Running Out of Time: The Reduction of Women's Work Burden in Agricultural Production
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About this ebook
Based on a broad literature review, this publication discusses rural women’s time poverty in agriculture, elaborates on its possible causes and implications and provides insight into the various types of constraints that affect the adoption of solutions for reducing work burden. This paper raises questions about the adequacy of women’s access to technologies, services and infrastructure and about the control women have over their time, given their major contributions to agriculture. It also looks into the available labour-saving technologies, practices and services that can support women to better address the demands derived from the domestic and productive spheres and improve their well-being. The reader is presented with an overview of successfully-tested technologies, services and resource management practices in the context of water, energy, information and communication. The findings elaborated in this paper feed a set of recommendations provided for policy makers and development partners. A gender-transformative approach at community and household level is suggested as a way forward to promote women’s increased control over the allocation of their time.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
An intergovernmental organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has 194 Member Nations, two associate members and one member organization, the European Union. Its employees come from various cultural backgrounds and are experts in the multiple fields of activity FAO engages in. FAO’s staff capacity allows it to support improved governance inter alia, generate, develop and adapt existing tools and guidelines and provide targeted governance support as a resource to country and regional level FAO offices. Headquartered in Rome, Italy, FAO is present in over 130 countries.Founded in 1945, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO provides a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy. The Organization publishes authoritative publications on agriculture, fisheries, forestry and nutrition.
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Running Out of Time - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
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ISBN 978-92-5-108810-4
E-ISBN 978-92-5-109122-7 (EPUB)
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Cover photograph: ©WFP/Evelyn Hockstein-Polaris
Table of contents
Tables and figures
Abbreviations and acronyms
Acknowledgements
Executive Summary
Section 1 Introduction
Section 2 Context: the gender division of labour in agriculture
2.1 Farming
2.2 Fisheries and aquaculture
2.3 Livestock
2.4 Forestry
Section 3 Women’s work burden and time poverty
Section 4 Labour-saving technologies and services
4.1 Barriers in access to and adoption of labour-saving technologies and services
4.2 Technology and services: findings by sector
Section 5 Conclusion and recommendations
Section 6 Proposed approach
References
Tables and figures
Table 1 Comparison of days worked by men and women in rice paddy cultivation
Table 2 List of selected technologies, services and practices with labour-saving potential for women
Figure 1 Gender division of labour in Nandafubwa, Busia District, Kenya
Figure 2 Conceptual model to reduce women’s work burden in agriculture
Abbreviations and acronyms
Acknowledgements
This background paper was prepared and presented at a workshop on Women’s Work Burden held in FAO on 3 April 2014, with the participation of colleagues from IFAD, ILO, UNIDO and Practical Action. We would like to thank all those who participated for sharing information on their organization’s initiatives, providing their interesting insight, and discussing actions to be taken to move ahead on the subject. The authors are most grateful for the valuable feedback provided by Clare Bishop-Sambrook (IFAD), Susan Maybud (ILO), Cristina Pitassi (UNIDO), Barnaby Peacocke (Practical Action), and by numerous colleagues from various FAO Departments. In particular, the authors wish to thank Rob Vos, Regina Laub, Joseph Kienzle, Ilaria Sisto, Unna Mustalampi, Alejandra Safa, Helga Josupeit, Yvette DieiOuadi, Ida Christensen and Andreas Thulstrup. Any errors and omissions are those of the authors.
Executive Summary
Rural women in developing countries play an active role in small-scale agriculture, currently accounting for 43 percent of the global agricultural labour force (FAO, 2011b). Women support their households by producing more than half of all food worldwide, despite increasing competition over the natural resource base, which is being depleted by climate change and unsustainable practices.
Smallholder women’s access to resources is very diversified and context-related. However, research indicates that in comparison with men, women bear a disproportionate work burden which leads to time poverty. Women have limited access to solutions in the form of labour-saving technologies, services and infrastructure, and in many regions they also face mobility constraints.
This paper illustrates the role of smallholder women farmers, fishers, forest dwellers and/or livestock keepers, and analyses the factors that lead to time poverty as well as their implications. The paper discusses women’s triple work burden in the productive, reproductive and social spheres, and highlights how this can affect their communities’ food security and prosperity, with potential impacts on their well-being and health. The fact that rural women spend more time in order to produce less has broad implications for their family and productive life and weighs on the choices they are able to make, including the choice to dedicate more