached by other support programs • To increase rural women’s voices, it is important to first by using a Community-Driven Development approac©h. Women understand what prevents them from attending community participate in selecting and prioritizing project activities, discuss gatherings and speaking up. The best way to understand why proposals for community-implemented activities, and conceive is to ask women themselves and to ask them separately. This subsequent management and maintenance systems. These was the case in the Sustainable Development in Poor Rural activities empower women to publicly express their views and Areas in China. enhance their chances of benefiting from agricultural training. This • One way to ensure women benefit from a project is is achieved by: making sure they are represented in project management • Holding separate discussions with women before the plenary committees. For example, in Vietnam under the Second Northern Mountains Poverty Reduction Project the inclusion village meetings to enhance their participation. of quotas seeks to ensure women’s representation in all • Establishing individual voting for sub-project ideas. Unlike project committees and decision-making bodies. While the usual system where each household has one vote and quotas are a small first step to ensure women’s participation men tend to represent their families in public discussions, this in decision making, more analysis is needed to prove their makes women’s priorities known. impact. A recent evaluation of the Poverty Reduction Fund in • Ensuring a third of the members of village organizations Lao PDR showed that building in a mechanism which favors that oversee project implementation are women and proposals for public services and small scale infrastructure offering them access to training on financial management identified by women in poor rural communities can have a and procurement. This training enables them to supervise positive impact. Around 650,000 poor people in remote areas contractors and construction work. gained access to basic services between 2003 and 2011, and 91 percent of the projects reflected women’s priorities. 3 World Bank Men and women members of the Pinacanaun River Irrigation System (Peneblanca, Cagayan Province) doing their regular operation and maintenance activities. • Under the Sustainable Development in Poor Rural Areas women borrowers), to help assess project performance Project in China women and men beneficiaries could each during implementation and derive lessons to inform other cast their own vote in order to express their preferences similar interventions. for projects, instead of voting as a household unit whereby individual preferences would not be reflected in the final ENDNOTES vote. 1. World Bank. 2012. Toward Gender Equality in East Asia and • Activities focusing on women’s capacity building can the Pacific: A Companion to the World Development Report. yield positive results by increasing their own and their Washington, DC: World Bank. household’s productivity. In the Gansu and Inner Mongolia 2. AES Note #10 focuses exclusively on land administration Poverty Reduction Project women enhanced their projects in the EAP Region and the positive outcomes on productive skills and management capacity by participating promoting gender equality. Women were empowered in project activities and various targeted training programs through land titling in Lao PDR and under two projects (cropping, livestock raising), and started contributing to the in Indonesia, one of which used the post-disaster household income. reconstruction in 2004 as a window to achieve greater • Collecting gender-disaggregated data and conducting gender equality. In the Philippines, legislation was amended impact assessments focused on gender can inform the in order to remove the gender bias and title registration project’s next phase by including actions that will equally forms adopted “and/or” between the names of spouses. benefit men and women, as in the Solomon Islands Rural Likewise, in Vietnam, in the issuance of Land Use Rights Development Project. Certificates in the names of both husband and wife • Likewise, putting in place a gender-sensitive M&E results- strengthened women’s access to land and improved their based framework helps map improvements in rural social status. Guidelines and training materials on gender women’s and men’s lives. The Third Rural Finance Project in mainstreaming for government staff were developed in Vietnam collected gender-disaggregated data, including Cambodia, the Philippines, and Indonesia in order to ensure gender-specific indicators for M&E (for example, share of gender balance during project implementation. This AES Note was prepared by Victoria Stanley and Marialena Vyzaki. We would like to thank Helle Buchhave and Harideep Singh for providing guidance during the process; Alison Ofotalau, Garo Batmanian, Binh Thang Cao, Sari Soderstorm, and Lan Thi Thu Nguyen for reviewing the Note and providing useful inputs and comments. 1818 H Street. NW Washington, DC 20433 www.worldbank.org/agriculture