Document(s) 10 of 12

Photo credit: Ronnie Vernooy (IDRC).

We conclude with two related chapters that look across the empirical findings of the six studies in search of commonalities and singularities. In this chapter we reflect on how social and gender relations inform natural resource management practices in the study sites and vice versa. We look at the main underlying forces or factors that shape particular management practices and some of the emerging issues in terms of equity and environmental sustainability.

One way to summarize the main results of the studies is along a continuum from descriptive to transformative, with reference to the key features of the 'women in development' (WID) and 'gender and development' (GAD) approaches mentioned in Chapter 1. This continuum goes from raising awareness about gender roles and gender-based inequity, to increasing knowledge about and skills in doing gender and social research and analysis, to the economic and political empowerment of women farmers and herders. Each of the six studies combines elements of this continuum, that is, features of both WID and GAD approaches. As such, on-the-ground realities seem to suggest that theoretical crossings are commonplace. We also identify a number of challenges that the studies have encountered. A long road to mainstreaming social and gender analysis (SAGA) in research and development and to more equitable relationships still lies ahead.

A quick look back at where we started from reminds us why it is important to integrate SAGA into natural resource management research:

1. To develop a better understanding and awareness of the social and power relations that govern access, use and control over natural resources. This involves understanding the differences and inequities among social actors and the particulars of local contexts.

2. To facilitate the recognition of the social and gendered nature of technologies, policies and interventions. Policies and technologies are value laden and influence women and men and different social groups differently.

3. To create room for social actors (women and men) to manoeuvre and to enhance the bargaining and negotiating power of groups that are marginalized and discriminated against, leading to empowerment and transformation where they have more access to, control over and benefits from natural resources.

CASE STUDY SUMMARIES

Before we start our search for commonalities and singularities, we briefly recapitulate the main characteristics of the processes studied and acted on in the case studies (Chapters 2 to 7).

Sikkim/West Bengal, India

Through its focus on ginger production and commercialization, the Sikkim/West Bengal study shows that social realities are often complex and sometimes contradictory. Gender dynamics interact with other social variables such as ethnicity and caste, and history is a major determinant of today's patterns. Cultural and ethnic identities and traditions (including taboos) inform the division of labour and mobility of women and men. The study argues that there is a high degree of socioeconomic differentiation among households, and that among women new differences are emerging based on age and cultural changes. Across social groups, women have limited decision-making power and limited access to credit, which has a negative impact on their capacity to improve production. It is men who are entitled to land. Most women have only limited control over cash income and household expenditures.

The poor have limited access to land and, therefore, limited ability to expand production. In addition, the poor cannot afford to experiment (precisely because their access to land is constrained) and have difficulties obtaining government support. In Sikkim minorities (coming from Nepal) are often excluded from government support and research.

Nagaland, India

In the Nagaland case study we see an increasing demand for vegetables as a result of the rapid transformation of a subsistence economy to a market economy in combination with an urbanization process accompanied by changing food consumption habits.

Women are primary collectors of forest products and marketers of vegetables, but women marketers are differentiated economically and according to social status. Women vendors are facing constraints and hardships, partly because the market chain is not fully developed (for example, insufficient and inadequate transportation) and partly due to limited government capacities and poor service. Marketing is also a profoundly and often complex political-social process, in which many of the women vendors have only recently become entangled. The case study argues that, despite their significant roles and contributions to the economy, Nagaland women are not fully recognized or respected as economic agents and citizens.

Increasing demand is not without an impact on the natural resource base, which is being affected by the changes in society and the economy. Enclosure of vegetable fields and depletion of forest resources are leading to livelihood insecurity for some, while they represent opportunities for others—at least temporarily.

Nepal

In Nepal women play important but undervalued roles in farming, including seed production. The authors argue that the technology development process in Nepal, as directed and supported by the government, is largely gender blind and biased toward the rich. Only recently have some changes occurred at the conceptual level in terms of recognition of the relevance of SAGA. However, translating this recognition into practical steps to implement social and gender aware and informed policies and programmes remains a major challenge. At best, gender is defined as 'women', and 'women's' projects are seen as an adequate way to address gender issues. In research, those paying attention to gender are isolated and little integration takes place.

