Upper Volta - The involvement of women in three Bank projects

NOTES ON WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT NO. 8 (Case Studies) UPPER VOLTA - THE INVOLVEMENT OF WOMEN IN THREE BANK PROJECTS This case study is one of a series prepared expressly for discussion by World Bank staff in workshops on women in development. It is in no sense an evaluation of the project, and describes only those of its features which are relevant to the concerns of the worksho. Mary Ann Riegelman, Consultant Office of the Advisor on Women in Development World Bank August, 1980 M.A. Riegelman August 13, 1980 UPPER VOLTA - THE INVOLVEMENT OF WOMEN IN THREE BANK PROJECTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report analyzes three new World Bank projects in Upper Volta--the Second Education Project, the Niena Dionkele Rice Development Project, and the Koudougou Agricultural Development Project--with regard to their potential in- volvement of and impact on women. The report was undertaken in the belief that programming recommendations on potential areas for women's involvement as econo- mically productive participants--areas which might not have been treated fully during Appraisal--could be incorporated in the three Bank projects at their present early stage of development. Each project was examined in terms of three kinds of programming issues: sociocultural--identification of women's roles and how the project is likely to affect women's lives, both positively and negatively; institutional--an assessment of management considerations affecting each project, including hiring of female staff, increasing women's decisionmaking input at the top levels, and bureaucratic problems; and economic access--the potential for women to obtain training as extension agents and instructors, credit, land, and supplies. A key objective of the study was to instill in the minds of project designers and managers, a permanent concern for the impact of the projects on women. I. Second Education Project The Second Education Project is the Bank's follow-on effort to the First Education Project, which since 1973 has assisted Rural Youth Training Centers (CFJAs) in three areas of Upper Volta. Implemented through the Ministry of Rural Development, the new project will expand activities into three other regions-- Hauts Bassins, Bougouriba, and the Sahel--and will create 7,000 student places. The goal of the CFJA program is to offer basic education and agricultural skills to rural teenagers who lack access to primary school and who are expected to remain -2- on the land. Women's enrollment in CFJA village schools averages only six to ten percent of the nationwide total. Since women in Upper Volta undertake key farming tasks in addition to traditional household duties, raising female enrollment in CFJAs is of critical concern to the Government and the Bank. A. Sociocultural Issues Raising women's enrollment in CFJAs appears to depend largely on increasing the number of female instructors (monitrices). While parents do not resist the idea of daughters receiving agricultural training, they do insist on home economics l/ instruction as well, which requires the presence of monitrices. Keeping moni- trices in their assigned villages is the main problem; for various reasons there is a high turnover--e.g. villagers resent their intrusion as seemingly inexperienced outsiders, they are seen as prostitutes, they feel isolated socially. B. Institutional Issues Appointment of a Women's Affairs Coordinator in the Ministry of Rural Development would underscore the importance attached to improving women's profile within the CFJA system. She might also function as head of the Ministry's Domestic Economy Unit, which has responsibility for implementing Ministry programs for women. C. Economic Access Issues Key issues concerning women's access to economic inputs are provision of adequate training for monitrices; training women for supervisory positions in the CFJA program; and assuring that women graduates of CFJAs participate equally with men in rural youth groups (GJAs), which receive credit for farm inputs from the Bank project, and give CFJA graduates a chance for continuing employment and further agricultural education. I/ The majority of CFJAs are statted only by male instructors. -3- D. Recommendations 1. Recruit monitrices through a combination of approaches, including: basing monitrices in villages part-time; formation of mobile groups of-town-based monitrices; stationing full-time monitrices in town 'centers; establishing links with other home economics services in the area; and encouraging parents to send daughters to CFJAs despite the absence of a monitrice. While the long-term goal should be to station monitrices in villages full-time, implementation of the above interim approaches should help attract more women students to CFJAs. 2. Instigate regular monitoring of women's participation in CFJAS. 3. Hire Women's Affairs Coordinator for the FJA Directorate: to monitor recruitment of monitrices; encourage proper supervision and support of monitrices; encourage cooperation between CFJAs and other projects with a women's component; and assist in evaluating female student's participation in agricultural training. 4. Ensure proper agricultural training for monitrices. II. Niena Dionkele and Koudougou Development Projects The Niena Dionkele Rice Development Project is a three-year pilot effort to increase rainfed rice production in the Hauts-Bassins area of western Upper Volta; the project will assist approximately 800 farm families. The Koudougou Agricultural Development Project will improve staple food production for about 30,000 farm families of the Koudougou region, which has the largest farming population in the country. Both projects offer land development, improvement of extension services, supply of farm inputs and credit, and installation of monitoring and evaluation units. The Koudougou project additionally will establish a training center for extension agents. -4- A. Sociocultural Issues Village-specific data collection on women's roles, needs, and wants is critical to making judgments on how these projects can most effectively assist women. The need is specially acute for the Niena Dionkele area, where Senufo and Bolon women apparently are refusing to do farm work. While more is known generally about the work allocation patterns of Koudougou women (mostly Mossi and Gouroonsi), morespecific information is needed on what women in Koudougou project villages see as their chief needs. The data collection process may reveal potential negative effects of the projects on women. More land under cultivation per family, may import added burdens on women e.g., more time and energy expended in the fields, diminished attention to children and home, etc. The challenge is to modify project implementation goals and/or practices to take account of such negative findings. Each project will establish monitoring/evaluation units, which should facilitate data collection on women's roles. Special questions and indicators to measure women's participation should be drawn up. B. Institutional Issues For each project, the regional supervisor (coordinatrice) of female extension agents (animatrices) could serve as women's advisor to project management committees. At the national level of the Niena Dionkele Project, appointment of a women's affairs representative to the Project Executive Committee (composed primarily of Ministry of Rural Development department heads) would help ensure an awareness of women's concerns at the higher echelon of project management. -5- C. Economic Issues Hiring and training of animatrices deserve further attention in both projects. Recruitment of animatrices might follow the combination of approaches proposed for hiring of monitrices in the Second Education Project. Both projects should consider selecting two women per project village for training as para- professionals. Village women should have access on a group basis to project credit for agricultural inputs. D. Recommendations 1. Gather village-specific data on women's roles. Devise data collection instruments and recruit female enumerators. 