Actionaid Webinar POWER Project Webinar CRSA and Unpaid Care Work

ActionAid webinar POWER project webinar CRSA and Unpaid Care Work

Q and A from webinar

Action Aid POWER project organised a webinar in June 2017 to look at the links between Climate Resilient Sustainable Agriculture and Unpaid Care Work. There were over 50 participants from a variety of countries: from ActionAid, implementing partners and other organisations eg FAO, Oxfam and UN Women. There were a number of questions raised by participants during the webinar that we unfortunately did not have the time to answer fully. Therefore we have worked to answer these after the webinar to share with webinar participants and those interested in these issues. For further queries or questions please contact Jane Lennon

Question/comment / Responses from project team members (general and Bangladesh specific)

Looking at the age of women who are much more engaged in these programs, I am really curious to understand the role of girls and boys - how is the program working on ensuring that the knowledge gained by mothers is transferred the girls and boys in order to ensure sustainability

/ The POWER project includes a specific action targeting awareness raising of boys and girls in school. These actions have happened already in Bangladesh and Rwanda and are planned for Pakistan and Ghana as well. We believe it’s a societal responsibility to transfer knowledge on unpaid care work to boys and girls. In some households the women have also begun redistributing roles between girls and boys in their households.
In the society of Bangladesh girls and boys are generally playing traditional role as their mother and father are doing. That means girls are taking the role of mothers and boys of fathers. The burden of unpaid care work is therefore shifting from mothers to girls, not usually to boys. However, the project is trying to shift this traditional gender role or division of labour. We are doing this by working with girls and boys in schools, and with the mothers’ community with different awareness raising interventions. Girls and boys get to know about unpaid care work and shifting of gender role in family and society from their schools and other educational institutions. In addition, mothers also share their learning with all family members and inspire male members of the family to take on some of the unpaid care work. This way mothers are trying to shift the learning among their girls and boys.

If we want to drastically reduce the Unpaid Care Work, I think there is a huge need to focus on men and boys and invest a lot in their sensitization on the negative impact on the family members lives due to the women UWC

/ Yes it is right that there is a need to sensitise young girls and boys to reduce the negative impact of unpaid care work on women and family however it is not possible to reduce drastically in a short space of time. There are many reasons for that: lack of education; poverty or weak economic situation; women have less engagement with activities outside the home; lack of enthusiasm to break the silence of burden of Unpaid Care Work; stereotyped social norms and practices; long lasting practices; low level of awareness about women rights and development,; lack of political commitment and so on. Actually it is deeply rooted in the society and needs to uproot from there which is not possible overnight.
POWER project activities include completion of time diaries for men. Once they put down on paper what they do in the household – it can be really eye opening.

Climate problem makes the situation of women is more worsen.The numbers of disabled and ill persons are increasing day by day due to use more pesticides, herbicides and insecticides. If any disabled or ill member will have at the family then the burden of care works will be increased

/ The use of pesticides can severely affect the health of the groups we work with. In many cases, farmers are using these products without any kind of protection, worsening the risks of poisoning themselves, their families, communities and consumers. It can have significant impact on women’s Unpaid Care Work, since women are the one “normally” in charge of taking care of the seek members of the family.
Another issue that are connected with this, is related to diseases transmitted by insects. In several communities where we work, women are complaining that the number of family members affected by dengue, malaria, chikungunya, etc, has been increasing. It normally happened during the raining season, due to availability of water for the multiplication of mosquitos. This is the busiest time for women farmers, since most of them are involved on taking care of their crops. Climate change can be pointed to as one of the probable cause of this increase of the number of people affected by diseases transmitted by insects. Unfortunately, all projections indicate that this situation will be even worse in the near future.
It is therefore important to recognise disability an area that can lead to increased Unpaid Care Work. The state needs to really step up and help with Unpaid Care Work related to this eg through centres for disabled people, specific aides for the disabled such as wheel chairs, walking stick and other tools which may be difficult for those from marginalised and poor families to access easily. This also applies to the ill and the terminally ill through the provision of adequate water, heatingand sanitary ware, gloves and sanitation.
In Bangladesh there is no specific information on the number of people with disabilities. But according to the UN and other sources, almost 10% of the total population are people with disabilities. Definitely pesticides or such poisons have contributed to the increase in disabilities and illnesses. Subsequently this increases the women’s burden of unpaid care work as women have a higher burden of this kind of work anyway. Climate change impact also increases the number of people with disabilities but there is no such study or survey yet about the trend of increase,or the number of people. Whatever the number or percentage of people with disabilities increased due to climate change and pesticides: for social and other reasons women are taking care of them. It increases women’s burden of care work undoubtedly.

When you started with unpaid care work issue in the communities, did you experience negative responses or resistance from men and traditional leaders with the concept of unpaid care work at Bangladesh

/ There was resistance in some countries initiallyand it was seen as challenging existing gender roles. The concept of ‘unpaid’ also resulted in some people asking who would pay and how. This challenge was also experienced with policy makers.
In Bangladesh we started to work for recognition, reduction and redistribution of unpaid care work in 2013. We have not yet faced any resistance from men or traditional leaders. However to change their understanding and mindset is very difficult. Men still see Unpaid Care Work as ‘women’s work’and so see men taking on some of this as‘helping or supporting women.’ So we are intervening slowly and gradually and work together with both men and women and traditional community leaders.

Providing the social support and spacing for women will bring women to higher level and become leaders as well.

