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5 Approaches to gender-oriented development of post-harvest projects
5.1 Benefit analysis and requirement profile of existing methods and planned innovative projects
Advantages and disadvantages of certain work methods
Technical processes are often introduced without previous study of the target group's attitude toward them. Hardly any consideration is given to relevant advantages and disadvantages from the viewpoint of those affected or to their estimates of possible risks.
The introduction of animal-powered mills may be discussed as an example of this. Inadequate target group participation in the planning phase contributed decisively to this project's lack of success.
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Animal-powered mills (gins), pro and con
The use of animal-powered mills to transport water and process harvested products is based on analyses that find a substantial need for appropriate and efficient technologies, particularly in rural areas. Introducing corresponding technologies is expected to increase economic benefits while saving time. Generally these expectations are linked to the introduction of motorised mills. However, there is one reservation: motorised mills can only be employed to advantage where their full capacity can be utilised. Since this is not the case in most remote rural areas, it is not advisable to install them everywhere.
Project officers regarded the animal-powered mill as an alternative to the motorised mill, assuming that because it saves travel time, it makes women's work easier.
During evaluations, however, in conversations with numerous village women in Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso, it turned out that by going once to the motorised mill (five km at most) they covered the family's milling needs for a whole week. Furthermore, they could make use of this opportunity to buy and sell goods and to visit relatives. These discussions made it clear that a trip to the motorised mill was not regarded as a waste of time. Since, in addition, the animal-powered mill is only partially suited to grinding because it is not economical enough, the women were unable to see any special advantages to its introduction and so reacted with little enthusiasm to this "innovation" (GTZ 1994).
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An analysis conducted in the planning phase would have made an early problem definition and prioritising possible on the basis of weighing up advantages and disadvantages from the viewpoint of the women affected. This plays a decisive part in the possible acceptance / non-acceptance of the introduction of new processes.
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Mechanisation of gari (cassava flour) -making
All attempts to mechanise the making of gari (produced from manioc by a fermentation process) in West Africa have failed because, although costs in time and work could be reduced, it was only at the expense of sacrifices in the quality of the product. Since the women gari sellers mostly have a group of regular customers and demand is oriented to a constant level of quality, efforts to mechanise gari-making often remained unsuccessful.
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Anticipated acceptance of possible changes
In analysing the benefits of existing or planned working methods, it is important to resolve the following questions gender-specifically:
- What positive impacts (advantages) / negative effects (disadvantages, risks) are discernible or imaginable from the perspective of those affected?
- costs
- treatment of natural resources
- health (nutritional status, greater expenditure of strength, danger of injury...)
- cost in time
- product quality (taste, appearance, consistency <=> "legal guidelines"), product price
- income
- social esteem (prestige, communication possibilities)
- know-how
- storage characteristics
- transport characteristics
- How much confidence does the innovator enjoy?
- previous activities
- relations with target group
- target group's experience with similar projects
- Are existing methods in a restructuring phase?
- changes in demand; e.g., through changed eating habits
- changes in income; e.g., through extreme price variations
- How great is problem pressure / readiness to accept change?
- target group's viewpoint on the problem
- priorities
- demand for certain advisory services
- trial of alternative procedures
- investment of time and / or money in alternative methods
The following questions are helpful in identifying possible innovations:
- What alternatives are conceivable?
- within the sphere of project objectives
- outside of this sphere
- What experience in other countries / regions can be referred to?
- framework conditions in other countries / regions which were helpful / obstructive
- identification of donors involved
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The Chipping Machine
A situation analysis in Tamale (North Ghana) shows that women have a special interest in cassava. This is because here - in contrast to raising yams - they are heavily involved at all stages: i.e., cultivation, storage, processing and marketing.
For one year, a project in this region has been testing a machine for making cassava chips. Before it is distributed, however, a whole list of questions must be resolved:
Women play an important role, primarily as traders, in the marketing of processed cassava. A substantial part of their income comes from the sale, or purchase and sale, of cassava in processed form (chips, gari, fufu); there are hardly any alternative sources of income.
Limiting factors are just as clear. As cassava producers, women run into various obstacles closely linked with their lack of access to land and with the employment of their labour primarily in the fields of their husbands. Carrying the cassava roots on their heads is also difficult, as is the processing itself (peeling the roots, shredding, drying), which not only costs much time and energy, but also to some extent can cause injuries. The women experience storage losses to chips only if they are incorrectly stored. Because of lack of organisation among vendors and traders, marketing is a time-consuming business.
With the new machine, much smaller chips can be produced compared to the traditional method. They dry more quickly, use up less space in storage and transportation, and are easier to process further into flour, because no pounding is necessary before grinding them. Moreover, the quality of the flour is markedly improved. The women see some disadvantages or risks: the machine might not prove to be worth the necessary external financing, and the new product has first to be introduced into the market. With a higher processing capacity, bottlenecks could also arise in transportation and drying.