2. Determine to greatest extent possible potential negative impacts of projects on women and discuss with villagers ways to forestall them. 3. Appoint women's affairs representative to Niena Dionkele Project Executive Committee. In both projects, enlarge role of Coordinatrice to include responsibi- lity as women's advisor at local level. 4. Assign to the senior project official in each project responsibility for integrating women into project activities; this could be specified in terms of reference of each official. 5. Provide female extension agents in Koudougou with access to the new training center. In Niena Dionkele, investigate possibilities of procuring outside animatrice services and/or hiring and training project animatrices. 6. Encourage male extension workers to work with women farmers in villages not served by an animatrice. Train male and female farmers together, where appropriate. 7. Consider option of training female paraprofessionals. 8. Ensure that women's groups have access to project credit. UPPER VOLTA - THE INVOLVEMENT OF WOMEN IN THREE WORLD BANK PROJECTS I. INTRODUCTION A. Rationale for the Study This study examines the potential impact on the involvement of women in three new World Bank projects in Upper Volta. In many societies, Upper Volta included, women undertake key agricultural tasks in addition to their traditional household duties, but too often they lack access to development inputs accorded male farmers, such as credit, training, land and supplies. This "benign neglect" of women effectively reduces their productivity relative to that of men who have been helped by the outside development effort. Enabling women to tap development resources makes good economic sense, since increasing their productive capacity increases the productivity of the family unit overall. Ideally, women's roles and the impact of project activities should be identified early and reflected in project formulation and design. However, it was felt that some of the programming recommendations produced by assessments of women's roles could be incorporated in three Bank projects at their present stages. Such an assessment in any case would contribute to a further objective of the study, namely to instill in the minds of those responsible for project design management and supervision - a permanent concern for the impacts of the project on women, whose support would be critical in effecting suggested changes. B. Methodology Keeping in mind the realities of Bank programming--i.e. that core components of most projects are usually fixed by the time of Appraisal report writing--the Advisor on Women in Development selected three projects in Upper Volta for examination by a researcher with long-term experience in Upper Volta -2- and who had worked with Voltaic women in a project implementation setting. The Second Education Project in Upper Volta (Cr. No. ) is the follow-on phase of a Bank project to assist the country-wide rural youth education program, ongoing since 1961; the Niena Dionkele Rice Development Project (Cr. No. ) and the Koudougou Agricultural Development Project (Cr. No. ) are both new efforts, but are channellkd through the government's existing regional development infrastructure. Appraisal documents, working papers,and background reports were analyzed for all three projects and a literature search was undertaken of studies of Voltaic women's activities, with a view to ascertaining differing practices among the various ethnic groups to be affected by the three projects. Washington-based Bank staff involved in project development were interviewed at length. Three kinds of programming issues emerged: --Socio-cultural. For each project, the report looks at women's current roles and how the project is likely to change their activities. Possible negative effects are anticipated--e.g. for the two agriculture projects, more time spent in cash cropping diminished attention to home and children, etc. There are potential positive impacts as well, such as increased discretionary income for women. This programming issue also deals with the need for in-depth village-level information gathering on women's roles and ways to organize collection of such data. --Institutional. Successfully integrating women more fully into these projects will depend in large measure on the level of awqreness of women's issues on the part of those designing and supervising projects and also of project management and staff, and their effectiveness in commanding attention and resources for s concerns among involved government mi.:5str_es -3- and regional organizations. Specific institutional considerations are discussed for each project, with emphasis on hiring of female staff, increasing women's decision-making input at project management level, and the complexities of inter- ministerial relations regarding funding and execution of women's activities. --Economic Access. This programming issue deals with women's access to training as extension agents and instructors, and the potential for women to obtain other project inputs such as credit, land, and supplies. For ease and clarity of presentation, the report discusses the Second Education Project separately, while the two agriculture projects, given the si- milarity of various components, are treated together. The report does not attempt to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each project's design beyond those points relating to women. For the two agriculture projects, sug-gestions for assisting women focus on revenue-earning agricultural activities, since credit offered through the projects is targeted principally for purchase' of farm inputs. It should become apparent that much of what is proposed here stems not from some magical formula for treating the problems of women in developing countries--there is none--but from a close look at women's potential contribution to the production sector, which may not have been treated fully during Appraisal. In some cases, that contribution, given the nature and scope of the project, will be limited, and will not necessarily entail re-design or re-orientation of the project. It is hoped that the ideas set forth in this report will enhance the chance of desired benefits reaching all members of the project population, women included. -4- II. THE SECOND EDUCATION PROJECT A. Summary Project Description The Second Education Project is the Bank's follow-on effort to the First Education Project, which since 1973 has assisted Rural Youth Training Centers (Centres de Formation des Jeunes Agriculteurs--CFJAs) in three areas of Upper Volta. The CFJAs offer a three-year program of basic education and agricultural