Gender

IFAD estimates that providing women with the same access to productive resources, skills, tools and technologies as men could increase production on women’s farms by 20-30%. Ensuring women’s equal involvement in community-based sustainable land management and natural resources management has been shown to improve land rehabilitation, reverse desertification, and improve socio-economic conditions within communities. 

In line with GEF’s ambition to ensure gender equality and promote women’s empowerment across its operations, RFS aims to close the gender gap in agriculture by integrating gender perspectives and concerns into the preparation, design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of agricultural projects and programmes. By integrating considerations of gender equality into each stage of RFS project implementation, RFS is working toward the transformation of discriminatory social institutions and practices. Equal access to resources and opportunities for men and women will support the sustainable improvement of agricultural production, food security, and participation in decision-making processes. 

Across the RFS programme, project teams have identified the different needs, roles and responsibilities of women within project sites, as well as opportunities for equal engagement with women. The findings of these assessments have been integrated into project implementation in a variety of ways, including the disaggregation of participation targets by gender in M&E frameworks, strategic partnerships with and capacity development of women’s groups, scaling up access to financing for women, offering subsidies on agricultural technologies and natural resource management assets for women, and a focus on supporting income-generating activities for women. 

The RFS Ethiopia project is currently engaging gender experts in the development of a gender-sensitive decision support tool, which allows for easy tracking of socio-economic indicators that have gender-responsive changes over the project period. In Nigeria, the RFS project has forged a strategic partnership with the Women Farmers Advancement Network (WOFAN), convening training workshops for extension workers with a focus on ensuring equal access to extension services for women. In Uganda, the RFS project has made a deliberate effort to ensure equal participation of women and men in extension services, working with clan leaders and elders to mobilise women to engage in the RFS-supported Farmer Field Schools.

Explore the RFS Country Projects to see more examples of how RFS countries are implementing gender-responsive activities.