In this phase, it is recommended that information is gathered on the situation of women and men in a particular area. This means looking for sex-disaggregated data and gender statistics, as well as checking for the existence of studies, programme or project reports, and/or evaluations from previous periods.
Did you know that EIGE has a Gender Statistics Database? Check whether there are relevant statistics to feed into your analysis.
Examples of gender and agriculture and rural areas statistics
Agricultural statistics were designed to monitor the main objectives of the common agricultural policy, e.g. the production and supply of agricultural products and income in the agricultural sector. Data are collected through the farm structure survey(s) (FSS). The FSS is the only harmonised source for a wide range of structural data of EU farms. FSS are carried out in the form of a sample survey every 2 or 3 years, and as a census every 10 years. FSS provides some insights about the role of women in the agricultural sector and, more specifically, on farms, but limitations exist which must be considered. Firstly, even if household work is explicitly excluded from the survey, many women engaged in farming do so within a household production unit. Therefore, their activities are not easily separable from those of the household as a whole. Secondly, according to FSS, the legal person representing the holding (the ‘farm holder’) can only be one person. Thus, if a couple has shared responsibility of the farm, this is not evident, as only one person – more often the husband – is surveyed as farm holder. A ‘sub’ or ‘shared-holder’ concept would allow for a better assessment of the division of labour and decision-making practice among household members. However, harmonised information on this topic is not available for all EU Member States.
The most recent data available stem from the FSS 2013. For the farm structure survey in the survey year 2016, Member States should transmit validated survey data to the Commission within the period 2017 – 2018. FSS provide harmonised data on agricultural holdings in the EU, including:
number of agricultural holdings
land use and area (crops)
livestock
main crops
farm labour force (including age, sex and relationship to the holder)
economic size of the holdings
type of activity
other gainful activity on the farm
system of farming
machinery
organic farming.
FSS have been used to produce sex-disaggregated statistics. Given that gender statistics are often compiled from data sources conceived for other purposes, the scope of the analysis is somehow limited by data availability. This is exemplified by the lack of sex-disaggregated statistics on agricultural income.
Rural development statistics aim to measure economic, social and environmental issues related to rural areas. They give an insight into the specific features of the regions (NUTS3) in the context of their rural/urban types. It provides data and demographics statistics (population by sex and age) and labour market statistics (employment and unemployment by sex and age) by urban-rural typology.
Labour market statistics are collected through the European Union labour force survey (EU-LFS) which provides the main aggregated statistics on labour market outcomes in the European Union. The EU-LFS is the main data source for employment and unemployment. Tables on population, employment, working hours, permanency of the job, professional status etc. are included. It provides disaggregated statistics by sex, age groups, economic activity, education attainment and field of education. From this, it is possible to measure the characteristics of the labour force of women, by age and economic activity.
CAP context indicators. A set of 45 indicators has been identified to describe the general context in which policy measures are designed, planned and implemented. They form part of the monitoring and evaluation framework for the CAP 2014 – 2020 and are used in rural development programmes for a comprehensive overall description of the current situation of the programming area. The European Commission provides an annual update of data (subject to availability) for these indicators. Indicator 22 (farm labour force) presents gender-disaggregated data.
Examples of studies, research and reports
Study on employment, growth and innovation in rural areas (SEGIRA). Main report, final. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
It aims to provide “a thorough assessment of employment and growth in rural areas with particular attention paid to women and young people, agriculture and the agri-food industry; the key conditions for stimulating economic growth in rural areas; and providing a classification of major drivers of employment and socioeconomic development in rural areas”. Access it here.
The impact of place and culture on gender mainstreaming in European rural development programme. Gender, place and culture: a Journal of Feminist Geography.
The report focuses on the ability of gender mainstreaming to advance gender equality through the EU rural development programme – the single most expensive European policy. It consider space and culture as key factors in this process, and how women’s identity is constructed in rural areas of Europe.
Examples of gender analysis
One of the first steps to take when defining your policy/project/programme is to gather information and analyse the situation of women and men in the respective policy area. The information and data you collected will allow understanding of the reality and assist you in designing your policy, programme or project. Specific methods that can be used in this phase are gender analysis and gender impact assessment.
Engaging with rural development and agricultural policy processes. Future agricultures, working paper 026.
The paper details the way in which gender has been incorporated, or not, into agricultural research and development (R&D) activities. The paper also presents some indications as to how more nuanced understandings of gender and social relations can be usefully brought into agricultural research and policy processes.
These guidelines provide practical guidance to support programme and operations staff in UN country teams to integrate gender equality concerns into joint programmes (JP) for food security, agriculture and rural development. The guidelines outline opportunities to incorporate gender into both the JP process (formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation) and project documents. They include a general gender equality checklist as well as thematic checklists to mainstream gender in areas of cross-cutting importance for agriculture and rural development.