training to older rural children, boys and girls in their mid-teens, who have no access to traditional primary schools. A chief aim is to make learning more relevant to the needs of young people who are expected to remain on the land. Thus, CFJA students receive instruction in agricultural production practices, functional literacy, simple arithmetic, and health/nutrition. The CFJA system is run by the Ministry of Rural Development's Youth Training Directorate (Direction de Formation des Jeunes Agriculteurs--FJA Directorate), established in 1975. There are now about 750 CFJAs country-wide, with the Bank's First Education 1/ Project designed to assist 120 of them in three ORDs -- Kaya, Koudougou, and Dedougou. The project is providing new buildings for 40 CFJAs and new equipment for all 120, and is establishing on the land 150 groups of young farmers (Groupe- ments des Jeunes Agriculteurs--GJAs) trained in the centers. The GJAs receive credit for farm inputs from the project and give young graduates of the CFJAs an opportunity for continued employment and further agricultural education in the village environment. 1/ ORD is the French acronym for Regional Development Organization. Upper Volta is divided into 11 ORDs, which are administrative units responsible for implementation of development activities at the regional level. The ORDs fall under the aegis of the Ministry of Rural Development. -5- Despite problems (e.g. delays in arrival of foreign technical assistance personnel, construction delays, weaknesses in the FJA Directorate), successes to date led to the Bank's decision to consider a follow-on Second Education Project. Among other things, the new project will assist in construction and equipping of about 300 CFJAs, offer credit to GJAs, and expand activities into three other ORDS--Hauts-Bassins, Bougouriba, and the Sahel; altogether, the project will create about 7,000 student places. The Appraisal report acknowledged the need to raise enrollment figures for women students; nationwide, female enrollment currently averages six to ten percent of the total. These low figures are hardly surprising, given the burdensome load of household duties assumed by the girl child from age four or five and the young age at which girls marry. Nevertheless, it is appropriate that teen-aged girls be trained in agricultural skills, since after marriage women in most ethnic groups take on a heavy proportion of farm tasks, including sowing, weeding, and harvesting. The sections below delineate some of the difficulties of attracting more women to the CFJA program--as students, as instructors, and as members of GJAs --and presents possible courses of action for consideration by project management. Also, the discussion raises the question of how to involve women at the higher levels of FJA decision-making. B. Sociocultural Issues 1. Rec-uitment of Female Instructors. Recent supervision reports suggested a link between the low level of female enrollment in CFJAs and the difficulty of recruiting female instructors (monitrices). Most CFJAs at present have one male instructor. The crux of the problem seems to be parents' insistence on -6- girl children receiving at least some instruction in traditional home economics pursuits--e.g. home and child care, sewing,cooking, etc. It is not that parents object to daughters being trained in agricultural techniques and simple money management--on the contrary, training in these subjects is becoming more and more accepted and even encouraged among many ethnic groups --but rather that a minimum of home economics instruction for girls is indispensable, in the minds of parents. Since male instructors in Upper Volta are not taught home economics, this kind of training requires competent female instructors, who are in very short supply in all areas of the country--for most other development efforts as well as for CFJAs. The trained monitrice, if single, often encounters hostility or indifference from older women villagers, who resent the intrusion of a young, seemingly inexperienced outsider. In addition, the monitrice may find it difficult to meet men of her educational level, and often must cope with unwanted advances from would-be suitors. Often, villagers regard her as ,a prostitute. Married monitrices, while generally taken more seriously, are often assigned to villages located far from their husbands' domiciles. All too often, in the absence of a government requirement that monitrices remain in their assigned CFJA 2/ centers for a specified period of time, the net result in both cases is that the monitrice leaves the village. 1/ In Koudougou ORD, a 1979 survey of 45 CFJA villages revealed that 27 villages wanted instruction for girls on the same basis as for boys, plus some home economics; eight villages rejected education for girls out of hand; five favored female edu- cation but in separate classrooms; and five preferred only home economics for girls. ORD du Koudougou, "Impressions et Conseils de l'Enqu'te sur les CFJAs (Novembre-Decembre 1978)," Ouagadougou, March 1979. 2/ It must be assumed that the government has considered the option of imposing such a requirement and rejected it, possibly on the presumption that (a) it would not work, and (b) it might reduce the number of applications for monitrice positions. -7- Reversing this trend--i.e. raising the proportion of monitrices remaining voluntarily in their villages on a long-term basis--should be an ultimate goal. But in the short run this may not be attainable, and the partial solutions proposed below take the reality of the present situation into 'account: --Basing monitrices in villages part-time. The Minister of Rural Develop- ment recently issued a letter stating that all monitrices, regardless of marital status, must reside in villages for three months at a time; it is not known how many three-month periods a year would be required. Presumably, the rest of the time monitrices would perform administrative tasks at ORD headquarters or be employed only part-time. This decision not only precludes continuity of service in the village, but also represents a waste of resources vis-a-vis training given to the monitrice, during the time she is not in the village. Still, if put into effect, this policy would assure the presence of a monitrice in the village, which seems to be a prerequisite for attracting female students. --Formation of mobile groups of town-based monitrices, who would visit villages three to four day, a month to give instruction in home economics. This solution likewise discourages continuity of personnel and the forming of close relationships between instructor and students. Provision of a vehicle or mobylettes would be an added requirement. --Stationing full-time monitrices in town centers; they would commute regularly to nearby CFJA villages. This would work for monitrices whose domicile could not be changed, but obviously would exclude CFJAs in isolated villages. 