/ Yes, the POWER project tries to create spaces for rural women through the women’s groups. Women in the groups are also participating and making their own demands to policy makers.
It is proven in our project working areas in Bangladesh that when they got social space many of the women emerged as leaders at community or local level. Some women competed in the local government election in 2016 and represented different local level committees like school management committees, standing committees on Women’s Rights and Violence Against Women, education, health, agriculture, revenue etc in Union Parishad (lowest level of the local government).

How are the women's group you are setting up through POWER related to pre-existing women's group in the same areas and are the local implementing partners women led?

/ The women’s groups are connected to other women’s groups in their communities as well as women’s coalitions. The project also does exchange visits to other women’s groups to learn and share ideas. In Africa, some of the women are part of the Rural Farmers Forum in Africa which connects with other women in the region. In Bangladesh women are part of the women’s federations.
The POWER project in Bangladesh is working with some pre-existing women groups in both districts: Gaibandha and Lalmonirhat. These women’s groups have some basic understanding in some areas like Women’s Rights, gender, Violence Against Women, communicating with service providers etc. Some of them have emerged community leaders too. While we are working with new women and their groups in new areas, we linked previous women leaders and their groups with the new women groups. There are many ways to set up linkage between them and new groups. The previous leaders facilitated in new areas to form women’s groups and shared their learning and motivated them to be mobilised around the POWER project’s issues. In some cases new women’sgroups visited the previous groups and tried to understand the groups’ functions. Besides these, both old and new groups organised some programmes or activities jointly at community level eg different International day observations and attending fairs. We have selected some leaders from previous groups to facilitate trainings to the new groups. The local implementing partner in Bangladesh, SKS Foundation, is not women led.

The unpaid care work is culturally defined, how is advocacy with government going to help with the redistribution of unpaid care work?

/ It is very important to get formal recognition of unpaid care work from the state or government. Such institutional recognition influences all other governmentauthorities to understand it and its different dimensions and how it impacts on the life of women. Then they realise it needs to be redistributed from women to men, community and the state as a whole. And then they will incorporate different interventions in policies and laws. For example: day care initiatives for rural areas, health facilities at the door step, available water and sanitation facilities, disability allowance, social safety nets etc. These interventions will redistribute the burden of unpaid care work to the community and government institutions and reduce the time spent by women in unpaid care work.
Yes unpaid care work is culturally defined andsometimes the practice leads to the increased burden of women. The state’s role includes raising awareness on Unpaid Care Work: reduction on unpaid care work can be done through : investing in construction of child care centres - which can reduce amount of time spent on child care; investing in Water harvesting technologies – reducing the amount of time spent on fetching water; investing in energy saving technologies to reduce the amount of time spent on fetching firewood; investing in adequate health care and disability services for allincluding rural communities; investing in social protection; advocating for redistribution between men and women, boys and girls
It is culturally defined, hence the demands should also be generated with women groups on the ground.

What is the sustainability of using vegetable material to cover the soil in a context where such material is becoming rare due to the long dry season period?

/ After visiting smallholder farmers experiences in several countries that are facing challenges to get materials to cover the soil, we can say that:
-in many situations, farmers will not have enough materials to cover their entire field. In this case, we recommend them to cover the part of the field that is possible to cover with the available materials. In many countries where we work, farmers say that it will work like an insurance against bad weather. If they have lack of rain, the place they managed to cover will have more change to survive and produce
-many farmers in communities that are complaining about lack of materials to cover / feed the soils are still using fire as a tool to clean soils. These two things are not compatible, since fire will consume almost all materials available
-animals are normally responsible to consume most of the crops leftovers and other materials that we could use. Because of that, few materials will be left to feed the soil. We are not proposing that animals should not eat crop leftovers. This is just to highlight that they are both part of the same challenge.
In CRSA, we always propose alternatives, small changes, that farmers may implement, as a transition from the present situation to a more sustainable one. Normally, they are very careful, small changes that will not compromise farmers ‘present production and productivity, but can significantly contribute to food sovereignty and sustainability of smallholders in the long run.
Besides stopping burning, one way to face the challenges of lack of materials is by planting trees (and grasses too). There are several multipurpose trees that farmers can plant (as fences, at the middle of their field, as a defence against erosion, etc), that can be used as a source of shadow, fruits, firewood, food, animal fodder, and as a source of materials to feed the soils. Normally, we use leguminous trees, since they can bring nitrogen to the soils, but there are several other locally available trees and grasses that can be used.

Do you have the conservation agricultural policy along with organic agriculture?

/ Conservation agriculture and organic agriculture are both part of what we called sustainable agriculture (or ecological agriculture). Climate Resilient Sustainable Agriculture – Agroecology is also covered by this same umbrella called sustainable agriculture. We are practicing CRSA in several countries. In each country, it can be called by different names. For example, in Mozambique, our initiative is called conservation agriculture, since this name is well known by smallholder farmers there. The content of our work is exactly the same, but with different names.
Organic agriculture, by its turns, has specificities that are important to highlight. It normally involves the certification of its organic origin by an external agent. This process of certification is very expensive. For this reason, farmers we work with normally cannot afford organic agriculture. Only very specific farmers that are producing high cost products, like coffee, some expensive fruit, etc., can generate enough income to pay for certification.

Is there an example or tool kit online for the time diaries?

/ Yes there is one - it uses simple pictures/diagrams for different tasks for men/women to fill in their time diaries See POWER project website tools and resources: