Tool kit for Gender and Agriculture - Economic Commission for Africa

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Improving Agriculture through Gender Analysis
Source: J. Murphy, 1994, Gender Issues in World Bank Lending, World Bank, Operations
Evaluation Department, Washington, D.C.
Box 12: Thematic Supervision in Agriculture Projects in Yemen
Agriculture, the predominant sector in the Yemeni labor force, is estimated to employ
94 percent of female and 70 percent of men workers. Gender segregation has traditionally
made it difficult for women to gain access to agricultural extension that is
provided by men. To address the difficulties in implementing the first projects concerned
with women’s work in agriculture in Yemen, the Bank instated thematic WID
supervision by experts on women in agricultural development. The supervision drew
several lessons applicable to all the projects:
• To reach a critical number of women extension agents, providing more training
programs and recruiting, training, and placing more women will be necessary.
• To maximize the potential of Yemeni women as agents of agricultural development,
extension must focus directly on agricultural priorities by developing clearly
focused extension messages and field support programs.
• Agricultural research needs to be linked specifically to the needs of women through
a of a two-way process of communication.
• Funds and equipment must be earmarked to ensure that women extension agents
are able to work effectively.
• Extension activities for women must be integrated into a nationwide agricultural
strategy to take into account the gender implications of technical modernization,
increases in productivity, and agricultural growth.
Implementation completion reports, impact studies, and evaluation reports specifically
need to identify gender-differentiated results and draw out the lessons learned.
They should also describe and evaluate special efforts used to increase the participation
of women (or female-headed households or any other special social group). Evaluations
need not be just within agriculture but can be in the form of cross-sectoral gender
implementation reviews. 8
Such a review is currently being undertaken for Yemen
Country Operations. Drawing on data collected from missions, UNESCO and UNICEF
sources, and household and 1992 demographic and health surveys the review will describe
persistent gender disparities, discuss their causes, and make recommendations to
help reduce them.
a. Strategies to Promote Attention to Gender During Monitoring and Evaluation
8 J. Murphy, 1994, Gender Issues in the World Bank Lending, World Bank, Operations Evaluation De-
partment.