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11. Gender, HIV/AIDS and Rural Livelihoods: Micro-Level Investigations in Three African Countries

Author:
Esther Wiegers, John Curry, Alessandra Garbero, Shannon Stokes, and John Hourihan
Publication Date:
10-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
HIV/AIDS has a severe impact on food security, affecting all of its dimensions: availability, stability, access, utilization. FAO recognizes that HIV/AIDS is a determining factor for, as well as a consequence of, food insecurity. Although the relationships among gender, food security and rural livelihoods have been acknowledged in the growing literature on HIV/AIDS impacts, relatively few studies provide adequate focus and empirical evidence on the gender aspects of these interrelationships among vulnerable rural households. Such gender aspects of these relationships have been explored in detail by FAO in Namibia, Uganda and Zambia This paper presents the main findings of the four baseline studies and discusses the methodologies used to identify vulnerable households and document changes in resource availability, household labour force, livelihood strategies, coping strategies and food security status. These findings offer useful insights for policy formulation purposes and for the development of mitigation strategies that respond to the food security challenges of the epidemic.
Topic:
Development and Gender Issues
Political Geography:
Uganda, Africa, Zambia, and Namibia

12. Gender, Local Knowledge, and Lessons Learnt in Documenting and Conserving Agrobiodiversity

Author:
Regina Laub and Yianna Lambrou
Publication Date:
06-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
This paper explores the linkages between gender, local knowledge systems and agrobiodiversity for food security by using the case study of LinKS, a regional FAO project in Mozambique, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Tanzania over a period of eight years and now concluded. The project aimed to raise awareness on how rural men and women use and manage agrobiodiversity, and to promote the importance of local knowledge for food security and sustainable agrobiodiversity at local, institutional and policy levels by working with a diverse range of stakeholders to strengthen their ability to recognize and value farmers' knowledge and to use gender-sensitive and participatory approaches in their work. This was done through three key activities: capacity building, research and communication. The results of the LinKS study show clearly that men and women farmers hold very specific local knowledge about the plants and animals they manage. Local knowledge, gender and agrobiodiversity are closely interrelated. If one of these elements is threatened, the risk of losing agrobiodiversity increases, having negative effects on food security. Increased productivity, economic growth and agricultural productivity are important elements in poverty reduction. The diverse and complex agroecological environment of Sub-Saharan Africa requires that future efforts be based on more localized solutions while maintaining a global outlook. Food security will have to build much more on local knowledge and agrobiodiversity with a clear understanding of gender implications while keeping in mind the continuously changing global socioeconomic and political conditions.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, and Gender Issues
Political Geography:
Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Swaziland

13. The Gender Dimensions of Post-Conflict Reconstruction: The Challenges in Development Aid

Author:
Elaine Zuckerman and Marcia E. Greenberg
Publication Date:
06-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
Based on analysing World Bank and other donor post-conflict reconstruction (PCR) loans and grants from rights-based, macroeconomic and microeconomic perspectives, we conclude that few PCR projects identify or address gender discrimination issues. Bank PCR investments hardly reflect Bank research recognizing that gender inequality increases the likelihood of conflict and gender equality is central to development and peace. Our conceptual framework examining women's programmes, gender mainstreaming, and gender roles in transforming violent into peaceful societies, leads to recommending that PCR projects systematically address gender issues and promote gender equality to make peace work.
Topic:
Development, Gender Issues, Humanitarian Aid, and International Trade and Finance

14. Gender and Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: Issues and Evidence

Author:
Stephen Klasen, David Lawson, Sudharshan Canagarajah, and Mark Blackden
Publication Date:
04-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
The study suggests that gender inequality acts as a significant constraint to growth in sub-Saharan Africa, and that removing gender-based barriers to growth will make a substantial contribution to realizing Africa's economic potential. In particular we highlight gender gaps in education, related high fertility levels, gender gaps in formal sector employment, and gender gaps in access to assets and inputs in agricultural production as particular barriers reducing the ability of women to contribute to economic growth. By identifying some of the key factors that determine the ways in which men and women contribute to, and benefit (or lose) from, growth in Africa, we argue that looking at such issues through a gender lens is an essential step in identifying how policy can be shaped in a way that is explicitly gender-inclusive and beneficial to growth and the poor. We also argue that in some dimensions and channels of the gender-growth nexus, the evidence is only suggestive and needs further detailed research and analysis. Investigations of the linkage between gender inequality and growth should therefore be a priority for development economics research in coming years.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Gender Issues
Political Geography:
Africa

15. Gender-related Indicators of Well-being

Author:
Stephan Klasen
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
This paper discusses the rationale as well as the challenges involved when constructing gender-related indicators of well-being. It argues that such indicators are critically important but that their construction involves a number of conceptual and measurement problems. Among the conceptual issues considered are the space in which gender inequality in well-being is to be measured, whether the indicators should track wellbeing of males and females separately or adjust overall measures of well-being by the gender inequality in well-being, whether gender equality in every indicator is necessarily the goal, how to assess gender inequality that is apparently desired by males and females, and what role indicators of agency or empowerment should play in genderrelated indicators of well-being. Among the most important measurement issues addressed are; the role of the household in allocating resources, the question of stocks versus flows, as well as significant data gaps when it comes to gender inequalities. Where appropriate, remedies to the conceptual and measurement issues are proposed. The paper also briefly reviews UNDP's gender-related indices to illustrate some of the challenges involved.
Topic:
Development, Gender Issues, Human Welfare, and Poverty

16. Gender and Education as Determinants of Household Poverty in Nigeria

Author:
Christiana E.E. Okojie
Publication Date:
03-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
The paper examines the linkages between gender of household heads, education and household poverty in Nigeria between 1980 and 1996. Data analyzed were obtained from four national consumer expenditure surveys conducted in Nigeria in 1980, 1985, 1992 and 1996 by the Federal Office of Statistics. Adjustments were made for price differentials over time and across regions of the country. However, only aggregated data for households were available. Per capita expenditure was used as the indicator of poverty, while the unit of analysis was the household. Two poverty lines were set: a moderate poverty line equal to two-thirds of mean per capita household expenditure, and a core poverty line equal to one-third of mean per capita expenditure. The Pa index proposed by Foster, Greer and Thorbecke was used to generate the headcount ratio as well as the depth and severity of poverty. Trends in inequality were analyzed using Gini coefficients and the Theil's index. Multivariate analysis was used to examine the relationships between gender, poverty and other household variables, including education, for all households as well as for subgroups of male-headed and female-headed households respectively.
Topic:
Education and Gender Issues
Political Geography:
Africa and Nigeria