1/ Experience with an AID-financed women's project in the Sahel ORD, where female extension agents are based in the regional capital of Dori (an area targetted for coverage under the Second Education Project) indicates that this solution is feasible; monitrices on mobylettes can service villages within a 30-kilometer radius 1/ USAID/Upper Volta, Training of Women in Sahel Project, internal progress reports, 1978-1980. -8- of a town center three to four days a week. A chief advantage of this approach is the fact that large town centers usually have a pool of women candidates literate in French and with the requisite educational background. A special effort would be needed to tap this pool, rather than pull the majority of applicants from Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso, the country's two largest cities. --Establishing links with other home economics services in the area, such as Centres Sociales, baby-weighing and maternity cl1-ics, Ministry of Health clinics, Catholic Relief Services food distribution centers, and other development projects. Staff from these services could instruct female CFJA students periodically in home economics, with the male instructor (moniteur) providing agricultural training to girls and boys together. --Encouraging parents to send daughters to CFJAs, despite the absence of a monitrice. A particularly dynamic and enthusiasitc moniteur who has won the confidence of the village and who himself believes in the importance of educating girls in agricultural production skills, can in some instances persuade parents to send their daughters to all-production-oriented courses. Project management should support moniteurs in these efforts wherever possible. This is not to deny a perceived need by parents for home economics instruction, but to take advantage of available resources. The long range goal,as stated above, should be the hiring of monitrices who will want to remain in the village for a protracted period of time. In the meantime, some of the above suggestions, perhaps in combination, might be con- sidered by project management as interim approaches to solving the problem. -9- 2. Evaluation of women's participation. The new project's Evaluation Coordinator should be made aware of the importance of regularly assessing and transmitting up the line the extent of women's participation in production activities, in both the CFJA and GJA programs. This should not be merely a tallying of numbers--i.e. how many girl students are enrolled in a CFJA at any given moment?--but an assessment of whether women are indeed being provided agricultural training on an equal basis with men, and in the GJAs, whether they have equal access to membership and are receiving project-provided inputs in the same way as men. A short data collection form to gather information on these and related questions could be administered under the Evaluation Coordinator's supervision at regular six-month or yearly intervals in each Bank-supported CFJA. C. Institutional Issues The Second Education Project will substantially strengthen the present FJA Directorate within the Ministry of Rural Development, through provision of staff salaries, technical assistance, vehicles and other inputs. Here might be a place for a Women's Affairs Coordinator, whose hiring would underscore the importance attached to improving women's profile within the CFJA system. Her responsibilities might consist of the following: --Monitor progress on recruitment of monitrices for CFJAs. Assist ORD 1/ Coordinatrices to seek and place candidates for training. Explore options discussed above and make recommendations to the FJA Director. --Encourage interaction and cooperation between CFJA programs and other development projects with a women's component. In areas where trained female extension agents are scarce, attempt to arrange shared work schedules for monitrices. 1/ The Coordinatrice supervises ORD female extension agents. - 10 - --Assist Evaluation Coordinator in assessing female students' participation in CFJA agricultural production training. Alert FJA Director and ORD officials to CFJA programs which seem particularly unfavorable to girls. Also monitor women's access to other CFJA-related programs, such as Rural Training Centers and study fellowships (see Section D4 below). --Encourage proper supervision and support of monitrices by FJA supervisory staff at the ORD level. Where this support is weak, work with ORD Director to assure improved supervision. Adequate support is critical to the effective func- tioning of monitrices, no matter how good their training. The creation of a dual role for the new head of the Ministry of Rural Development's Service d'Economie Familiale (Domestic Economy Unit) which now falls under the FJA Directorate is worth considering. As of June, 1980, the post was stillacant; the new head could also function as FJA Women's Affairs Coordinator. This would elevate the prestige of the Service d'Economie Familiale, which to date has had limited success in implementing programs for women at the ORD level, even when funding was available. Associated with this proposal is the risk that appointment of a highly placed Women's Affairs Coordinator in the Ministry of Rural Development would increase friction and competition between that ministry and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Women's Affairs (MOSAWA), which was created in the summer of 1978 to assume major responsibility for integrating women's concerns into development programming country-wide. On the other hand, MOSAWA's direct participation in se- lection of the Women's Affairs Coordinator might improve relations and communications between the two ministries. It would be useful to elicit from some well-placed Voltaic professional women, suggestions and strategies for ensuring that the coordinator is given the authority to secure compliance with her recommendations. Regardless of - 11 - whether a Women's Coordinator is named for the CFJA program, project management should seek MOSAWA's support and cooperation for new initiatives involving women. MOSAWA is already responsible for various women's programs throughout Upper Volta, in particular the Service d'Education et de Participation de la Femme au Developpement (formerly known both as the UNESCO Project and the Project for Equal Access to Education for Women and Girls) and the USAID-financed project for training of women in the Sahel. D. Economic Access Issues 1. Monitrice Training. The Appraisal Report mentions a soon-to- be-built Swiss-financed center for the training of monitrices. Separating women and men during training has pros and cons. On the pro side, a special center geared to women probably means that over time more women will be trained, and there is no doubt that Upper Volta suffers from a lack of adequate training facilities for women. On the con side, segregating women from men might mean relatively less attention given to basic agricultural training and more emphasis on home economics subjects. It also runs contrary to the current trend in CFJAs --the ultimate destination of these instructor trainees--of educating men and women together. 