The field study shows that rural life is strongly shaped by social status and wealth hierarchies. Focusing on seeds, the study shows that the poor and uneducated have restricted access to both traditional and modern hybrid varieties, and this is having a negative impact on their livelihoods. Creating synergy between the informal and formal seed systems provides an alternative and, through project interventions, some progress is being made to increase access, improve incomes and maintain agricultural biodiversity.

Guangxi, China

The feminization of Chinese agriculture is one of the most significant features of rural life in the country today. At the same time, there is increasing disparity between the rich and poor (including in terms of access to vital services such as health and education). Ethnic minorities continue to be marginalized in many ways despite a number of supportive government policies. Their local knowledge and skills remain undervalued by society at large and by most researchers in particular. There is no system in place to recognize and value farmers' contribution to biodiversity conservation and crop improvement. The seed market, including that for local or locally improved varieties, is underdeveloped. Household food security remains unresolved and is becoming more problematic in places such as the uplands and in ethnic minority regions due to increasing globalization and free-market expansion. Environmental problems are widespread and serious. In terms of social and gender considerations, the study argues that there is a lack of awareness, understanding and planning by government, extension and research agencies, although some opportunities for change are opening up.

The Chinese research team is taking advantage of one such opportunity through a multi-stakeholder, collaborative effort. Action research interventions are focused on field-level experimentation with improved maize varieties combining (women) farmers' know-how with plant breeders' expertise. These experiments tackle productivity, environmental sustainability and empowerment. In parallel, action research aims to influence and change a number of key policies affecting rural livelihoods, including extension, seeds, in situ conservation, and intellectual property and farmers' rights.

Hue, Viet Nam

Strikingly similar to the Chinese and Nepalese studies, the case study argues that women in Viet Nam contribute more to agriculture than men, but their work is not recognized by the government. Most government policies and programmes are gender-blind, if not on paper certainly in practice. The study, with field data in hand, makes the point that, as a result, women and poor farmers have unequal access to education, services and information (for example, research results). The team argues that (upland) farmers do not learn much from current government services, such as extension, education and training, and that this negatively affects technology adoption and farmers' livelihoods.

The study documents and analyses how the design and delivery of rural development training are informed by gender and social variables. Many farmers (including women) say that men are better at learning about new farming technologies and practices. Local leaders and extension agents agree with this. They also think that men will disseminate knowledge automatically to women (one reason why they have no problem with only men attending training events). The study criticizes these gender-biased views and the outcomes they lead to.

Like China, Viet Nam is undergoing dramatic macroeconomic change. However, economic growth does not necessarily translate into reduced poverty, greater equity and environmental sustainability. On the contrary, gaps between cities and rural areas, between lowlands and uplands, and between the ethnic majority and ethnic minorities seem to be widening. Through participatory action research, the team is trying to do something about these problems. It supports local experimentation by interest groups and provides a different kind of training and other services to the rural poor and to women in particular. The team is also addressing a number of policy issues.

Mongolia

Mongolia is faced with serious degradation of natural resources, especially grasslands, making it increasingly difficult to maintain the traditional (but not backward) herding lifestyle. At the macro level, the country is undergoing rapid change (liberalization, urbanization, steps toward democratization), but the history of Soviet domination, the still heavily top-down government style, limits imposed by nature, and traditional practices and beliefs informing the gender division of labour and women's mobility constrain livelihood options and limit opportunities for change. Differences between the rich and the poor seem to be widening. As in the agricultural economies of Nepal, Viet Nam and China, (herder) women play important roles in natural resource management, but are undervalued by government and herders alike. Decision making is not shared equally, and power imbalances exist between women and men. There is widespread disrespect and disregard of local knowledge and practices.

The study team is pioneering a different approach to research and development, working toward social- and gender-informed policies and laws, participatory co-management agreements and livelihood alternatives. The team's efforts include a variety of field research activities, targeted training for herders, government staff and researchers in participatory rural appraisal, SAGA, participatory monitoring and evaluation, national and international networking and direct involvement in national policy making, including the drafting of new laws. Two innovative action research activities are the formation of community herder groups and the establishment of pasture co-management teams involving herders, local government and members of civil society.

