The gendered pattern of unpaid care work and its implication for women's agricultural opportunities in Uganda

Presented by Brenda Boonabaana (Makerere University), as part of the Annual Scientific Conference hosted by the University of Canberra and co-sponsored by the University of Canberra, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research, Canberra, Australia, April 2-4, 2019

Community-based Tourism Development and Gender Relations in Uganda

This thesis examines the relationship between community-based tourism development and gender relations in Mukono Parish, South-Western Uganda. The research objectives are: to examine how women’s involvement in community-based tourism initiatives is influenced by gender relations; and in turn, how women’s involvement in community-based tourism initiatives is influencing the gender relations in Mukono Parish. In this PhD thesis, I draw on the concept of agency and the idea of context-based gender understanding as propounded by the poststructural feminist theory (Aitchison, 2005; Gannon & Davis, 2007; Pradan, 2005; Rosenburg, 2010). The concept of agency recognises the view that women are not passive victims of oppression, but are active agents who participate in structuring their identities and lives. The concept helped me to interrogate how women in Mukono Parish are making decisions to submit to, or resist, gender discourses and practices amidst the current community-based tourism developments in this locality. Methodologically, I adopted a case study research design and privileged my participant’s individual views with their voices represented in this thesis in the form of quotations. Qualitative approaches guided me to conduct fieldwork in which I held in-depth interviews, and collected notes through participating observation activities, and informal interactions in the locality. I also remained aware of, and considered, my personal attributes as a researcher, and therefore, the concept of reflexivity became relevant to this PhD thesis. I considered ethical issues to protect my participants, and I analysed findings (while focused on participant meanings) by reflecting, discovering themes, and teaming up emerging ideas. This thesis demonstrates that the dominant gender discourses and practices in Mukono Parish are intertwined with Christian religious beliefs to significantly influence women’s opportunities to work in community-based tourism initiatives. It also shows that as some women work in tourism, some of the gender roles and relations of the locality are being challenged, while others still remain dominant. This PhD research has theoretical implications for understanding the role of social aspects including religion in influencing women’s possibilities to work in tourism developments at the community level. It also expresses the complex dynamics of women’s negotiations about how they are submitting to, and resisting, gender discourses and practices amidst the tourism development opportunities in their locality. The study challenges the dominant feminist views, and gender, women’s empowerment and development discourses such as socialist feminism, liberal feminism, radical feminism and gender and development approaches (Women in Development, Women and Development, and Gender and Development), that tend to universalise the understanding and practices associated with issues of women, gender and development. The thesis also provides useful development implications by detailing complex constraints and possibilities for women in Mukono to work, or not to work, in community-based tourism developments in this locality

Towards gender responsive agricultural research : needs, gaps, and opportunities for gender training and institutional transformation in East Africa

The study was undertaken in Uganda and Rwanda and focused on two national research organisations: the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) and Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) respectively. The report analyzes gender training as it pertains to NARO and RAB. Access to gender training was found to be low. Most of the training efforts were planned and facilitated by other organizations. Both NARO and RAB had limited capacity to conduct gender responsive research. Both countries lack relevant institutional incentives and accountability systems. These factors undermine priorities attached to gender responsive agricultural research

Tracking the gender responsiveness of agricultural research across the research cycle: a monitoring and evaluation framework tested in Uganda and Rwanda

There is widespread need for gender-responsive agricultural research, yet the question of how this kind of research can be implemented and its success measured needs further interrogation. This paper presents a framework, developed on the basis of literature and validated by experts, for tracking the gender responsiveness of agricultural research throughout the research cycle, from the research plan to the dissemination of research findings. The framework was tested in Uganda and Rwanda on 14 research projects considered to be gender-responsive. Scores on the quantitative tool were triangulated with qualitative data from four case studies. Data was collected between June and August 2016, by reviewing projects' documents and conducting key informant interviews. Our findings show that most of the projects investigated were not sufficiently gender-responsive. The easy-to-use framework presented in this paper provides a much-needed tool for guiding agricultural researchers and partners to design, implement, and measure the gender responsiveness of research projects

Spiraling up and down: mapping women’s empowerment through agricultural interventions using the community capitals framework in rural Ethiopia

The paper draws on the Community Capitals Framework to frame and analyze the process of rural women’s empowerment through agricultural interventions in two districts of Ethiopia. A blend of qualitative data collection methods comprising group discussions, life histories, and key informant interviews was used. Our study shows that investing in social, human, financial, cultural, natural, physical, and political capitals resulted in increased assets within those capitals and others amongst the beneficiaries. The interaction between capitals builds “power with”, “power within”, “power to” and “power over” in an upward spiral. Specifically, the interaction between social, human and financial capitals is a key entry point to rural women’s empowerment. Cultural capital intermediates the interaction and flow of capital assets during the empowerment process. We argue that empowering women requires an approach that enhances their capability to identify and systematically manage interactions among capitals that foster their voice and agency

GREAT Expectations: building a model for applied gender training for crop improvement

Capacity development is a critical entry point for integration of gender responsiveness in agricultural development, yet there is little reflection on who should be trained, on what, and how. As an opening paper to this special issue, we ask: What are key aspects of a gender training program that seed attitudinal shifts and practice change in agricultural research teams? To answer this question, we explore how the Gender-responsive Researchers Equipped for Agricultural Transformation (GREAT) project has pioneered a training model that seeks to challenge the status quo of crop improvement research, questioning norms and focusing on attitudinal shifts and practice change. We examine the project design, execution and iteration, practical constraints, and impacts on participants. We conclude that GREAT demonstrates the importance of a feminist gender training program for effective social change, with future work needed to deepen exposure to feminist theories and testing models of pairing learning with collaborative research engagements

Developing a competency framework for trainers of gender-responsive agricultural research training programs

Despite the recent proliferation of gender training courses in agriculture, it is still not clear what competencies trainers require in order to successfully deliver interdisciplinary applied gender-responsive agricultural research training. This paper presents a competency framework for trainers developed and tested over five years (2016-2021) in the context of the Gender-responsive Researchers Equipped for Agricultural Transformation (GREAT) project. This framework includes competency domains and assessment tools that can guide recruitment, performance assessment, and identification of competency gaps for the capacity development of trainers. Literatures on social research methods, feminist pedagogy, adult learning, competency-based training approaches, coupled with expert consultation, inform this framework. This framework is a novel tool that can be adapted to similar training programs and contribute to the development of gender training as a professional field of practice

Gender Roles and the Care Economy in Ugandan Households: The case of Kaabong, Kabale and Kampala districts

This report examines the distribution of unpaid care and domestic work in households in the Ugandan districts of Kaabong, Kabale and Kampala. It seeks to understand the connection between social norms and the gendered division of work, including how much time women, men, boys and girls spend on paid work and unpaid care work in a day, as well as how this time use varies between urban and rural areas and between the districts in the study. The authors look closely at childcare, who undertakes it and why. They also analyse what kinds of services are available in each district that might ease the care workload for women and girls.The report makes recommendations for the Ugandan government and relative authorities on how they can recognize, reduce and redistribute care work through policy changes, labour-saving devices and technology, better infrastructure and the provision of care services.This publication was written by Oxfam partners in Uganda (EPRC, UWONET and the School of Women and Gender Studies at Makerere University), in collaboration with Oxfam in Uganda and the WE-Care team