Do Interventions to Support Women Producers Promote Gender Equality and Equity in the Rural Economy? Reflections on Recent Measures in the Context of Agricultural Commercialisation

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2017-02-23

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In recognition of the entrenched character of their challenges with decent work and economic emancipation, rural women are one of the most targeted groups in development interventions. The gender and development literature is replete with assessments of such interventions which have been mainly within the WID-GAD development framework (e.g. Buvinic, 1986; Schroeder 1999; Kabeer, 1994). A major concern in that literature has been to explain the unexpected responses or lack of positive results from several interventions. Often projects ignored or tried to circumvent the power relations within households and the conjugal union, women’s heavy reproductive workloads and the overarching effects of the larger political economy on livelihoods. This seems to be a persistent problem in many efforts to support women producers and address gender inequalities in rural production systems. In this seminar, I reflect on recent interventions aimed at improving the conditions of rural women producers and their livelihood outcomes in the context of Agricultural Commercialisation in Ghana. I discuss the extent to which they contribute to more equitable gender relations and draw lessons for approaching interventions in the world of work as elements of a transformative gender equality project. The interventions include a) measures to improve access to land and security of tenure for women; b) support women’s participation in commercial agriculture projects; and c) CSR projects which seek to support women’s reproductive activities. I argue that beyond design and implementation challenges, the limitations of these intervention are related to the fact that they have tended to focus on only one of several challenges rural women producers face and are undermined by the larger policy context of neglect of smallholder agriculture and gender inequalities in other spheres.

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decent work, economic emancipation, rural women, WID-GAD development framework

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