The CAADP Pillar I Framework

livelihoods, what their constraints are, how they interact socio-economically and how agriculturalwater management can improve their livelihoods. Based on this knowledge, measures can beincluded to make projects more pro-poor. These measures can include: (i) capacity building andempowering the poor to participate effectively; (ii) ensuring that the voice of the poorer segments ofcommunities is adequately heard in participatory planning and land and water allocation decisions;(iii) minimising involuntary resettlement and ensuring that the poor are not excluded or furthermarginalised by development; (iv) strengthening the bargaining powers of the poor thoughinstitutional reform and facilitating their access to land and water; (v) targeting the poor with extratechnical support; (vi) ensuring that the entry price is affordable to the poorest stratum, for example,by the use of affordable technologies; (vii) ensuring that cost-recovery arrangements/water chargesare not unfairly weighted against the poorest stratum; and (viii) optimising the potential for direct andindirect employment gains.Targeting agro-ecological zones and farming systems with high agricultural potential andconcentrations of poverty can also be pro-poor. When arid and semi-arid zones were targeted forpoverty reduction, the results were mixed, mainly because of the generally high costs of waterdevelopment in such zones, their remoteness from markets and sparse populations (IFAD, 2007). Incontrast, the more humid agro-ecological zones, which also coincide with high incidences of poverty,provide better potential for investing in agricultural water for poverty reduction (Dixon et al., 2003).This perhaps surprising suggestion may be explained by considering that, as population densitiesincrease, farmers gradually shift from extensive to increasingly intensive production systems. Thetrend is encouraged once significant market opportunities emerge. Where population densities arehigh, a process of intensification has already started and market opportunities are emerging,investment in agricultural water development is likely to be more successful than in drier zones. Thisdoes not exclude the possibility that there will be opportunities for investment in agricultural watermanagement in the arid and semi-arid zones and that these could make a significant contribution topoverty reduction and growth — provided they are demonstrably economically viable and physicallysustainable.In addition to considerations of gender equity, targeting women can also enhance poverty reductionimpacts. Women contribute 60-80 percent of labour for food production in Sub-Saharan Africa,typically with a major role in planting, weeding, application of fertilizers and pesticides, harvesting,threshing, food processing, transporting and marketing, while men are generally responsible for landclearing and preparation, including ploughing (FAO, 2003a). This division of labour also applies inirrigated agriculture. In many Southern African countries, the proportion of female-headed ruralhouseholds and women-led farms exceeds 50 percent (IWMI, 2005g). At selected schemes inZimbabwe, for example, 20-64 percent of the plot holders were female-headed households (IFAD,2007). In rice-growing areas in West Africa and parts of Southern and Eastern Africa, paddycultivation is increasingly becoming a ‗female farming system‘ in which women are often the decisionmakers on formerly male managed farms as a consequence of male migration to towns for work(IWMI, 2005g).Women often take the lead in fruit and vegetable production (Box 3.4) as well as in productionsupport activities such as savings groups (IFAD, 2002). Studies have shown that gender-equitableagricultural production boosts productivity (IWMI, 2005g). Clearly, then, targeting women for trainingand support services and ensuring their equitable participation in the benefits of agricultural waterinvestments can improve productivity and enhance poverty reduction. Yet most staff in supportservices is male and policies and communications strategies are biased toward males. Projects cancompensate for these biases by building gender considerations into design and implementation fromthe outset (IWMI, 2005g).63