Gender Assessment and Action Plan for USAID/Rwanda A project funded by the Office of Women in Development, Bureau for Global Programs, Field Support and Research, U.S. Agency for International Development under contract number FAO-0100-C-00-6005-00 with Development Alternatives, Inc. March 2002 A Women in Development Technical Assistance Project TECH 1717 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Suite 302, Washington, DC 20036 USA Tel.: 202-332-2853 FAX: 202-332-8257 Internet: WIDinfo@widtech.org Development Alternatives, Inc. • International Center for Research on Women Academy for Educational Development • Development Associates, Inc. This publication was made possible through support provided by the Office of Women in Development, Bureau for Global Programs Field Support and Research, U.S. Agency for International Development, under the terms of Contract No. FAO-0100-C-00-6005-00. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Gender Assessment and Action Plan for USAID/Rwanda by Sylvie Morel-Seytoux, Consultant Hélène Lalonde, Consultant International Center for Research on Women March 2002 TECH A Women in Development Technical Assistance Project A project funded by the Office of Women in Development, Bureau for Global Programs, Field Support and Research, U.S. Agency for International Development under contract number FAO –0100-C-00-6005-00 i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Sylvie Morel-Seytoux and Hélène Lalonde would like to extend their thanks to all those who met with them at the USAID/Rwanda Mission to discuss the technical aspects of the assignment and to provide assistance with project interviews and logistics during rural field visits. The kindness and professionalism of Angelina Allen-Mpyisi, USAID/Rwanda’s Gender Officer and Greater Horn of Africa Initiative (GHAI) Coordinator, and the support provided by the Mission Director, Dick Goldman, were especially appreciated during our assignment. Sincere thanks are also extended to Yeshi Dejene and Catherine Spaur for their technical support from the WITDTECH Project office in Washington, D.C. Finally, this report would not be complete without acknowledging the sincere dedication and commitment of the Rwandan people toward improving their quality of lives and that of their children. We were genuinely inspired by their concerted actions and understanding of the importance of improving the status of women in Rwanda—for the sake of women’s and girls’ well-being and for the beneficial outcomes for their families and future generations in Rwanda. ii iii TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY vii CHAPTER ONE BACKGROUND ON GENDER ISSUES IN RWANDA 1 AGRICULTURE, FOOD SECURITY, AND INCOME GENERATION .............................................. 1 HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS...................................................................................................... 2 DEMOCRACY AND GOVERNANCE ......................................................................................... 4 POLICY AND INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT........................................................................ 7 Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP).............................................................. 7 Rwanda’s Gender Policy and the Ministry of Gender and Women in Development (MIGEPROFE)..................................................................... 8 Donor Coordination................................................................................................. 9 CHAPTER TWO OVERVIEW OF USAID/RWANDA’S COUNTRY PROGRAM STRATEGY 11 CHAPTER THREE FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 13 GENERAL PROGRAMMING .................................................................................................. 13 Recommendations ................................................................................................. 14 STAFF CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT....................................................................................... 15 Recommendations ................................................................................................. 15 CROSS-CUTTING THEMES AND APPROACHES ..................................................................... 16 Women’s Leadership Skills Building ................................................................... 16 Promotion of Labor-Saving or Appropriate Technology...................................... 17 Opportunities to Enhance Women’s Access to Information................................. 17 STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES..................................................................................................... 18 SO1—Increased Rule of Law and Transparency of Governance ......................... 18 SO2—Increased Use of Sustainable Health Services in Target Regions.............. 24 SO3—Increased Ability of Rural Families in Targeted Communities ................. 28 to Improve Household Food Security ....................................................... 28 CHAPTER FOUR CONCLUSIONS 35 BIBLIOGRAPHY 37 iv ANNEX A: SCOPE OF WORK A-1 ANNEX B: PERSONS INTERVIEWED B-1 ANNEX C: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR USAID/RWANDA GENDER ACTION COMMITTEE AND GENDER OFFICER C-1 ANNEX D: MEMORANDUM FROM U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE REGARDING PROSECUTION OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE D-1 ANNEX E: GENDER TRAINING REPORT E-1 v ACRONYM LIST ARD Associates in Rural Development CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women CRS Catholic Relief Services DA Development Assistance DAP Development Assistance Proposals DHS Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey FAO U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization FFP Office of Food for Peace FFW Food for Work GAC Gender Action Committee GHAI Greater Horn of Africa GOR Government of Rwanda ICT Information Communications Technology IEC Information, Education, and Communication Activities IITA International Institute of Tropical Agriculture IR Intermediate Results IRC International Rescue Committee ISP Integrated Strategic Plan LGI Local Governance Initiatives MIGEPROFE Ministry of Gender and Women in Development MINAGRI Ministry of Agriculture MINALOC Ministry of the Local Government MOH Ministry of Health NGO Non-Governmental Organization OFDA Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance OTI Office of Transition Initiatives PRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy Plan RFA Request for Application RFP Request for Proposal SO Strategic Objective STI Sexually Transmitted Infection SUNY State University of New York TFR Total Fertility Rate UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNIFEM United Nations Development Fund for Women USAID United States Agency for International Development WCF Women’s Communal Funds WFP World Food Programme WID Women in Development WIDTECH Women in Development Technical Assistance Project WIT Women in Transition vi vii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Rwanda is predominantly rural, with 91 percent of the population engaged in agricultural activities. With 317 people per square mile, the country is one of the most densely populated in Africa. As of 2000, there were an estimated 8.3 million Rwandans living in an area the size of Maryland. Currently, 65 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, compared with 40 percent in 1985 and 53 percent in 1991. According the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Programme, 20-25 percent of all households lack sufficient food. The country’s gross domestic product declined by 50 percent in 1994, with an income per capita of $180—making Rwanda one of the poorest countries in the world. In the seven years since the genocide and civil war that killed 850,000 people and drove 2 million across Rwanda’s borders, government structures and operations have been re￾established and services are steadily improving. The “transitional” Government of Rwanda, now in its eighth year, has made commendable progress in overcoming the widespread effects of the civil war and genocide. More than 1.3 million refugees have returned to Rwanda during this period and resumed their lives and economic activities. Agricultural production is now at 90 percent of pre-war levels, the Ministry of Health has improved its capacity to manage health delivery systems and is being decentralized, and courts of law are once again functioning and trials of genocide perpetrators and other criminals are ongoing. Local elections at the two lowest levels (sector and cell) of government were successfully conducted in March 1999 and at the district level in March 2001. The Government of Rwanda has announced its plans to hold national elections in 2003, for which a new national constitution will be drafted. These moves in the direction of democracy, decentralization, and economic growth are encouraging signs of the improved stability of the country. Since 1994, the Government of Rwanda has taken meaningful steps demonstrating its commitment toward gender equality. The government created a ministry to ensure that gender is mainstreamed throughout all of the policies and programs of the state. This Ministry of Gender and Women in Development (MIGEPROFE) is taking a two-pronged approach to the task: one aimed at gender mainstreaming in all government ministries and programs and the other at activities that will benefit women directly in order to diminish inequalities.1 Although the Constitution supports equality for women in Rwanda, many discriminatory laws still exist in practice. In response, MIGEPROFE has recently created a Legal Desk and is collaborating with the Ministry of Justice in reviewing, repealing, and drafting legislation that is discriminatory toward women. The government has undertaken many other actions to increase gender equality, such as strategic affirmative action measures to ensure female participation in the political and economic decentralization process, approval of significant reforms to discriminatory inheritance and land ownership laws, and even individual fundraising and social mobilization campaign efforts on the part of the government’s First Lady in support of HIV prevention 1 Ministère du Genre et de la Promotion de la Femme (MIGEPROFE) translates into English as Ministry of Gender and Women in Development. viii efforts aimed at females and encouragement for girls’ increased educational attainment. Further, within the recently drafted Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (which will guide Rwanda’s national development efforts over the next 20 years), the government has re￾committed itself to ensuring that gender is mainstreamed into all national development efforts. The paper states, “MIGEPROFE will assist sectoral ministries in ensuring that the objectives of the national Gender Policy are mainstreamed and monitored in each sectoral strategy. It will be mandatory for all ministries to follow this policy.” Certainly, the current openness of the Rwandan government to women’s participation in all development efforts makes this an especially opportune time for international donors, such as USAID, to support the full institutionalization of gender-inclusive approaches within Rwanda’s development planning processes. Women in Rwanda A review of the most recent statistics available on gender issues in Rwanda reveals the exceptionally difficult circumstances faced by the country’s female population (making up 54 percent). After the war and genocide of 1994, most women in Rwanda found themselves in desperate circumstances. A recent study described the situation as such: Those who survived the conflicts faced not only economic hardship, but also social isolation. Their communities had been shattered and dispersed, and many men on whom they had depended on had died or fled. Women still had to confront daily issues of survival—how to find housing when so many homes had been destroyed; how to feed and clothe themselves and their surviving children, as well as other relatives or orphans they had taken in; and how to deal with the debilitating traumas, both physical and psychological, of the horrors they had seen and experienced.2 Interviews reveal that although women are frequently key decision makers within the management of the household and with respect to child rearing, they are expected to remain quiet and non-assertive in public. As a result, women are less likely to make their development priorities known. A majority of women in Rwanda are subsistence farmers engaged in household food production. Among the most economically vulnerable are the 34 percent of all Rwandan households now headed by women (along with child- and elderly headed households). As a result of the genocide, up to 28 percent of all households are headed by widows. Multiple factors have contributed to women’s impoverishment; however, a major impediment to the advancement of women has been the discriminatory laws and traditions prohibiting women’s land ownership and inheritance rights—leaving women without adequate collateral to obtain credit to support either on- or off-farm income-generating activities. Given population density, land holdings are extremely small for everyone (males and females), with 95 percent 2 Newbury, Catharine, “Women’s Associations in Post-Conflict Rwanda—Draft for Mission Review,” Center for Development Information and Evaluation, USAID, Washington, 1999. ix of all farmers having fewer than 2 hectares. Therefore, the initiation of off-farm income￾generating activities is deemed an essential shift for both men and women in Rwanda. However, this shift requires access to credit by farmers on realistic terms, and any available land (used for collateral) has typically been owned by men and passed down to the males of each generation through inheritance rights and property ownership laws that marginalize females. Of great importance is a recent reform in the inheritance laws; it will provide significant gains for females in land ownership, affecting the potential of women farmers to access credit based on clear title. With respect to political participation, significant progress has been made in terms of female representation. Nearly 26 percent of parliamentarians are women, placing Rwanda 16th among 179 countries. In 1994, 9 Ministers were women compared with only 5 in 1998. Further, at the sub-ministerial level, the numbers of women doubled from 10 in 1994 to 20 in 1998. Although Rwanda has achieved great strides in moving toward great equality among diverse sectors of the population, the country faces serious challenges relating to social and cultural norms affecting the status of women and girls. An important constraint to women’s advancement across all sectors of development is insufficient educational access, advancement, and quality. Fifty-five percent of females and 48 percent of males are illiterate (1996 figures, because recent statistics are not yet available), and only 27.5 percent of females and 50.7 percent of males have completed primary school. Although girls tend to do better in primary school, reflected in lower repetition rates, they have significantly higher drop-out rates (especially after Grade 3). Girls drop out of school because of a combination of factors, such as the need of families for older girls to help with domestic chores and care for younger children, the cost of school (that is, having to make a choice, parents often send their boys over girls to school), and the rise in sexual harassment of females at school by their teachers. Enrollment statistics for both boys and girls at the secondary school level was 7 percent in 1998—far below the sub-Saharan average of 26 percent. The widest gender gap with respect to educational attainment is at the tertiary level, with females making up only 28 percent of the Rwandan school population. With respect to health, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has severely impacted the Rwandan population across gender, economic, age, ethnicity, and other groupings. According to the Rwanda National Demographic and Health Survey 2000, the country’s estimated HIV prevalence rate is 11 percent among the adult population (ages 11-45) and is rising among Rwanda’s vast rural population. Condom use is at a dangerously low level, with only 0.6 percent of women and 2.9 percent of men reporting having ever used a condom. It should be noted that rape and forced prostitution were used as weapons of war during 1994, both which contributed to the spread of HIV. The number of rape victims has been estimated in the hundreds of thousands, with a recent study revealing that 30 percent of women aged 13-35 were victims of sexual violence. These survivors now face overwhelming health complications, such as HIV/AIDS, children born of rape who are also HIV-positive, sexually transmitted infections increasing women’s risks of being infected by HIV, and emotional trauma and severe social isolation. x Another serious consequence of the genocide has been the marked reduction in the contraceptive prevalence rate, from 21 percent before 1994 to an estimated 7 percent in 1996. Despite a downward trend from a total fertility rate of 8.5 in 1983, according to the Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey 2000, the total fertility rate in Rwanda remains high, at 5.8.3 An especially alarming figure is that, although more than two-thirds of women in union age 15-29 years old wish to wait two years or more to have their next child, only 4 percent use a modern method of contraception.4 This statistic speaks to how critical it is to address the gender dimensions of health—for the well-being of women and their partners in making decisions with respect to family size and parenting; for the quality of life that can be provided to their children; and, ultimately, toward the stabilization of population growth that will be essential for the sustainability of any development interventions. According to the Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey 2000, the country’s rate of maternal mortality for 1995-2000 is estimated at 1,071 maternal deaths per 100,000 births.5 As such, Rwanda has one of the highest incidences of maternal mortality in all of Africa— with the exception of Angola at 1,500 and Ethiopia at 1,400. Studies have shown this to be partially the result of a lack of professional care during pregnancy and birth, as well as poor nutritional status (9 percent of women suffered from chronic energy deficiency during 1995- 2000). Recent data suggest that only 25 percent of women residing in rural areas received any assistance from a health professional during delivery, leaving a majority of young girls and women without adequate care—and the risk of death unacceptably high.6 Scope of Work and Methodology Given this context, gender considerations merit serious and immediate attention within any development initiative in Rwanda—whether it is carried out by the Government of Rwanda (at all levels), bilateral or multilateral international donors, or the Rwandan private or non￾governmental sector. It is with this understanding that USAID/Rwanda solicited the assistance of two consultants to carry out a comprehensive gender country assessment, identify strategic recommendations for USAID/Rwanda to strengthen its programs (and that of its collaborating partners), and incorporate these findings into a comprehensive and practical gender action plan. Although the technical assistance was provided to strengthen the Mission’s current program, the assessment lays the groundwork for efforts to integrate gender considerations during the development and implementation of the upcoming USAID/Rwanda Country Strategic Plan (or Integrated Strategic Plan [ISP]) for 2002-2006. The assessment findings are based on a review of 80 documents prepared by USAID/Rwanda, ministries of the Government of Rwanda, international donors, academic scholars, and Rwandan organizations and on key informant interviews. The analytical 3 Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2000, National Office of Population, Kigali, Rwanda. 4 According to the Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2000, the condom and injectables are the best-known methods. 5 Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2000, National Office of Population, Kigali, Rwanda. 6 According to the Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2000, a greater proportion (31 percent) of women residing in urban areas received assistance from a health professional at delivery. xi approach applied to the literature review included gender analysis tools, such as contextual analysis; sector-specific gender check-lists; and other methodologies focusing specifically on the identification of gender-specific constraints and strategic opportunities. All three methodologies were utilized because they each provide a unique method of identifying gender considerations from different angels and perspectives. Meetings and interviews were held with 60 USAID/Rwanda staff and partner representatives, Government of Rwanda representatives (at all levels), beneficiaries of USAID-supported activities, and members of international donor organizations and Rwandan non-governmental organizations. USAID/Rwanda’s Country Program Strategy Since 1962, the Mission’s programs and assistance grew steadily from a few hundred thousand dollars to $20 million by 1992. Assistance initially focused on education, urban infrastructure, and public safety. By the mid- to late-1980s, USAID-supported programs in agriculture, natural resource management, health and population, private sector development, and economic and political policy reform. The events of 1994 initially transformed the USAID/Rwanda effort into a largely humanitarian operation, providing almost $600 million in emergency relief assistance, including $411 million in food assistance to a large displaced population within the country and outside of its borders. More recently, USAID assistance has averaged $43 million per year, with a greater proportion of funds now committed to development activities rather than relief measures. USAID/Rwanda’s current Integrated Strategic Plan covers FY 2001 through FY 2004 and focuses on the transition from the crises phase to sustainable development mode. The plan’s goal is to “support increased stability and strengthened development capacity.” To achieve this goal, the Integrated Strategic Plan has three Strategic Objectives. These include: ▪ SO1—Democracy and Governance: Increased Rule of Law and Transparency in Governance; ▪ SO2—Health Services and HIV/AIDS Interventions: Increased Use of Sustainable Health Services in Target Areas; and ▪ SO3—Food Security and Economic Growth: Increased Ability of Rural Families in Targeted Communities to Improve Household Food Security. Over the last year, major components of the Mission’s portfolios in all three areas of strategic interest have moved into full-scale implementation. The Mission is well positioned to achieve significant results over the two years remaining under the current Integrated Strategic Plan. The Africa Bureau approved an extension of the Integrated Strategic Plan through FY 2004 with the provision that the Mission begin work in 2001 on a new comprehensive strategy that would begin October 1, 2004. With assistance from REDSO/ESA, the Mission has developed a “roadmap” of actions and activities necessary to develop a new strategy. xii According to the ADS 200 series, all USAID Missions, including USAID/Rwanda, are required to integrate gender considerations into their programs. The Rwanda Mission began this process by conducting an internal gender audit. The general finding of the audit is the following: …Gender equity is important to the Mission and should be integrated into our programs. Although we do manage to address some gender considerations in our activities, it is not done explicitly and neither are the affects of our activities monitored. As USAID/Rwanda prepares to develop a Country Strategy Plan, we are interested in defining what will be the Missions role in gender development and how can we integrate more effectively gender in our core activities, and/or identify potential new program areas. Summary of Findings and Recommendations Improvements in the lives of many women and girls have occurred as a result of USAID/Rwanda’s development assistance. The Mission has provided critical food security to women through Food for Work programs (50 percent of beneficiaries are female), has significantly improved women’s decision-making roles through its Women in Transition (WIT) Project, and has provided strategic support to increase the number of female judges involved in the gacaca (traditional local court) process. USAID/Rwanda’s programs also have provided female farmers with necessary inputs for improved agricultural production, promotes women’s participation in national and international training opportunities, and has supported girls’ educational attainment through the funding of scholarship programs. In addition, a major portion of USAID assistance works to strengthen health delivery systems providing essential services to women, and Mission staff have collaborated closely with the Ministry of Justice to reform discriminatory laws and practices affecting women and girls. USAID/Rwanda’s support to Rwanda-based NGOs has strengthened their efforts to improve women’s quality of life through legal literacy, leadership training skills development, and the use of the media to promote girls’ education and women’s political participation. Although the USAID/Rwanda program includes important activities of direct benefit to women and girls, the Mission does not yet analyze or address gender issues in a systematic fashion. It is recommended that USAID/Rwanda strengthen its internal capacity to identify, design, implement, monitor, and evaluate programs through a gender perspective. This means establishing a process that allows for both a continuation and the strengthening of existing women-specific activities, as well as the addition of new interventions to integrate gender considerations throughout all of USAID/Rwanda’s activities (and that of its collaborating partner organizations). Given turnover of USAID and partner organization staff, the development of an internal USAID/Rwanda system that institutionalizes mechanisms to ensure that attention to gender is continually given is fundamental to sustainable changes. One way to develop an internal system to build capacity of the USAID/Rwanda staff and Gender Action Committee. It is recommended that the USAID/Rwanda Gender Action xiii Committee begin planning and budgeting adequate resources to support actions needed to strengthen its staff capabilities and programs in the long term. Suggested steps to be taken by the Gender Action Committee is provided in Annex C. Recommendations include: ▪ Adjusting budgets to ensure sufficient monies are set aside for gender-specific interventions; ▪ Identifying Gender Action Committee members to monitor national plans of action (such as the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper), national surveys, consultancy scopes of work, and RFAs and RFPs for gender content; ▪ Planning for sector and policy-level gender analysis research; ▪ Establishing systems for gender-specific data collection; ▪ Maintaining a roster of consultants with local and regional gender expertise and a gender library; and ▪ Collaborating with government ministries and other donors on the gender dimensions of development. As part of the Scope of Work (see Annex A) governing this gender assessment, the Rwanda Mission requested WIDTECH technical assistance in designing and implementing a Mission￾wide gender training (see Annex E). The training would aim to be practical, hands-on, and immediately applicable to the specific programs and projects carried out by USAID/Rwanda staff. USAID/Rwanda does not yet have adequate quantitative or qualitative gender-specific information from which to appropriately design its upcoming country strategy (or Integrated Strategic Plan). Although all USAID Missions are required to have a performance monitoring plan, few have a gender-specific strategy to assess performance by gender. A major barrier for many, including USAID/Rwanda, has been the lack of gender data. It is critical that the Mission conduct sector-level gender analysis research as an integrated part of the upcoming sector reviews because these will form the development of the new USAID/Rwanda country program strategy. With this information, USAID/Rwanda will be in a better position to continuously measure the extent to which its policies and programs have an impact on gender inequalities.7 As much as possible, it is recommended that collaboration with the MIGEPROFE and the relevant government ministry be emphasized so the information obtained and lessons learned are a joint effort—the outcome being the accomplishment of more sustainable and coordinated development interventions at all levels. 