Message 32: Manirul Islam

Manirul Islam points that sometimes when development initiatives gender mainstream to increase women’s participation in productive activities, they put pressure on women by increasing their workloads. These initiatives need to keep in mind that the balance of reproductive work with involvement in such programmes is still done by the women themselves, and often the consequences are that women are overburdened and time-poor.

Why is it important to mainstream a gender perspective in agricultural water management?

Water as a vital natural resource needs to be taken into account to manage and integrate in a holistic way to provide optimum benefits to the society and sustainability of project as well. There is a dilemma in mainstream gender in water resources management since in developing society women are excluded from productive activities. Since there is a tiny effort to justify women participation in development activities, limited research on gender mainstreaming has carried out which rarely uttered the reason why women needs to be involved in development initiatives. Although it has sought and explored that women participation is essential for efficiency or sustainability of a development project but not so obvious how women could be benefitted or disbenefitted due to their participation in development activities like water management in agriculture project. Examples could be taken into account from Microcredit perspective! Regarding women development through microcredit CIDA (1997) it has been stated that -Microcredit may even often contribute to the workload of women, increasing women’s dual burden of productive and reproductive work. On the other hand much achievement has been claimed by the Grameen Bank with reference to a survey, according to which 51.1 percent of Grameen borrowers’ households have crossed the poverty line (Yunus, 2004). Kabeer (1991) concerning Bangladesh argued that -the restrictive perception about women’s labor force participation continued to limit their contribution in market-oriented production and field-based agriculture. Women’s experience of participation in rural development programs can be negative, on the other hand, because demands on women’s labor may be intensified without finding substitutes for women’s reproductive work at home (quoted in Oxaal and Baden, 1997). These critics also could be taken into account when mainstreaming gender in water management in agriculture whether women might have faced difficulties with overburden of work if traditional gender division of labour is not harmonized with increased women activities.

In most cases mainstreaming gender in a program or a project has been seen from a narrow perspective and have tendency to overlook social issues which has major relevance with the project viability, efficiency and sustainability. I like to see the importance of mainstreaming gender in development activities from the view point that mainstreaming gender in water management is important ;

To reduce the gender gap and ensure equitable benefits for men and women
To empower women through equal access to resources and rights
To make the project efficient and sustainable

1) Since women in major developing societies are prohibited to participate in productive space, there is a significant consequences on the status of women and on their rights. The main objective of any development activities is to ensure the well being of the people. But there is a dilemma to achieve expected benefits through an intervention and proper distribution of resources as women are not taken into account to participate in the intervention or in negotiation of the process. The consequences disperse between the relationship of male and female and their status in the family and in the society. Reeves and Baden (2000)mentioned that “in reality gender discrimination persists and gender inequality contributes to poverty because women’s access to resources is constrained by cultural norms and practices, which reinforce their subordinate status. Moreover women’s choices are limited by discrimination in public life, in the workplace and in the home”. So mainstreaming gender in water resources management would increase women access and right to resources and would help them to overcome the barrier of social and cultural norms.

2) Mainstreaming gender in water resources management would positively effect to the process of women empowerment. Through the process of mainstreaming gender in water resources management women would be able to participate, react and negotiate in the development issue which might have overall positive consequences on the situation of women. The process would enhance women decision making ability in the home and outside of home. It has been argued that stronger decision-making role in the household allows choice of life and increases bargaining power (Kabeer, 2001). It has also been noted that empowerment is a process which proceeds by bottom-up collective action to recognise and address gender issues in the face of patriarchal opposition. Women involvement in water management (i.e. WUA) would help them to be empowered and consequently would have effect to reduce the gender gap and breaking the social system.

3) The efficiency and sustainability terms mostly used by the donor agencies in their program and activities and those terms are not taken into account to contextualize with the human life discourse. But there is a need of clear understanding on how gender could be mainstreaming in development project to the efficiency and sustainability whereas other local factors may influence the outcome of the process. Black Holes in the Practice of Community Participation noted that -Participation of users in decision-making produces more efficient and more sustainable projects. When communities influence or control the decisions that affect them, they have a greater stake in the outcomes and are more committed to ensuring success.Participation helps to break down the cycle of dependence which characterizes much top down development work. Current development practice attempted to make the project management system more user oriented. Argument also there that -amongst users, one of the largest visible groups can be identified by gender. In most societies, the provision of water in fullfilment of fundamental human rights has always been a woman's responsibility.

What are the real issues that challenge the integration of gender concerns into water management and agriculture?

The challenges in integration of gender in water resources management could be observed from the perspectives of policy level, project level and grass root level which works coincide with each other. At the level of policy there is a necessity to ensure water as a basic right and as a commodity and formulation of laws and policies accordingly. Gender mainstreaming is often not optimized on the basis of gender neutrality at the level of policy. At the level of project implementation there is a challenge to have proper tools and guidelines which can meet the local demands and can addresses the focal points of mainstreaming gender. Appropriate knowledge and skills on mainstreaming gender among project personnel also have been observed as a major challenge at the level of project implementation. Challenges at the grassroot level has been seen as a major issue in mainstreaming gender in water management as most developing society faces lack of knowledge, patriarchal social cultural norms and values which resulting curtail of women involvement in the productive space.

References

Kabeer, Naila (1991), Gender, Production and well being: Rethinking th Household economy, IDS, Sussex, London.

Kabeer, Naila (2001), Gender mainstreaming in Poverty redaction and the millennium development goals, Commonwealth Secretariat, London

Reeves, Hazel and Baden, Sally (2000), Gender and Development: Concept and definition, Bridge, Sussex, UK