water for a food-secure world gender, institutions, equity, development katherine snyder

Water for a food-secure world

Gender, Institutions, Equity, Development

Katherine Snyder

Water for a food-secure worldWater for a food-secure world

Gender


Key points to frame gender research

• Remembering that gender is not just women• Gender is a social and cultural construction

and so varies considerably according to context.

• Need to move beyond focus on ‘tools’ to more focus on analysis of gender relations (not just roles), cultural and institutional contexts. Not just what patterns exist but why.


Key points• Addressing poverty will not in itself solve the

issues of gender equity and greater gender equity will similarly not necessarily solve poverty

• Formal versus informal: pay attention to women’s influence in the informal sphere

• Different types of water for different purposes (MUS)

• Women not homogenous group – young girls and hired labor often drawing water


Key points• Decision-making: who makes decisions and over

what• A ‘technicist’ rationale fails to address political

and social realities (quota approaches do not solve inequity)

• Irrigation within larger social, environmental, institutional context

• Institutions: understanding multiple levels and layers of institutions and how they interact


Possible Research Themes: gender, equity, institutions

• Gender, technology and production– Impact of different technologies as well as impact

of increased productivity on men and women

• Institutions and agencies: how do institutions address gender and equity issues; does gender composition within institutions affect how gender equity is targeted in schemes


Themes• Participation and entitlements (tenure, access,

labor, etc.)• Institutional failures and successes: understanding

bureaucracies and levers for institutional and behavioral change

• Irrigation and markets (gender, equity, institutions)• Irrigation and livelihoods• Traditional versus ‘modern’ irrigation• Change over time


Interventions

• Technical interventions without advocacy and awareness raising unlikely to address underlying gender inequities

• Research should link to and involve NGO/civil society sector as well as government


Concluding points• Irrigation systems not static: need better

understanding of drivers of change in both positive and negative directions

• Multiscale issues• Discourse and narratives of modernity,

intensification, etc. • Multisectoral issues: holistic approach• Users differentiated by social categories: where do

benefits go?

water for a food-secure world gender, institutions, equity, development katherine snyder

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