1/ Some may query the necessity of training women instructors in agricultural production techniques in the first place. The need is there for two reasons: first, monitrices skilled in improved farming techniques would serve as role models for their female students; somehow, it seems false to promote agricultural training for girls if the very women instructing them are themselves ignorant of farming skills. Also, trained monitrices could set an example for male students, who presumably would come to accept as normal and even desirable the notion of women acquiring agricultural knowledge on an equal basis with men. Second, the more instructors equipped to teach agricultural skills the better. A key aim of the CFJA system is to provide rural youngsters with the necessary tools for increasing their productivity in the rural environment--which means essentially in agriculture. Monitrices with improved knowledge of farming practices can contribute to accom- plishing that aim, especially in CFJA centers with separate classrooms for boys and girls. - 12 - What is essential is that training of monitrices not be given short shrift, should the Swiss training center fail to materialize or be delayed in construction. Project management should explore possibilities for including monitrices as students at the two existing instructor training centers at Kamboinse and Farako-Ba. 2. Training of Supervisors. The project plans to finance training programs for some 60 people who will serve in FJA supervisory positions; qualified women candidates should be recruited for participation in these programs. The pool of candidates with the requisite academic background and experience will no doubt be smaller than that for monitrices, but for the larger regional centers it should be possible to locate qualified applicants. In the absence of women supervisors, male supervisors can fill the gap. Their training course should include some "sensibilisation" on the need to incorporate women students into all aspects of the CFJA program. 3. Rural Youth Groups (GJAs). The extent to which women participate in GJAs--the rural youth groups for CFJA graduates--will be a key test of the success of CFJAs in integrating girls into core components of the education program. To date, little if any formal data exists on involvement of girls in GJAs, although the Appraisal report states that 3,000 young people participated in GJA-type revenue-earning activities under the first Bank project presumably some were women. Activities in which girls can be expected to take part include tree- planting, vegetable cultivation, raising of small ruminants, poultry-raising, and water conservation. It is to be hoped that during the CFJA phase of education, girls will have learned ancillary skills, such as food preservation techniques, - 13 - which can be put into practice by women GJA participants. Whether girls and boys work together or in separate groups will depend on local circumstances. In any case, girls should have access to project-provided credit, land and water supplies on the same basis as boys. 4. Other Opportunities. Women graduates of CFJAs who have participated successfully for one year in a GJA should be eligible for further training at the two Rural Training Centers (CPRs) to be built by the project. Also, women should have access to seminars and scholarships to be financed by the project under the Rural Pedagogical Service and the Agricultural Project Mana- gement Training program. Although the Appraisal report makes no mention of women with respect to these training courses, project management should be alert to opportunities to include women where possible and appropriate. III. NIENA DIONKELE AND KOUDOUGOU DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS A. Summary Project Descriptions 1. Niena Dionkele. The Niena Dionkele Rice Development Project is a three-year, first-phase pilot effort to increase rainfed rice production on 400 hectares of the North Dougou swamp in Hauts-Bassins ORD, in the far western region of Upper Volta. Some 800 farm families are expected to benefit from the project, which in addition to assisting in rice production, will improve cultivation of upland crops including cotton,sorghum, millet and maize. Budgeted at a cost of US$6.5 million (total IDA credit), the project will incorporate several components, including swamp development for rice cultivation, improvement of extension services, supply of farm animals and equipment for sale in cash or 1/ credit, a demonstration unit, and a monitoring/evaluation unit. Principal ethnic 1/ These are the project components most relevant to the concerns of this study; there are others not listed here. -14- groups to be involved in this first phase are the Senufo and the Bolon, with some Peul, Bobo and Mossi. Despite the fact that most women in this area do not have major roles in rice and cereal production (see section B below), this project can benefit women in other produciion-oriented activities such as cultivation of subsistence garden crops and raising of small ruminants and poultry. Equally important, the project can instigate research at an early stage to ascertain which if any aspects of intensified rice cultivation are likely to have negative consequences for women. Since project preparation documents specifically call for study of cultural and l/ demographic factors inhibiting women's more active participation in cultivation, answers to such sociological questions should be forthcoming early on in project implementation. 2. Koudougou. Like Niena Dionkele, the Koudougou Agricultural Development Project, budgetted at $25 million (total IDA credit), concentrates on improving staple food crop production and farm incomes. This five-and-one-half year effort aims to reach about 30,000 farm families in Koudougou ORD, which has the largest farming population in the country. The Mossi predominate in the northern and central zones of the ORD, while the south is populated principally by ethnic groups collectively termed "Gouroonsi." Project components with potential implications for women farmers are similar to those of Niena Dionkele: land development, improving extension services, supply of farm inputs and credit, and installation of a monitoring/evaluation unit. In addition, the project plans to establish a training center, which will organize farm production and management courses for ORD extension agents. Presumably, the 1/ Niena Dionkele Rice Development Project, Working Paper C4, May 30, 1980, p.6. - 15 - nine female agents currently employed by the ORD would participate in these courses. Also, the project will help the Koudougou forestry service to launch an intensified forestry program, in which women could be expected to take part. B. Socio-cultural Issues 1. Roles of women. Village-specific knowledge of women's actual roles, needs, and wants is critical to making judgments about how these projects can most effectively intervene on women's behalf. Without this knowledge, both projects run the risk of offering women a "packaged deal" approach, based on prior assumptions about what is most appropriate and feasible. The need for obtaining from rural women themselves information on their economic needs as they perceive them (as distinct from the perception of project management and outside experts) bears emphasis. Because situations vary tremendously from village to village, even within the same ethnic group, detailed data should only be sought once participating villages have been selected and implementation begun. More generalized data collection at this point would be a waste of time and staff resources, and would contribute little usable information. In the case of Niena Dionkele, the need for precise data on women's socio- economic status is particularly acute, given the Appraisal team anthropologist's unusual finding that women among the Senufo and Bolon, the two major ethnic groups in the area, do not participate in rice or other cereal cultivation, except for minor assistance at harvest time. While unable to pinpoint the cause of this phenomenon, the anthropologist suggested that an