IMPROVED UNDERSTANDING AND AWARENESS

The key insights gained from the six studies include improved knowledge, the revaluation of local knowledge, and increased awareness about social and gender variables in natural resource management. The studies detail how rural households organize the production and marketing of a variety of crops (Nepal), vegetables (Nagaland), ginger (Sikkim/West Bengal), maize (China) and livestock (Mongolia). They document and analyse how gender roles shape the division of labour, as well as the processes through which income is generated and distributed or, sometimes, not distributed.

Gender roles were documented and analysed through the lens of

1. Men's and women's views on their roles in natural resource management, and their relations spanning the local and supra-local levels. As much as possible, study teams tried to listen to the 'voices' of women and men.

2. Methods and tools and how to use them in contextually and culturally appropriate ways, with an eye on historical changes.

3. Gender-based differences. Why do they exist? How and why do they change? In other words, how can one move from descriptive research and documentation to more explanatory research and writing?

4. Gender-based views and roles in the research process. This is an emerging and important topic. The studies presented here do not pay much attention to this issue yet, but the teams have expressed an interest in doing better in the future.

The Sikkim/West Bengal study highlights the changes over time and today's complexities in the interplay of ethnicity, gender, caste and age in the production and marketing of ginger. The study details how most women largely remain subjugated to men through particular notions of roles, duties and through rules of access to rural and urban spaces including fields and markets. However, some women, especially younger women, are creating opportunities for change.

In Mongolia men usually do most of the important work away from the home—selecting pasture, haymaking, herding animals, participating in meetings and business management. However, almost all of the men's work is seasonal. In contrast, women's work is continuous during the day and during the year. They usually do repetitive housework—processing milk, taking care of children and housekeeping. In other words, the daily workload of women is higher than men's, but most of their work is unpaid. Women's workloads hinder their participation in community decision making about natural resource management.

In all studies the differential impact of macro-societal forces, such as liberalization, privatization, commoditization and commercialization of service provision (health and education) shine through. These forces lead to many changes, such as out-migration of men in particular (China, Nepal) and related changes in the division of labour. Accordingly, workloads shift. Evidence suggests that, as a result, women tend to work more; and also do more unpaid labour. At the same time, some women manage to find new ways to increase income or at least explore such ways, for example, in Mongolia, China, Viet Nam and Nagaland. In all cases women continue to play a key role in unpaid processes of social production.

In Nagaland women are the primary gatherers of forest resources, such as varieties of wild vegetables, non-timber forest products, fuel wood and fodder, to meet household needs. The depletion of these resources, therefore, is having a direct impact on women, increasing their workloads and drudgery. It also has a direct impact on the overall livelihoods of the people as forest resources not only contribute to their life-support systems but also bring in crucial family income.

In China women and de facto women-headed households increasingly represent a disproportionate number of poor farmers. Women are becoming the main cultivators, food producers and on-farm income earners, but they also continue to play their traditional household roles. At the same time, women are underrepresented in government and administration, their significant roles are not recognized, and their specific needs, interests and expertise are largely neglected in agricultural and rural development policies and programmes. Their access to basic resources and services, such as credit, market information, training and extension services, remains limited.

A similar situation exists in Viet Nam. The Hue study reports that upland women spent about 10 times as much time as men on household chores. The amount of time women spend working in the field is also greater than men's. However, women have less opportunity to make decisions and less control over resources. There is a lack of awareness about social and gender factors in government development programmes. And men make most decisions about development-related activities.

In Sikkim/West Bengal significant changes are occurring due to the commercialization of ginger. Brahmin-Chhetri communities are gradually 'replacing' Rais and Lepchas in terms of forces of production. New land areas have been occupied and brought under ginger cultivation and new techniques have been introduced. Gender roles in cultivation, decision making and control over crops have changed as a result. Women's roles in the growing of ginger and control over its use have declined dramatically.