7 Although the hiring of skilled gender experts from the United States to support gender studies can be very useful, it is recommended that in-country or regional (East Africa-based) consultants be solicited as well—as part of a broader effort to strengthen national and regional gender expertise, individual and institutional contacts, and overall gender in development capabilities. xiv Although many cross-cutting issues and approaches are suggested within this assessment, three are particularly important and are feasible for interventions in all Strategic Objectives: (1) strengthening women’s leadership and decision-making capacity; (2) addressing women’s time and labor constraints through promotion of labor-saving appropriate technologies; and (3) improving women’s access to information and knowledge. In the Rwanda context, addressing these factors creates synergies across Strategic Objectives and strengthens the Mission’s results. Democracy and Governance (SO1). The major gender issue within the democracy and governance (SO1) activities is that unless gender analysis is undertaken at the planning stage the activities will not necessarily address and change the status quo and may not lessen gender inequalities. Recommendations include the following: ▪ Undertake a gendered analysis of the major issues involved in the dispensation of justice in Rwanda. ▪ Assess the impacts of those projects aimed at increasing women’s access to the justice system in order to plan for larger initiatives in these sectors. ▪ Ensure that training in projects (legal training and the like) systematically addresses gender issues in justice. ▪ Cooperate and consult with MIGEPROFE’s new Legal Unit to ensure that the Ministry of Justice addresses gender issues. ▪ Act on the recommendations of the U.S. Resident Legal Advisor to address violence against women. With respect to gender-based violence, it is recommended that the Mission consider supporting the proposal developed by the USAID Resident Legal Advisor for the creation of sexual violence desks in each jurisdiction. Further, additional training of the police force in dealing with gender-based violence, such as rape, domestic violence, and sexual harassment in the schools, would have a positive and broad impact on both male and female survivors. Decentralization plans of the government aimed at improving the ability of local communities to contribute to decision making and making the locally elected representatives more accountable and efficient in local governments provide an opportunity to bring women more into the public decision-making process and to increase attention to and investment in issues that are of concern to them. It is recommended that USAID/Rwanda establish support for the development of viable mechanisms to achieve meaningful participation of women in local affairs through: ▪ Analyzing the ways and means by which women communicate locally, have their voices heard, and contribute to decision making; xv ▪ Requiring the submission of a gender strategy for projects implemented by community￾based development initiatives; ▪ Mandating the ARD/Fiscal Decentralization Project to provide financial training to locally elected women and gender sensitivity training to local male leaders; and ▪ Encouraging the SUNY/ARD project to include the Women Parliamentarians Group in the project’s portfolio of activities. Consultation with the Legal Unit in the Gender Department of MIGEPROFE is also recommended. Finally, the new Rwanda Civil Society Strengthening Project will provide much needed capacity-building support to a diverse range of Rwanda-based NGOs. However, the RFA does not indicate that gender considerations are a required element within the NGO applicants’ activity plans of action. This is one example of how making some simple adjustments in the wording of RFAs, such as this one, could ensure far greater gender inclusiveness and substantially different and important development outcomes. Health (SO2). As an outcome of the Government of Rwanda’s privatization and decentralization efforts, the costs of healthcare and how it is to be delivered are in flux— making this an especially important time for gender considerations to be integrated into health policy formulation in Rwanda. At present, there is a serious shortage of public financing for the health sector. A national health accounts study in 1998 showed that 50 percent of health sector costs in Rwanda are provided through donor support, with only 9 percent coming from the government. A sizable (33) percent of health sector costs were paid directly by households, placing a large burden on limited domestic resources. It is estimated that the Ministry of Health received only 4.2 percent of the national budget in 1999.8 Thus, although the move toward decentralization and privatization of various sectors in the Rwandan economy is a well-intentioned step toward community empowerment and democracy, the gender impact with respect to health needs continually to be monitored. For instance, the recent move toward the establishment of mutuelles de santé (a type of pre-pay health plan) and gender disparities in terms of physical mobility, ability to pay, and quality of services need to be identified. The decentralization process provides for devolution of decision making and resource allocation for development purposes to the cell, sector, and district levels. For instance, it is estimated that 6.5 percent of the national budget will soon be disbursed to 106 Mayors for development-oriented purposes. Women who participated in local decision-making forums would benefit from a strengthened opportunity to voice their funding priorities, such as the establishment of improved water facilities at convenient locations or ambulance services for delivering mothers that might improve their and their families’ health status and their quality of life.9 A variety of USAID-supported contractors, including ARD and IRC, will be working 8 USAID/Rwanda Integrated Strategic Plan (ISP). 9 “Rwandan Women in Local Government: Challenges and Opportunities Conference,” sponsored by UNIFEM, USAID, Africare, and others, October 2001. xvi at the district level to strengthen the capacity of local governing bodies to utilize and manage new funds effectively. Leadership skills training (and other support) for women as elected and appointed officials but also as influential partners in household decision-making is highly recommended as a key health-sector entry point. Food Security and Economic Growth (SO3). The gender dimensions of agricultural development and food security in Rwanda are not being adequately addressed within USAID/Rwanda’s SO3 program. Although “farmers” are identified as primary beneficiaries of USAID support services, no distinction is made between male and female farmers. Without sufficient information with respect to the differences between men’s and women’s access to resources, labor contributions, cultural norms and expectations, legal status, skill needs and preferences, and workload, the Mission’s stated objective to “promote an environment that provides skills and incentives to farmers to increase productivity and rural micro and small enterprises to increase incomes and employment” cannot be achieved in any equitable or sustainable fashion. Further, without this information, the potential for female farmers to be marginalized or ineffectively served is substantial. It is essential that USAID/Rwanda revise its current Integrated Strategic Plan to include a section under this SO3 that explicitly outlines the Mission’s intervention strategy with respect to the gender dimensions of agricultural development and food. To do this, a full-scale gender analysis should be conducted, focusing on this sector as an integral part of the development of the upcoming country strategy. This information also would be important for achieving results based on support provided to farmers associations and cooperatives. Finally, because much of USAID’s SO3 assistance is funneled through Rwanda-based agricultural institutions, such as International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), it is critical that IITA staff fully understand and be capable of using gender methods in their research and extension activities. It is recommended that IITA staff and other USAID partners participate in gender training sessions that could be held in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture, which, according to the recent Integrated Strategic Plan, will review and approve the annual plans of IITA. Concluding Remarks Since 1994, Government of Rwanda has taken meaningful steps to demonstrate its commitment toward gender equality, and the current receptivity of the government should be seized to its fullest capacity by USAID/Rwanda. USAID/Rwanda is commended for its contributions to the advancement of women and girls and is encouraged to strengthen its current programs and develop new initiatives that more thoroughly and systematically integrate gender considerations into the mainstream of its portfolio of activities in Rwanda. Special emphasis should be placed on SO3—food security and economic growth—because this assessment revealed a particular weakness in this program and its activities with respect to gender. Given that on- and off-farm income generation for most rural farmers is essential to reducing poverty and household food insecurity, and given women’s important xvii contributions to agricultural production, income earnings, and household nutrition, it is critically important to address gender constraints in this sector to optimize results. The success of the USAID/Rwanda’s investments will depend in large part on the Mission staff’s commitment to and understanding of the importance of the gender dimensions of development. It is recommended that the Mission avail itself of the quality technical assistance and training services available through the USAID Office of Women in Development (EGAT/WID). Chapter One—Background on Gender Issues in Rwanda 1 CHAPTER ONE BACKGROUND ON GENDER ISSUES IN RWANDA This chapter provides an overview of the country context within which the Mission operates. The chapter begins with a description of the country’s agriculture, food security, and income generation. This is followed by health, including HIV/AIDS, and democracy and governance. It concludes with an overview of policy and institutional environment. AGRICULTURE, FOOD SECURITY, AND INCOME GENERATION Rwanda is predominantly rural, with 91 percent of the population engaged in agricultural activities. As of 2000, there were an estimated 8.3 million Rwandans living in a country the size of Maryland. With 317 people per square kilometer, Rwanda is one of the most densely populated countries in Africa. As a result, land holdings are extremely small for everyone— males and females—with 95 percent of all farmers having fewer than 2 hectares.10 And, yet, Rwanda was food self-sufficient until population growth pushed the country into a structural food deficit in the 1980s. By 1997, relief and development efforts and the peace that prevailed following the genocide created an opportunity for agriculture produce to return to 80 percent of pre-war levels and the small industrial sector to 62 percent of pre-war output.11 As a result, increases in both agricultural productivity and off-farm rural incomes are cited as key to Rwanda’s progress toward reducing poverty and household food insecurity. Following a similar pattern, per capita income plummeted from $373 in 1990 to $179 in 1996, but had risen to $230 in 1998 by World Bank estimates. However, 65 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, compared with 40 percent in 1985 and 53 percent in 1991. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), as many as 20-25 percent of households lack sufficient food. A majority of women in Rwanda are subsistence farmers engaged in household food production. However, they exercise little control over economic resources. Studies have found that men typically control crops produced for cash, even in the case where women participate in the earlier stages of production (MINAGRI, 1990). Among the most economically vulnerable are the 34 percent of all Rwandan households headed by women. A further result of the genocide is that up to 28 percent of all households are now headed by widows.12 These households, along with those headed by children or the elderly, are likely to be extremely poor—partially as a result of their limited labor assets, which compromises their ability to cultivate land effectively or to pursue wage labor. Another disabling factor is women’s lack of access to land. This reflects traditional discrimination by which women have had no legal rights to inherit goods or property or to 10 Poverty Reduction Strategy Plan (PRSP), Government of Rwanda. 11 USAID/Rwanda Integrated Strategic Plan (ISP). 12 Poverty Reduction Strategy Plan (PRSP), Government of Rwanda. Development Alternatives, Inc. 2 own land.13 Fortunately, a new law has recently been passed giving women greater succession rights (described in further detail in this report). Further, legislation is currently under discussion on the issue of women’s right to inherit property. Women also have limited access to credit. Prior to 1994, the Banques Populaires allocated only 5 percent of loans to women (UNICEF study in 1998), which partially accounts for why in 1990 only 16 percent of small and medium-sized enterprises were run by women. Since then, economic assistance has gradually been improving via mutual self-help schemes organized by women’s groups and associations to provide low-interest loans and credit without collateral.14 In 1986, there were 493 socio-economic groups specifically focusing on women’s economic advancement (out of a total of 1,457 general socio-economic groups) and 143 women’s NGOs.15 Another constraint to women’s advancement in Rwanda is the poor quality of the educational system and low attainment rates. Fifty-five percent of females and 48 percent of males are illiterate (1996 figures as recent statistics are not yet available), and only 27.5 percent of females and 50.7 percent of males have completed primary school. Enrollment for both boys and girls at the secondary school level was 7 percent in 1998—far below the sub-Saharan average of 26 percent. The widest gender gap with respect to educational attainment is at the tertiary level, with females making up only 28 percent of the Rwandan school population. Although girls tend to do better in primary school, reflected in lower repetition rates, they have significantly higher drop out rates (especially after Grade 3). Studies reveal that girls drop out of school because of a combination of factors, such as the need for older girls to help with domestic chores and care for younger children, the cost of school (that is, having to make a choice, parents typically send their boys rather than girls to school as a result of cultural and social norms), and the rise in sexual harassment of females at school by their teachers. Even when girls advance through the education structure, a majority of women students in the higher grades focus on subjects relating to the arts, rather than the more marketable technical, scientific, and vocational study areas. HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS The HIV/AIDS epidemic has severely impacted the Rwandan population across gender, economic, age, ethnicity, and other groups. According to the Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey 2000, the country’s estimated HIV prevalence rate is 11 percent among the adult population (ages 11-45) and is rising among Rwanda’s vast rural population. Surveys have found prevalence rates among pregnant women to be even higher, reaching approximately 30 percent.16 Sexually transmitted infections are also prevalent and are significant risk factors for increased HIV transmission and infection. 13 Country Common Assessment—Rwanda: Gender. 1999-2000 14 “Women’s Associations in Post-Conflict Rwanda.” Catharine Newbury, CDIE/USAID, Washington, D.C. 1999. 15 Common Country Assessment—Rwanda: Gender. 1999-2000. 16 “Common Country Assessment—Rwanda: Gender.” CCA Paper #10. 1999-2000. Chapter One—Background on Gender Issues in Rwanda 3 Although a recent survey revealed that close to 100 percent of respondents had heard of AIDS and a high percentage of men and women (98 percent and 96 percent, respectively) could name at least one way to avoid HIV transmission, far fewer (63 percent of men, 36 percent of women) identified condoms as a HIV prevention method.17 Given the high rate of HIV prevalence, condom use is at a dangerously low level, with only 0.6 percent of women and 2.9 percent of men reporting having ever used a condom with any partner during the preceding month. With respect to youth, a recent survey showed that 17 percent of girls and 33 percent of boys are sexually active by the age of 18, and a significant percentage of this age group has never heard of condoms (45 percent of girls, 28 percent of boys). Moreover, the study revealed that only 40 percent of girls and 63 percent of boys know where to get condoms. Young men in the military are an especially high-risk group with respect to HIV transmission and infection.18 According to a recent U.N.-sponsored gender assessment, increased poverty as a result of the destruction wrought by the war and genocide has placed greater numbers of vulnerable households into greater risk of exposure to HIV/AIDS. For some women, increased poverty has created the economic necessity to engage in transactional sex. A significant number of newly vulnerable Rwandans (primarily of young women and men) have sought the economic and social protection of older men, often in exchange for sex—increasing their risks of HIV infection.19 The incidence of teenage pregnancy (and HIV infection) among girls orphaned by the genocide is high, and is sometimes the result of economic dependence on men for their survival. It should also be noted that rape and forced prostitution were used as weapons of war during 1994, both contributing factors to the spread of HIV. The number of rape victims has been estimated in the hundreds of thousands, with a recent study suggesting that 30 percent of women aged 13-35 were victims of sexual violence. These survivors now face overwhelming health complications, such as HIV/AIDS, children born of rape who are also HIV positive, sexually transmitted infections increasing the risks of HIV infection, and emotional trauma and social isolation.20 The incidence of rape (among females and males of all ages) remains very high, and its health (and other) consequences continue to be a serious concern. Another serious consequence of the genocide has been the marked reduction in the contraceptive prevalence rate, from 21 percent before 1994 to an estimated 7 percent in 1996. Despite a downward trend in a total fertility rate from 8.5 in 1983 to 5.8, it remains high.21 Levels of contraceptive awareness are high, with 97 percent of women in union able to name any method and 94 percent able to name at least one modern method. However, the percentage of women in union who have ever used any method of contraception has declined 17 USAID/Rwanda Integrated Strategic Plan (ISP) and National Demographic and Health Survey (Enquete demographique et de Sante, EDWR II). 18 “National AIDS Programmes: A Guide to Monitoring and Evaluation.” UNAIDS, June 2000. 19 Common Country Assessment—Rwanda: Gender.” CCA Paper #10. 1999-2000. 20 Common Country Assessment—Rwanda: Gender.” CCA Paper #10. 1999-2000. 21 Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2000, National Office of Population, Kigali, Rwanda. Development Alternatives, Inc. 4 from 42 percent in 1992 to 36 percent in 2000. The most alarming figures are that, although more than two-thirds of women in union age 15-29 years old wish to wait two years or more to have their next child, only 4 percent are using a modern method of contraception (according to the Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey 2000).22 Early marriages, sometimes forced, remain common for teenage girls and are one contributing factor to high fertility rates in Rwanda. Other equally important factors include the lack of economic access to reproductive healthcare, lack of education, lack of contraceptive-health information, heavy levels of domestic tasks and lack of transportation, social pressures discouraging (or prohibiting) women’s control or use of contraceptives, and the massive post-1994 loss of professionals trained in family planning to provide adequate services. According to the Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey 2000, Rwanda’s rate of maternal mortality for 1995-2000, is estimated at 1,071 maternal deaths per 100,000 births.23 This means that Rwanda has one of the highest incidences of maternal mortality in all of Africa— surpassed only by Angola at 1,500 and Ethiopia at 1,400 (World Bank, 1998). The incidence is partially a function of a lack of professional care during pregnancy and birth, as well as poor nutritional status among women. Only 25 percent of rural women (where the majority reside) and 68 percent of urban women received any assistance from a healthcare professional at delivery.24 According to the Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey 2000, 9 percent of women suffered from chronic energy deficiency during 1995-2000—and the proportion of affected young women ages 15-19 was three times higher than among women ages 20-29 and two times higher than among women ages 30-44.25 DEMOCRACY AND GOVERNANCE Without a doubt, the Government of Rwanda has demonstrated a new commitment to gender equality. It is one of the few countries in the world where a Minister holds a portfolio and is responsible for a ministry with a mandate of considering the gender dimensions of development and the promotion of women’s advancement (MIGEPROFE). Enormous efforts are being made to ensure representation at all levels of the hierarchy, as well as mainstreaming throughout the whole government apparatus. The recent Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper mandates each government department and sectoral strategy to ensure gender equity within its plans. In addition, Rwanda is a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and holds a special Bureau within the MIGEPROFE to follow-up on CEDAW’s provisions. Further, numerous women-focused NGOs address various issues—from the political to the social and economic to the community level—and are recognized as playing a major role in 22 According to the Rwanda DHS 2000, the condom and injectables are the best-known methods. 23 Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2000, National Office of Population, Kigali, Rwanda. 24 Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2000, National Office of Population, Kigali, Rwanda. 