apparent demographic imbalance in the sex ratio accompanied by a high incidence of divorce, might make it possible for women to refuse to do farm work. Marriageable women are in high demand. Should a husband insist that his wife work with him in the fields, she might decide to divorce him, secure in the knowledge that she could find another husband who - 16 - would be less demanding. That a woman is under no obligation at the time of marriage to share farm work with her husband only strengthens her position. Before introducing the project to Senufo and Bolon women, more in-depth information is needed on why women refuse to farm. The planned survey of women's socio-economic roles should provide many answers and it will be critical to elicit from the women themselves a statement of their perceived needs. (See section 2 below.) The project also intends to offer demonstration plots to women, in the hope that once they see tangible benefits, they will want to participate further in project activities. It will of course be essential to ensure that the women themselves control what they produce. Peul women, too, should be able to tap project resources, provided that it they can overcome their customary disinclination to organize into work groups. Not farmers by tradition, Peul women are increasingly taking up this role in western Upper Volta, as sedentarization of the Peul herder population proceeds. In the Niena Dionkele area, the men manage land preparation and sowing. After the rains are well under way, the men go off with the herds, leaving remaining farm tasks to women and children. Many Peul women also cultivate garden plots as a matter of course. For the Koudougou project, some general information is already available on farm tasks performed by Mossi and Gouroonsi women. They are active in virtually all phases of production on the family field, except for heavy land clearing and 1/ Unlike women in most other ethnic groups, Peul women usually prefer to work on their own, rather than gather together for group endeavor. Evidence from other projqcts in the Sahel ORD where the Peul predominate indicates that women can and will organize for collective activity, if the time and effort are taken to intro- duce women gradually to project goals and resources. - 17 - preparation. For sorghum, millet and peanut cultivation they share sowing, weeding 1/ and harvesting tasks with husbands and children. Many women cultivate small plots (one hectare or less) of their own sorghum for beer-brewing, a good income earner, as well as vegetables for the sauce which is nutritionally, an important part of the meal. This knowledge, however, does not obviate the need for more specific information on what women in Koudougou project villages will see as their needs and wants. Gathering this information should be a priority of the new project's monitoring unit, although the Appraisal report makes no mention of women's roles as a subject of study. Of course, translating desired changes into concrete benefits depends on various factors beyond a knowledge of what women do and want to do, such as the availability of trained extension agents and women's access to credit. These are addressed in Section D below. 2. Negative impacts on women--how to forestall them. Development projects designed without full consideration for women's roles occasionally end up hurting women and children, rather than helping them. While Appraisal reports and back- ground papers for the Niena Dionkele and Koudougou projects dealt briefly with the issue of integrating women into project activities, many questions remain regarding possible unanticipated consequences of the projects on women's lives. For example, with more land per family under cultivation, what will be the added demands on women and the resulting hardships?--e.g. more time and energy.expended in the fields, diminished attention to children and home, more cooking time, premature 1/ USAID/Upper Volta, Strengthening Women's Roles in Development Project, Project Paper, 1976, p. 54. - 18 - weaning of infants, less time for subsistence plots and concomitant lowering of family nutrition standards,-and a possible net loss of female cohtrolled income. The challenge is how to modify the project to take account of such negative impacts, assuming that the probability of their occurring could be established. There are no easy answers; it is unrealistic to expect that project management and male beneficiaries will simply drop this or that component because of the chance that women may suffer adverse consequences. Even after the fact, change may be difficult to bring about, especially if the most immediate results--e.g. a marked increase in rice yields on family plots--are visible and replicable. Still, it is important that this kind of information be collected. Armed with answers to some of the above questions, project staff can discuss with male villagers and their wives the possibilities of gearing men's participation in the project to respond at least in part to the exigencies of women's lives. Also, if women are to be encouraged to produce more, they must be able to control the results of their increased productivity. 3. Evaluation. Establishment of Monitoring and Evaluation Units (MEUs) in both projects should facilitate collection of data on many of the possible impacts discussed above. As already indicate, Niena Dionkele is already planning to carry out a special survey of women's roles in agriculture; the Koudougou project should make a similar commitment. Given the magnitude of tasks facing the MEUs, data collection documents should be reasonably short in length and easy to administer by enumerators with a limited education. Sets of questions and indicators to measure women's - 19 - participation have been drawn up by various womem's projects in Upper Volta--the UNESCO project, USAID's Strengthening Women's Roles in Development Project (SWID --which is already operating in Kodougou), and the USAID Training of Women in the Sahel Project. This last project has devised a series of one-page 'Tiches" (sheets) especially designed to be administered one at a time by female extension agents with a sixth-grade education; the agents themselves were instrumental in drawing up the questions. These fiches, which will be readministered to the same respondent population at regular intervals, could be adapted for use by projects elsewhere in the country. Whatever system is used, approximately 20 percent of enumerators ideally should be female; it is often impossible for male enumerators to collect reliable data fror.women respondents. In addition to information on women's roles in agriculture, data will be needed on time allocation patterns and women's own perceptions of their particular problems. It may be, for example, that in some villages women spend so much time fetching water from far-away water sources, that a well-building program will be a prerequisite to their participation in the project. C. Institutional Issues Both projects are to be implemented through the ORD superstructure, Niena Dionkele will set up a semi-autonomous project management unit whose head--the Project Manager--will report to the ORD Director. The Koudougou project, on the other hand, will strengthen the existing ORD organization, whose various units handle rural development, training, supplies and credit, etc. At the national level, the Niena Dionkele project