Although both women and men play important but different roles in the management of natural resources in Mongolia's nomadic pastoralism, women's particular roles and participation in natural resource use, decision making and implementation have been undervalued. In many cases, in research and in policy making, women's knowledge and abilities are neglected. Only recently has women's participation in natural resource management been taken into consideration. Women's roles in environmental management and preservation have taken centre stage, and recognition of their work and contributions is gradually increasing. Women are also slowly receiving more support in their work.

Several case studies highlight women's knowledge of plants and plant breeding, and their contribution to biodiversity conservation efforts: the China and Nepal studies stand out, but we find elements of this as well in Sikkim/West Bengal and Nagaland. Here, the studies show how gender interfaces with class. In Nepal decision making about seed production and marketing shows that men dominate in richer households, whereas in medium and poor households decision making tends to be shared. Men play a dominant role in panicle selection in richer households; women are also involved among the medium and poorer households. Post-harvest operations like threshing and storage are exclusively women's activities irrespective of socioeconomic status. The seasonal migration of men from the middle and poor socioeconomic categories has brought about changes in gender role dynamics and resulted in greater involvement of women in seed selection.

The China study also pays attention to the knowledge and expertise of women extensionists and their courage to do things differently: from top-down, supply-driven service delivery to bottom-up, demand-driven service provision and very active roles in the research process. Some extension agents in Viet Nam are now also showing an interest in such an approach.

All six studies show how social relationships inform particular natural resource management practices, starting at the household level and extending up to the level of the village or beyond. A striking example is China, where male migration has become a prominent feature in many areas. As a result, speaking about farmers and farming means women-led and women-run farms. The studies also show how a number of women actively invest in new social relations to gain or increase access to resources; for example, the women vendors in Nagaland through their marketing interactions or the herder women in Mongolia through their interactions with the co-management committees.

In Nagaland, although at first most women are strangers in the marketplace, they make friends and learn from each other. Spending time in Kohima also helps women vendors gain knowledge about other town business; for example, they find out where to obtain the best prices for essential food items. In Viet Nam women have formed experimentation groups to try out new agricultural practices, receive training and technical assistance, and engage in marketing. In Mongolia women are joining co-management teams to have a greater say in the use and management of grasslands and other natural resources.

Although most studies have only touched on this area, we can hypothesize that the strong interest and active involvement of many women in the research process is another example of how social relations and opportunities are built through research. In China this has allowed access to new knowledge and seeds through contacts with extensionists, plant breeders and researchers from the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy. The horizons are broadening.

For all the teams the research process itself has been instrumental in achieving results. Through face-to-face encounters with women and men farmers and herders at multiple sites (home, field, market and also events organized by the projects such as workshops, training sessions and visits), the researchers gained a better understanding and appreciation of women's and men's everyday lives and struggles, their knowledge, points of views, interests, worries and challenges. The fieldwork and the networking became roads to discovery and learning. The use of and experimentation with 'new' tools opened minds and eyes. Doing research on things and people shifted towards carrying out research for and with people. New research perspectives and practices are emerging.

The studies helped the researchers learn several major lessons: complex social and gender relations play a crucial role in farmers' adaptations and innovations. Unless this is understood and examined, the scientific and new methods introduced by the various institutions will not be successfully disseminated or accepted by the farmers. Integrating SAGA at the research level has to be the basis of any action research or development project (IDRC 2004d).

Other main stakeholders like plant breeders, extensionists, men farmers and, more importantly, policy makers involved in the projects have become more gender sensitive and now have a better understanding of women's roles in rural development and their specific needs and interests (IDRC 2004a).

TRANSFORMATIONS

Transformative agency refers to the ability to question, reinterpret, and change roles and responsibilities, and goes beyond doing things more efficiently; the latter could be called effective agency (Kabeer 2003: 174). To varying degrees, the case studies have made steps toward transformative learning. This is an approach in which people together build a more integrated or inclusive perspective of the world. Through the learning process they jointly transform some part of their world-view (Van der Veen 2000; Vernooy and McDougall 2003). Manifestations of transformative learning in resource management include, for example, new values or patterns of decision making that farmers or herders generate and apply outside the immediate arena of the learning intervention. Transformative learning intentionally and consciously activates the praxis, that is, practice informed by theory, as a means toward (self-)empowerment of marginalized people and improvements in human systems.