25 Chronic energy deficiency, as defined by the Rwanda DHS 2000, is a body mass index below 18.5 kg/m. Chapter One—Background on Gender Issues in Rwanda 5 helping to build peace and reconciliation in the country. Women are seen as the leaders in this effort and in many ways and are often referred to as the “hope of the country.”26 The current political, economic, and social situation of Rwanda is a direct consequence of the recent political and administrative history of the country the apex of which was the genocide of 1994. It is said by the current government that the inappropriate, highly centralized dictatorial governance of the colonial and post-independence administration limited the Rwandese population from participating in the determination of their political, economic, and administrative well-being.27 One strategy of the current government for socio-political and economic development is the empowerment of local populations to participate in the determination of their development. The government is intending to achieve this through an adopted policy of decentralization.28 The government held local and district elections in March 1999 and March 2001 and is developing mechanisms to devolve more resources and authority to local and district levels and to increase accountability. The Ministry of Local Government (MINALOC), which organized both the local and district elections, has reformed the former communal council structure. The reform makes the new district council structure more diverse by including representatives of different segments of the district’s population: women, youth, merchants, and farmers, among others. Decentralization processes have been focused at the cellules (the lowest administrative unit of 100 households) level. Cellules are small enough to foster collective action but also are linked to the formal system of government. A key element in this process is developing the ability of communities to hold structures of government accountable to them.29 Women are able to participate through women’s structures organized at the cellule level. Sensitization through this and other local structures enabled a high voter turnout. Twenty six percent of women candidates were elected at the cellule and district levels.30 The legal provision made for ensuring the participation of women in local elected bodies was set at one-third of all members of district councils and of municipal and town councils. In addition, each executive committee of a district, municipality, and town has a Secretary in charge of women or gender affairs. The law stipulates that the Secretary for Women/Gender Affairs in the district executive committee is a member of the district development committee, which is in charge of preparing the district development plans and budgets.31 Recent indications from the elections for local courts (gacaca) show the same trend of 25-35 percent female representation.32 26 Newbury, Catharine, Women Associations in Post-Conflict Rwanda-Draft for Mission Review, Center for Development Information and Evaluation, USAID, Washington , 1999. 27 p.3, Ministry of Local Government and Social Affairs, Republic of Rwanda, Programme Support for Implementation of Decentralization and Democratization in Rwanda, November 2000 28 p5, Ibid 29 p.2, www.microfin.gov.rw/poverty_reduction/approach.htm (Minister of Finance PRSP web site) 30 p.1, Kauzya, John-Mary, (Advisor in Governance and Institutional Development, UN/DESA/DPEPA), Capacity Development for Implementing the Decentralization Policy, Government of Rwanda, Ministry of Local Government and Social Affairs, May 2001, prepared in New York 31 p. 12, Ibid. 32 Notes from interview with the Gacaca courts in Kigali during consultancy. Development Alternatives, Inc. 6 According to U.N. statistics, 26 percent of Parliamentarians are women, which places Rwanda in 16th position among 179 countries (in the U.S. House of Representatives, 14 percent are women, and 13 percent of Senators are women). In 1994, nine Ministers were women, whereas in 1998 five women were Ministers. At the sub-ministerial level, the numbers of women doubled from 10 in 1994 to 20 in 1998.33 Rwanda has made great strides toward great gender equality in diverse sectors of the population, yet it still faces serious challenges relating to cultural norms affecting women and girls status. Interviews revealed that, although women are often key decision makers within the management of the household and with respect to child rearing, they are expected and taught to be non-assertive in any public venues.34 How this translates in terms of women’s real participation in government at all levels is that women are less apt to speak out and make their priorities and needs heard. Interviews also revealed a critical need of women in Rwanda for leadership training at all levels. Women not only need assistance in public speaking but also support in gaining confidence to assert themselves in public.35 Judicial structures and norms also play important roles in the process of change aimed at improving women’s access to power and decision making, as well as access and control over economic resources.36 Although the Constitution provides equality to women in Rwanda, there are still many discriminatory laws in practice. MIGEPROFE has recently created a Legal Desk and is collaborating with the Ministry of Justice in reviewing, repealing, and revising legislation that is discriminatory toward women. A major impediment to rural women’s ability to access and control resources was a highly discriminatory land and inheritance law that was recently changed to make it more equitable. The challenge today is in making this new law understood and known, not only to the courts but also to the women who can now exercise the freedom of ownership in order to pursue the development of lands formerly inaccessible to them. There is much effort on the part of the government, USAID, and other donors to publicize the provisions of the new law. A very critical issue in the justice sector is violence against women in Rwanda. It is estimated that 250,000 women were raped during the 1994 genocide. The repercussions of this situation impact not only the mental health of women but also their physical well-being. Sixty-six percent of women raped during this time who were tested for HIV/AIDS tested positive. Rwanda faces a major challenge in bringing to justice the perpetrators of the genocide and faces critical questions on how to deal with those accused of rape during that time (rape as sexual torture and punishable by the death penalty is one of the current debates taking place in Rwanda). Rape, sexual violence (household violence), and sexual harassment 33 www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm 34 p. 11, Mukamurenzi, M. Mukankusi, Vénantie, Étude sur la Situation de la Femme au Rwanda, Analyse des Obstacles Légaux et Socio-Culturelles à son Intégration dans le Processus de Développement, Banque Mondiale, Kigali, Avril 1997 35 During interviews with government representatives, women farmers, and NGO representatives, our team was repeatedly told that the “dress code” in Rwanda is of significant importance. Women not only need public speaking skills and personal confidence but also sufficient income to purchase “appropriate” clothing. 36 Mukamurenzi, M. et al., p. 50, Ibíd. Chapter One—Background on Gender Issues in Rwanda 7 in the schools are still common in post-conflict Rwanda. It is believed that a major reason for the high drop-out rate of girls in secondary schools is sexual harassment. The lack of sensitivity in the justice system to this issue often prevents women from relying on police officers or courts to deal with the situation. The ability of the justice system, from police officers to prosecutors, lawyers, and judges, to deal sensitively with this situation is an issue of critical concern. Of the 245 prosecutors in the country, only 24 are women, and of the estimated 4,000 police officers, only 200 are female.37 Although the Ministry of Justice would favor hiring more women, it is unable to do so because of the lack of trained female lawyers. Addressing this issue will need a multi￾pronged approach that will include higher education for women, legal awareness, and sensitization of men in the police force and the overall justice system. POLICY AND INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT The process of developing the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and its output, and national and donor actions to reduce gender inequalities, provide opportunities that USAID/Rwanda can build on to enhance its results. Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) To address the growing poverty in Rwanda, the government recently undertook a comprehensive poverty review. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper will guide future priorities in Rwanda for the next 20 years. This document not only guides government efforts for development but also provides the basis for donor interventions, including USAID support in Rwanda. Within the context of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, the government has committed itself again to ensuring that gender is mainstreamed into all sectoral efforts. Specifically it states, “MIGEPROFE will assist sectoral ministries in ensuring that the objectives of the national Gender Policy are mainstreamed and monitored in each sectoral strategy. It will be mandatory for all ministries to follow this policy.” The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper calls for agriculture-led growth in this landlocked country, which has the highest population density in Africa. However, a careful review of the document reveals that it falls short of truly integrating gender in its analysis and recommendations. The document includes very little gender-specific data, most notably is its absence within the section focusing on agricultural development. Priorities set by communities are not outlined in a gender-disaggregated fashion, and nor is it apparent that women shared an equal voice in the development of priorities. Although the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper calls for a high rate of participation by local communities in deciding their own development priorities, it does not account for how 37 Memorandum from the Pierre St-Hilaire, U.S. Resident Legal Advisor to Rwanda from the U.S. Department of Justice to Gerald Gahima, Prosecutor General, Kigali. (See Annex D.) Development Alternatives, Inc. 8 women’s voices will be heard in setting local agendas. Participation is in itself a laudable goal; however, it does not lead to gender equity unless specific measures are taken to ensure that women’s priorities and needs are heard and accounted for in the development of local plans. Participation is a process of consultation that needs time so real needs emerge.38 Both women’s NGOs and donors in Rwanda have stated that it is necessary to act now to influence the Government of Rwanda to review the document to ensure gender mainstreaming in decentralization and policy setting at national and local levels. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper is just one example of policy-setting that needs to be monitored for its gender content. For instance, the Rwanda national census is scheduled for 2002 and should help fill gaps in data collection for the country. It is critical that this data be disaggregated by sex—thus, any support USAID/Rwanda can provide to assist or encourage the collection of gender-specific information at this national level, in collaboration with the Government of Rwanda, is highly recommended. Rwanda’s Gender Policy and the Ministry of Gender and Women in Development (MIGEPROFE) The political and social context in Rwanda is now particularly open to issues of gender mainstreaming. More than many countries in Africa, and even elsewhere in the world, the Government of Rwanda has committed itself to include women in national development programs. The government has institutionalized a system whereby local women are organized and can provide input into decision-making processes, as well as offering a mechanism for communication from the national level to the village level. The government has created a Ministry tasked with ensuring that gender is mainstreamed throughout all of the policies and programs of the state. MIGEPROFE has chosen to take a two-pronged approach to the task: one aimed at gender mainstreaming in all government ministries and programs, and the other at activities that will benefit women directly in order to diminish inequalities. Specifically, MIGEPROFE’s sector policy commits it to: ▪ Use the gender approach as a national planning tool; ▪ Promote a social and legal framework conducive to gender equality in all areas of public life; ▪ Promote the full contribution of women to the national development process; and ▪ Promote a framework for exchanges and partnership between all key players involved in the promotion of the status of women. 38 p. 20, Cornwall, Andrea, Making a Difference? Gender and Participatory Development, IDS Discussion Paper 378, Institute of Development Studies, England, 2000. Chapter One—Background on Gender Issues in Rwanda 9 Donor Coordination The international community has provided substantial assistance for the reconstruction of Rwanda since 1994—in excess of $2 billion. Many donors provide assistance through a variety of mechanisms that either target women or mainstream gender into their activities. These donors are often involved in the same sectors as USAID. A review of donor contributions reveals that there is a heavy concentration of investment in the justice and governance and in agriculture sectors. In recent years, there has been little donor coordination on gender issues in Rwanda. Interviews revealed that there is an urgent need to collaborate and cooperate on this issue. MIGEPROFE needs to lead this process and control its own plans for the development of key gender issues to be addressed in Rwanda. Although this could be facilitated by UNIFEM as the secretariat for such an initiative, MIGEPROFE should identify its own priorities and set the agenda in collaboration by donors. There is a willingness on the part of donors to be involved in such a mechanism—an enthusiasm that was generated during this consultancy including consultative sessions with several donors, such as the Dutch and Canadians, as well as meetings held during consultations in December 2001 with UNIFEM. Two countries are lending support to MIGEPROFE (England and Canada), and many support women’s local organizations (the Dutch, UNIFEM, and UNDP as well as many international NGOs). The World Bank is planning support for a project with MIGEPROFE dealing with the revision of discriminatory laws. A proposal for Strengthening the Administrative and Management Capacity of Women Leaders in Local Governments, drafted by the UNIFEM Adviser on Governance and Institutional Development, was prepared in May 2001 (although it does not appear to have a current funder).39 Meetings with USAID/Rwanda staff revealed their desire to develop an effective mechanism for donor coordination of gender issues in the form of having regular consultative meetings. It was proposed that this should be led by MIGEPROFE, with perhaps UNIFEM acting as the secretariat. A gender newsletter could be supported, but produced by the Ministry for donors and NGOs. Actions the USAID Mission could take to build on these actions include: ▪ Provide support to the development of a more engendered Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, particularly in the sectors of most concern to the Mission; ▪ Involve MIGEPROFE and conform to national plans in all USAID-funded projects that work with ministries in capacity development (either of staff or of improved programming); 39 Kauzya, John-Mary (Dr.), Capacity Development for Implementing the Decentralization Policy: Project Proposal for Strengthening the Administrative and Management Capacity of Women Leaders in Local Governments, Draft, GOR, Ministry of Local Government and Social Affairs, May 2001, prepared in New York. Development Alternatives, Inc. 10 ▪ Work with MIGEPROFE in planning activities to build and strengthen linkages and networks to foster exchange of knowledge and experiences on gender issues. This should be done on an ongoing basis and include other donors and women’s NGOs, within and across sectors. This will enlarge the knowledge base and provide planners and implementers with information about new approaches that can enhance planning. Chapter Two—Overview of USAID/Rwanda’s Country Program Strategy 11 CHAPTER TWO OVERVIEW OF USAID/RWANDA’S COUNTRY PROGRAM STRATEGY USAID/Rwanda’s Integrated Strategic Plan supports Rwanda’s efforts from FY 2001 through FY 2004 and focuses on the transition from relief to sustainable development mode. Its goal is to “support increased stability and strengthened development capacity.” To achieve this goal, the Integrated Strategic Plan has three Strategic Objectives, which guide the USAID program in Rwanda through FY 2004. These include: ▪ SO1—Democracy and Governance: Increased Rule of Law and Transparency in Governance; ▪ SO2—Health Services and HIV/AIDS Interventions: Increased Use of Sustainable Health Services in Target Areas; and ▪ SO3—Food Security and Economic Growth: Increased Ability of Rural Families in Targeted Communities to Improve Household Food Security. Since 1962, USAID/Rwanda’s programs and assistance grew steadily from a few hundred thousand dollars to $20 million by 1992. Assistance focused on many sectors, beginning with education, urban infrastructure, and public safety. By the mid- to late-1980s, USAID supported programs in agriculture, natural resource management, health and population, private sector development, and economic and political policy reform. The events of 1994 transformed the USAID/Rwanda effort into a largely humanitarian operation providing $600 million in emergency relief assistance, including $411 million in food assistance to a large displaced population within the country and outside of its borders. More recently, USAID assistance has averaged $43 million per year, with a greater proportion of funds committed to development activities rather than relief measures. Over the last year, major components of the Mission’s portfolios in all three areas of strategic interest have moved into full-scale implementation. The Mission is well positioned to achieve additional significant results over the three years remaining under the current Integrated Strategic Plan. The Africa Bureau approved a further extension of the Plan through FY 2004 with the provision that the Mission work in 2001 on a new comprehensive strategy that would begin October 1, 2004. With assistance from REDSO/ESA, the Mission has developed a “roadmap” of actions and activities necessary to develop a new strategy. Development Alternatives, Inc. 12 According to the ADS 200 series, USAID/Rwanda is required to integrate gender considerations into all its programs. Results from an internal gender audit revealed that gender equity is important to the Mission and should be integrated into our programs. Although we do manage to address some gender considerations in our activities, it is not done explicitly and neither are the affects of our activities monitored. As USAID/Rwanda prepares to develop a Country Strategy Plan, we are interested in defining the Mission’s role in gender development and how can we integrate gender more effectively in our core activities, and/or identify potential new program areas. Chapter Three—Findings and Recommendations 13 CHAPTER THREE FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The following sections include findings and recommendations from the current gender assessment as they relate to (1) general programming efforts, (2) staff capacity development, (3) cross-cutting themes and approaches, and (4) Strategic Objectives. GENERAL PROGRAMMING Many activities are targeted to women in all three of the Strategic Objectives. Many of these activities have and will continue to impact women positively. For example: ▪ Training and sensitizing women aimed at increasing their role in the gacaca process may have resulted in a much higher number of female judges elected in districts where the activities took place. ▪ Women’s decision-making roles have improved locally through the Women in Transition (WIT) Project. ▪ Farmers’ associations of women have received assistance to improve their production. In one project, staff reports that women take greater risks than men, have adopted new types of seeds, and were the first to repay loans in a credit scheme. ▪ Women’s reproductive health is improved through increases in the quantity and quality of health services. ▪ Women elected in local governments were trained to become more effective leaders. This being said, there is little evidence that these strategic programs have benefited from any sector-specific gender analysis. Results for all sectors at the program, Strategic Objective, and Intermediate Result levels are not framed in a manner that specifies women and men. There is an emphasis on systems—for example, increased health centers and efficiency of the system or increases in outputs of particular yields—which tends to make people invisible and does not lend itself to generating indicators of impact on women and on men. Little qualitative or quantitative gender-specific data are collected, so it is not known what the long-term, medium-term, or short-term results of USAID activities in Rwanda for females (versus the impact on males) may be. Is USAID programming widening the gender gap, or are its projects leading to greater equality between women and men? When results are not collected in a gender-disaggregated fashion, plans cannot be adjusted to account for one group having fewer benefits than another group. Development Alternatives, Inc. 14 It should be noted that the unit of analysis used for most projects is the household. Women are typically counted only when they are heads of households. In Rwanda, this is significant, at 36 percent, but it tends to masks the work and needs of women in male-headed households. This is most likely based on an assumption of equitable intra-household distribution of resources and benefits, when research and development practice has demonstrated that this is not necessarily the case. The USAID/Rwanda program addresses gender issues through women-only projects, what is termed as WID projects (women in development). Many of these projects address women’s strategic needs—for example, women’s decision-making and leadership roles—whereas others have addressed women’s practical interests—such as health and income generation. Of those projects that were reviewed, the benefits for women have been significant and essential and the Mission should continue to support and expand such project activities. However, the majority of USAID/Rwanda’s program support does not address mainstreaming gender issues in any systematic fashion. For instance, to-date, no sector reviews have taken place to identify gender issues as they relate to the three sectors of concentration for USAID programming. In fact, the Assessment team was unable to locate a single USAID-specific paper on gender issues in agriculture in Rwanda. In the review of the agriculture sections in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, there was no information on men’s and women’s, girls’ and boys’ access and control, participation, or roles and responsibilities in the sector. It is imperative that this gap be addressed in the up-coming sector reviews, if USAID/Rwanda is to achieve greater gender inclusiveness in their programming strategy. Recommendations ▪ In the upcoming sector reviews, include gender analysis not as an add-on but as an organizing principle for the review. This will lead to more effective and efficient programming. When looking for outside resources to assist in the review, it is useful to utilize the services of sector analysts who have gender analysis experience. The terms of references and scopes of work should be reviewed by a Gender Committee member. ▪ As much as possible, frame results statements in a way that puts people—men and women, boys and girls—front and center of the result being sought. Indicators that are people oriented, rather than systems focused, have a better chance of revealing gender￾specific impacts. Agricultural output alone does not tell how that increased output is benefiting or marginalizing women’s or men farmers. Increased availability of health services does not tell how women and men’s health or their health-related behavior is being improved. If the gender analysis indicates inequalities in the achievement of benefits between males and females (of all ages), adjustments in program activities and resource allocations should be made. Chapter Three—Findings and Recommendations 15 ▪ Plan women-specific projects when an affirmative action type of approach is needed to rapidly increase benefits to women left out of mainstream processes. However, ensure that each sector and each project has mainstreamed gender issues. STAFF CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT There is an acknowledgement on the part of staff of USAID and partner agencies that gender training and gender tools are needed to assist in implementing gender sensitive programs and projects. There appears to be some confusion regarding the meaning of gender, gender tools including gender analysis, and the concept of gender mainstreaming. Gender issues are often confused with women’s issues, just as “gender” and “women” as terms are confused. A phrase often stated by USAID/Rwanda staff during the Assessment was, “We take care of the gender issues—we have a women’s project.” It was not apparent that the staff of either USAID or its partners utilized any gender tools, checklists, training, or gender analysis research as part of their planning, implementation, or evaluation activities. Recommendations ▪ The Gender Action Committee should concentrate on mainstreaming gender in USAID and develop in-house expertise that can be tapped. This team will need capacity building and knowledge of and skills in using available tools (guidelines, checklists, sector issues, etc.). Its members can then act as advisors to their section, reviewing scopes of work and project plans to ensure that gender has been integrated. Annex C provides a list of suggested actions to be taken by the Gender Action Committee, with recommendations such as adjusting budgets to ensure sufficient monies are set aside for gender-specific interventions; identifying Gender Action Committee members to monitor national plans of action (such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper) and surveys, consultancy scopes of work, Request for Applications (RFA), and Requests for Proposals (RFP) for gender content; planning for gender analysis research; establishing systems for gender-specific data collection; establishing a local and regional gender expertise roster of consultants and gender library; and collaborating with government ministries and other donors on the gender dimensions of development. ▪ Following this assignment, WIDTECH will provide gender training for the staff and partners of USAID in Rwanda (see Annex E). The staff recommended that the training be sector