AFRICA: Better Data Key to Supporting Women Farmers

• by Mantoe Phakathi (mbabane)
• Thursday, May 20, 2010
• Inter Press Service

AFRICA Toolkit to improve recognition of women in agriculture Mantoe Phakathi Mbabane, 17 May (IPS) But she faces one big challenge.

'Women farmers are difficult to find because we don’t know one another,' says Dlamini-Gooday.

Often she runs out of stock and would like to refer her customers to other women farmers. But men end up taking the business because there is no national sex-disaggregated database to help her identify her female counterparts and the kind of products they sell.

In fact, says Dlamini-Gooday, government cannot even begin to address the specific needs of women in agriculture because the Ministry of Agriculture keeps no such data.

'As women we lack certain skills in farming such as rearing livestock which is traditionally considered a man’s job. But if government does not even know the number of women farmers out there then it cannot address these issues,' she told IPS.

In most African countries women, make up the majority of the poor, live in rural areas and are subsistence farmers. Yet Swaziland is not the only African country lacking sex-disaggregated data on agriculture.

According to United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) estimates, women make up 60 percent of the agricultural labour force while they produce between 60 and 80 percent of the world’s food crops. These women’s contribution to national development largely goes unrecognised and unpaid.

Dr Lindiwe Sibanda, the chief executive officer of the Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Network (FANRPAN), blames the World Bank’s economic structural adjustment programmes for the lack of disaggregated data.

According to Sibanda, the requirement for countries to downsize their agricultural research and extension services under SAPS destroyed the whole infrastructure of data collection. Therefore, Africa continues to plan based on data that is not in touch with people’s lived realities.

'In many instances, policies and programmes in rural areas, as implemented at the local level, are not responsive to women’s needs. In part, this is because planners and policy-makers are often not even aware that women farmers face special and specific challenges and those programmes need to be designed with their situations in mind,' explained Sibanda.

Sibanda said household surveys for data collection on livelihood assets, which include human, capital, social networks, physical assets, financial and the use of natural resources as a source of livelihood could help remedy the situation.

'If this is done biannually we will be able to accurately tell the story of who is surviving on what and the development interventions that are appropriate for women and children,' said Sibanda.

African governments now have the tools to conduct such surveys, thanks to the FAO. The U.N. agency has devised an Agri-Gender Statistics Toolkit that will help countries gather more information on differences between men and women in agriculture and contribute to agricultural development.

Launched in April, the toolkit provides the analytical framework needed to collect data on the nature of women and men’s agricultural work, their access to resources and exposure to food insecurity.

'With more specific information, policy makers can provide greater support to those who lack access and control over agricultural resources and help women to achieve greater equality and food security,' said Diana Tempelman, toolkit author and FAO senior officer for gender and development.

Tempelman emphasised that sex-disaggregated data collection is a new area that has been developing based on an increasing understanding of the relevance of knowing the impact of gender relations on individual, family and national development.

The fact that the toolkit was developed in response to a request from the African Commission on Agricultural Statistics (AFCAS) is a positive sign that governments are recognising the contributions of both women and men to agricultural development and the need for planning that takes this into consideration.

Although there has always been data on men and women, this has mainly been collected for the purposes of determining the sex and age composition of populations, education, health, certain sections of formal employment and other sectors.

'But there is scope for improving the availability of socio-economic data reflecting all men and women’s involvement in development and their specific constraints and opportunities,' said Tempelman.

Besides the newly introduced toolkit, other initiatives involving the development of gender-based statistics are emerging. Tempelman disclosed that FAO, Paris 21, the World Bank, the European Union, the Economic Commission for Africa and other partner organisations are supporting countries to prepare National Strategies for the Development of Statistics.

This will ensure greater cohesion between the different data collection exercises, improving the availability of data in general and gender statistics in particular.

The new developments may be just in time to help women farmers like Dlamini-Gooday get the recognition and assistance they need and to network with other women farmers.

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

Where next?

Advertisement