Cultivating Knowledge and Skills to Grow African Agriculture with a Gendered Perspective

1
Cultivating Knowledge and Skills to Grow African
Agriculture with a Gendered Perspective

• A World Bank Regional Study of Agricultural
  Education and Training
• William Saint (HD Africa) and Eija Pehu (ARD,
  Anchor)

2
Overview

• Why agricultural education and training (AET) are
  important?
• AET trends and current status.
• AET from a gender perspective
• What should be done?
• Lessons from around the globe.

3
Why is AET important?

• Human capital formation for agriculture.
• Promotes knowledge intensive agriculture
• Raises agricultural productivity and
  competitiveness
• for economic growth
• for poverty reduction
• for release of farm labor for other economic
  activities
• Realizes the potential of women in agriculture

4
1990 2004 Neglect of AET

• ODA to African agriculture down 63.
• ODA to African agricultural education down 49 as
  share of agric aid.
• A smaller piece of a smaller pie.
• World Bank USD 1.4 m yearly for AET in
  sub-Saharan Africa, 2000 2006.
• Governments tended to follow donor priorities.

5
A legacy of neglect

• Agric researchers declined in half of SSA.
• Less than one in four holds a PhD.
• Declining agric enrollments.
• Staffing shortages.
• Outdated AET curricula.
• Deteriorated labs and facilities.
• Women are underrepresented as students,
  instructors, extension agents and researchers
• Agricultural innovation processes are hardly ever
  targeted to female users.

6
Why gender perspective?

• Gender bias
• Women play multiple roles in agriculture account
  for more than half of agricultural output in SSA
• But - women have continuously received a
  less-than-proportionate share of investment in
  agriculture
• Example women farmers receive only 5 percent
  share of extension services
• Gender perspective for both equity and efficiency
  
• Udry et al. (1995) farm productivity is
  increased when women receive the same advisory
  services as men (by 22)

7
(No Transcript)
8
Curriculum for agriculture

• Contains very few courses on issues such as
  household nutrition, sanitation, and hygiene
  critical areas household welfare
• Provides a few gender-specific career tracks for
  female students entering public service.
• Little effort is made to use AET and female AET
  graduates as a means of effecting change in rural
  livelihoods through gender-specific impact
  pathways (IFPRI 2007)

9
(No Transcript)
10
(No Transcript)
11
An era of opportunity?

• NEPAD FAAP BASIC (2002)
• World Banks Reaching the Rural Poor Strategy,
  (2003)
• Inter Academy Council Report (2004)
• Commission for Africa (2005)
• Rebound in foreign assistance to agriculture
• NEPAD 10 of GDP for agriculture
• USAID Agric higher education initiative
• World Bank Africa Action Plan, World Development
  Report 2008
• Gates and Rockefeller 1 billion/5 years
• Numerous AET innovations are emerging.
• Increasing number of gender-responsive initiatives

12
Post-secondary agricultural education and training

• What should be done?

13
1. Framework Bring AET into the agricultural
innovation system

• Support professional networks reduce
  institutional isolation and fragmentation.
• Coordinate the goals and programs of agriculture
  and education.
• Create communication channels with researchers,
  producers, employers.
• Assign human capital responsibilities to AET
  institutions.
• Diversity improves innovation be inclusive

14
This has been done with success

• BRAZIL Problem-oriented research centers linked
  to local postgraduate programmes and
  international centers.
• MALAYSIA Linked agricultural research with
  universities, private sector, and international
  centers.

15
2. Modernize curricula mainstream gender

• Increase applied learning
• Problem-oriented interdisciplinary
• Agriculture is more than production
• Marketing
• Rural finance
• Post-harvest storage processing
• Agribusiness
• Natural resource management
• Rural institutions and organization
• All have a gender dimension