This jointly produced publication on good practices and lessons learned guides practitioners in integrating gender dimensions in agricultural projects and programmes.
This training guide provides a clear understanding of the concepts related to gender and climate-smart agriculture. It describes participatory methods for conducting gender-sensitive research on the impacts of climate change, and offers guidance on different ways of reporting research findings so that they can be properly analysed. Using the guide will ensure that critical information on gender and climate change is collected, allowing researchers and development workers to formulate appropriate gender-sensitive policies and programmes for rural development.
Examples of gender impact assessment
This gender impact assessment was carried out to evaluate project performance in terms of gender for the Ghana agricultural development and value chain enhancement (ADVANCE) project. The goal of ADVANCE is to facilitate a transformation of Ghana’s agricultural sector in selected agricultural staples (maize, rice and soybean). This should achieve a greater degree of food security among the rural population in the northern region while increasing competitiveness in the domestic markets. The programme adopts a value chain approach where smallholder farmers are linked to markets, finance, inputs and equipment services. Information is available through relatively larger nucleus farmers and aggregators who have the capacity to invest in these chains. ADVANCE’s gender approach has been to mainstream gender within the project to ensure that stakeholders were given equitable access to project resources and capacity-building along the target value chains.
Examples of stakeholders that can be consulted
Consider consulting stakeholders (e.g. gender experts, civil society organisations) on the topic at hand, to share and validate your findings and to improve your policy or programme proposal. This will enhance the learning process on the subject for all those involved and will improve the quality of the work done at the EU level. The stakeholders consultation process will start in this phase, but could also be considered as an important method to be applied along all the policy cycle’s phases.
Women organising for change in agriculture and natural resource management (WOCAN) is a women-led international membership network of women and men professionals. It provides expertise to assist agriculture and natural resource management organisations to strengthen women’s leadership and mainstream gender into their internal structures, programmes, projects and policies.
The committee is made up of representatives of socioeconomic organisations (agricultural producers, trade, consumers, the European women lobby and workers). The groups enable the Commission to be aware of the range of views these organisations hold on individual agricultural production sectors, rural development etc.
ENWRA is a partnership between lead organisations in Cyprus, Germany, Hungary, Spain, Poland, Turkey and the UK, funded through the Grundgtvig Life Long Learning Programme. The aim of the partnership is to share the experiences of women across these regions to look at the problems they face and how to overcome them. ENWRA’s objectives are to:
explore different aspects of women in rural areas such as culture and traditions
explore working conditions and entrepreneurship opportunities for women
improve access to information technologies and educational opportunities
promote social and civic participation of women in local communities
promote volunteering and other opportunities.
COPAand the General Confederation of Agricultural Cooperatives in the European Union (COGECA) are the organisations that represent the vast majority of farmers – both men and women – and their cooperatives in the EU. They represent 15 million people working either full-time or part-time on EU farm holdings and more than 40,000 cooperatives. They have 76 member organisations from the EU Member States. Their aim is to defend the general interests of agriculture. COPA-COGECA have a Women’s Committee. In 2014 the COPA Innovation Prize for Women Farmers was awarded for the third time.
The Network, and its constituent national networks in the EU-28 Member States, can be used to identify and exchange further examples of measures, data, schemes, local strategies or individual projects promoting gender equality in rural areas. Projects, including women-specific projects, are promoted in the EU Rural Review magazine and in the RDP project database, including projects focusing on women. It is also supports the development of the rural development network in the IPA countries.
FAO works extensively on gender issues in agriculture and rural development worldwide; its website includes relevant resources and databases, including the gender and land rights database.
In this phase, it’s relevant to analyse budgets from a gender perspective. Gender budgeting is used to identify how budget allocations contribute to promoting gender equality. Gender budgeting brings visibility to how much public money is spent for women and men respectively. Thus, gender budgeting ensures that public funds are fairly distributed between women and men. It also contributes to accountability and transparency about how public funds are being spent.
Example of gender budgeting in agriculture and rural development
Gender-budget analysis and impact of fiscal policies on the poverty level of the women in agriculture
The research report is based on the analysis prepared by the departments of the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Rural Development (MAFRD), especially the Rural Development Department and Counselling Services. The analysis was undertaken on the strategy drafted in May 2003 and on the Kosovo Agriculture and Rural Development Plan for 2007 – 2013. It reviews the literature, legal infrastructure, and national and international strategic documents on gender issues, focusing on gender balance and the integration of the gender perspective in government budget and policies. This report is prepared with the support of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).
When planning, don’t forget to establish monitoring and evaluation systems and indicators that will allow measurement, and compare the impact of the policy or programme on women and men over the timeframe of its implementation. Remember to define the appropriate times to monitor and evaluate your policy.