The more transformative elements of the case studies include the formation of interest groups and their efforts toward the development of new or enhanced economic resources in the realms of production and marketing (socioeconomic empowerment); examples are the cases from China, Viet Nam and Mongolia. In addition, we note efforts toward more and more meaningful participation in systems and processes that allow the identification, prioritization and implementation of needs and opportunities, and mobilization around self-defined concerns and priorities (sociopolitical empowerment). We elaborate on these two forms of empowerment in the following sections.

New Economic Resources and Opportunities

Several of the teams are exploring new economic avenues to generate additional income as one way of reducing poverty. At the same time, these initiatives aim to strengthen (in particular) women's capacities as economic agents in their own right. In Nepal and China action research focuses on seed marketing; in Mongolia the focus is on adding value to traditional livestock-related products; in Viet Nam on producing and selling selected commodities, such as pigs and ducks. These activities do not have an economic focus alone. Through learning by doing, the women and men taking part in them are developing new or strengthening existing social and political skills, such as planning, budgeting, monitoring, negotiating, facilitating and communicating.

The Chinese SAGA action research team has supported the empowerment of a number of women farmers and strengthened their groups. These women have now become much more active in participating in and making decisions about major social and economic activities at the household and community levels. Women's involvement in open-pollinated variety seed production and marketing has built their confidence and capabilities; they have become more active and creative, and have taken the initiative to develop new income-generating and other activities in their households and communities as individuals and as a group (IDRC 2004a).

Building farmers' capacity in seed selection and quality control should be the first step to ensure access to quality seeds. The capacity building of community-based organizations in quality control at the field level ensures the sustainability of the seed production programme. Similarly, opening up the market for quality seed of local landraces provides incentives to the farmers and contributes to the conservation of local bio-diversity (IDRC 2004c).

Collective Action and Empowerment

Individual forms of empowerment are critical, but in this book we have also seen the power of collective action to promote social change and gender equality. As Kabeer (2003: 194) has pointed out, this is an important route through which small-scale changes can be institutionalized at higher levels. Sometimes these collective actions take place in the political sphere: herder women entering co-management discussions and negotiations in the Mongolian study are a good example. More often, they do not take place in political arenas, although they are political in nature; the women's groups in Viet Nam and China are good examples. Women organize themselves to do things differently and challenge existing patterns and practices that inform production, reproduction and marketing. The Nagaland women vendors enter into politics through their daily struggles to sell vegetables.

Multi-stakeholder collaboration has a key role to play, but that is easier said than done. During the Second International Workshop in Ulaanbaatar (see Chapter 1), this issue was synthesized in the form of the following chain of steps:

1. involvement of stakeholders;

2. detailed stakeholder analysis (define roles and responsibilities; set common goals);

3. voluntary participation;

4. development of strong common interests and ownership;

5. 'signing' of formal agreements (for example, the co-management agreement in Mongolia);

6. continuous review and adaptation; and

7. building of broader partnerships and networking.

To determine whether collaboration is moving in the right direction, it is critical to document the process systematically. Two of the key questions to address are: Who is (actually) collaborating? And how? Overall, the six teams made good progress in terms of following these steps; however, in a number of cases, more attention should be paid to working with and including specific stakeholders.

For the Mongolian team, this was their first experience doing SAGA research in relation to natural resource management. The researchers benefited considerably from hearing about the experience of others. Community members and local governors became more gender sensitive and their understanding about women's roles in natural resource management changed. After the SAGA work, women's groups became initiators of community-based natural resource management activities that aimed to increase women's participation in the decision-making process as well as in the co-management agreements. The co-management agreements were adapted after reflection on women's roles and responsibilities. Women's involvement in such activities increased. They have become creative and initiated income-generating and other activities in the pastoral households (IDRC 2004b).