will establish a Project Executive Committee (PEC) composed principally of Ministry of Rural Development Department heads who will have budgetary review and approval responsibilities. Appointment of a women's affairs representative to the PEC would help ensure an - 20 - awareness of women's concerns at the highest echelon of project management. The women's affairs representative might well turn out to be the new FJA Women's Coord- inator, if this position is created. This would be all the more appropriate in that Hauts-Bassins ORD is one of the three new ORDs to be included in the Second Education Project, and both the government and the Bank are urging a close cooperation between the CFJA system and Bank-supported agricultural development projects. Further down the line, the ORD Coordinatrice or other women's representative designated by the Project Manager could participate as a member of the local level Management Committee, which will concern itself with control of land use, selection of project farmers, and approval of credit to farmers. As women's advisor to the pro- ject, she would alert project management to possible areas of intervention to benefit women. She would track activities of female extension agents and/or male agents working with women, and report on these at regular intervals. While the Koudougou project management is less stratified, the ORD Coordinatrice could fulfill a similar role in advising the head of the ORD Training Section. In all probability she is already performing this function, since Koudougou ORD supports nine female extension agents (see next section). A final thought for implanting a continuous concern for women's affairs among management: for each project, terms of reference for the top project official--the Project Manager in Niena Dionkele and the Rural Development chief in Koudougou--should specify responsibility for the on-going integration of women into project activities. D. Economic Access Issues 1. Recruitment and Training of Female Extension Agents. Each project will need extension agents to help put into effect the various kinds of interventions discussed in Section Bl above. Assuming they can be recruited, women agents (known as animatrices) will then have to grapple with many of the same problems pla- guing extension agents, male and female, around the country: inadequate training, both in village motivation/organization techniques ("animation") and practical skills; lack of proper supervision on the job; responsibility for too many villages; diffic- ulties with transport; and lack and/or delays in arrival of needed commodities. - 21 - This report can offer no revolutionary suggestions for improving the sad state of farm extension in Upper Volta. The problems cited in the previous paragraph are well known to the designers of both projects. Nonetheless, certain measures will enhance the effectiveness of whatever extension resources are available. The Koudougou project will augment the salaries of the nine ORD animatrices already on board. These animatrices should have access to courses at the project's new training center on the same basis as men; they may also have received some training in credit management from the USAID project mentioned earlier. For Niena Dionkele, if the project has no resources to hire and train animatrices, it should investigate the possibility of procuring animatrice services from other agencies in the area--the UNESCO project, for example. In view of the difficulty of stationing women agents permanently in rural areas, a combination of the arrangements suggested in Part II of this report should be considered--i.e. basing animatrices in town centers, mobile groups of animatrices, etc. In both projects, male agents should be sensitized and trained to work directly with women farmers, if traditional mores permit. Women should be viewed as members of the family production unit, and training given them should differ little, if at all, from that given to men. In many cases, men and women should receive training together. 2. Paraprofessional Training. Both projects should consider the option of choosing two women per project village for training as paraprofessionals (animatrices villageoises), whose contribution could be especially meaningful in villages with only a male extension worker. In other projects, female paraprofessionals are generally illiterate, older married women who command a certain respect among their peers. They go outside the village for training for three weeks to two months, ideally twice a year. There, they are taught animation techniques and technical skills, midwifery, improved farming practices, and home economics. As a rule, villagers repay their services in kind, not in cash, through gifts of animals, help in the fields, etc, - 22 - Because the Koudougou project encompasses such a large beneficiary population, extension agent resources, male and female, will be spread esp-acially thin; Niena Dionkele at present has no female agents'at all. These circumstances will limit the number of paraprofessionals trained, since they will require close supervision and should only be selected for villages 1/ adequately serviced by an extension agent. Training for paraprofessionals is generally not available at the Bobo-Dioulasso- based training institutions, which require that their students be literate in French. The Koudougou project might consider instituting a training program at its new training center; Niena Dionkele might be able to tap UNESCO resources. Project management must realize, should it decide to launch a paraprofessional program, that the whole paraprofessional concept, at least in Upper Volta, is still largely experimental; results to date have not been staggeringly successful. Because of their greater credibility, their higher status and their permanence as members of the local community, more older women should be considered for parapro- fessional training. The paraprofessional's role needs to be clearly defined and explained to everyone involved--the paraprofessional, the villagers, the super- visors. The village must perceive a need for the paraprofessional's expertise; inculcating this perception can take time. Above all, the paraprofessional must be closely supervised and adequately supported administratively and financially, or the effort to train and place her will be wasted. 