Task 4: Development of data collection tools on knowledge and capacity gaps

In-depth interviews
A. Gender-based constraints to equitable participation and access and control over assets
related to NRM in the landscape

Gender division of labour and responsibility

Men and women have different roles and responsibilities in relation to forests and rangelands, and
therefore the division of labour is largely based on gender, though also affected by other characteristics
such as age, health status, marital status, etc. For instance: men often are engaged more in physically
laborious and heavy work such as felling trees and cutting bigger branches whereas women are engaged
in collecting and fetching fodder and fuelwood.

This difference also leads to a difference in knowledge about resources.

Gender Roles
1. How do men and women interpret their gender roles in your culture and society?

2. Are these roles really embedded in cultures or do they simply reflect daily practical
needs?

3. If roles are embedded in culture, then how are they legitimized in the cultural
symbolism?
 4. How has all this affected gender relations?

5. How do women, men, girls and boys interact with the natural environment as members
of larger social networks and communities?

6. What role do contemporary practices and attitudes play in the exercising of rights and
responsibilities of men and women over forests, trees and forest products?

7. To what extent do women and men have conflicting interests in trees or certain species
of trees?

8. What are the local perceptions, and in particular those of women, of the ecological
functions of trees, forests and rangelands?
Control over Natural Resources
1. If men hold primary control over land for agriculture then how can women, who may
lack security of tenure (and resultant lack of access to credit), have incentives to invest
 and/or benefit from their roles in, and contributions to, the conservation and use of
genetic resources?

2. How have changes in farming practices, population pressure, migration patterns,

legislation, etc., affected the rights of women in contrast to men? For example, what
influence has a change in state land laws had on the application of customary laws, and
on the rights of men and women?

3. Why are men related with major crops and women with minor crops (or men to larger
cattle and women to small stock) despite women doing the same and equal work in
both)?

4. What are the implications of this in regard to gender relations and interventions?

5. What conditions (besides the immediate practical needs) determine men’s and women’s
preference in crops (cash crop versus subsistence) or livestock species and varieties?
6. Is the level of agriculture diversity maintained in different farming systems related in
any way to level of education, income and social status of farmers and the intensity and
duration of their contact with formal agricultural sector technologies, inputs and
marketing channels?

7. What are the cultural/practical rights as well as obstacles to men and women’s access
and control over water (sources as well as decision-making)?

8. What specific skills and insights can they contribute?

9. What specific skills and insights do they need?

10. What is at stake for men and women in water management?

 11. Who has what rights to what fuel sources in what places, under traditional and changed
circumstances respectively?

12. As regards the way in which technical interventions have impacted gender relations and
the status and position of women and men in relation to all the sectors of NRM, a key
question is: What are the circumstances under which women and/or men might bargain
for control over a particular intervention?

B. Information sources and accessibility by different gender categories

Indigenous technical knowledge about the environment and resource base is often gender-
specific, but women’s special stock of knowledge and potential as transmitters to their children
and grandchildren on values relating to the environment have not been adequately integrated
into program design or environmental education programs.

1. What factors influence the integration of gender aspects in NRM's projects?

Are those top-down or bottom-up factors?

If top-down/bottom-up, what is the origin of the gender concern?

2. How is the integration of gender aspects perceived by the project manager?
Is this integration important?

Is the gender sensitivity of the project staff important?

3. What impact does this integration have on the project?

Do men and women have the same level of environmental concern?

How does gender integration influence the sustainability of projects?

4. Can the integration of gender aspects ensure the sustainability of an NRM project?

C. Decision making spaces for women and young people in NRM in the landscape.

13. What are the determinants of social status and who takes decisions and decides on the
various issues?
 14. How do gender roles influence decision-making processes?

D. Women, men and youth’s interests and needs in NRM

Women tend to make a greater contribution to household food security than men. This
contribution sometimes comes at the cost of maintaining the resource base. Overharvesting of
wild foods, increased planting in marginal areas, cutting trees to make charcoal, and depletion
of some plants for craftwork are some of the ways the trade-off might occur. Frequently, the
result is the increasing necessity to buy food, at the same time that they are forced to give up a
source of income. Women also have certain domestic obligations, such as water retrieval or
fuelwood collection, which is typically not shared by men. Degradation, deforestation or the
extension of prohibitions on resource extraction further penalize women who have to travel
longer distances away from the compound, sometimes 6 to 8 km one way for water or
fuelwood. Collection activities compete for time spent in food preparation, child care, and
providing for the household’s nutrition. These competing obligations may affect the
expendable time or energy women need for undertaking more environmentally sound
practices, in concert with their long-term role as guardians of their resources and their
specialized knowledge about their use and management.