16
This has been done with success

• Brazil, Chile, China, Malaysia.
• In Africa
• Makerere
• Sokoine
• KwaZulu-Natal
• Jomo Kenyatta
• Mauritius
• Benin - Songhai agricultural training center in
  Porto Novo
• 65-70 percent of its graduates settle into
  agriculture.
• Locally owned and privately managed.
• Has a capacity of 225 boarding places, offers
  training in small-scale farming, farm management
  and agricultural teaching.
• About 20 percent of the trainees are women and 60
  percent of the trainees come from rural areas.
• The instruction favors application more than 75
  percent of time devoted to practical subjects.
• Innovations in the training include creation of a
  business center of agricultural products, a
  soybean marketing chain, and organization of a
  credit program to help trainees establish
  themselves after training

17
3. Build up national MSc programmes

• Choose subject areas that advance national goals
  and labor market needs.
• Tailor content in response to local conditions.
• Strengthen applied research.
• Recruit women students.
• Goal all MSc training takes place in SSA within
  10 12 years.

18
This has been done with success

• In Brazil, new MSc programmes in agric sciences
  boosted agric research output.
• In Chile, from 196595, world class PhD
  programmes established.
• In Malaysia, 34 of agricultural researchers are
  now women.

19
4. Lay the foundation for PhD programmes

• Tropical agriculture is disappearing in the
  North.
• Staff shortages Train 1000 PhDs in 15 years.
• Overseas initially, then in the region.
• Use cost-effective sites regional approaches.
• Plan for re-entry and staff retention.
• Competitive research funds
• Performance incentives
• Career ladders continuing professional
  development
• Career planning and leadership training for women
• Collaborate and coordinate among countries, e.g.,
  RUFORUM PhD progammes.
• Promote long-term donor consortia.

20
This has been done with success

• Massive staff development campaigns have worked
• Brazil trained 1200 agricultural postgraduates
  overseas in 1970s.
• India trained 1000 agricultural scientists abroad
  in 1960s and 1970s.
• Thailand trained 15,000 graduates in USA, 1950-85
• Training abroad can have high return rates, e.g.,
  Agric Dev Council 91 of 532 USAID CRSPs 85
  of 97.

21
(5) Gender-responsive actions

• Supply-side
• Targeted recruitment policies, affirmative action
  initiatives, academic enrichment programs,
  gender-responsive curriculum, and earmarked
  scholarships could be used to boost female
  enrollments.
• Demand-side
• Demand for women agriculturists also needs to be
  stimulated through programs to recruit many more
  women into agricultural extension and research
  programs

22
Supply side - This has been done with success

• Being piloted in Malawi
• Sensitizing curricula
• Aggressive recruitment policies
• Provision of adequate accommodation for female
  students
• Quota systems
• Recruitment of more women lecturers
• Monitoring dropout records by gender
• Introducing anti-sexual harassment policies
• Gender mainstreaming in the agricultural
  professions
• Winrock International - 37 women scholars for BS
  MS 15 scholars had completed their degrees as
  of 2004
• African Women Leaders in Agriculture and
  Environment (AWLAE) based in Wageningen
  University and currently supports 20 women PhD
  students
• Female Scholarship Initiative, initiated by
  Makerere University in Uganda and funded by the
  Carnegie Corporation provides full scholarships
  of USD 1,200 each to 19 women of limited income
  to pursue studies in agriculture
• RUFORUM has adopted a similar approach within
  Eastern and Southern Africa, awarding 40 percent
  of its 170 postgraduate fellowships to women.

23
Demand-side Initiatives - This has been done with
success

• Rockefeller fellowships for enhancing the Careers
  of East African Women Scientists funded by
  Rockefeller and Syngenta Foundations and
  administered by the CGIAR Gender and Diversity
  Program
• Normal E. Borlaug International Agricultural
  Science and Technology Fellows Program funded by
  USAID for African Women in Science and managed by
  FARA and CGIAR Gender and Diversity Program.
• The new Strengthening Capacity for Agricultural
  Research and Development in Africa (SCARDA)
  program recently launched by FARA to buttress
  African national agricultural research systems
  includes the objective of raising the proportion
  of women researchers within these systems to 33
  percent by 2012.

24
To conclude..

• Unique opportunity to support AET and
  mainstream gender
• Advocacy with international agencies and national
  governments
• Scaling out of gender-responsive interventions
  and programs
• Donor coordination for lasting results