specific, with case studies developed from USAID projects and be undertaken with staff and partners together. It was also stated that a session combining all sectors together would also be useful. Staff stated that two days would be the maximum they could free up for gender training in their busy schedules. They suggested a 1.5-day session at a sector level and a half-day session for all sectors combined. It is highly recommended that this training be practical and hands-on so it can be immediately applicable to the specific programs and projects carried out by USAID/Rwanda staff. Development Alternatives, Inc. 16 ▪ USAID/Rwanda staff agreed that checklists would be a useful tool for assisting them in integrating gender in their work. But they also stated that there should be some measure of accountability for ensuring that these tools are used systematically. Frequent staff turnover makes it especially imperative that the system provide for clearly defined steps that are needed in developing gender-sensitive projects and programs. ▪ One critical point of intervention identified by USAID staff was the development of the RFAs and RFPs. It was proposed that a requirement in these documents be a gender strategy for the project. Points in the evaluation grid would be awarded for this strategy. Points for prior experience in delivering gender-sensitive projects by the proposing organization could also be awarded. CROSS-CUTTING THEMES AND APPROACHES Strengthening the leadership skills of women, addressing their time and labor constraints, and increasing their access to information are key factors that affect women’s contributions to and the benefits they accrue through their participation in all sector-specific interventions. Where the Mission can ensure that each Strategic Objective includes explicit attention to these gender-related factors, both Strategic Objective-specific and overall Mission-level results will be enhanced. Women’s Leadership Skills Building Raising women’s self-esteem and confidence was mentioned repeatedly as an important issue by those interviewed during this assessment. Many factors contribute to this, such as low educational levels, cultural norms of women not speaking in public meetings, fear or emotional damage caused by rape and other forms of emotional and physical abuse, lack of sufficient professional or business training, lack of access to affordable information technology and communications (radios, computers, etc.), insufficient income to purchase suitable clothing (which is culturally an especially important variable), and discriminatory legal and customary laws. Although leadership training for women cannot address all these constraints, it was often cited as a critical step for ensuring that women benefit from Rwanda’s development, by government officials, NGO staff, and U.S. Embassy representatives interviewed (including the U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda). Opportunities to increase leadership for women and training in leadership skills should form part of each sector’s program. Building women’s capacity to be assertive and encouraging society’s acceptance (especially among men) of women’s advancement are important dimensions of leadership training. In many development initiatives, women are not able to speak out in male-dominated forums, and women are more readily able to speak in women￾only groupings. It may be a necessary pre-step, therefore, to develop leadership and speaking skills within women-only forums, with the next step being the provision of gender-sensitivity training and media campaigns to encourage a more supportive social environment. Chapter Three—Findings and Recommendations 17 Promotion of Labor-Saving or Appropriate Technology USAID/Rwanda’s support for labor-saving initiatives and activities (sometimes called “appropriate technologies”) is highly recommended as a cross-cutting tool or approach to support women’s advancement and well-being in Rwanda. For example, the availability of safe, accessible water is critical to decrease the number of hour’s women and girls walk to obtain water for their families. Interviews with numerous Rwandan women and USAID￾associated project staff and beneficiaries revealed that, at a minimum, females typically walk 3 kilometers three times a day to collect water. One USAID staff approximated that women walk one mile three times a day to collect water in the Butare region. The importance of safe water to prevent the spread of disease, in addition to the amount of time and energy spent collecting water (which could be utilized for other productive activities childcare, cooking, agricultural production and sales, income generating activities, political participation, and healthcare), cannot be emphasized enough. Supporting women’s access to bicycles (which are typically male owned) and improving stoves to decrease the amount of time or need for a woman to walk to collect wood for fuel are other technologies that address the time and labor burden of women and can increase their opportunities for participating in and benefiting from Strategic Objective-related interventions. Opportunities to Enhance Women’s Access to Information Serious obstacles to female advancement in Rwanda are a lack of adequate educational attainment, insufficient training opportunities and skills development, and lack of access to and training in the use of information technologies. Education and training are not priorities or a Strategic Objective focus of USAID efforts in Rwanda; however, each sector includes some education and training activities—most typically at the tertiary level where women are most under-represented. Although the Mission frequently includes some female participation in training opportunities, conferences, and regional exchange programs, the proportion of females included needs to be systematically and substantially increased across the board. With respect to information technology, all opportunities should be sought to ensure that women benefit from any USAID-supported education, training, and information communications technology (ICT) initiatives.40 Interviews revealed, for instance, that women have significantly less training than men in the use of and access to computers, radios, and most of other communications technologies in Rwanda. Certainly, access to information (that is, health services, agribusiness, and marketing information) means increased power, knowledge, and effectiveness. This point was articulated frequently while meeting with Rwandan government officials, USAID partner organizations, and Rwanda-based NGOs.41 40 At the time of this consultancy, a team of ICT specialists were in-country to help develop the strategy for the next phase of USAID’s program in Rwanda. A substantial proportion of funding came from the Women in Development (WID) Office in Washington, D.C., for this activity—showing USAID support for gender considerations to be mainstreamed within the Mission’s ICT activities. 41 Hafkin, Nancy and Taggart, Nancy, Gender, Information Technology, and Developing Countries: An Analytic Study. Academy for Educational Development under the LearnLink Project for the USAID Office of Women in Development, June 2001. Development Alternatives, Inc. 18 STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES SO1—Increased Rule of Law and Transparency of Governance USAID’s involvement in justice and governance began in late 1994 when USAID/Rwanda was reactivated and the Democratic Initiatives and Governance Project (696-0133) was amended to respond to the evolving situation in post-genocide Rwanda. Initial activities provided essential commodities to support the governance process in several key ministries, rehabilitated physical infrastructure for most of the courts, and supported U.N. efforts in the areas of human rights and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Although other donors began to work on technical capacity building in the Ministry of Justice, USAID/Rwanda worked with the Office of the President to organize a conference to debate the policies appropriate to re-establish justice and how to deal with the enormous caseload of genocide suspects. The most significant outcome from the Genocide Conference was the enactment of an organic law in August 1996 for the prosecution of those accused of genocide crimes and crimes against humanity. In late 1998, the government began consideration of a new policy to remand all but the most serious genocide cases to locally empowered courts, an adaptation of a traditional adjudication system know as gacaca. In April 2001, this policy was signed into law, which replaces the aforementioned genocide law. It is expected that this traditional community-based form of adjudication will help to rapidly diminish the current caseload, and is viewed as a necessary passage to establish some degree of national reconciliation and healing. The introduction of the gacaca system has led to a redirection of USAID assistance in support of a public awareness campaign on gacaca. In addition, there is a continued need for support to rehabilitate the Ministry of Justice, the parquets, and the courts to enable the ministry to cope with the enormous logistical requirements of gacaca and to administer formal justice over the long term. Fortunately, security has improved remarkably countrywide such that it no longer hampers programs under this Strategic Objective. USAID/Rwanda provided assistance to help develop the previous military police authority and to train the police in internationally recognized standards of human rights, rule of law, anti-corruption, and promotion of civilian police roles that support democracy. As a result, in early 2000, the Government of Rwanda created a new national civilian police force. This fledgling organization requires substantial assistance for training in police procedures and observance of human rights, as well as some discretionary logistical and commodity support. USAID will channel resources toward this critical area within SO1. For instance, MIGEPROFE has recently hired a lawyer within its Gender Department to address justice issues (a woman trained under a USAID-supported project). The department already has analyzed laws and listed those that are highly discriminatory and in need of revision. These include provisions under laws within the family code, the law of identity cards and place of residence, the code on nationality, the organic law relating to agents of the Chapter Three—Findings and Recommendations 19 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and within the law relating to Social Security. MIGEPROFE is providing training to the Ministry of Justice in gender and law understanding. In 1999, the Government of Rwanda institutionalized, through law and nationwide local elections, the local decision-making structures initiated under USAID’s Local Governance Initiatives Project. This has produced 160,000 newly elected local government officials who received training in the leadership and resource mobilization skills needed to serve the citizens who elected them. Following the success of the local elections, the government made an additional step forward to deepen democracy and improve accountability through the successful completion of secret ballot district elections, held in March 2001. USAID/Rwanda provided substantial commodity support to those elections. Current USAID Activities and Gender Considerations under SO1 There are many positive, small initiatives aimed at increasing women’s strategic roles in society under the Mission’s activities within SO1. Although women benefit significantly from some of the projects under SO1—as genocide survivors, as lawyers, and as community members involved in gacaca—gender analysis has not been included as part of the planning process within the portfolio or activities under SO1. When gender analysis is not utilized as a planning tool, results are not framed to account for a goal of gender equality. To provide an overview of USAID/Rwanda’s support, the following is a list of the results statement included under the Mission’s SO1 program: ▪ IR1.1 Justice rendered more effectively; ▪ IR1.2 Increased security of persons and property; ▪ IR1.3 Increased accountability and greater citizen representation at all levels of government; and ▪ IR1.4 Civil society strengthened. These have sub-level results which are: 1.1.1 Strengthened capacity of the Ministry of Justice 1.1.2 Enhanced legal human resource capacity 1.1.3 Citizens engaged in gacaca process 1.1.4 Genocide victims compensated 1.1.5 Improved flow of information on justice issues 1.2.1 Strengthened capacity of national police 1.3.1 Improved popular representation at all levels of government 1.3.2 Fiscal and administrative structures decentralized 1.3.3 Limited authorities devolved from central government 1.3.4 Strengthened capacity of legislature to function as independent arm of government 1.3.5 Mechanisms for citizen input on local resource decisions Development Alternatives, Inc. 20 1.3.6 Reconciliation promoted through dialogue, research, and technology applications that increase community confidence and participation in local government. 1.4.1 Increased promotion and awareness of human rights (Civil Society Fund). Few projects have goal and results statements that include people-level benefits specifically stated as being for women or for men. Table 1 links these goal and results statements to the amounts of money committed for these projects. Projects were analyzed to see if their stated goals were intended to address women, men, and/or gender inequalities. The projects that do address gender, mostly through women-only activities in the SO1 program, are strategic in nature and are leading to significant gains for women. Other projects do impact on women, such as the survivors fund as well as the DoJ/PASA project, which is addressing violence against women in the justice system, but do not include gender as a category of results. Table 1: Democracy and Governance Project Budgets and Gender Considerations IR Amounts Budgeted (in US$) USAID/Rwanda (SO1) Project Activities Projects that Emphasize Women in Results Projects that Do Not Emphasize Women in Results 1.1 Justice Rendered More Efficiently 1.1.1 Management Sciences for Development 2.415 million 1.1.1 DoJ/PASA 1.27 million 1.1.2 UQAM 1.75 million 1.1.2 Trocaire/Haguruka 26,000 John Hopkins 2.6 million Genocide Survivors 2.0 million Dutch Fund 1.3 million Internews 890,000 1.2 Increased Security of Property and Persons DOJ/ICITAP (police training) 175,000 1.3 Increased Accountability and Greater Representation at All Levels of Government Assistance to the March 2001 District Council Elections 600,000 Assistance to WIT Project 53,038 ARD/Fiscal Decentralization 2.5 million Strengthened Arm of Parliament 1.7 million Africare/Local Government Initiative 6,417,830 IRC-Decentralization, Good Governance and Community participation 2,461,453 University of Maryland/NUR—Distance Learning 1,851,454 IRC/Unity and Reconciliation Commission 98,964 1.4 Civil Society Strengthened Increased promotion and awareness of human rights Seruka, training on women’s role in gacaca 117,000 Total sums committed 12,494,716 196,038 Chapter Three—Findings and Recommendations 21 Recommendations for Future Programming In summary, there is much scope for including gender equality as an aim of programming in SO1. The following is a list of issues that should be considered, as well as concrete recommendations under each Intermediate Result. Unless gender analysis is undertaken at a planning stage, interventions may not address gender inequalities, undermining intended results. IR1—Justice Rendered More Effectively. There is a need to understand how gender issues affect the dispensation of justice in Rwanda. Violence against women is a major area of concern in Rwanda. Apart from the overwhelming number of women who were raped during the genocide, violence continues to be a major factor affecting gender relations in Rwanda. Courts are unable to deal with the situation in a fair way, not only because most prosecutors and judges are not gender sensitized but also because of the stigma attached to the rape victim. Rwanda is speeding up its processing of genocide perpetrators through the new gacaca system, as outlined above. One very important activity prior to the elections of judges was undertaken by the USAID-supported SERUKA project, which aimed at promoting women’s role as gacaca judges. The next step is to train the women and men elected in the dispensing of gender-fair justice. This should include not only training for women in dispensing justice but also training men for in gender sensitization. Women’s voices are not heard equally in Rwanda, and it will be important that male judges be trained to ensure a fair hearing of both female and male witnesses. It should be noted that women go to their elected local representatives for matters dealing with legal issues—both on violence and on inheritance. Further, one major impediment to girls’ education at the secondary level is the high levels of sexual harassment in the schools. A recent change in the inheritance laws has meant great gains for women in land ownership. This law affects the potential of women farmers who now can access credit based on clear title. Although changes in the laws are necessary, knowledge about these changes needs to filter down to all levels and local tribunals need to be made aware of the provisions under this law. Some of this knowledge is being provided through a small, but highly effective USAID-supported project implemented by Trocaire/Haguruka. Recommendations under IR 1.1: ▪ Undertake a gender analysis of the major issues involved in the dispensation of justice in Rwanda. During this analysis, utilize the knowledge gained in USAID projects (such as Trocaire/Haguruka, and Seruka) and the recommendations from the U.S. Resident Legal Advisor to USAID (called PASA/DOJ) as summarized in Annex D. ▪ Assess the impacts of those projects aimed at increasing women’s access to the justice system in order to plan for larger initiatives in these sectors. Development Alternatives, Inc. 22 ▪ Ensure that training in the projects (legal training, etc.) systematically addresses gender issues in justice. ▪ Cooperate and consult with MIGEPROFE’s new Legal Division to ensure that the Ministry of Justice is addressing issues of importance to women and girls, as well as men and boys. ▪ Act on the specific recommendations of the U.S. Resident Legal Advisor to address violence against women (see Annex D). IR 1.2—Increased Security of Property and Persons. Under this Intermediate Result, only one project has taken place, and none is planned. However, missed opportunities arose during the implementation of this project, which was aimed at strengthening the capacity of the national police. Of the 100 officers trained under the project, only 2 were women. It is not unreasonable to suppose, given the experience elsewhere in the world, that male police officers often do not dispense justice equally to women, particularly in dealing with issues of violence against women. Further, of 1,000 applicants who recently applied to the police force that were female, most were rejected because they did not meet basic qualifications. Therefore, with respect to dealing with issues of gender-based violence, which are at unacceptably high levels (and on the increase) in Rwanda, several important areas address the capacity and sensitivity of the police in dealing with victims, the capacity and sensitivity in the courts to dealing with the victims and dealing out harsh measures to the perpetrators, and the numbers of police officers. Recommendations under IR 1.2: ▪ USAID/Rwanda should consider support for the proposal of the USAID Resident Legal Advisor for the creation of sexual violence desks in each jurisdiction. ▪ USAID/Rwanda should consider further training of the police force in dealing with both gender-based violence, such as rape and domestic violence, and sexual harassment in the schools. IR1.3—Increased Accountability at All Levels of Government. The decentralization plans of the Government of Rwanda include increasing the accountability of government to its citizens. The government has provided for structures aimed at ensuring that all members of the community have the ability to participate, communicate, and collaborate on decision making locally. Many of the activities under this area of programming are aimed at improving the ability of local communities to have input to decision making and to make the locally elected representatives more accountable and efficient in local governments. An important and informative USAID-supported seminar held for local women leaders hosted by Africare revealed that women felt unable to provide effective input locally and noted the problem of volunteerism [high opportunity costs related to participation] in local bodies (for example, women’s structures). Those interviewed stated that new women elected Chapter Three—Findings and Recommendations 23 leaders were not able to affect local budgetary decision making because they were unable to analyze and understand the budgetary process and because of the non-receptivity of other locally elected representatives to women’s input. One project under SO1, Women in Transition (WIT), had a clearly stated goal of increasing female participation in community decision-making processes. This project worked to promote women’s empowerment and participation in local decision making through support to women’s associations, the provision of housing and other basic needs, the development of women’s communal funds to support income generation, the creation of opportunities for women to come together and build trust between ethnic divisions, and a variety of activities to encourage local political advocacy and participation. During 1996-1999, the Women in Transition Project worked in 86 communes, funded 1,460 projects, and reached 29,254 association members with 160,000 beneficiaries.42 A recent evaluation concluded that the project had an exceptionally positive impact on women and their families in Rwanda—most notably with respect to the reduction of tensions and building trust among communities, opportunities for microenterprise initiatives, and increased participation of women in new political structures. However, USAID/Rwanda’s other projects under SO1 have not been as gender inclusive. Several major project partner organizations working under SO1 stated that gender issues rarely arise during discussions with USAID staff or in the planning of project activities. If women participated, it was often a result of a broad statement of “women should participate,” and neither funding nor viable mechanisms were put in place to achieve substantial and meaningful participation by women in local affairs. Recommendations under IR 1.3: ▪ Undertake an analysis of the ways and means by which women communicate locally, have their voices heard, and provide input to decision making. ▪ Ask all community-based development initiatives to submit plans for a gender strategy in their projects. This should include (asked for by partners) their staff receiving gender training and/or assistance from a gender expert. ▪ Mandate the Associates in Rural Development (ARD)/Fiscal Decentralization Project to provide financial training to locally elected women and gender-sensitivity training to local male leaders. IR 1.4 Civil Society Strengthened. Women’s groups and other NGOs have contributed substantially to rebuilding the country in partnership with the government. This partnership can be problematic because it acts to restrain the space NGOs can act. Strengthening civil society might also mean sensitizing government to a process whereby criticism is viewed in a more positive light and acts to inform government for future planning. 