Examples of indicators for monitoring gender and agriculture and rural development
The indicator provides the number of people and farm work (AWU – annual work unit) by sex of worker, legal status of holding and agricultural size of farm (UAA – utilised agricultural area). Data are disaggregated by sex and available only at Member State level. Data could be used for calculating the share of women and men working in agricultural farms. Data are collected through the Eurostat farm structure survey (FSS) and included in the Eurostat agricultural statistics.
The indicator provides the number of people and farm work (AWU – annual work unit) by sex of worker, legal status of holding and agricultural size of farm (UAA – utilised agricultural area). Data are disaggregated by sex and available only at Member State level. Data could be used for calculating the share of women and men farm holders. Data are collected through the Eurostat farm structure survey (FSS) and included in the Eurostat agricultural statistics.
The indicator provides the number of people living in urban and rural areas (predominantly urban regions, intermediate regions, predominantly rural regions) by sex and age. Data could be used for calculating the share of women and men in different age living in the urban/rural areas of the EU Member States. Data are disaggregated by sex and available only at Member State level. When compared with the total population, the population in predominantly rural regions tends to have fewer people of working age, more older people, and more young people aged 10 – 19. This general pattern can be seen for men and women. Among the working age population the difference between predominantly rural regions and the total population was most notable in particular age groups. This was between the ages of 25 and 49 for women, and between the ages of 30 and 59 for men. Among older people the differences were most notable for the age groups between 70 and 84 for women and from 75 upwards for men. Data are collected by Eurostat and included in the rural development statistics.
The unemployment rate is the percentage of the unemployed in the age group 15 to 64 years compared to the total labour force (both employed and unemployed) in that age group. Data are disaggregated by sex and available only at Member State level. Data are collected by Eurostat and included in the rural development statistics.
When preparing calls for proposals in the framework of funding programmes, or terms of reference in the context of public procurement procedures (notably for contractors to be hired for policy support services), don’t forget to formalise gender-related requirements. This will ensure that the projects and services which the European Commission will fund are not gender-blind or gender-biased.
In the implementation phase of a policy or programme, ensure that all who are involved are sufficiently aware about the relevant gender objectives and plans. If not, set up briefings and capacity-building initiatives according to staff needs. Think about researchers, proposal evaluators, monitoring and evaluation experts, scientific officers, programme committee members, etc.
Examples of capacity-building initiatives about gender, and agriculture and rural development
Training course gender inclusion in rural areas (GIRA)
The training course gender inclusion in rural areas (GIRA) involved 28 youth workers from SEE and EU Countries working in geographically isolated areas. It was financed by the European initiative Youth on the move. The aim of GIRA is to provide information, perspectives and resources for empowering youth living in rural areas, focusing on young women especially.
Agricultural and enterprise skills for women smallholders. City & Guilds Centre for Skills Development.
This guide presents a variety of training approaches that can be applied in agricultural and rural areas. It also considers the factors that can support the application of training. It looks at how training interacts with these factors, and how successfully integrating training with each supportive factor can improve the ability of women to make use of their productive skills. Several examples and case studies are presented together with practical tips to implement effective training sessions.
During the implementation of your policy or programme, publications, communications, press releases might be issued. Don’t forget to give visibility to gender issues and to pay attention to the language and visuals: these can convey gender stereotypes and gendered concepts, but they can also contribute to deconstructing stereotypes, thus underlying the importance of using gender-sensitive language.
Examples of gender language in agriculture and rural development
Communicating gender for rural development – integrating gender in communication for development.
This document is designed to promote the introduction of a gender perspective into communication for development initiatives in rural areas, and suggests practical ways of going about this. It consists of 2 parts. The first focuses on key concepts and guidelines relating to gender on the one hand and communication for development on the other, and the synergy between gender and communication for development. The second part focuses on the various stages of a communication initiative, revisiting them from a gender perspective.
A policy cycle or programme should be checked both during monitoring – and at the end – evaluation, of its implementation.
Monitoring the ongoing work allows for the follow-up of progress and remedying unforeseen difficulties. This exercise should take into account the indicators delineated in the planning phase and realign data collection based on those indicators.
At the end of a policy cycle or programme, a gender-sensitive evaluation should take place. Make your evaluation publicly accessible and strategically disseminate its results to promote its learning potential.
Example of monitoring and evaluation on gender and agriculture and rural development
This tool kit for integrating gender into monitoring and evaluation has been developed to assist project task teams, borrowers and partners to recognise and address gender concerns in designing rural development sector projects. It aims to monitor progress in gender integration during implementation and to evaluate its impact in achieving overall rural well-being. The document provides general guidelines for integrating gender into monitoring and evaluation and thematic briefs on rural sub-sectors.