The advantages with respect to the priorities listed by the women are currently being evaluated in the project, and consideration is being given to how the disadvantages can be eliminated. Here less attention is being directed to technical improvement of the machine than to economic aspects such as acceptance of the new product (small cassava chips) among customers, market introduction, financing and profitability of the chipping machine. Finally the question also arises here: cooperative acquisition and collective operation, or individual use?
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Material and human resource requirements for introducing new work methods
When introducing new work methods, it should in general be asked what demands they will place both on material resources and on anybody who uses the innovations. In this connection, it should be particularly considered that women sometimes have no access at all to the resources required (cf. box, "Animal-powered mills, pro and con,", Chapter 4.2), or do not command the necessary knowledge and experience. Therefore it should be checked whether any such gaps exist and, if so, how they can best be filled. The following questions need to be answered:
- What demands are placed on resources?
- capital; land, water; machinery and equipment; labour
- What are implementation and monitoring requirements?
- organisational needs
- time and staff needs
- costs
- What is required from users?
- know-how
- mobility
- financial contribution
- time
- personal integrity
- What demands are placed on technology?
- appropriateness
- procurement price
- operating costs
- energy economy
- production increase per time unit
- user-friendliness
- "lightweight," small dimensions
- maintenance and repair-friendliness
- product quality
- no change in taste
- usable life
- local production potential
- commercialisation potential
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Criteria for selection of appropriate technologies that specifically address, and are culturally acceptable for women
- Portable or easily dismantled implements have advantages (flexible placement, compatibility with looking after children or other domestic duties);
- Multi-purpose implements (basic implement + exchangeable accessories - for processing various end products) are preferable
- time and work saved
- minimal consumption of resources (petrol, electricity, water, wood)
- good physical product characteristics
- good flavour product characteristics
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Summary
- In order to reduce demands on women's time, as well as their physical and psychological burden, the introduction of labour-saving methods is needed. A substantial contribution toward this can be made, for example, by wells, mills, and fuel-economical, improved cookstoves, and improved means of transportation and roads.
However, the introduction of new methods often does not have the intended effect because it collides with the social conception of the respective roles and tasks of women and men (Chapter 2). In order to meet the practical as well as the strategic interests of women in designing the project, it is important, with regard to regional sociocultural variables, to work with local women's groups and networks. It has also proved helpful to cooperate more with women personnel of NGOs (facilitators), since they are known locally and may also have some influence on traditional authorities. For this reason, local NGO staff members should be on hand as new technologies are being introduced, support the awareness-building process and mediate in case of conflict.
Rural savings and loan associations can play a key role in the post-harvest sector, supporting women in the areas of processing and trading. They make it possible for women to have access to loans for business activities in which they would not have been able to engage without this external capital. This applies to collective business activities as well as to processing and trading on the individual level.
- Transportation systems that take into account women's needs give them better marketing chances and thereby contribute to building up their capital. This factor also makes easier the purchase of larger amounts of raw products for speculative storage or for processing. The result of this chain of factors - within which central elements of the post-harvest sector are to be classified - could be an improved economic situation for women, which furthermore contributes to improving their social status.
- Donor organisations often select women's groups as target groups of development activities. The chances that a promotion will succeed are the better,
- the more the promotional purpose corresponds to the original purpose of the group,
- the more tactfully funds are made available, and
- the less potential exists for conflict through social tensions inside the group or the village.
In assessing and selecting women's groups, then, important aspects include the history of the group (membership conditions, structure, purpose of association), activities the group has conducted or their success, command and use of financial resources, social cohesion within the group / village (socioeconomic and sociocultural structure, relation of the various groups in the village to each other).
- For involvement of women and men in project planning and design, participatory approaches1 have proved especially useful. Viewing problems and situations separately from women's and men's perspectives makes it possible to recognise the differences in their interests in the post-harvest sector. In this process, handicaps for women come to light which can then be deliberately counteracted in the project, so that, ideally, men and women will profit in equal measure from its activities. The right choice of project executing organisation can contribute to this decisively. It should offer a wide variety of actors the chance to articulate their interests and to build a consensus or, if necessary, to look for possible conflict resolutions.
- The problems mentioned by women in the post-harvest sector - such as lack of capital, energy and time-wasting processing techniques, inadequate transport and lack of markets - are complex and in part interrelated. In this connection, the best problem-resolving approaches have proved to be those which do not see individual components in isolation (e.g., reducing legume storage losses), but instead holistically.
1cf. Chapter 8 in: Kerstan Birgit (1996): Gender-Sensitive Participatory Approaches in Technical Co-operation - Trainer's Manual for Local Experts. GTZ, Unit 04, Pilot Program for Gender Issues, Eschborn.
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