GGCA Gender and Climate Change Training Manual - Women's ...

successfully adopted (see Box 2).
Technologies have often been
designed without attention to the
specific needs of women and
their limited access to resources,
including capital, labour, time or
even the right to make decisions.
In developing countries, new
technologies are usually transferred
through agricultural extension
systems staffed by male officers
who are more comfortable
working with male farmers. In
some cases, local cultural norms
make it difficult or even impossible
for male extension workers
to interact with female farmers.
Consequently, women farmers
often do not receive information
about new technologies and
men obtain most of the direct
benefits from their introduction.
This is not only unacceptable
from the perspective of gender
equality, but it is also highly
inefficient, given the significant
Box 2 Impact of land tenure on the
adoption of new technologies in
Kabale District, Uganda
The NGO Africare in Kabale District
recommended practices to reduce run-off on
the steeper slopes in the area by improved
terracing and planting of bushes and vetifer
grass, but women were reluctant to adopt
such technologies since they lacked secure
tenure to the land. Men had such tenure,
but many farm households were de facto
female-headed since the men were not
present. Meanwhile, the women on their own
were unwilling to adopt such technologies.
Consequently, the rate of adoption was very
low. There was a similar problem with tree
planting and women were reluctant to plant
fruit trees on land where they had no tenure.
The issues were resolved through discussions
between project staff and the communities
(either with the husband when possible, or
with the village elder, and with the wife) by
explaining the purpose of these investments,
and the resulting benefit for the household
and the community.
Source: World Bank, 2004.
role played by women in agriculture in most developing countries. Focused
efforts must be made to involve women in the processes of developing,
testing and implementing new technologies. Women must also be employed
in the agricultural extension systems, helping facilitate the transfer of
technologies and knowledge to rural women.
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6.4 Areas of focus for technological interventions
Article 4.5 of the UNFCCC states:
The developed country Parties and other developed Parties included in
Annex II shall take all practicable steps to promote, facilitate and finance,
as appropriate, the transfer of, or access to, environmentally sound
technologies and know-how to other Parties, particularly developing country
Parties, to enable them to implement the provisions of the Convention. In this
Module 6