3. Credit. Both projects will offer medium-term credit to farmer groups wishing to purchase oxen, animal traction equipment, and other farm inputs. While it is unlikely that women can join credit schemes offered to male family heads 1/ For a recent account of one project's experience with female paraprofessionals, see "Women Paraprofessionals in Upper Volta's Rural Development," Ellen Taylor, Center for International Studies, Cornell University, April 1980. Available from the office of the Bank's Advisor on Women in Development. - 23 - or group leaders, women's groups which can meet project-established criteria for loans should be eligible to receive credit for such commodities as seeds, fertilizer, wheelbarrows, farm tools, and animal carts. Project negotiators may wish to think about the possibility of earmarking a minimum percentage of loan funds for women's use, given that rural women in Upper Volta traditionally have lacked access to institutional credit. In Koudougou, however, project management first should investigate the availability of credit for women from the USAID SWID project mentioned earlier. This project recently processed a number of loans to women's groups in Koudougou, and since it too is implemented through the Ministry of Rural Development (the Service d'Economie Familiale), it may well be a convenient source of funds. It should be noted that SWID project loans generally are only available to women in villages supervised by an ORD animatrice; thus, project management may wish:to reserve credit for women's groups in villages served by a male extension agent only. IV. SUMMARY RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS A. Recommendations This report has proposed various recommendations which seem practicable within the scope and time span of the three projects. Some recommendations apply as much to overall development as they do to women's concerns--e.g. gathering in-depth information on the roles and needs of would-be project participants. Such recommendations appear here because without them, women's activities might be neglected amid the press of other implementation respons- ibilities. - 24 - In summary, the major recommendations proposed are as follows: Second Education Project 1. Recruit monitrices through a combination of approaches, including: --basing monitrices in villages part-time; --formation of mobile groups of town-based monitrices; --stationing full-time monitrices in town centers; --establishing links with other home economics services in the area; and --encouraging parents to send daughters to CFJAs despite the absence of a monitrice. While the long-term goal should be tae stationing of monitrices full-time in villages, implementation of the above interim approaches should help attract more women students to CFJAs. 2. Instigate regular monitoring of women's participation in CFJAs and GJAs--e.g. ratio of agricultural training to home economics, women's access to GJA membership and project-provided inputs. Devise short data collection form for gathering these data. 3. Hire Women's Affairs Coordinator for the FJA Directorate. She would rnitor recruitment of monitrices; encourage proper supervision and support of monitrices; encourage cooperation between CFJAs and other projects with a women's component; and assist in evaluating female students' participation in agricultural training. 4. Ensure proper agricultural training for monitrices. - 25 - Niena Dionkele/Koudougou Projects 1. Gather village-specific data on women's roles. Ascertain why Senufo and Bolon women participate so minimally in farming. Establish what opportunities exist for Peul women. Devise data collection instruments and recruit female enumerators. Stress the importance of learning women's own perception of their needs. 2. Determine to greatest extent possible potential negative impacts of projects on women and discuss with villagers ways to forestall them. 3. Appoint women's affairs representative to Niena Dionkele Project Executive Committee. In both projects, enlarge role of ORD Coordinatrice to include responsibility as women's advisor at local level. 4. Assign to top project official in each project responsibility for integrating women into project activities; this could be specified in terms of reference of each official. 5. Provide female extension agents in Koudougou ORD with access to new training center. Investigate possibilities in Niena Dionkele of procuring outside animatrice services and/or hiring and training project animatrices. 6. Encourage male extension workers'to work with women farmers in villages not served by an animatrice. Train male and female farmers together, where appropriate. 7. Train female paraprofessionals. 8. Ensure that women's groups have access to project credit. In Koudougou, investigate availability of credit from USAID SWID project. - 26 - B, Conclusions Certain larger themes derive from the above recommendations. Beyond a restatement of the need to open up training, credit, and other project inputs to women, perhaps foremost among these themes'is the notion that careful data collection on women's roles and needs, once specific villages have been designated for project activity, can and should be a time-consuming effort--an effort which will yield definite rewards. First, a reliable baseline will be established against which evaluators can measure progress. Next, the data collection process will give village women the opportunity to significantly influence the mix of interventions proposed, as opposed to the projects' confronting them with a "take-it-or- leave-it" choice; past results show that people tend to work harder at and put more stock. in innovations which they themselves help formulate. Finally, the time expended on data gathering can be a period during which villagers and project staff can build up that mutual trust and respect without which no project can succeed. This initial period of data collection need not be protracted; people become impatient, tiring of many questions and little action. The time required will vary from village to village--two to three months seem about 1/ average. It may be shorter, if a group or groups of village women spontaneously seek out project assistance, in which case the data collection would combine baseline information with feasibility research. Another key theme is the need for regular and close supervision of extension agents, CFJA instructors, and paraprofessionals. The need is particularly acute among women, who are newer than men to the idea of holding teacher/supervisor 1/ Project management should add to this time frame enough time for training of enumerators and pre-testing of the data collection instrument. - 27 - positions. Inadequate supervision and support will seriously compromise the effectiveness of change agents. Finally, instilling a concern for women's issues among management should be a goal of each project. While development must to a large extent be bottom-up, top-down considerations still have their place. Enthusiastic and continuing support by management of efforts to involve and benefit women can make a difference at the village level. This report would have benefited from on-site visits to each project area. Assignment of detailed research on women's roles to one member of each Appraisal team would have yielded even better results. Still, it is not too late for project management and Bank staff with supervision responsibilities to consider and adopt some of the recommendations presented here. All project participants, men and women alike, stand to benefit. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Mitchinick, David A.; "The Role of Women in Rural Zaire and Upper Volta: Improving Methods of Skill Acquisition"; ILO: Geneva; 1977. 2. ORD du Koudougou: "Impressions et Conseils a la suite de 1'Enquete sur les CFJAs (November-December)"; Ministry of Rural Development; Ouagadougou; March, 1979. 3. Society Africaine d'Etudes et Developpement (SAED); "Social and Economic Development in Upper Volta--Woman's Perspective;" Ouagadougou; April, 1978. 4. Taylor, Ellen: "Women Paraprofessionals in Upper Volta's Rural Development;" Cornell University; Ithaca; April, 1980. 5. USAID/Upper Volta; "Strengthening Women's Roles in Development;" Project Paper; Agency for International Development, Washington, D.C.; 1976. 6. USAID/Upper Volta; "Training of Women in Sahel." Project Paper; Agency for International Development, Washington, D.C.; 1978.