42 “An Evaluation of USAID/OTI’s Women in Transition Initiative in Rwanda.” Baldwin, Hannah and Newbury, Catharine. WIDTECH Project, OIT/CDIE/USAID, May/June 1999. Development Alternatives, Inc. 24 There is one planned activity in this sub-sector—a project of support to local NGOs called the Rwanda Civil Society Strengthening Project. The RFA outlines the project purpose as follows: (1) to increase citizens’ awareness of and participation in government affairs; and (2) to assist in mobilizing popular participation around local problems that seek both public and private solutions. Capacity building will be provided in institutional support, civic education, improved political participation and local and national levels, and media coverage and outreach. The project intends to support civil society groups, of which the RFA states that one must be a “woman’s NGO,” a human right’s organization, and another a labor union (during the first year). The RFA states that “women’s promotion” will be encouraged as a part of institutional strengthening—a very positive indication of intent. However, the RFA does not specify that gender issues should be integrated as part of overall program activities. Although there are many strong women’s NGOs in Rwanda that are active in the reconciliation and peace-building processes, there is less indication that other NGOs mainstream gender issues within their activities. Some simple rewording of this RFA and the selection criteria utilized would greatly increase its gender inclusiveness and strengthen its potential accomplishments. Recommendation in IR 1.4: ▪ Mandate all projects, including the Rwanda Civil Society Strengthening Project (which at the time of this assessment was at the RFA stage), to develop a gender strategy. This does not only include women-only activities. Women-only activities are sometimes necessary to redress past inequities and can be viewed as affirmative action measures. A gender strategy in a project is aimed at mainstreaming gender throughout the implementation of the project and its activities. SO2—Increased Use of Sustainable Health Services in Target Regions The USAID/Rwanda SO2 is “Increased use of sustainable health services in target areas.” The Mission is shifting its approach from the emergency-oriented interventions of the immediate post-genocide period to a new partnership with the Ministry of Health to strengthen its technical and management capacity. This approach will focus on systems strengthening and will make use of pilot activities to test and demonstrate new program strategies for possible expansion nationwide. To achieve results under SO2, USAID will finance activities that strengthen effective management and implementation of primary health services, with an emphasis on sexually transmitted infections, including HIV; services; behavior change; and social services for vulnerable groups. In partnership with the government, USAID/Rwanda has supported capacity-building activities such as funding U.S. post-graduate education opportunities in public health and management for Ministry of Health officials; developing curriculum modules for the School of Public Health at the National University of Rwanda; and training Ministry of Health staff in financial management, budget planning, and data collection and analysis. Chapter Three—Findings and Recommendations 25 Among new activities to achieve results under this SO2, USAID will explore with the Ministry of Health appropriate interventions in family planning and child spacing. The program will work toward the development of culturally acceptable services and communications to target Rwanda’s high population growth and maternal and child mortality in light of post-genocide pro-natalist social pressures. To facilitate sound decision making and inform Ministry of Health and donor programming, USAID/Rwanda plans to support a significant amount of data gathering, analysis, and dissemination activities. USAID will also undertake new activities in social marketing pertaining to the use of insecticide-treated bednets. An emphasis will be placed on integration into existing reproductive health (antenatal care) and child survival activities. The program’s ultimate goal will be to increase knowledge and use of malaria prevention strategies in an effort to lower the morbidity and mortality of children under five. In addition, USAID/Rwanda will continue its support to local health-related NGOs. This continued emphasis is considered essential because 40 percent of district hospitals are operated by faith-based organizations, and churches and NGOs are significant contributors to HIV prevention, care, and support services in Rwanda.43 Current USAID Activities and Gender Considerations under SO2 A review of the Mission’s activities within SO2 shows a good understanding among Mission staff and local collaborators of the gender dimensions pertaining to the health sector in Rwanda. Women are benefiting significantly from USAID-supported activities, and strengthening and expanding these programs will be key to improving the quality of lives among Rwandan women and their families. Given that Rwanda is one of the most densely populated countries in East Africa, increased use of contraception will be the key to maintaining and sustaining any development advancements in the country. Mission staff as well as the Ministry of Health, collaborating local and international NGOs, and other donors demonstrate an understanding of the importance of addressing male participation in health activities—particularly with respect to any information, education, and communication activities. In fact, USAID and the Ministry of Health are working collaboratively on an assessment of the gender dimensions of contraception use, which will emphasize an exploration of male behavior and attitudes toward family planning (including contraception use and HIV infection). Interviews with ministry officials evidenced a continued dialogue with USAID partner organizations on identifying male perceptions toward reproduction, including recent questions, such as whether there really are “post genocide pro-natalist” social pressures that are contributing to the recent trend of decreased use of contraception. 43 USAID/Rwanda Integrated Strategic Plan (ISP). Development Alternatives, Inc. 26 Further, under the ministry’s HIV/AIDS program of activities, initial data are being collected with USAID support to inform the possibility of implementing a program of HIV prevention, which will be targeted primarily at male members of the Rwandan military. This program would involve the development of a multimedia communication campaign in behavior change for young men in the military, who represent a high-risk and difficult to reach group. Finally, several examples of USAID/Rwanda-supported activities show an understanding of the gender dimensions of health considerations. For instance, interviews with USAID/Rwanda’s implementing partners of the PRIME II project revealed that the linkages between sexual violence, women’s decision-making status (their empowerment), and women’s health are being recognized—and a review of project documents illustrates that a variety of activities are being planned to address these connections at the development, implementation, and monitoring stages.44 PRIME II also recently conducted a comprehensive needs assessment study of 22 nursing schools throughout Rwanda, from which gender issues were elicited. For instance, the study revealed that female nurses are often suspended unfairly if found pregnant, male nursing students often resent the females because the females receive first priority for nursing school lodging, and males are disproportionately the majority of nursing faculty. Recommendations for Future Programming Strengthen donor, NGO, and government coordination on gender and health. Interviews with Ministry of Health officials revealed a strong desire for improved donor coordination on gender and health considerations in Rwanda. The possibility of utilizing the geographic information system (GIS) as a tool to create a map of who is doing what and where the gaps are was discussed with enthusiasm with Ministry of Health officials. The head of Reproductive Health stated that she sees significant duplication of models, and in certain regions, there are gaps in services, clients, and locations—which, if identified in a collaborative fashion, could help to multiply benefits, extend coverage, and address overlooked issues. The assessment team visited the GIS Center, which recently opened at the National University of Rwanda, and we recommend that the potential use of GIS be explored by USAID and the Ministry of Health to create useful health-need maps to inform decision making and help donors and the government prioritize interventions affecting the health of women and their families in Rwanda. Conduct specific health and gender assessments. As part of its HIV/AIDS activities, USAID/Rwanda will be working closely with the Ministry of Health. To provide effective services and contain a potential rise in infection rates among the rural population, the ministry restructured the National AIDS Program to accelerate the decentralization and integration of sexually transmitted infection and HIV services into existing primary health services at the health district level. It is essential that the National AIDS Program incorporate ideas of gender analysis and interventions so that both males and females are reached— and 44 PRIME II Activity: “Table de Specification pour l’Amelioration de la Performance.” (A Performance Needs Assessment for Safe Motherhood and Family Planning.) Chapter Three—Findings and Recommendations 27 that USAID activities in support of the Ministry of Health reflect this gender awareness. It is suggested that USAID support the development of gender-specific HIV/AIDS awareness tools to share with the ministry and USAID’s collaborating partners implementing HIV/AIDS social mobilization campaigns and other related activities. These tools should address gender issues with respect to the mobilization of political and opinion leaders; the sensitization of local elected government units in planning, priority setting, and management of HIV/AIDS activities; and the participation of communities in decision making with respect to HIV/AIDS prevention and testing services, as well as support to those already living with AIDS. Monitor the process and impact of privatization and decentralization on women’s health and actively solicit women’s perspectives as part of the initial development of any new USAID￾supported health initiatives. As an outcome of privatization and decentralization efforts, the cost of healthcare and how it is to be delivered are in flux—making this an especially important time for gender considerations to be integrated into health policy formulation in Rwanda. At present, there is a serious shortage of public financing for the health sector. A national health accounts study in 1998 showed that 50 percent of health sector costs in Rwanda are provided through donor support, with only 9 percent coming from the Government of Rwanda. A sizable 33 percent of health sector costs were paid directly by households, placing a large burden on limited domestic resources. It is estimated that the Ministry of Health received only 4.2 percent of the national budget in 1999.45 Although the move toward decentralization and privatization of various sectors in the Rwandan economy is a well-intentioned step toward community empowerment and democracy, the gender impact with respect to health needs to continually be monitored. For example, there has been a recent move toward the establishment of mutuelles de santé (a type of pre-pay health plan). At a regional conference of Mayors and local governing representatives from several districts of Rwanda, gender issues were raised pertaining to the mutuelles. For instance, within the framework of polygamy in Rwanda, several Mayors stated that males in their district having more than one wife found the plans were too costly—thus leaving these women without healthcare coverage. On the positive side, community-based groups, such as agricultural cooperatives and microfinance organizations, have shown a potential capacity to pool their economic resources to purchase mutuelles. Such groups, as well as others, might be a viable means for women to access this new service. Another issue arising under privatization and decentralization of the health sector with an impact on women’s health is increased cost for schooling for children. As income spent on school often leaves less money for health-related (and other) expenditures, and given that women are traditionally expected to care for their families, it is reasonable to assume that the economic shortfall would fall heavily on women. Strengthen women’s leadership in local health-related decision-making bodies. Given that Rwanda is undergoing a decentralization processes, which will allow for increased decision making and more direct distribution of funds for development purposes to authorities at the 45 USAID/Rwanda Integrated Strategic Plan (ISP). Development Alternatives, Inc. 28 cell, sector, and district levels, the participation of women in decision-making with respect to the use of these funds will be critical to improving their overall health status. A variety of USAID-supported contractors, including ARD and IRC, will be working at the district level to strengthen the capacity of local governing bodies to utilize and manage new funds effectively. It is estimated that 6.5 percent of the national budget will soon be disbursed among 106 Mayors for development-oriented purposes. Those women participating in local governance at these levels would benefit from opportunities to voice their funding priorities (such as the establishment of improved water facilities at closer locations, improved health clinics, and ambulance services for delivering mothers).46 Leadership skills training with other forms of support for women elected and appointed to local governing bodies is highly recommended as a key health-sector entry point—as it will influence prioritization of needs and allocation of resources in ways that will reflect women’s preferences. Conduct sensitivity training of media (such as journalists), police, and judicial and legislative authorities on rape, and other forms of violence against both females and males, as a health and human rights issue. SO3—Increased Ability of Rural Families in Targeted Communities to Improve Household Food Security According to the Mission’s Integrated Strategic Plan, household food security in Rwanda currently depends on three factors: domestic agricultural production, household income, and external food assistance. Therefore, USAID assistance under SO3 is designed to use an integrated package of development assistance and PL 480 food aid resources to address short- and medium-term food security needs, while helping set the stage for longer-term productivity and income gains in the rural sector. Following the events of 1994, USAID moved quickly to meet the immediate needs caused by the war, genocide, and massive displacements of the population. The issues were compounded by the abrupt return of 1.3 million refugees in late 1996 and early 1997. USAID used a combination of resources from its Bureau for Humanitarian Response: Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, Office of Transition Initiatives, and Office of Food for Peace to address the food and non-food needs of the rural population. Along with direct food distribution, food for work, and institutional feeding, agriculture-related programs were quickly put into place aimed at restoring local production. These include distribution of tools and seeds from external sources; rapid local multiplication of seeds and cuttings (especially potato); and micro-level activities, including livestock restocking, micro-credit, and input supply. 46 “Rwandan Women in Local Government: Challenges and Opportunities Conference,” sponsored by UNIFEM, USAID, Africare, and others, October 2001. Chapter Three—Findings and Recommendations 29 The success of these programs helped increase overall stability and promoted the resumption of some rural economic activity. In September 1997, USAID and the Government of Rwanda entered into an agreement to establish the SO3: Increased Ability of Rural Families in Targeted Communities to Improve Household Food Security. Subsequent amendments expanded the scope and set the stage for a more development-oriented program that can address emergency and transition needs as required, but can begin to support the government’s long-term priorities. Under SO3, USAID/Rwanda supports a package of investments that integrates the areas of agricultural policy, marketing, processing, improved production and processing technology, and training. The achievement of results under SO3 will focus on one major Intermediate Result with its three lower level sub-Intermediate Results. The major Intermediate Result to support SO3 is “Expanded Production/Marketing Chains,” and three lower sub-Intermediate Results are: ▪ IR 3.1.1—Improved ability of farmers to respond to and benefit from market demand ▪ IR 3.1.2—Expanded agribusiness opportunities and private sector development ▪ IR 3.1.3—Increased access to financial services. Current USAID Activities and Gender Considerations under SO3 USAID/Rwanda, under SO3, has supported numerous initiatives to improve the lives of women in Rwanda. These include Agricultural Policy Development (Abt Associates); Assistance a la Dynamisation de l’Agribusiness au Rwanda (Chemonics International); Food Security Research Project (Michigan State University); Farmer-to-Market (ACDI/VOCA); Agricultural Technology Development and Transfer (IITA); Partnerships for Enhancing Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages (MSU and Texas A&M); Women in Transition (IRC and MIGEPROFE); Rwanda Credit Union Rural Outreach Program (WOCCU and IESC); and Development Activity Programs (ACDI/VOCA, World Vision, and CRS). These projects support the rural farmers’ access to agronomic techniques and practices, seed and tool distribution, farm management, livestock development, and business skills development. Interviews with USAID/Rwanda food security advisors revealed that 50 percent of all Food for Work participants in Rwanda are female, many of whom are widows. Another example is the University of Rwanda, Faculty of Agriculture, Rwasave Aquaculture Station’s refinement of the process for producing smoked catfish. This has the potential to generate incomes for widow fisherwomen white increasing the production of tilapia. The USAID-supported PEARL project is working with both the Faculty of Agriculture and the Faculty of Management to produce, process, and market smoked catfish in eight Kigali supermarkets.47 Market surveys are being conducted, and if several Kigali markets are able to absorb 500 kilograms a week, the product has a chance of succeeding in providing much￾needed income to targeted women’s groups. 47 The Outreach Quarterly, PEARL project, 2001. Development Alternatives, Inc. 30 Recommendations for Future Programming An assessment of the Mission’s activities and strategy with respect to SO3, however, revealed that the gender dimensions of agricultural development and food security in Rwanda are not being adequately addressed within USAID’s program of activities. Recommendations have been carefully developed to fit closely within the Mission’s existing Strategic Objectives and framework of planned activities: Incorporate attention to gender in agriculture and food security within the Integrated Strategic Plan. “Farmers” are identified as the primary beneficiaries of USAID support services, with no distinction made between male and female farmers. The Integrated Strategic Plan should include a section under this Strategic Objective that explicitly addresses gender dimensions of agricultural development and food security in Rwanda. This should include identifying who makes what decisions and who has access to and control over different productive resources and benefits. Even more important, it is essential that these revisions are fully included when drafting the upcoming country strategy. Revise SO3 indicators. It is recommended that a complete review of existing indicators within this Strategic Objective be undertaken and indicators at the “people level” (such as “farmers,”) be systematically disaggregated by sex. Those indicators at the “institutional level” (such as “farmers associations” or “agri-businesses”) should be disaggregated by male/female ownership or representation. Without these Intermediate Results, sub￾Intermediate Results, and corresponding indicators being sex disaggregated, the Mission will not have a systematic method of obtaining accurate and informative feedback from farmers— which is critical so that USAID-funded support services can be appropriate, effective, and sustainable. Given that the USAID/Rwanda Performance Management Plan for SO3 (dated March 2001) specifically states in several sections that program performance indicators for USAID-supported activities will be disaggregated by sex, this recommendation aims at improved implementation of “stated intentions,” versus proposing new directions for USAID/Rwanda’s data collection methodology.48 For example, the Integrated Strategic Plan states that although the extension services of the Ministry of Agriculture are supposed to disseminate and extend technologies they do not have the manpower, material and logistics to provide adequate services. Therefore, USAID will work jointly with Ministry of Agriculture, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), its partners (such as World Vision, CRS, CARE, and ACDI/VOCA), and local NGOs and farmers’ associations to support the training of farmers and transfer of technologies. The Integrated Strategic Plan states that “IITA will develop the priorities and ensure that research activities respond to the needs of farmers, including women-headed households.” However, the corresponding indicators, such as “Percent of farmers using improved technologies,” do not specify the sex of the adopter or user of the improved technologies. Other gender-blind indicators include “Number of farmers attending training at outreach centers” and “Number of NUR students sent for long-term training in the U.S.” 48 USAID/Rwanda Performance Management Plan for SO3, March 2001. Chapter Three—Findings and Recommendations 31 Use gender analysis to conduct additional research in the agriculture and food security sector. A number of information gaps must be filled to ensure USAID/Rwanda’s programs do not inadvertently contribute to gender inequalities. First, it is highly recommended that USAID/Rwanda conduct a full-scale gender analysis of the agricultural development and food security sector in Rwanda. The Integrated Strategic Plan does not reflect sufficient awareness or knowledge with respect to the gender dimensions within this development sector. This analysis should permit USAID/Rwanda to see the extent to which there are differentials in individuals’ access to resources, labor contributions, cultural norms and expectations, skill needs, preferences, and differences in workload. Without this information, and a concerted and systematic effort on the part of USAID/Rwanda and its NGO and government partners to integrate appropriate gender-aware interventions across its portfolio of activities under SO3, the potential for female farmers to be marginalized or ineffectively served is substantial. Analyze the gender dimensions of cooperatives and farmers associations and provide follow￾on technical assistance. Another information gap is in reference to the interventions that are expected—”to provide outreach and training to farmers’ associations and cooperatives to enable them to improve production through technology transfer and use of improved inputs; add market value through assembling, packaging, etc.; to obtain access to credit; among other benefits.” The following questions should be answered either through a literature review or through primary quantitative and qualitative data collected through surveys: ▪ What percentage of members in the associations and cooperatives are female versus male? ▪ If there is a discrepancy, what can be done to promote more equal representation/participation? ▪ Do association and cooperative services represent the needs of female farmers? ▪ What level of decision making and leadership do female members have within an association or cooperative compared with their male counterparts? ▪ What kinds of technical or other support might be provided to farmers association and/or cooperatives to ensure that both male and female farmers are active participants and beneficiaries? Given that USAID/Rwanda has a cross-cutting objective of promoting capacity development and strengthening civil society, taking advantage of this opportunity to secure women’s full participation and leadership within the farmers’ associations and cooperatives clearly fits within the Mission’s strategic aims. Finally, there are studies, workshops, surveys, exchange programs, and training sessions scheduled for 2002 implementation, including: ▪ Free trade zone assessment; Development Alternatives, Inc. 32 ▪ Develop improved market information systems; ▪ Develop new activity work plans; ▪ Land use and agricultural production surveys; ▪ Household death survey to gain proxy insights on household-level effects of HIV/AIDS on rural households; ▪ Evaluation study of household changes (via emigration, female and child headed households, land tenure and market organization) and the effects it has on agricultural production, on and off-farm income and assets, etc.; ▪ New scopes of work for a variety of technical consultations; ▪ Activities to significantly increase the participation of agricultural stakeholders; ▪ Several software systems training workshops; ▪ New program for small agribusiness grant distribution; and ▪ Baseline surveys pertaining to food security in select regions. The gender dimensions of these activities should be elicited and acted upon through the inclusion of a gender specialist on any study or survey, making sure women are included in any training opportunities including female-owned agribusinesses in any grant-making opportunities. Planning ahead will make these activities gender-aware, improving performance of the activity, increasing sustainability, and supporting a more equitable outcome of benefits. Support the participation of USAID partners in gender training opportunities. MIGIPROFE is planning to conduct gender training sessions with the Ministry of Agriculture in 2002. Discussions with government representatives revealed that USAID collaboration would be highly desirable and beneficial to both USAID and Ministry of Agriculture. It would establish a baseline of information, contacts, and relationships from which to build upon in the long term concerning gender and agriculture efforts. Staff working on programs implemented by U.S. NGOs and international agriculture research institutions would also benefit from gender training. For example, under SO3, three development assistance proposals are being funded to support ongoing agricultural programs. They are implemented by U.S NGOs, including World Vision, ACDI/VOCA, and CRS. All three of the sponsors are helping the rural farm population in activities that significantly affect women farmers, such as improved agronomic techniques and practices, seed and tool distribution, farm management, livestock development, and business skills development. Interviews with project managers showed a strong interest in obtaining gender training for the in-country implementers. In fact, given Chapter Three—Findings and Recommendations 33 that 50 percent of all Food for Work participants in Rwanda are female, a better understanding of the gender dimensions of agriculture, food security, and program impacts within their program activities, through an applied gender training session, is highly recommended. Another important local implementer of USAID-supported activities within SO3 is the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). IITA’s annual plans of action focus primarily on the “training of farmers and transfer of technologies” to support food security through increasing yield and production levels. The Integrated Strategic Plan states that “IITA will develop the priorities to ensure that research activities respond to the needs of farmers, including women-headed households.” It is critical that IITA staff fully understand and implement gender-aware methods in their research and extension work. Thus, it is recommended that IITIA staff attend gender training sessions in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture—which, according to the recent Integrated Strategic Plan, will review and approve the annual plans of IITA. Chapter Four—Conclusions 35 CHAPTER FOUR CONCLUSIONS Since 1994, Government of Rwanda has taken meaningful steps to demonstrate its commitment toward gender equality and the government’s current receptivity should be seized to its fullest capacity by USAID/Rwanda. USAID/Rwanda is commended for its contributions to the advancement of women and girls and is encouraged to strengthen its current programs and develop new initiatives that more thoroughly and systematically integrate gender consideration into the mainstream of their portfolio of activities in Rwanda. Special emphasis should be placed on SO3—food security and economic growth—because this assessment revealed a particular weakness in this program and its activities with respect to gender. Given that on- and off-farm income generation for the majority of rural farmers is essential to reducing poverty and household food insecurity, and given women’s important contributions to agricultural production, income earnings, and household nutrition, it is critically important to address gender constraints in this sector to optimize results. The success of USAID/Rwanda’s investments will be better realized by Mission staff’s commitment and understanding of the importance of the gender dimensions of development. It is recommended that the Mission avail itself of the quality technical assistance and training services available through the USAID Office of Women in Development (EGAT/WID). Bibliography 37 BIBLIOGRAPHY “Action Plan for Development of Education and Research Policies,” December 2001. Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Scientific Research, Republic of Rwanda. (Draft for Discussion.) “A Framework for the Evaluation of National AIDS Programmes,” January 2000, USAID Center for Population, Health and Nutrition. Agence Canadienne de Développement International. “Stratégie de Promotion de l’Egalite entre les Hommes et les Femmes du Programme de Co∴peration Canadienne au Rwanda. 2000-2003.” Baldwin, Hannah and Newbury, Catharine, “An Evaluation of USAID/OTI’s Women in Transition Initiative in Rwanda,” Office of Transition Initiatives, USAID, Washington, June 1999. “Common Country Assessment—Rwanda: Gender,” CCA Paper #10, 1999-2000. “Conference on Constitution Development, Draft Proceedings,” Kibyue, Rwanda, August 2201. Conseil National des Femmes (Le), “Les Structures Organisationnelles des Femmes,” April 2001. Cornwall, Andrea, “Making a Difference? Gender and Participatory Development,” IDS Discussion Paper 378, Institute of Development Studies, England, 2000. Dusabe, Goretti and Ilidahemba, Aloys, “Repertoire sur les Institutions Intervenant dans la Promotion de la Femme au Rwanda,” Draft, October 2001, UNIFEM/Rwanda. “Etude sur les Croyances, les Attitudes, et les Pratiques Socio-culturelles en Rapport avec le Genre au Rwanda.” Fonds de Nations Unies pour la Population, Ministere du Genre et de la Promotion de la Femme, September 2001. “Evaluation des Besoins en Performance dans Onze Ecoles des Sciences Infirmieres et Onze Sites de Stages du Rwanda, Rapport Technique,” Mai-Juillet, 2001, Ministere de l’Education, Ministere de la Sante, le Kigali Health Institute et PRIME II. “Final Report on the Constitutional Development Conference,” August 2001. “Gender Sensitivity Assessment in Reproductive Health Service Delivery: Tools for RH Service Providers and Service Managers,” Draft, August 2001, PRIME II. Development Alternatives, Inc. 38 Hafkin, Nancy and Taggart, Nancy, “Gender, Information Technology, and Developing Countries: An Analytic Study,” Academy for Educational Development under the LearnLink Project, USAID Office of Women in Development, June 2001. Haguruku project documents pertaining to legal assistance, human rights awareness, and community based child protection. Kauzya, John-Mary, “Capacity Development for Implementing the Decentralization Policy,” Government of Rwanda, Ministry of Local Government and Social Affairs, May 2001, prepared in New York. Kauzya, John-Mary, “Capacity Development for Implementing the Decentralization Policy: Project Proposal for Strengthening the Administrative and Management Capacity of Women Leaders in Local Governments,” Draft, Government of Rwanda, Ministry of Local Government and Social Affairs, May 2001, prepared in New York. Karega, Vincent, PNRP Coordinator, “Report of the National Poverty Reduction Strategy Seminar,” October 2001. Luche, Jenna and Muhato, Wanjiku, “Detailed Workplan for REDSO/ESA Gender Assessment,” August 28, 2001. Memorandum from the Pierre St-Hilaire, Resident Legal Advisor to Rwanda from the U.S. Department of Justice to Gerald Gahima, Prosecutor General, Kigali. MIGEPROFE, Gender Awareness Raising Workshop Document, December 2001. Ministère de l’Administration Locale et des Affaires Sociales, République du Rwanda, “Politique Nationale de Décentralisation,” Mai 2000. Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Scientific Research, “Action Plan for Policy Development,” Draft for Discussion, December 2001, Republic of Rwanda. Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, National Poverty Reduction Programme, The Government of Rwanda, “Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper,” November 2001. Ministry of Local Government and Social Affairs, Republic of Rwanda, “Programme Support for Implementation of Decentralization and Democratization in Rwanda,” November 2000. Mukamurenzi, M. and Mukankusi, “Vénantie, “Étude sur la Situation de la Femme au Rwanda, Analyse des Obstacles Légaux et Socio-Culturelles à Son Intégration dans le Processus de Développement,” Banque Mondiale, Kigali, Avril 1997. “MIGEPROFE—The Way Forward—A Scoping Study: Developing a Strategic Management Framework,” Post Mission Report. July 28, 2001. CIDA, OPM, DFID. Bibliography 39 “MIGEPROFE Gender Mainstreaming Development Programme Proposal,” November 2001. Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Scientific Research, “Donor Interventions in Education 2002-2004,” Republic of Rwanda (undated). Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Scientific Research, “Thematic Group Meeting on Education,” November 2001, Republic of Rwanda. “National AIDS Programmes: A Guide to Monitoring and Evaluation,” UNAIDS, June 2000. “National Gender Plan of Action,” Ministry of Gender and the Advancement of Women, November 1999. “National Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and Conclusions Report,” 09-10/10/01, National Poverty Reduction Programme, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, November 2001. Newbury, Catharine, “Women Associations in Post-Conflict Rwanda,” Draft for Mission Review,” Centre for Development Information and Evaluation, USAID, Washington D.C., 1999. “Performance Management Plan. SO3: Increased Ability of Rural Families in Targeted Communities to Improve Household Food Security,” USAID/Rwanda, March 2001. “PRIMEII/Intrah-Rwanda Workplan: July 1, 2001-June 30, 2002.” Quarterly reports for USAID-supported Women in Transition (WIT) and Seruka Projects. Quisumbing, Agnes R. and Mienzen-Dick, Ruth, “Empowering Women to Achieve Food Security, Overview,” IFPRI 20/20 Vision, Focus 6, Policy Brief 1, August 2001. Quisumbing, Agnes and Mienzen-Dick, Ruth S., “Health and Nutrition Empowering Women to Achieve Food Security:” Overview, IFPRI, Focus 6, Policy Brief 1, August 2001. Quisumbing, Agnes and Mienzen-Dick, Ruth S., “Law and Legal Reform. Empowering Women to Achieve Food Security: Overview,” IFPRI, Focus 6, Policy Brief 1 of 12, August 2001. Quisumbing, Agnes and Mienzen-Dick, Ruth S. “Overview: Empowering Women to Achieve Food Security.” IFPRI, Focus 6, Policy Brief 1, August 2001. “Rapport Periodique d’Activités de SERUKE.” Projet de Promotion du Role de la femme Rwandaise dans les Juridictions GACACA. Aout-Septembre-Octobre 2001, No 2, Novembre 2001. Publication supported with funds from USAID/Rwanda. Development Alternatives, Inc. 40 Muhato, Wanjiku, “REDSO/ESA Regional Gender Impact Assessment—Task Order/Statement of Work, Attachment ‘A’” (undated). “Report of the Thematic Group Meeting on Education Held on 26/07/2001,” Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Scientific Research. Republic of Rwanda. Morel-Seytoux, Sylvie, “Review of Gender Issues in the USAID/Kenya Integrated Strategic Plan (ISP) 2001-2005,” WIDTECH Consultancy, September 2000. “Rwanda Civil Society Strengthening Project (CSSP), 2001.” “Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2000,” National Office of Population, Kigali, Rwanda.” “Rwandan Women Community Development Network,” Activity Report, June 1997-1999. “Rwandan Women in Local Government: Challenges and Opportunities Conference,” funded by UNIFEM, AFRICARE, SNV and USAID, in Collaboration with MINALOC and MIGEPROFE, October 23-25, 2001. “Seminaire de Formation en Matiere Constitutionnel, Raport Operationnel,” April-May 2001. “SO1, SO2 and SO3—Activity Implementation Review” documents. “Table de Specifications pour l’Amelioration de la Performance,” PRIME II. Performance Needs Assessment, 2001. “The Reachout Quarterly: Pearl Takes Shape,” Partnership for Enhancing Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages (PEARL Project), March, April, May 2001. Stover, John and Johnston, Alan, “The Art of Policy Formulation: Experiences from Africa in Developing National HIV/AIDS Policies,” August 1999, POLICY Project sponsored by USAID. “To Be Seen and Heard Is Everyone’s Choice,” A Handbook for Girls, Teachers and Communities on Participatory Methods to Promote Girl’s Education. FAWE 2001. “USAID/Bulgaria Gender Assessment and Plan of Action, July 2001.” “USAID/Rwanda Results Review and Resource Request (R4),” March 31, 2000. “USAID/Rwanda SO2 Results Framework.” “USAID/Rwanda SO2—Assessment Scope of Work.” “USAID/Rwanda Results Review and Resource Request (R4) 30, March 2001.” Bibliography 41 “USAID/Rwanda SO3 Activity Implementation Review.” “USAID/Rwanda Integrated Strategic Plan (ISP) FY 2001-FY 2004.” “USAID/Rwanda 2001 Gender Audit Results.” “Women in Transition Initiative,” Quarterly Activities Report for July-September 2001. October 31, 2001.” Ministry of Gender and Women in Development. Supported by USAID/Rwanda. World Bank Group, “Request for Financing Document—Institutional Strengthening Initiatives for the Legal Advancement of Women” (undated). World Vision International, “Rwanda Program Rapid Appraisal of the Farm Situation in the Gikongoro Prefecture, Baseline Survey,” October 2000. World Vision International, “Rwanda Program Rapid Appraisal of the Farm Situation in the Ruhengerii, Byumba and Butare Provinces of Rwanda, Baseline Survey,” August 2001. Zuckerman, Elaine, “Why Engendering PRSPs Reduces Poverty, and the Case of Rwanda,” October 2001, UNU/WIDER 2001. United Nations University, World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER). Discussion Paper No. 2001/112. A-1 ANNEX A SCOPE OF WORK A-2 A-3 SCOPE OF WORK BACKGROUND Seven years has passed since the devastating genocide and civil war in Rwanda. The Government of Rwanda and the Rwandan people continue to make progress in promoting national peace, reconciliation and in rebuilding the institutional infrastructure required for the country to address fundamental economic, political and social problems. However, social and economic indicators rank Rwanda as among the poorest countries in the Sub Saharan African region. 70 percent of the Rwandan population live below the poverty line and are struggling to meet the basic primary needs like food or shelter for their families. Since 1962, the Mission’s programs and assistance grew steadily from a few hundred thousand dollars to a level of $20 million by 1992. Assistance focused on many sectors, beginning with education, urban infrastructure and public safety. By the mid to late 1980’s, USAID supported programs in agriculture, natural resource management, health and population, private sector development, and economic and political policy reform. The events of 1994 initially transformed the USAID/Rwanda effort into a largely humanitarian operation providing almost $600 million in emergency relief assistance, including nearly $411 million in food assistance to a large displaced population within the country and outside of its borders. More recently USAID assistance has averaged $43 million per year with a greater proportion of funds now committed to development activities rather than relief measures. For the past 4 years, USAID has implemented a strategy that focuses on three areas of involvement: democracy and governance, health and food security. USAID/Rwanda Strategic Objectives USAID/Rwanda’s strategy is comprised of three strategic objectives: ▪ SO1—Democracy & Governance: Increased rule of Law and Transparency in Governance. ▪ SO2—Health Services and HIV/AIDS Interventions: Increased Use of Sustainable Health Services in Target Regions. ▪ SO3—Agriculture and Economic Growth: Increased Ability of Rural Families in Target Communities to Improve Household Food Security. Over the course of the last year, major components of the Mission’s portfolios in all three areas of strategic interest have moved into full-scale implementation. The Mission is well positioned to achieve additional significant results over the three years remaining under the current Integrated Strategic Plan (ISP). A-4 The Bureau approved a further extension of the ISP through FY 2004 with the provision that the Mission begins work in 2001 on a new comprehensive strategy that would begin October 1, 2004. With assistance from REDSO/ESA, the Mission has developed a “roadmap” of actions and activities necessary to develop a new strategy. According to the ADS 200 series, USAID/Rwanda is required to integrate gender considerations into all programming. Results from an internal gender audit revealed that gender equity is important to the Mission and should be integrated into our programs. Although we do manage to address some gender considerations in our activities, it is not done explicitly and neither are the affects of our activities monitored. As USAID/Rwanda prepares to develop a Country Strategy Plan, we are interested in defining what will be the Missions role in gender development and how can we integrate more effectively gender in our core activities, and/or identify potential new program areas. PURPOSE OF WORK The purpose of this Statement of Work is to obtain the services of a team of two consultants from the Office of Women-In-Development (G/WID)’s WIDTECH Project (hereafter referred to as “consultants”) to help USAID/Rwanda outline where gender issues are of the greatest importance, and formulate detailed recommendations on how gender considerations can be integrated more systematically into the Missions current and future strategic activities. The work will be accomplished in two phases. The first phase includes conducting the gender assessment and development of the Gender Action Plan; drafting the Mission Order; and presenting findings to USAID/Rwanda and relevant partners (A-C as follows). The second phase (D, as follows) will focus on training USAID/Rwanda and relevant partners’ staff in gender principles and methods. Carry out a Gender Assessment and Design a Gender Action Plan The consultants will carry out the assessment using the following methods: ▪ Assess USAID/Rwanda’s present strategic framework, results framework, program activities and staff capacity within our SO1, SO2, and SO3 programs, to identify gender issues, and determine possible entry-points for the incorporation of new, gender￾promoting programs. ▪ Assess USAID/Rwanda’s NGO partners’ and public institutions’ (i.e. Ministry of Gender) capacities to address gender issues and determine if gender analysis tools are used to track their activities and results. ▪ Meet with major donors or other international organizations, which have important gender programs in Rwanda, to ask for their advice on the Mission’s role in promoting gender-relevant programs and policies. A-5 ▪ Meet with the consultant or representative from REDSO/ESA, who is looking at the Mission’s approach and impact on gender in Rwanda, to ensure coordination across the two assessments. Based on the assessment, the consultants will design a Gender Action Plan that lays out the steps for mainstreaming gender in Mission policies and activities as a cross cutting theme, and that complies with Agency Directives. ▪ The Action Plan should address how to operationalize gender from the perspective of USAID/Rwanda partners, donors, and the overall Mission management, based on the above analysis. The Gender Action Plan should include, but not be limited to, the following elements: B The gender assessment described above; B Technical advice on the USAID/Rwanda Strategic and Results Framework to reflect the key role of gender considerations in the achievement of USAID goals; B Under each strategic objective, outline the key role that gender plays relative to the SO and its activities; B Gender indicators of program impact and methods for the collection and analysis of gender-disaggregated data. Develop Draft Points for Preparing a Mission Order Produce draft points for USAID/Rwanda to mainstream gender issues. These points should reflect: ▪ The Mission’s procurement issues and highlight the Agency’s policy on contracting with women and small business owners. ▪ Reflect the Agency ADS guidelines and standard provisions addressing gender to be included in RFP, RFAs, etc. ▪ Outline steps for measuring proposed performance, evaluating and scoring gender components of proposals. ▪ Within the Mission’s operational and policy goals, suggest a gender structure that promotes diversity, career development in the work place, and empowerment. ▪ SO results/activities. ▪ Gender Committee—including a draft “terms of reference” for the Committee. A-6 Present Findings of the Assessment and Conduct Gender Briefings ▪ Organize a half-day session to present the gender assessment findings to USAID/Rwanda staff, implementing partners, donors and the Ministry of Gender, and discuss how these stakeholders can play an active role in the Mission’s strategy implementation process. ▪ Provide gender briefings for USAID/Rwanda staff and their partners, as appropriate. B Facilitate 2-3 briefing sessions for USAID/Rwanda staff and their implementing partners. Each session will run no more than 2 hours. B Topics covered will include the importance of integrating gender and the background to the Agency (ADS) guidelines on gender integration. B Participants will be the Mission Director and Senior Management, SO Team Leaders and the program staff, the Gender Officer and the major implementing partners. Staff Gender Training ▪ The consultants will train USAID/Rwanda staff on Gender and Development (GAD) approaches and gender mainstreaming. The objective is to increase the Mission’s capacity to mainstream gender into its development activities. B Training will include capacity building in the planning, implementation and monitoring of programs using the GAD approach. B The consultants shall organize, develop and deliver a 4-day training program on the competencies required for the GAD approach, and gender mainstreaming. The training will be conducted in English and the Kinyarwanda language. An interpreter will be available to translate the discussion in Kinyarwanda. B The consultants will hold a 1.5-day training session that will adapt the content, materials, and methods used in the 4-day session to the needs of Senior Managers in USAID and partner institutions. The USAID/Rwanda Gender Officer, the Gender Action Committee, and the SO Team Leaders shall review the training program agenda and materials. The training program will incorporate locally developed modules (if any) and conform, in general, to the objectives of the Ministry of Gender and USAID/Rwanda. Sector specific materials will be developed around: (1) health and population issues, (2) roles of women in post conflict societies, (3) roles of women in local government (i.e. elections), (4) access for women to economic opportunities (i.e. access to credit), (5) roles of women in connection to food security vis a vis food crop production and cash crop production, and associated benefits and control over assets, (6) environment and natural resource management, and (6) education and literacy, particularly for girls and women. Within these six areas, the materials also will identify the different roles of men and women, their relationships and balance between them; constraints that affect achieving improvements for the status of women and look at strategies that can mitigate future constraints. A-7 Participants will be SO Team Leaders and the program staff, Gender Officer, senior managers, the Mission Director and representatives of implementing partners. Topics to be covered during these workshops shall be reviewed and approved by USAID/Rwanda. The consultants will be responsible for planning and delivering the workshop and providing all course materials. The training will be conducted at USAID/Rwanda. METHODOLOGY Prior to departure for Rwanda, the team members shall review documents to be forwarded to them by the Mission and WIDTECH. These will include Mission policy and planning documents, such as the current ISP and R4; background information available on gender issues in Rwanda and other in-country data; gender assessments reports and action plans from other partners or countries, which can be used as models by the team. In carrying out the data collection phase of the work, the team shall interview the following: ▪ Members of the Missions’ SO Teams and the Program Office, and the Gender Action Committee. ▪ USAID implementing partners, as identified by the Mission in advance (in order to facilitate appointments) and approved by the Mission. ▪ Consultant or representative from REDSO/ESA. ▪ A range of women professional NGOs and grassroots interest groups, as identified by the Mission in advance (in order to facilitate appointments) and approved by the Mission. ▪ Representatives from the Ministry of Gender. ▪ Major donors or other international organizations, which have important gender programs as, identified by the Mission in advance (in order to facilitate appointments) and approved by the Mission. DELIVERABLES Gender Assessment and Action Plan The Gender Assessment and Action Plan will use the data from interviews and secondary sources to assess the appropriate technical areas for gender emphasis and make recommendations for future actions for gender and development integration. The documents also will be the basis for further technical assistance to be provided by USAID/Washington. A preliminary draft shall be submitted to the Mission upon completion of fieldwork, with electronic copies forwarded to the Mission and WIDTECH. The two recipients will provide written comments electronically within 5 working days of receipt. A revised draft Gender Assessment and Action Plan, incorporating USAID/Rwanda and WIDTECH comments, shall be submitted to USAID/Rwanda and WIDTECH no later than 5 A-8 working days after the consultants receive input. USAID/Rwanda and WIDTECH will have 5 working days to provide additional written comments on the second draft. Comments will be sent electronically. The final Gender Assessment and Action Plan will be submitted within 10 working days after receiving comments on the revised second draft. Mission Order Draft points for a Mission Order which mainstreams gender issues shall be submitted to the Mission and WIDTECH for consideration and comments no later than two weeks after the completion of the field work. Presentation of Assessment findings USAID/Rwanda will organize a half-day session for USAID/Rwanda staff, implementing partners, international donors and public institutions. The session will present the findings of the Assessment and discuss how these stakeholders can play an active role in assisting the Mission to develop its new strategy on gender. Gender Briefings Facilitate 2-3 briefing sessions for USAID/Rwanda staff and their implementing partners. Each session will run approximately 2 hours in length. Topics covered will include the importance of integrating gender and the background to the Agency (ADS) guidelines on gender integration. Mission Staff Training The consultants will provide technical assistance and train USAID/Rwanda staff and partners on Gender and Development (GAD) approaches and gender mainstreaming. The objective is to increase the Mission’s capacity to mainstream gender into its development activities. The 4-day and 1.5-day training programs and materials will be designed on the competency need for the GAD approach to planning and program development and gender mainstreaming will be designed. ESTIMATED LEVEL OF EFFORT The estimated level of effort (LOE) will be used in two phases. Phase one will require the services of two consultants to carry out the assessment, design a Gender Action Plan and A-9 conduct briefings to the Mission and its partners (see II A-C). The estimated LOE is 44 days, or 22 days per consultant. The consultants will have up to 4 days for preparation, 4 days for travel, 28 days in the country and 8 days at home to complete the draft and final documents. A six-day workweek in country will be authorized. Phase two (see II D, above) will consist of the two consultants providing two trainings: one 4-day gender training for Mission staff and partners, and one 1.5-day training for USAID and relevant partners’ Senior Managers. It is anticipated that services will be required for up to 28 days (or 14 days per consultant). The consultants will have up to 4 days preparation, 4 days for travel, 16 days in the country (1.5 planning; 5.5 training; 1 debriefing per consultant), and 4 days for report writing at home. A six-day workweek in country will be authorized. Total estimated amount of time is 72 days. Performance Period It is anticipated that the period of performance for phase one will begin on or about November 16, 2001. The work will be completed December 14, 2001. Phase two will begin on or about February 20, 2002. The work will be completed March 20, 2002. Relationships and Responsibilities The consultants shall report to and work in close collaboration with the Gender Officer, Angelina Allen-Mpyisi, who works under the supervision of the Program Supervisor in the Mission Strategy Center. Language Requirements and Qualifications At least one of the consultants shall have a minimum fluency of French S-4/R-4. All deliverables shall be submitted in English. The consultants will have experience in the three SO areas of USAID/Rwanda and familiarity with gender issues in the Great Lakes region as well as networking techniques and constraints. Reporting Requirements Entry and exit meetings of the consultant with the Mission Director or the relevant representative will be organized. WIDTECH will provide overall technical and management direction. All technical assistance deliverables will be provided for comment to USAID/Rwanda and WIDTECH. B-1 ANNEX B PERSONS INTERVIEWED B-2 B-3 PERSONS INTERVIEWED USAID/Rwanda ▪ Dick Goldman, Mission Director ▪ Joan LaRosa, Deputy Director ▪ Angelina Allen-Mpyisi, Gender Officer and Greater Horn of Africa Initiative Coordinator ▪ Kim Pease, SO1 Team Leader ▪ Pierre Munyura, SO1 Officer ▪ Pierre St. Hilaire, SO1 U.S. Resident Legal Advisor to Rwanda, U.S. Dept. of Justice, PASA ▪ Elizabeth Drabant, SO2 Team Leader ▪ Barnabe I. Mpfizi, SO2 Health Specialist ▪ Andrew Karas, SO3 Team Leader ▪ Heather Goldman, SO3 Regional Food Security Advisor ▪ Serge Rwamasirabo, SO3 Food Security Advisor ▪ Venant Safali, SO3 Regional Food Nutrition Officer ▪ Gender Committee Members: Jacqueline Masika, Anastasie Mukamusana, Jim Leo, Pierre Munyura, and Beth Drabant Government of Rwanda ▪ Edda Mukabagwiza, Secretaire General, Ministere De La Justice Et Des Relations Institutionnelles (Ministry of Justice and Institutional Relations) ▪ Odette Kabaya, Director of Planning, Ministry Justice (MINIJUST) ▪ Representatives from the Ministry of Education ▪ Dr. Maria Mugabo, Cef de Division, Ministry of Health ▪ Madame Angelina Muganza, Minister of the Ministry of Gender and Women in Development (MIGEPROFE) ▪ John Mutamba, Director of Gender and Development, Ministry of Gender and Women in Development ▪ Mme Fatuma, Director of Women in Development, Ministry of Gender and Women in Development Non-Governmental Organizations and Universities in Rwanda ▪ Mary Bulikungeri, Program Coordinator and Director, Rwanda Women Community Development Network/Rwanda Women’s Network (RWN) ▪ Suzanne Ruboneka, Chargee du Programme Campagne Action pour la Paix, Pro-Fem ▪ Mathilde Kanitesi, President, Pro-Fem ▪ Anne Gahongayire, Coordinator, Forum for African Women Educationlists (FAWE￾Rwanda) ▪ Faculty of the National University of Rwanda, Information Systems (IT) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Mapping Program B-4 U.S. Embassy ▪ U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda ▪ Ergibe Boyd, Public Affairs Officer USAID-Sponsored Project Partners and Beneficiaries ▪ Steve Morgan, Assistant Country Representative, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) ▪ Yvan Porcheron, Chief of Party, Management Sciences for Development, MINIJUST ▪ Alice Ndegeya, Secretaire Executive, Association pour la Promotion de la Contribution Active de la Femme Rwandaise au Developpement (SERUKA) ▪ Oswald Samvura, Chargé de Programme (SERUKA) ▪ Kristin A. Cooney, Country Director, Intrah/PRIME II/Rwanda ▪ Timothy T. Schilling, Director, Partnership for Enhancing Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages (PEARL ) Project ▪ Emma Vwantege, Socio-Economist, PEARL Project ▪ Health Project Administrators with IMPACT and John Hopkins University projects ▪ Numerous Mayors at an all-day conference in Kibungo, representing various Districts throughout Rwanda under the SO2 USAID-supported PRIME and Impact Activities ▪ Christine Hjelt, Acting Coordinator, Women in Transition (WIT) Project ▪ Pearl Project Aquaculture Science Station staff, scientists, and students ▪ PEARL Project flower producers association members in Butare ▪ Members of Rwandan Women’s Associations at CIDA-sponsored meeting ▪ Participants at a Rwanda Gender/Inheritance Law Workshop (sponsored by USAID/Rwanda) ▪ Workers at the Marabara PEARL Project-sponsored Coffee Operation ▪ PEARL Project-supported coffee growers in rural villages ▪ Ben Siddle, Programme Officer, HR, Justice, Peace and Reconciliation (Trocaire) ▪ Leonard Bell, Senior Consultant (Trocaire—International Development Ireland, Ltd.) ▪ Brian Bacon, Telecommunications (IT) Advisor, USAID/Washington, D.C ▪ Cary Alan Johnson, Representative (Africare) ▪ Jean Karambizi, John Hopkins University ▪ Paul Delucco, Country Representative (ACDI/VOCA) ▪ Marc Sommers, Research Fellow, Center for Conflict Resolution in Rwanda/Boston University . Other Donors ▪ Carl Aaron, Investment Policy Officer, Small and Medium Enterprise Department, International Finance Corporation, World Bank ▪ Cathy Tremblay (3rd secretary, cooperation), Canadian International Development Agency ▪ Marie Kagaju, Gender Officer of the Program Support Unit, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) ▪ Des Musabyimana, Gender Officer, Netherlands Cooperation ▪ Ghislai Parent, Advisor, Banking Supervision (IMF) B-5 ▪ DFID representatives ▪ UNHCR representatives ▪ Diana Opar, Regional Gender Advisor, United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) C-1 ANNEX C RECOMMENDATIONS FOR USAID/RWANDA GENDER ACTION COMMITTEE AND GENDER OFFICER C-2 C-3 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR USAID/RWANDA GENDER ACTION COMMITTEE AND GENDER OFFICER Provided below is an initial list of suggested activities for the Gender Action Committee and Gender Officer: ▪ Establish a Gender Action Committee (GAC) represented by members within the USAID/Rwanda Mission; define role and member functions. ▪ Review and revise (if necessary) the USAID/Rwanda Gender Officer’s scope of work to ensure an adequate proportion of time is given to undertake gender-specific activities. ▪ Review the USAID/Rwanda budget to ensure that sufficient monies are “set aside” for gender-specific interventions across the Mission’s portfolio of program and project activities. Do the same “budget review” within each strategic objective portfolio of activities. ▪ Identify systematic processes to ensure gender is fully integrated within USAID/Rwanda’s country program from the initial program planning, to implementation, to evaluation stages through review of the ISP, scopes of work, RFPs, project designs and evaluations, etc. ▪ Identify gender training needs among USAID/Rwanda Mission staff, as well as counterpart organizations implementing USAID- supported projects. ▪ Identify additional data collection/research on gender needs within each sector and/or project activities to better inform the development, implementation, and evaluation of USAID/Rwanda’s development activities. ▪ Identify and draft a master list of key “gender aware” individuals to collaborate with in Rwanda, and begin to establish long-term relations and exchange of information. ▪ Establish a country-wide Gender Donor Coordinating Committee; define roles and member functions. ▪ Create a local consultant roster of gender experts to include in any gender training or research consultancies. ▪ Establish a WID/Gender Resource Center within USAID/Rwanda to include gender￾focused and Rwanda-specific literature (produced from within USAID as well as related outside materials.) C-4 ▪ Organize Gender Action Committee meetings on a regular basis, as well as during strategic periods then gender issues arise in Rwanda—that may impact of benefic from USAID support. (Example—changes in inheritance, land, employment or matrimonial laws affecting women; drafting of a new constitution; impacts of decentralization/privatization, etc.) ▪ Identify those who will monitor major national plans of action, such as the PRSP, so that interventions/recommendations can be made upfront by USAID for inclusion of gender considerations. D-1 ANNEX D MEMORANDUM FROM U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE REGARDING PROSECUTION OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE D-2 D-3 MEMORANDUM FROM U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE REGARDING PROSECUTION OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE IN RWANDA November 30, 2001 Gerald GAHIMA Prosecutor General Kigali, Rwanda Re: Prosecution of Gender-Based Violence Committed during the Genocide and Medical Treatment and Psychological Counseling for Victims of Torture Dear Mr. Prosecutor General: Given that the training of the Gacaca judges will begin in February 2002, there is an increasing urgency to resolve several outstanding issues that, if not resolved before the implementation of Gacaca, can have dire consequences for the success of the Gacaca process. As discussed more fully below, these issues concern, inter alia: 1) adoption of a uniform definition of rape for Gacaca and the classic justice system; 2) training of those Gacaca judges charged with categorizing the accused; 3) specialized training of Gacaca judges and other actors in the judicial process in trauma counseling; 4) installing security measures to guard against violence and threats of violence against victims and witnesses, Gacaca judges and others working in an official capacity for the Gacaca jurisdictions, including those enforcing warrants of arrest or those serving process on an accused; and 5) filing with the UN Secretary-General a notice of derogation to shield the Rwandan government from any future action for violation of the defendant’s fair trial rights in the Gacaca jurisdictions. A. Guidance Memorandum on Sexual Torture and Rape. On June 26, 2001, we met with Minister of Gender and Women in Development, Angelina Muganza, to discuss, among other things, issues concerning the treatment of rape in Rwanda’s laws and in particular the prosecution of the genocide cases. Most notably, we discussed whether rape can or should serve as an independent basis for charging someone with sexual torture under the Organic Law of 1996. That issue, as you are aware, does not admit of one conclusion. Nor is it an academic one. There are deep divisions among prosecutors and judges on whether rape alone can ever amount to sexual torture. In any event, my immediate concern at the time was not how rape should be classified, but that however it was classified it be done so in uniformly. Moreover, we discussed—but did not decide—the question whether those who extracted sexual favors from women whom they saved from execution, should similarly be prosecuted as category one offenders, another issue that has divided the courts and the parquets. The answers to these questions are not easy D-4 and have far reaching implications for the proper disposition of these cases and the ultimate quest for reconciliation. Article 51(d) of the Gacaca law, which supersedes the Organic Law of 1996, makes it plain that “rape” is now a category one offense, regardless of the misconceptions under which judges and prosecutors may have labored in interpreting Article 2 of the Organic Law of 1996. The fact still remains, however, that the Gacaca jurisdictions are not authorized to recategorize those defendants whose dossiers were transferred to the Tribuneaux de Premiere Instance before March 15, 2001. Accordingly, there exist the possibility that some offenders who committed identical crimes will receive (or have received) widely different sentences depending on the jurisdiction in which they are tried or the panel of judges they happened to draw. Justice, if we understand that term to mean fair process for those faced with the death penalty, should not be dispensed in this arbitrary manner, and this government should take the necessary steps to avoid this potential miscarriage of justice. At a minimum, the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Court should immediately issue a guidance memorandum to the parquets and the Tribunals directing them to categorize alleged rapists uniformly. Although I have avoided expressing an official view on the issue in the past, the time is ripe to present one. I believe that rape, whether or not it is accompanied or preceded by horrific acts of physical torture such as the use of a spear, machete or masu against the victim before and/or during the rape, is “sexual torture,” notwithstanding attempts in the Gacaca Law to draw a distinction between those two acts. This government would be on firm legal ground to characterize it as such. Article 1 of the Torture Convention defines torture as: An act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him/her or a third person information or a confession, punishing him/her for an act. . . when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. Rape in times of war by a state agent with the purpose of intimidating or humiliating falls within the criteria of torture. In March 1996, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights found that a rape of a woman at her home by a state agent amounted to torture under article 5 of the American Convention. Fernando and Raquel Mejia v. Peru, Report No. 5/96, case 10/970, 1 March 1996. The Inter-American Commission noted that rape by a state agent meets each of the three necessary components of torture under contemporary international law. First, rape is an intentional act, which causes physical and mental pain. Second, it is inflicted with the purpose of humiliating and dominating a person. Third, it is committed by a public or private person acting at the official’s instigation. In another report on the Situation of Human Rights in Haiti, the Inter-American Commission stated that when the sexual abuse is committed by representatives of the army, the police or their armed civilian auxiliaries, with the authorization or tolerance of the illegal regime, it constitutes a violation of article 5 of the American Convention, and other international treaties. See Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Report on The Situation of Human Rights in Haiti, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.88, 9 D-5 February 1995. Like the situations presented in the two reports cited above, the Interhamwe and other private citizens who committed rape during the genocide used it as an instrument of war to punish and humiliate the victims, and they did so as part of an official government￾sponsored campaign of ethnic-cleansing. I recommend in favor of a guidance memorandum from the Executive and Judicial Branches of the Rwandan government directing their subordinates to treat rape as “sexual torture.” B. Proposed Legislation, Rules and Definitions. In addition to adopting a uniform definition of rape, it is equally important to resolve which specific acts constitute rape. Otherwise, there will be no way of ensuring that detainees who are accused of committing the same acts or set of acts are categorized differently. Such disparity could undermine the legitimacy of the Gacaca process, whose success will depend largely on the perceptions by Rwandans and donors supporting the process. For example, some prosecutors believe that there is significant difference between a detainee accused of raping a woman through violent and forceful means and those who had sexual relations with women whose lives their spared or saved from others. Consistent with my position in Part A of this memorandum, there is no legal distinction —for the purpose of charging an individual with an offense— between the rape of woman accomplished through violent means and one accomplished with threats of handing the woman over to Interahamwe or ordinary citizens with genocidal intentions if she did not “willingly consent” to sexual relations. To the extent rape is a category one offense subject to the death penalty— and I have expressed my views on this matter in other memoranda and will not repeat them here— each hypothetical act described above should be classified as a category one offense. In each of the scenarios delineated above, one could not argue that the women “consented.” The Gacaca judges should receive specialized training on how to properly classify category one defendants charged with rape. Such training, however, cannot be effective without a definition of rape. 1 The penalty that this classification carries demands close attention to the training of the judges at that stage of the Gacaca process. Finally, I drafted and submitted for review a proposed rape law for the Penal Code and suggestions for drafting a rape shield law to bar irrelevant inquiry into a rape victim’s sexual past. We should meet with Minister Muganza to discuss what, if any, additional steps should be taken to expedite adoption of a law defining rape. Similarly, a rape shield law statute is an important tool for protecting women from unwarranted attacks on their reputation during judicial proceedings. It could also serve as an incentive for a woman to report crimes involving sexual violence. Any measure taken by the Rwanda government to treat rape victims as “true victims” and not as an accomplice or an unwitting participant to the crime could serve as a disincentive to many would-be rapists. 1 These examples are by no means fictitious. There are, in fact, individuals charged with committing those acts and who will be categorized by the Gacaca jurisdictions. Although other examples were not developed here, but there are other legally difficult factual scenarios the Gacaca judges will have to grapple with in their deliberations (i.e. whether there is “genuine consent” in instances where a woman “willingly consented” to se to protect a family member). Whether there is consent in that situation depends on whether the definition of rape makes it clear that force or threat of force against a third party can vitiate consent. D-6 C. Creation of Sexual Violence Desk in Every Province. During our June 26th meeting with Minister Muganza, she suggested the creation of an office or “desk” in each jurisdiction to deal with gender-based violence. We should voice strong support for her proposal and urge the Minister of Justice and the Commission General to implement it. Victims of rape or other sexual abuse—either from fear that they will be stigmatized or out of fear of reprisals— are often reluctant to report rape crimes. To be effective, an office (or “desk”) of this sort must adopt a policy whereby women can file a confidential complaint about sexual abuse without fearing reprisals. More important, those selected to staff that office must be properly trained to avoid retraumatization or revictimization of the complainant. In this culture, as in other male-dominated cultures, most rape victims do not receive the support of their husbands. To the contrary, many Rwandan women suspected of having been raped were shunned and continue to be shunned by their husbands or their communities. The shame these women have had to bear is so strong that many, hearing of investigations and possible court proceedings, fear it is they who will be brought to trial for having been raped. It is hardly surprising that many suffer silently and would rather risk the rapist escaping punishment than to be identified as a rape victim. As you know, USAID recently received funds to treat victims of torture, a portion of which will be used to provide gender-sensitive training to prosecutors and other law enforcement and judicial personnel, including Gacaca judges, to prevent the retraumatization of women victims during judicial proceedings. According to AVEGA and other organizations that work with victims of violence, women victims of sexual abuse feel most comfortable recounting their experience to another woman (or an older male) and not to a young male police officer or prosecutor. Unfortunately, young male police officers and prosecutors comprise the majority of the police force and prosecutors at the parquets. Based on the latest statistics provided by the National Police (per Dennis Karera), there are 4000 officers in the National Police Force, of which only 200 are women. The Ministry of Justice fairs no better. Of the 245 prosecutors in the country only 24 are women. To increase the effectiveness of the office proposed by Minister Muganza, the Rwandan government would have to increase these numbers dramatically. Indeed, it will require a strong commitment on the part of this government to encourage the hiring of women in the Ministry of Justice and the National Police force. The GOR must implement a broad and robust recruitment program aimed at women, which includes incentives for them to join these sectors of government. In addition to creating a sexual violence office in various provinces, serious consideration should be given to changing court procedures for victims of sexual violence. To avoid stigmatizing women and to protect their privacy, judgments in rape cases should not be made public, unless the victim’s name is redacted. Moreover, current court procedures should be amended to give rape victims the choice of whether or not to testify publicly. I have discussed this issue with Judge Karugarama and, at present, he sees no legal impediment to changing these procedures so as to accommodate rape victims and not undermine the defendant’s right to an effective defense. This approach would be consistent with procedures in the Gacaca proceedings (Cell level) to seal hearings involving rape allegations. D-7 D. Measures to Treat Women Victims of the Genocide. Victims of sexual violence have suffered and continue to suffer from wounds and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). According to most the international or local NGOs that I have consulted on these issues, it is often difficult to determine how many women have been sexually abused. This difficulty, they note, makes it harder to provide appropriate care to victims of sexual violence. The fact that most victims have a desire to remain silent about the abuse further diminishes the likelihood that they will receive adequate assistance. The ICTR only provides medical and psychological counseling support for the women victims who are party to proceedings before the ICTR. It is not clear whether this type of assistance continues past one year after these witnesses have testified. According to an AVEGA representative, the ICTR has not indicated whether it will continue the support of approximately 200 victims of the genocide and witnesses who cooperated with the ICTR. I voiced concerns to ICTR representative, Nieves Molina, who oversees the ICTR Victim and Witness Fund, on the adverse effects termination of this program would have on these victims. There is something perverse and immoral about the ICTR’s decision or policy to discontinue the financing of medical and psychological treatment of “former” witnesses and victims. Ms. Molina and I discussed—and will continue discussion of— ways to continue supporting these women and the feasibility of extending this program to victims of sexual violence whom the ICTR identified during its investigations but which witnesses declined to cooperate with the ICTR. The discussions with Ms. Molina were fruitful. She appears to agree that medical treatment and counseling should be made available to all victims of gender-based violence, whether or not they choose to cooperate in judicial proceedings. She questioned, however, whether it would be beyond the scope of the ICTR’s mandate to extend treatment to all victims of gender-based violence identified by the ICTR but who declined to cooperate with the Tribunal. Such assistance should not be conditioned on their usefulness to the authorities. She acknowledged that the ICTR has not had to grapple with these issues but that she would press the matter with the Registrar, Adama Dieng, upon her return to Arusha. E. Rape as a death penalty-eligible offense & Derogation. Notwithstanding the analysis provided in part A of this memorandum, the classification of rape as a death penalty-eligible offense is in violation of Ex Post Facto clauses in Rwanda’s Constitution and several international instruments to which Rwanda is bound, specifically the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the latter of which provides for an enforceable right to compensation of those whose rights are violated by the Gacaca jurisdictions. Moreover, as expressed in my memorandum on whether Rwanda qualifies for derogation, to maintain rape as a death penalty-eligible offense is to virtually guarantee that a petition to derogate from ICCPR fair trial rights will be rejected. I will complete a draft of the petition, consistent with the results of my consultations with Professor Edwards of Indiana Law School and Professor ___ of Columbia University Law School. Both agree that Rwanda has a good case for derogation and believe that respectable arguments could be made for why the African Charter, which has no derogation clause but contains fair trial rights similar to the ones recognized in the ICCPR, should not be an obstacle to obtaining permission to derogate from rights implicated D-8 and violated the Gacaca law. We are in the process of scheduling a meeting with Minster Muganza for the week of December 3rd. We should also meet with the Commissioner of Police and the Minister of Justice to discuss a timetable for the implementation of these initiatives. Very truly yours, Pierre R. St. Hilaire U.S. Resident Legal Advisor to Rwanda cc: Angelina MUGANZA Minister of Gender and Women in Development Jean de Dieu Mucyo Minister of Justice and Institutional Relations Frank MUGAMBAGE Commissioner General E-1 ANNEX E GENDER TRAINING REPORT E-2 E-3 GENDER TRAINING REPORT Hélène Lalonde Jeanne Koopman March 2002 E-4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction and Objectives Preparation and Planning Workshop Program and Content The Gender Committee Lessons Learned and Recommendations Annexes 1: List of participants 2: Gender-Sensitive livelihood analysis 3: Elements of Gender-Sensitive Community Analysis 4: Rwanda’s Gender Mainstreaming Policy 5: Institutional Tools: Gender Institutional Analysis Force Field Analysis 6: Tools for Mainstreaming Gender in Activity Planning A Case Study: Labor-Intensive Rural Road Rehabilitation Activity Stakeholder Analysis—local, institutional and business stakeholders, project partners Characteristics of Poverty at community, household and individual levels Analyzing impacts 7: Gender Indicators (Justice and Governance) 8: Framework for Analyzing Potential Inter-Relationships between USAID Project in Agricultural and Food Security 9: Socio-Economic and Gender Issues in SO3 E-5 INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES This is a report of the first gender workshop provided by WIDTECH Project for USAID Rwanda. The workshop was planned and facilitated by two consultant trainers in collaboration with a gender specialist from the Rwandan Ministry of Gender and Women’s Affairs (MIGEPROFE), Justine Uvuza, and the USAID/Rwanda Gender Officer, Angelina Allen-Mpyisi. Support for the pre-workshop preparation and mission leadership of the effort was provided by USAID/Rwanda’s Gender Officer. The workshop was the second of a two￾part process: the first was preparation of a Gender Assessment and Gender Action Plan carried out by two WIDTECH consultants (one of whom also served on the gender training team) in November 2001. The workshop was held at the Kicukiro Training Center on March 21st and 22nd, 2002. It was attended by USAID staff and partners in the three priority programming sectors—justice and governance, health and agriculture as well as other participants from cross-cutting issues and Greater horn of Africa Initiative (GHAI) initiatives staff (See Annex 1). The purpose of the workshop was to initiate participants to basic concepts and tools used in a gender and development approach and to underscore its importance to program and project management. The general objectives of the workshop were to: ▪ Introduce participants to the underlying concepts : gender, gender equality, equality of outcomes, mainstreaming. ▪ Stimulate participants’ understanding of gender relations and gender issues in Rwanda. ▪ Introduce some analytical tools. ▪ Raise awareness of gender issues in different sectors. ▪ Promote the use of gender analysis as a sound development practice leading to improved development results. PREPARATION AND PLANNING Prior to the WIDTECH gender consultants arriving in Rwanda, the USAID mission’s Gender Officer made all logistical arrangements prior to the training team’s arrival and handled all communications with USAID staff and partner organizations, contacting some 80 people, often multiple times. The consultants reviewed USAID/Rwanda documents such as the 2001-2004 Integrated Strategic Plan (ISP) and the Results Review and Resource Request (R4), as well as the Gender Assessment conducted in November 2001. E-6 Each consultant collected a variety of tools, including the FAO’s Socio-economic and Gender Analysis (SEAGA) Package, materials on gender-sensitive indicators, and a wide variety of gender training materials from other agencies. The consultants also researched the internet to find information available on Strategic Objectives (SO) topics specific to Rwanda and southern Africa, i.e., HIV/AIDS, Democracy and Governance, Agriculture. The team leader collaborated with the Mission in developing a needs survey which provided information that assisted the Mission in setting appropriate goals for the training. These goals were provided to the training team soon after arrival in country. Upon arriving in-country, the consultants had three working days to meet with USAID Rwanda’s three SO teams (Justice and Governance, Health, and Agriculture and Food Security) to collect information on current projects and activities, to plan the specifics of the training with the MIGEPROFE co-facilitator, and to prepare training materials and handouts. WORKSHOP PROGRAM AND CONTENT Delivery of Training for Mission Staff and Partners (1.5 days) Table 1 provides a chronological overview of the training sessions, including the trainer taking the lead for the session. The narrative following Table 1 briefly describes the content of each session. The overheads, handouts, and flip chart contents resulting from the session are reproduced in the report’s annexes All participants worked together during the first day of the workshop. On the second day, separate sessions were held for the Justice/Governance and the Agriculture SO teams. Participants from the Health SO and those from the mission’s administrative departments attended the session of their choice. Most participants departed after lunch on the second day. (A special session for the USAID Mission’s Gender Committee was conducted on the afternoon of the second day. It is discussed in the next section of the report.) Table 1: Workshop Schedule Day One Morning ▪ Welcome: Mission Director, Dick Goldman ▪ Official opening: Minister of Gender and Women in Development, the Honorable Angelina Muganza ▪ Introduction of Participants ▪ Review of Agenda and Learning Objectives (Angelina Allen-Mpyisi) ▪ The Concept of Gender (Helen Lalonde) ▪ Analyzing Gender at the Household Level (Jeanne Koopman and Justine Uvuza) ▪ Analyzing Differences among Households (Jeanne Koopman) ▪ Gender Tree Analysis: Culture and Gender in Rwanda (Justine Uvuza) E-7 Day One Afternoon ▪ Gender Mainstreaming Policy in Rwanda (Justine Uvuza) ▪ Mainstreaming Gender into Institutions (Helene Lalonde) ▪ Mainstreaming Gender into USAID Projects and Activities (Jeanne Koopman) ▪ Mainstreaming Gender into USAID Rwanda Programming (Angelina Allen￾Mpyisi) Day Two Morning: Session on Governance and Justice Issues (Facilitated by Helene Lalonde and Justine Uvuza) ▪ Presentation on Gender and Justice issues in Rwanda ▪ Discussion on the presentation ▪ Engendering budgets—short discussion ▪ Gender Equality indicators for the governance sector ▪ Gender Equality indicators for the justice sector ▪ Force field analysis of the ‘justice system’ Day Two Morning: Session for Agriculture and Food Security (Facilitated by Jeanne Koopman) ▪ Overview of relationships between national agricultural policy-making, institutions in the sector, and farming communities. ▪ Participants place their projects in the national-institutional-field level framework. ▪ Discussion of existing and potential relationships among USAID-Rwanda projects working at different levels. ▪ Overview of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Socio￾economic and Gender Analysis (SEAGA) toolkit. ▪ Presentation by Julien Ntezimana of Save the Children on participatory techniques for identifying and analyzing major socio-economic differences among rural households. ▪ Future Needs and Preliminary Plans for Follow-up Content of the sessions: In welcoming the Minister of Gender and Women’s Affairs and the participants in the training, Mission Director Dick Goldman pointed out that this was the first gender training to which USAID-Rwanda had invited both Mission staff and representatives from all its partners. In her opening address, the Honorable Angelina Muganza, Minister of Gender and Women’s Affairs, remarked that this was the first time that a bilateral donor had conducted training with its Rwandan partners from both government and civil society. E-8 The Concept of Gender Objective: to introduce participants to the concepts used throughout the day: gender, gender equality and equality of outcomes and gender mainstreaming The presenter outlined the concept of gender as a social construction and pointed out that behaviors often thought to be inherent to women and men are actually learnt behaviors. These learnt behaviors result in very different roles for women and men as well as different life chances. It is these differences that need to be accounted for in development planning. Gender mainstreaming is a strategy by which all activities, programs and policies are acknowledged to have a gendered impact; they are not and cannot be neutral. This means that it is necessary to address gender in all of the activities in development planning—at the policy, institutional and activity/project levels. Analyzing Gender at the Household Level Objective: to introduce the participants to analysis of gender at the household level and the need to address intra-household differences. Projects aimed at introducing new technologies, credit and other resources to farmers, micro￾entrepreneurs, or traders can easily marginalize women if project planners do not take into account the gender-specific situations of men and women pursuing these occupations. In order to introduce participants to methods of gender analysis and adapt them to the Rwandan context, the presenters jointly facilitated a participatory discussion of the household livelihood system in Rwandan rural households. Participants were asked to describe both women’s and men’s gender-specific responsibilities in provisioning the household with food, shelter, protection, childcare, health and education services. Next, the gender-specific rights to use and control of household resources like land, livestock, and tools were analyzed, and, lastly, the typical on-farm and off-farm labor tasks of men and women were outlined. The entire analysis focused on the differing opportunities and constraints facing women and men in securing the household’s livelihood. The exercise revealed that rural women not only take full responsibility for childcare and household services (spending 4.8 hours a day cooking, providing fuel and water, caring for the sick), but they are also expected to produce the household’s main food crops with little or no male help (spending 8.7 hours a day cultivating beans, sweet potatoes, and vegetables) and then to help their husbands with their fields. Women also spend 2.3 hours a day on off-farm work including processing and selling crops, and purchasing household necessities. After selling small surpluses of crops or a chicken, women are traditionally expected to give the money earned to their husbands. Since women must also provide the household with necessities like salt, kerosene and cooking utensils, they must then ask their husbands for money to make these purchases. Some women E-9 participants suggested that this custom may be changing; some women are keeping part of the income they earn. Men have major responsibility for managing the household budget, caring for cattle, brewing and selling beer, cultivating and selling export crops, providing shelter by building and repairing the family’s house, representing the household in public arenas, providing discipline and order, and providing clothing, school fees, medical costs (and transporting the sick) as well as bride wealth for his sons. Men spend 8.9 hours a day on crop and livestock activities, 4.1 hours on off-farm work, less than one hour on household tasks. A second exercise demonstrated a technique for analyzing how men and women are able to fulfill their responsibilities by using and/or controlling household resources like land and livestock. The difference between use rights and control rights (the right to decide how the resource will be used, whether or when it should be sold, and so forth) was analyzed by gender. This exercise revealed that, whereas women have use rights to household resources like land and tools, they only control their own kitchen utensils and small livestock like chickens (deciding to consume or sell them). Men have control and decision-making authority over all other household resources: land, tools, cows, goats, and the allocation of household members’ labor-time. If projects are to understand how to reach both women and men, it is important to understand how patterns of labor and decision-making within households are constituted traditionally and how they are changing under the stresses of increased poverty. Participants indicated that gender relations in male-headed households are changing. To find out how, both women and men must be interviewed in project planning exercises. Even more importantly, the composition of rural households as a whole has changed drastically over the past decade. Thus, it is important that project planners understand differences in household types and the constraints on both men’s and women’s ability to participate in project activities as they relate to the type of household they belong to. Differences in Household Types Objective: to expose the participants to an analysis of different household types and the need to tailor activities to fit different needs This short presentation briefly highlighted the findings from recent studies by USAID partners on household demographics. A survey of 840 households in Gikongoro Prefecture found that male-headed households with a spouse present represented only 25 percent of all households. Men living without a spouse accounted for 11 percent of households; married women living alone (due mainly to the spouse’s out-migration) 25 percent, and women with no spouse and heading households 33 percent. These figures represent a profound change in household organization and structure that must be taken into account in planning and implementing agricultural sector activities at field, institutional, and policy-making levels. E-10 Another important series of studies conducted in several areas of the country by Save the Children Fund for USAID’s Regional Food Security Program. These studies are analyzing socio-economic differences using participatory techniques to identify household types and relationships among them that have contributed to both survival of the poor and to greater socio-economic disparities at the village level. Important differences in well-being and inter￾dependence were found among (1) households categorized as landless and labor-poor who depend on handouts and labor needs of other farmers, (2) landless poor whose livelihoods depend on providing labor for others, (3) land-owning poor who do not have enough land to meet their own needs, (4) middle level land-owners who can meet their needs and may hire the poor, and (4) the rich who have enough land to rent out and who provide most of the employment that enables the poor to survive. Inter-relations among different types of households need to be analyzed by USAID projects that want to reach various socio-economic and gender categories of farmers if technology dissemination activities are to contribute not only to increasing rates of rural growth, and not to exacerbate economic and gender gaps in productivity and well-being. Culture and Gender in Rwanda: the Gender Tree Objective: to explore with participants the underlying causes of gender inequality in Rwanda through an examination of the impact of traditional culture Using an analogy of a tree, the causes of gender differences were examined (the roots), the institutions which perpetuate inequalities and discrimination were outlined (the trunk and branches), as well as the results (foliage, leaves)—the unequal society. The session was highly participatory with input from the audience in terms of the taboos underlying many cultural views of women. For example, there is a taboo against women milking cows and another against women speaking in public. Proverbs suggest that a woman’s voice is dangerous and that a respectable woman does not speak in public. It is interesting to note that even in this session on gender, it was mostly male participants who spoke. Few Rwandan women ever voiced their opinion unless directly solicited. Some men’s concerns focused on the possibility of excessive ‘western’ influence on the issues around gender. Mainstreaming Gender Policy in Rwanda Objective: to illustrate to the participants that mainstreaming gender is a Rwandan policy. The session highlighted the functions of the Ministry of Gender and Women’s Affairs. A brief history was provided to situate the work of the Ministry in the Rwandan context. The presenter outlined the strategies used by MIGEPROFE in both its Gender and Development Program to mainstream gender in all Ministries, and it’s Women in Development Program, which has an empowerment focus. The strategies used by MIGEPROFE to deliver its E-11 programs were outlined as well as future challenges (recommendations for future action to be undertaken by MIGEPROFE). A copy of the full presentation is included in the annexes. Gendered Institutions Objective: to introduce the participants to issues and tools of gender analysis at the institutional level The facilitator outlined the issues involved in adopting a mainstreaming approach to activities with institutions, or as the focus of capacity building initiatives. Analysis of the composition of the staff (more men than women in higher positions, promotions, etc.) and the programs and services of institutions which may not be tailored to meet the different needs and constraints of men and women can reveal a gender bias. Gender bias in an organization can also be found within management information systems that do not contain gender￾differentiated data. Two tools were presented. One was a checklist of questions to pose when analyzing an institution, and the second was the Force Field Analysis, which can be used to define a gender strategy with the institution. The Force Field analysis is useful for highlighting the facilitating factors that enable change to happen and the constraining factors that limit change. The presenter undertook a participatory exercise using USAID/Rwanda as the institution in the Force Field Analysis. The question being analyzed is the ability of the organization to implement a gender strategy. (Suggestions for the strategy came in the last session of the day). Force Field Analysis—USAID/Rwanda Facilitating Forces Constraining Forces ▪ High level commitment to the issue ▪ A balance of women and men in the institution ▪ An existing policy ▪ Financial resources ▪ Country commitment ▪ Capacity within the overall sectors by some partners ▪ Willingness ▪ Monitoring system that can measure ▪ Time ▪ Lack of skills ▪ Lack of experience ▪ Lack of knowledge ▪ Acceptance of the status quo ▪ Lack of a model E-12 Mainstreaming Gender in USAID-Rwanda activities and projects Objective: to expose participants to gender-sensitive tools that can be used to plan projects and activities One of the activities responding to the Agriculture SO Intermediate Objective, IR3.1 (Enhanced ability of farmers to produce and market targeted crops) is a rural roads rehabilitation activity. Since improved mobility of rural populations is also critical to achieving results in the Health and Governance strategic objectives, this session used a case study to illustrate the steps in a gender and poverty planning approach to rural road rehabilitation. The session introduced participants to gender and socio-economic analysis tools that can facilitate the participation of community groups (like poor men, women who head their own households, married women, male youth) in the planning and implementation of a labor￾intensive, gender and poverty rural road rehabilitation project. Participation of stakeholders from different socio-economic strata and gender groups in the analysis of issues, problems, and benefits (in this case study access to paid work and to an improved transport system) is expected to improve the results. It will also assist project planners in devising concrete implementation techniques that will enable activities to contribute to Rwanda’s poverty alleviation and gender equity objectives. Participatory Rapid Appraisal techniques for project identification and design were briefly described to illustrate how they could assist activity planners identify travel and transport needs of different groups within communities along the proposed road corridor. Among these tools were: ▪ Village resource and travel maps; ▪ Village ranking techniques that can facilitate the recruitment of laborers from the poorer villages; ▪ Seasonal calendars and daily activity schedules of women and men from different types of households that can alert planners to availability and time constraints of different target groups; and ▪ Wealth ranking, social mapping, and community institutional analysis to ensure that the disadvantaged groups have the opportunity to register for work. Tools for stakeholder analysis were presented for full group discussion, and the implications of their use for project planning were analyzed. The tools for the analysis of community stakeholders (men and women farmers who market their own crops, local women food traders, vehicle operators and traders who come from the urban areas, the sick, etc.) involved identifying their interests in an improved transport system (availability of transportation, lower costs of transport of people and crops, lower vehicle maintenance costs for lorry E-13 owners, etc.) and analyzing how the project might affect these interests. It was also pointed out that many local stakeholders (especially women, youth, and landless men) would have little ability to influence the design and implementation techniques of the project unless the project made explicit effort to understand and respond to their interests and constraints. The group discussion of a second tool for institutional analysis of project partners focused on identifying their interests in the project, their ability to influence the design and implementation of the activities, and, most importantly, their willingness and ability to implement a gender and poverty approach to rural road rehabilitation. The implications of the results of this analysis could include: a need to sensitize institutional partners and private contractors regarding government gender and poverty alleviation policies, a need to train partners in socio-economic and gender balanced approaches to recruiting and training workers, and, most importantly, the need to make the use gender and poverty sensitive methods of project implementation a legal requirements of contracts with implementing partners. Tools that can assist activity planners in identifying the characteristics of poor communities, different types of poor households, and disadvantaged individuals in less poor households (youth, some women) were very briefly presented in order to stress the importance of analyzing factors that might exclude these groups from project benefits and to draw out the implications of this type of analysis for project design. A final tool focused on drawing out the potential positive and negative impacts on poor men and women who were hired as road workers and on other members of their households. The implications for project design of this type of participatory analysis (when conducted with focus groups of poor women, men, and youth meeting in separate sessions) might be, for example, that widows with small children might not be able to participate unless the community was willing to organize day care for their children. Thus, part of the project design process would be to work with community groups on finding ways to overcome poor women’s particular constraints so that they could be recruited as road workers. The tools presented in this session are presented in the annexes. Gender in USAID Programs Three items were put on the board for discussion: 1. What are the implications as we look at mainstreaming gender? 2. How will mainstreaming improve our programs or projects? 3. How do we build our technical capacity to ensure that our programs become more enhanced? The Brainstorming Session yielded the following recommendations: E-14 ▪ Scopes of Work and Terms of Reference (TORs) are usually drawn up without reference to Gender. It is necessary in the future to address this situation by ensuring all TORs and SOWs include gender as an issue to be considered. ▪ There are financial implications to mainstreaming gender into our work. There may a need to review budgets. Addressing gender in programs and projects also has a time element that needs to be considered. ▪ There is a need to train staff at different levels in gender analysis. This requires a capacity that is not now present and there will be a need to hire trainers locally. ▪ We can act now on mainstreaming gender by bringing it up as an issue with staff, in meetings with partners, etc. We should not let the lack of money stop us from doing what can be done now. ▪ We should look at recruitment procedures and ensure some gender experience in our staffing complement, as well as, to ensure a gender balance in staffing. ▪ We should integrate gender issues in all training that we undertake. Time should be set aside to deal with this issue in the agenda of our training workshops and activities. We should also start to collect information on the gender breakdown of participants in all of our activities. ▪ We must start to define the strategies to introduce and integrate gender into our work. SO1 Session on Gender, Justice and Governance Objective: to deepen knowledge of gender issues at a sector level A presentation on gender issues as they apply to the legal system was given by MIGEPROFE’s legal expert, the workshop’s co-facilitator. This was followed by a discussion of the issues raised during the presentation. The intention had been to divide the group among those working on governance issues and those working on justice issues. As there were too few participants in the governance sector, the group decided to stay together and proceed with a brief presentation of governance sector issues. The issue of engendering budgets was discussed through analysis of a local government budget. The discussion aimed at bringing out whether women had participated in setting local priorities as reflected in the budget, and the differences that women (as compared to men) may make in setting priorities for spending. This exercise was aimed at highlighting the need to account for women’s priorities in budgeting exercises. E-15 The session continued through a presentation of gender indicators for the governance sector, followed by a presentation of indicators for the justice sector. While most of the indicators in both sessions were quantifiable indicators, a participant brought up the necessity of identifying qualitative indicators. Both of the indicators are annexed to the present document. The last portion of the morning was dedicated to using the Force Field Analysis tool and applying it to the justice system. The justice system is comprised not only of the Ministry of Justice and courts, but also of the law enforcement system, including police. The purpose of the analysis was to begin to strategize on the elements needed to ensure that justice and law are engendered in Rwanda and in USAID programming in Rwanda. The results of this analysis are provided in the following table. Force Field Analysis of the Justice System Facilitating Forces Constraining Forces ▪ Ratification of international treaties by the Rwandan government ▪ The existence of a Ministry for Gender (MIGEPROFE) and its legal department ▪ Rwandans adapt to change easily (for example, the police is thinking of establishing gender desks in police stations) ▪ Political will at the highest levels ▪ Decentralization ▪ The gender mainstreaming policy of both the Government of Rwanda and USAID ▪ The support of USAID and other donors ▪ Statistics are available to show scope of the problem ▪ Good participation by civil society/women’s organizations ▪ High level and educated people support the issue (e.g. head of KIST evidenced through the men’s march against violence against women) ▪ Constituency exists for engendering the legal/justice system ▪ Lack of knowledge/education ