Gender in Agriculture Checklist for Integrating Gender-Related Issues into Agriculture Water Management Agricultural Water Management (AWM) includes irrigation and drainage, water management in rain-fed agriculture, recycled water reuse, water and land conservation, and watershed management. AWM is essential to food security, but it also plays a fundamental role in building human capital in rural areas.The overwhelming emphasis on technical and engineering matters characteristic of AWM in recent decades has now expanded outward to encompass social and environmental concerns. RATIONALE FOR INTEGRATING GENDER INTO AGRICULTURAL WATER MANAGEMENT Men and women often have different roles and needs in the use and management of water resources. In addition, access to, rights to and control over water (and land) also tends to be different for women and men worldwide and in part, reflects existing social relations in power. Policy and decision-making regarding land and water management have traditionally been the domain of men. As a result policies and programs do not always consider women's unique knowledge, needs or unequal ownership and benefit rights. Particularly successful Agricultural Water Management (AWM) projects: * Prevent elites from capturing project benefits and extends these benefits to a much larger population base to include large and small scale women farmers, landless women, female land owners and wage laborers as well as other categories of women farmers; * Address both women and men's domestic and productive water needs. To date, many single-sector projects are imple- mented for either irrigation or domestic water supply, rather than both, which overlooks the multiple-use needs of rural communities; * Explicitly seek to increase women's capacity to participate in domestic water and irrigation projects and plan for ways to increase women's access to other productive resources; * Encompass an approach that takes into account the social, economic and institutional realities of the project area and allocates resources to studies which consider these issues in the planning stage. AGRICULTURAL WATER MANAGEMENT Checklist of Gender-related Issues and Activities during the Project Cycle Identify livelihood systems Plnfreutbemmesi Moiopecnaeowoeas Icaesnwmn'admns and water demand, by gen- adlaesi tutr fw-WOmmesadlaesacs oadcnrloe der and socio-economic class true raiain WO)arclua ae fsfiin (e.g., land owners, tenants, (eg,ml,fml,mxdSeiypriiainomean quntyndultyicuig migrants) women in design, construction, for multiple purposes) and maintenance of water infra- Include focus on customary Design for multi-sectoral link- structure Changes in frequency and tenure arrangements and ages (e.g., water services, plus severity of local-level water homestead production (incl. agricultural extension, market Monitor men's and women's disputes livestock, horticulture, and development, credit services) satisfaction with their ability to * small industry) to determine targeted to men and women participate and benefit throughout Changes in land tenure and use range of water users and uses the project patterns, by gender Participation by men and wom- * Identify prevailing water en throughout the project cycle Satisfaction among benefi- rights among all user groups ciaries with respect to project Design affirmative action for participation Assess gender distribution of women with earmarked resourc- heads of households es as required Health, production, and income gains for women and men due to improved water security AGRICULTURAL WATER MANAGEMENT Checklist of Gender-related Issues and Activities during the Project Cycle (continued) Assess policy framework, Ensure that national water Increased emphasis on individ- Gender-sensitive legal and/ mandate and institutional policy, as well as WUO by-laws, ual and joint titling by men and or policy reforms as a result of structure for mainstreamning do not require land ownership women project initiatives multi-purpose water services as prerequisite to WUO mem- planning across water bership Gender-sensitive reforms in water agencies policy, including focus on multiple use Joint land titling for women and men in land reclamation projects Capacity of water and Gender-sensitive training for Monitor financial hardship, if any, Increased numbers of female agriculture ministries and administrators and project staff among users, by age and gender, of technical staff in water agencies departments in dealing with any changes in water fees resulting gender issues Ensure project/ extension work- from project Men's and women's assessment ers include women as staff, and of quality of service and respon- Identify existing levels of cost that female farmers are targeted Monitor women's and men's levels siveness from water agency recovery in irrigation man- in delivery of agricultural and of satisfaction with agricultural representatives agement, and who pays water services water management and multi-pur- pose water services Extent of use of WUO platform Women's and men's levels for conflict resolution among of satisfaction with water Ensure that women and men can water users and uses servicesparticipate effectively in local water management and project gover- Increased number and type of nance linkages byWUO to external organizations and government Men and women have parity in services, serving men and training and other opportunities women provided by project Changes in reported levels of empowerment by women and men participating in project, in- cluding participation in formal governance structures Be sure to assess whether In land reclamation, ensure joint Use participatory monitoring as Assess approach of the AWM local agriculture is primarily titling of new plots allocated; part of overall M&E, and allow for project in a larger context of male, female or dual-farming consider removing labor contri- mid-term course correction multiple-use water manage- system (inM. impact of male bution criteria to improve access ment (i.e., domestic, agricultur- tout-migration) as this affects by vulnerable groups Monitor changes compared to al, small industry, and environ- project design and delivery gender- sensitive baseline data mental uses) Finalize gender-sensitive base- CEstablish gender-sensitive line data Evaluate changes to gen- baseline data der-sensitive baseline data Use participatory methods to Use gender expertise at all facilitate identification of gen- stages der-responsive actions