Synergy in Development 2005

Participants began the dialogue with the first issue for discussion, women’s participation in agriculture. One partner from Pennsylvania State University discussed their partnership with the University of Namibia, which focuses on women developing agricultural products of high nutritional value. The Penn State partner observed that universities don’t often value traditional knowledge, and therefore women are at a disadvantage due to their lack of higher, formal education.

Women participating in agricultural business partnerships have been supported through groups like Women’s Action for Development. Participants stressed that it is important that non-governmental organizations be brought into partnerships to promote women’s involvement.

Participants observed that there is a phenomenon of feminization of poverty in agriculture. Traditionally women are responsible for raising subsistence crops, but as these crops became more valuable men take over the farming and business. As a result, women lose power and status within their communities. One participant noted that “women don’t follow the dollar” in agriculture.

Partners from the University of Delaware are managing a program in Nigeria that helps women to raise poultry for nutrition and for business. The partners said that they didn’t want to make the partnership solely a women’s project that marginalized men, but wanted a program that was oriented towards the whole family. The partners implemented a microcredit program which included men participants, but the majority of participants were women. The partners realize that women spend money differently from men – women will tend to spend money on taking care of children and family.

The dialogue then turned to women as participants in training programs and some of the challenges. Sometimes seemingly unrealistic program goals can be the catalyst for growth of numbers of women participants. For example, during the 1980’s USAID launched a program that targeted Guatemalan Indians for short-term training with a goal of at least 50% participation by women. USAID was told it was impossible, that Indian women would not go on a training program. USAID organized a series of ads through a number of different mediums including, radio, print and television, which had the effect of eliciting more applicants than could be accepted to the program.

A representative from a Mali partnership program told the group there is built-in mandate to include women in their training program. As part of this program, the participants were required to travel to the United States. However, two of the female participants had young children that could not be left for extended periods of time. Eventually, these women were able to obtain visas for their children to accompany them, but the United States limitations placed on visas, severely restrict women’s abilities to participate in programs that involve travel to the United States. They provide additional obstacles that women must overcome in order to advance their education.

Partners working in Afghanistan mentioned that inviting women to their training program in the U.S. required an increase in funding to pay for bringing a male chaperone, which is required by law. This made it logistically more difficult for the program to provide training and accomplish their objectives.

Effat College in Saudi Arabia has encountered a similar problem. At Effat College the vast majority of the students are married (unlike the typical undergraduate women in the U.S. who is single) and have difficulty obtaining a visa for their spouse to travel with them. A chaperone is required by their law and belief, but it is possible for a woman to get permission to travel alone.

A partner from the University of Missouri-Rolla working in Oman, told the group that although he is partnered with an all women’s college there are few (if any) female faculty. He said that it is of critical importance to train women to take faculty positions at universities so that young women have someone to look up to and an example to strive for.

When women reach positions of power, they need to make strong pronouncements for the advancement of women. They must use their place in society to further the position of other women. An example of this is the Queen of Saudi Arabia. She greatly advanced women’s education throughout the country by discussing its importance and publicly supporting it.

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This publication was made possible through support provided by USAID. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID.

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