Access to Rural Non-Farm Livelihoods - Natural Resources Institute

Lack of skills was not cited by anyone within the community, although it was perceived to be
a problem by extension workers who were themselves relatively well educated and trained.
4.5.3 Age
Old age and failing strength and health were cited as barriers to continuing with any
economic activity. Of those at the community meeting, non-farm IGAs were reported by
those in their thirties, forties, and fifties in proportion to their representation in the group.
However, young people in their late teens and twenties were poorly represented at the
meeting 90 , and on the basis of information from the household interviews appear to be less
involved in non-farm IGAs than older adults. This could be a result of this generation’s lower
levels of education 91 , or because young families are concentrating on establishing a good
farming base, or could be a result of the fact that younger people either choose not to attend
community meetings, or are not encouraged to – further more detailed work is required to
elucidate this point.
4.5.4 Gender
Reproductive labour demands clearly constrain a woman’s ability to undertake other
activities of all kinds – researchers met a woman who trades in dried fish from a stall outside
her home on the main road who had simply shut up shop for a few months since the birth of
her baby. It may also lead to exclusion by others, for example a nursing mother with a noisy
baby was shooed away from a group meeting, although other women with quiet babies were
accepted at other meetings.
Historically women in the area had no or weak property rights, and although the modern law
seeks to correct this, traditions run strong, which is reflected in the perception of women that
lack of land or a place to business is an important barrier to them in starting up and
continuing IGAs.
Within the relatively small sample of those interviewed, women were less well represented
than men in the more profitable enterprises, and only one woman 92 was recorded to be
running her own business, as opposed to working in a group, and this was in a relatively low
capital business. Women have been targeted by both NGO and government development
programmes, albeit with mixed success, and encouraged to work in groups. Both an NGO
and a government extension worker, who are both female, stated that men in Byakabanda do
not respond to extension workers, and do not help the community to develop as they spend
little time at home and are “always drinking and playing cards”, and “disorganising”
women’s activities, while women are more progressive and/or innovative. One even went so
far as to state that in her opinion, there were widows who were better off than married
women, particularly women married to men who drink, as widows have been provided with
access to credit and NGO support. However, researchers noted that some of the “women’s”
groups encountered included male members, often with important roles 93 , or were set up at
the instigation of a man 94 – further more detailed work is required to determine how
beneficial these arrangements really are to women.
90 Only 11% of the group were in their twenties, and none were in their late teens.
91 See section 1.9.
92 See Box 10.
93 See Box 3.
94 See Box 6.
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