Gender, Poverty and Institutions

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/34510

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 23

The impact of irrigation on nutrition, health, and gender: A review paper with insights for Africa south of the Sahara
(Working Paper, 2013) Domenech, Laia; Ringler, Claudia
The hypothesis underlying this review paper is that how irrigation gets deployed in SSA will be decisive not only for environmental sustainability (such as deciding remaining forest cover in the region) and poverty reduction, but also for health, nutrition, and gender outcomes in the region. The focus of this paper is on the health, nutrition, and gender linkage.
Participatory gender training for community groups
(Manual, 2016) Leder, S.; Das, D.; Reckers, A.; Karki, E.
Linking Women's Empowerment and their Resilience
(Report, 2016) Leder, S.
This literature review explores different conceptualizations of empowerment and possible links to resilience within gender and development studies. It takes theoretical perspectives of power and empowerment into account, reviews dimensions and relations influencing women's agency, and critically reflects on approaches for quantifying empowerment. Based on conceptualizations of empowerment ranging from narrow and instrumentalist to complex ones that engage with structural and social change, interpretations have diverse and reciprocal impacts on methodological considerations and the nature of empirical evidence. Furthermore, these diverse conceptualizations are used to evaluate and inform developmental policies and projects to varying degrees.
Gender, rights, and the politics of productivity: the case of the Flag Boshielo Irrigation Scheme, South Africa
(Book Chapter, 2015) van Koppen, Barbara; Tapela, B.; Mapedza, Everisto D.
Gender-equality in statutory water law: the case of priority general authorizations in South Africa
(Book Chapter, 2015) van Koppen, Barbara; Schreiner, B.
Fixing the leaks in women's human rights to water: lessons from South Africa
(Book Chapter, 2015) van Koppen, Barbara; Derman, B.; Schreiner, B.; Durojaye, E.; Mweso, N.
The human right to water and sanitation in a legal pluralist landscape: perspectives of southern and eastern African women
(Book Chapter, 2015) Hellum, A.; Kameri-Mbote, P.; van Koppen, Barbara
Water is life: women’s human rights in national and local water governance in southern and eastern Africa
(Book, 2015) Hellum, A.; Kameri-Mbote, P.; van Koppen, Barbara
Promoting productive gendered spaces for adapting to climatic stress: two case studies from rural Bangladesh
(Brief, 2014) International Water Management Institute
Beyond the promises of technology: A review of the discourses and actors who make drip irrigation
(Journal Article, 2014-04) Venot, Jean-Philippe; Zwarteveen, M.Z.; Kuper, M.; Boesveld, H.; Kooij, S. van der; Wanvoeke, J.; Benouniche, M.; Errahj, M.; Fraiture, Charlotte de; Verma, S.
Drip irrigation has long been promoted as a promising way to meet today's world water, food and poverty challenges. In most scientific and policy documents, drip irrigation is framed as a technological innovation with definitive intrinsic characteristics—that of efficiency, productivity and modernity. Based on evidence from North and West Africa as well as South Asia, we show that there are multiple actors involved in shaping this imagery, the legitimacy of which largely stems from an engineering perspective that treats technology and potential as ‘truths’ that exist independently of the context of use. Rather than ascribing the advent of drip irrigation as a successful technology to intrinsic technical features, this paper proposes to see it as grounded in the ability drip irrigation has to lend itself to multiple contexts and discourses that articulate desirable futures. We thus adopt a view of technology whereby the ‘real’ (i.e. the drip irrigation hardware) acquires its characteristics only through, and within, the network of institutions, discourses and practices that enact it. Such a perspective sheds light on the iterative alignments that take place between hardware and context and treat these as inherent features, rather than externalities, of the innovation process. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Land reforms and feminization of agricultural labor in Sughd province, Tajikistan
(Report, 2014) Mukhamedova, Nozilakhon; Wegerich, Kai
This report analyzes the influence of agrarian transformations on the feminization of agricultural production in rural Tajikistan. It explores women’s multiple labor relations for meeting basic needs of the household. The evidence shows that households have to depend on more types of agricultural work to secure day-to-day as well as long-term livelihood security. Overall, feminization appears in different types and groupings. The implication is that women in agriculture might not be adequately targeted in policies or integrated within intervention programs.
Water governance
(Book Chapter, 2014) Lautze, Jonathan F.; Silva, Sanjiv de; Giordano, Mark; Sanford, L.
Gender strategy
(Book, 2014) CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems
Agrarian stress and climate change in the eastern Gangetic Plains: gendered vulnerability in a stratified social formation
(Journal Article, 2014-11) Sugden, Fraser; Maskey, Niki; Clement, Floriane; Ramesh, V.
Governing the ungovernable: practices and circumstances of governance in the irrigation sector
(Journal Article, 2014) Venot, Jean-Philippe; Suhardiman, Diana
Since the early 2000s, governance has been at the core of the international water agenda. This has elicited calls for reforms in the irrigation sector, including efforts to address the problem of corruption. Nevertheless, the history of policy reform in the irrigation sector is one of repeated institutional refinements, which have hardly materialized into grounded policy measures and practices. Though international donors, policy makers, irrigation scholars and practitioners have long agreed to invest in the ‘soft issues’ of irrigation, most policy interventions have retained a focus on infrastructure-oriented development. This paper identifies decisive factors that preserve the status quo in irrigation development. We draw our analysis on empirical data from countries with a recent (Ghana, West Africa) and long (Indonesia) irrigation history. Beyond the idiosyncrasies of the two case studies that highlight that everyday practices are embedded in, and constrained by, existing institutional rules and mechanisms, but also contribute to shaping these, we make a broader theoretical point. We argue that the ‘business-as-usual’ trajectory that characterizes the irrigation sector is also rooted in the very concept of governance, which is fundamentally about “governing”, that is a practice aiming at steering people towards defined ends, and through different means such as infrastructure, management practices and policies.
