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91. 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

92. 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

93. Human security and peacebuilding through a gender lens. Challenges of implementation in Africa

Author:
Heidi Hudson
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Empirical evidence shows that while both women's near absence at the formal level as peace negotiators and political decision-makers and their informal peacebuilding contributions at the grassroots level have been routinely recognised, it remains difficult to translate gender awareness into workable plans for implementation. The paper argues for a hybrid position between cultural relativism and 'one size fits all' solutions. Four areas of attention are highlighted, namely women's ambivalent roles in peace and conflict, the challenges of a truly inclusive post-conflict transformation process, the need for an organised women's movement, and connecting the international legislative framework with the national context.
Topic:
Security, Gender Issues, and Peace Studies
Political Geography:
Africa

94. Oxfam Publishing: Girls' Education in Africa

Author:
Sam Gibson
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Sub-Saharan Africa has some huge problems to reslove if it is to achieve gender equality in education, and fulfill the Millennium Development Goals related to education and gender. Conversely, the region has some of the most innovative and enterprising examples of initiative that promote gender equality in education. This paper focuses on sub-Saharan Africa and considers some of the most significant obstacles that African girls face in achieving the education that is their right. The paper then reviews the most significant initiatives–those that are 'gender-neutral' and those that have a specific focus aon gender equality–that have enabled African countries to overcome these obstacles.
Topic:
Development, Education, and Gender Issues
Political Geography:
Africa

95. Migrant Remittances, Development and Gender

Author:
Ninna Nyberg Sorensen
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Abstract Migration transforms not only the destiny of individual migrants but also the conditions of family members left behind, of local communities and of the wider society. Despite the fact that migratory processes are multidimensional and may generate a wide array of positive as well as negative consequences for development, remittances have lately become the single most emphasized evidence and measuring stick for the ties connecting migrants with their societies of origin.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Gender Issues, and Migration
Political Geography:
Africa

96. AIDS Has a Woman's Face

Publication Date:
04-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Africa Policy Information Center
Abstract:
Gender inequalities are a major driving force behind the global AIDS crisis. Around the world, AIDS takes its most devastating toll on women and girls. Globally, nearly 5,000 women become infected with HIV every day. Hardest hit of all are Black women and girls in Africa and in the U.S., who are most vulnerable as a result of poverty and discrimination.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Human Rights, Human Welfare, and Poverty
Political Geography:
Africa and United States

97. Gender and Genocide in Ruanda

Author:
Adam Jones
Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
The gender dimension of the holocaust in Rwanda is perhaps more intricate and multifaceted than any genocide in history. This article explored the relevance of the gender variable to an understanding of the 1994 events. It argues the gender is vital to understanding the social crisis in Rwanda prior to the genocide; the appeals of the genocide's perpetrators to the Hutu population and their mobilization of that population for mass killing; the prominence of women as planners and perpetrators of the genocide; the evolution of the genocide itself between April and July 1994; the massive demographic disproportion between men and women after the holocaust; and the actions and strategies of the Rwandan Patriotic Front rebels who eventually succeeded in ending the genocide. The final section of the article seeks to place the Rwanda experience in comparative perspective, suggests some lessons for the future, and argues that the study of ender and genocide must be gender-inclusive (addressing the experiences of both women and men) in order to more fully explore the workings of this important variable.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Genocide, and Peace Studies
Political Geography:
Africa

98. Genocide in Kosovo

Author:
Adam Jones
Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
The campaign of genocidal assault and "ethnic cleansing" waged by Serb forces in Kosovo in 1998-99 was characterized, above all other atrocities, by the gender-selective mass-murder of the "battle-age" males. The present article seeks to plea this campaign of "gendercide" against non-combatant men in the broader context of the Balkans wars of the 1990s-including the five worst massacres in Europe since the aftermath of the Second World War, all of which clearly reflected the gendercidal underpinnings of the Serb strategy. The military "logic" of the strategy is examined, as are the harbingers of gendercide that were evident in Kosovo after the imposition of Serb police-state in the early 1990s. An analysis of the key atrocities of the 1999 war in Kosovo follows, along with some concluding comments about the taboo treatment accorded the subject in the feminist I.R. literature. The Kosovo war also offered an excellent opportunity to analyze the representation of gender and violent victimization in the mass media. A broad sample of media commentary is presented to demonstrate that "unworthy" male victims tend to be marginalized or ignored entirely in mass-media coverage. A trio of common marginalization strategies discussed, and a theoretical framework of "first-order", "second-order", and "third-order" gendering is proposed to clarify the deficit in coverage. This deficit is then contrasted with the attention given to the victimization experiences of "worthy" victims, such as women, children, and the elderly. Finally, the small handful of responsible and insightful media reports on gender-selective atrocities against Kosovar men is evaluated for the alternative it may offer to "effacing the male" from coverage of war and violence.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Gender Issues, and Genocide
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Eastern Europe, and Kosovo

99. 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

100. Aftermath: Women and Women's Organizations In Postgenocide Rwanda

Author:
Michael Hopps
Publication Date:
12-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United States Agency for International Development
Abstract:
IN A 100-DAY PERIOD during 1994, more than 500,000 people in the central African nation of Rwanda were massacred. The killings were carried out not by a foreign power and not with weapons of mass destruction. Rather, 1 of every 15 Rwandans was murdered—by other Rwandans. The killers used bullets, machetes, and clubs.
Topic:
Civil Society, Education, Gender Issues, Genocide, Human Welfare, and Politics
Political Geography:
Africa