E. Women and youth envision/expections as transformational change in the

community as supported by the REPLAP Project.

The good practice should:

• Lead to an actual change that contributes to gender equality or breaks new ground in
nontraditional areas for women. There should be a link between the ‘good practice’ and some
visible or measurable change in gender relations, gender balance, or women’s options and
opportunities;
• Have an impact on the policy environment, to create a more conducive or enabling
environment for gender equality. This could include impact on legislation, the regulatory
environment, or resource allocation. It should include an assessment of the degree of
institutionalization of the identified good practice;

• Demonstrate an innovative and replicable approach. In the context of this set of good
practices, this implies the capacity to demonstrate what is new or unique about the initiative—
either its product or process—and offer opportunities for the initiative to be replicated in other
countries and contexts;

• Be sustainable. In this context, the commitment of mainstream or institutional sponsors or

participants in the initiative—whether Government, academia, media, the UN, NGOs, etc.—
needs to be a component of the best practice.

Special interest exists in good practices that:

• Emerge from a participatory process, involving a range of actors (civil society, private sector,
government, etc.).

• Have significant scale or ‘reach’.

• Involve inter-agency collaboration.

• Address discrimination and inequalities faced by men and women in various spheres of life •
Demonstrate government commitment to further action and resources.
Task 5: Development of a capacity building and knowledge enhancement plan

A. Capacity building and knowledge enhancement plan based on the knowledge and
capacity gaps identified thus far, but also taking into consideration the REPLAP and
stakeholder preferences.

Capacity Building Needs

Most of the members of the government agency and local administrative organisation target groups
have responsibilities that follow clearly defined mandates, restricting their past work to regular duties
rather than initiating or devising new activities. These duties include raising awareness about the
importance of natural resources among communities and young people, protecting natural resources,
and organizing tree planting in degraded forest areas. The needs of each group with respect to capacity
building content and format are listed below:

 Needs of heads of government agencies

o Communication and outreach for sustained information provision
o Community participation in work plan implementation
o Community capacity building
o Information collection and database development
o Use of maps as a tool in forest rehabilitation
o Development of networks between agencies and with communities – Coordination

Format
- Local training
- Use of relevant case studies

 Needs of government agency officials

o Raising awareness of the importance of forest conservation among the local population
and young people
o Community studies and processes and techniques for working with communities
o Coordination and network development
o Database development
o Formulation of natural resource and environmental management plans
o Appropriate species selection and site preparation for rehabilitation
o Rehabilitation of degraded forests and abandoned areas

Format
-Examples in line with current practices
-Study tours to examples of successful community forest management
-Workshops with experts to gain feedback and identify strengths and weaknesses
  Needs of local leaders

o Relevant legislation and agencies

o Importance of forest ecosystems and the links between forests, other ecosystems and
climate change
o Community tourism management and models of sustainable forest use
o Management planning for natural resources and the environment
o Increasing people’s awareness of and responsibility for forest conservation
o Participatory approaches and techniques
o Building a united front for conservation through network approaches
o Compilation and documentation of information
o Creating dissemination channels to communities

Format

- Study tours in similar areas to learn about and adapt new approaches

- Problem analysis for focus group discussions

- Avoiding giving lectures

 Community needs

Content

o Gender Roles
o Categories of forest land and relevant agencies
o Complexity and importance of natural resource ecosystems
o Community tourism management - Documentation of experience and compilation of
information - Sustainable forest use
o Good forest management models
o Development of new community leaders

Format

- Creating an open and supportive space for the equal exchange of opinions

- Building speaking and presentation skills

B. Best practice and guidance tools to be used as informed by the identified issues and
capacity needs.

Natural Resource Management efforts require the effective participation of communities,

specifically members whose socio-economic activities have the biggest impact on the
resource. While men's participation is not an issue, social and cultural norms still govern
women's participation and may prevent women from being involved.

Non-Governmental Organizations working in NRM have to evaluate the importance of this

gender imbalance and its impact on the sustainability of their projects. Open-ended questions
during semi-structured exploratory interviews with NGO project staffs as well as the results of
analyses using Progressive Focusing highlight the role of a project staff’s perception of gender
as a concept and its utility in achieving the project’s objectives. Project staff members interpret
the concept of “gender integration” as meaning “women integration”. The gender-sensitivity
of the project staff is important if gender aspects are to be included in the project cycle. Finally,
gender integration ensures the sustainability of NRM projects in when socio-cultural factors
are taken into consideration.

C. The Capacity Building and knowledge enhancement Plan will be finalized with input
from the REPLAP project staff.