Irrigation development in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta: towards polycentric water governance?
(Journal Article, 2014-03-01) Hoanh, Chu Thai; Suhardiman, Diana; Anh, L.T.
Vietnam’s irrigation development policy directions are divided between the objective to continue increasing rice production through agricultural intensification and to improve farmer’s livelihoods through crop diversification and integrated farming. While the first objective requires the construction of new large-scale irrigation system in deeply flooded area of the Vietnamese Mekong River Delta, the latter demands the modification in management of existing irrigation physical infrastructure for non-rice crops, in particular brackish aquaculture in the coastal zones. This article looks at Vietnam’s irrigation policy formulation processes in the last three and half decades in relation to the idea of polycentric governance. It discusses the current shortcomings and potential role of polycentric governance networks to capture stakeholders’ interests at multiple governance levels essential for future policy development. It partially sheds light on the dark side of water governance, bringing to light the fragmented polycentric decision-making processes in Vietnam’s irrigation development policies.
Implications of sustainable agricultural intensification for family farming in Africa: anthropological perspectives
(Journal Article, 2014) Snyder, Katherine A.; Cullen, Beth
In this paper, we will explore the ways in which sustainable intensification interventions often overlook fundamental social dynamics in rural landscapes. We provide evidence of the underlying social, political and environmental contexts that affect farmers’ land-use decisions. While there are numerous initiatives to promote a Green Revolution for Africa, many tend to be dominated by technical fixes that fail to understand rural farmers’ condi - tions or aspirations and focus narrowly on increasing productivity. These technical solu - tions rarely address the broader social, economic and political challenges to agricultural production and farmers’ livelihoods. Finally, top-down technical approaches frequently fail to build on the local knowledge, innovative capacity and expertise of farmers and members of rural communities throughout Africa. Examples from fieldwork in Ghana, Ethiopia and Tanzania are used to illustrate our arguments.
Sustaining participation in irrigation systems of Ethiopia: what have we learned about water user associations?
(Journal Article, 2013-12-01) Yami, Mastewal
Community participation, defined as engaging users of schemes in the decision-making processes for the planning and implementation of irrigation projects, is critical for the sustainability of irrigation schemes. This study was carried out in three regional states of Ethiopia to investigate the contribution of Water User Associations (WUAs) to sustaining participation in irrigation projects. The paper demonstrates that the poor understanding of community participation and institutional development by project staff in donor-supported irrigation projects results in the poor performance of WUAs in enhancing participation in irrigation systems. The interventions of external bodies in setting up the WUA by-laws and in determining the responsibilities of users and WUA committees contributed to the low level of participation. The transfer of schemes to WUAs without building WUA committees' abilities in operation and maintenance constrained their ability to sustainably manage irrigation schemes. The WUA committees are male-dominated and the views of women are hardly represented in the decision-making. Therefore, establishing WUA committees that reflect the interests and inputs of scheme users is crucial to achieve fair decision-making. Local authorities and non-governmental organizations could do more to change perceptions and behavior on the importance of gender equity in sustaining the positive outcomes of irrigation at household and community levels.
Gender aspects of smallholder private groundwater irrigation in Ghana and Zambia
(Journal Article, 2013-10) van Koppen, Barbara; Hope, Lesley; Colenbrander, W.
This paper explores gender aspects of smallholders' private technology adoption for groundwater irrigation in Ghana and Zambia. It focuses on two variables of quantitative farm-household surveys: household headship and gendered plot management. The paper compares adoption rates and types of technologies for female- and male-headed households; examines adoption rates when women have their own plots; and compares women's decision making on irrigated plots and rainfed plots. The findings suggest that there are largely untapped synergies between gender-equality and irrigation-policy goals. Systematic gender differentiation in surveys is recommended.
Small private irrigation: a thriving but overlooked sector
(Journal Article, 2014-01) Fraiture, Charlotte de; Giordano, Meredith A.
An increasing number of smallholder farmers engage in irrigation using their own resources. They buy or rent irrigation equipment and draw water from nearby sources without depending on or without interference from public agencies or water user associations. The individualization of Agricultural Water Management has been ongoing for several decades in South Asia where most irrigation now takes place from privately owned wells. Recently, small private irrigation is emerging also in sub Saharan Africa. It is farmer-driven, responds to a genuine demand from smallholders and has substantial potential for poverty alleviation and rural development. In many countries the area under privately managed and owned irrigation is larger than under public irrigation schemes. However, the individualization of irrigation and its spontaneous, unchecked spread pose challenges to equitable access to and sustainable management of water resources. Irrigation investments and research efforts have largely focused on the underperforming public irrigation sector, ignoring small private irrigation. This special issue describes and analyzes this thriving but overlooked sector, drawing from examples from five countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and two states in India. The authors explore ways to enhance the potential of small private irrigation for all, without jeopardizing the sustainability of the available water resources.

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