The Chinese team reports:

The women groups in our case study have also shown that farmers' self-organisation/management and autonomous capability are important. They empower themselves in the mainstreaming process. In the context of China, strengthening women groups, or other farmer groups, and local communities can be the first step for such self-organisation and autonomous capacity-building. The collaboration between women groups and grassroots extensionists is an alternative to enhance women farmers' access to more institutional support and their linkages to formal (research, and seed) system. (IDRC 2004a)

SYNTHESIS

From the point of view of the women and men farmers and herders whom we have met in the previous chapters, SAGA means, above all, asking two questions: How do we manage to make a (decent) living while taking care of the land, water, forests and animals? How do we succeed in taking (meaningful) part in the socioeconomic and sociopolitical life of our communities? From these fundamental questions, others follow easily: How can we best use and manage our natural resources? How can we generate an income that allows us to feed and clothe our families, educate our children, and perhaps save or invest a small sum of money? How can we best organize ourselves to do this? What sort of tasks and responsibilities do we need to take on?

From a more analytical point of view, SAGA in the case studies has meant enquiring about the sexual division of labour and how notions of gender, class, caste, ethnicity and age inform this. It has also been expressed through attempts to carry out institutional natural resource management analysis, that is, identifying rules, rights, tasks, authority and control, claims on produce and income, and to look critically at policy-making processes that influence rural livelihoods and natural resource management in particular. And it has been shaped through participatory action research initiatives, such as the formation of experimental and interest groups, the building of new, multi-stakeholder alliances, capacity building and empowerment strategies, and informing or influencing policies through various means, including advocacy.

There are a number of striking commonalities. First, there is increasing pressure on the natural resource base due to multiple factors that include market liberalization, privatization and enclosure of the commons, state reform and structural adjustment, population increases and population shifts (urbanization). Although aspects of these factors differ among the six cases, there seems to be a common trend towards a more competitive environment, imposing restrictions on access and the generation and sharing of benefits. Several of the studies are trying to counteract this tendency and create more space for the disadvantaged. An impoverished resource base in its turn forces adaptations in the social fabric underlying production.

Second, the forces mentioned earlier seem to accompany or lead to increased social differentiation. This takes various forms: a wider gap between the rich and the poor, between those in urban areas and those in rural areas, between ethnic majority and minority groups; and feminization of agriculture (most evident in China). These widening gaps seem to be leading to more pressure on land, water and other resources: by the poor, because their situation tends to become more desperate; by the rich, because their demands become greater.

Third, ethnicity as expressed through ways of life, values, rules and norms emerges as a social force of relative importance. As all case studies indicate, ethnicity influences many aspects of natural resource management, but is often underestimated or neglected in research and policy making alike.

Fourth, continued and strong top-down policy-making processes affect local realities, very often making things more difficult for farmers and herders. At the same time, there seems some support for the search for (policy) alternatives and the opening up of opportunities for building new alliances between government and civil society.

REFERENCES

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) (2004a). China Case Study Final Report. Ottawa: IDRC.

——— (2004b). Mongolia Case Study Final Report. Ottawa: IDRC.

——— (2004c). Nepal Case Study Final Report. Ottawa: IDRC.

——— (2004d). Sikkim/West Bengal Case Study Final Report. Ottawa: IDRC.

Kabeer, N. (2003). Gender Mainstreaming in Poverty Eradication and the Millennium Development Goals: A Handbook for Policymakers and Other Stakeholders. London: Commonwealth Secretariat; Ottawa: International Development Research Centre; and Hull: Canadian International Development Agency.

Van der Veen, R. (2000). Learning Natural Resource Management. In M. Loevinsohn, J. Berdegué and I. Guijt, eds, Deepening the Basis of Rural Resource Management, Proceedings of a Workshop, 16–18 February 2000, pp. 15–22. The Hague: International Service for National Agricultural Research; Santiago: RIMISP.

Vernooy, R. and C. McDougall (2003). Principles for Good Practice in Participatory Research: Reflecting on Lessons from the Field. In B. Pound, S. Snapp, C. McDougall and A. Braun, eds, Managing Natural Resources for Sustainable Livelihoods: Uniting Science and Participation, pp. 113–41. London: Earthscan; Ottawa: International Development Research Centre.

Document(s) 10 of 12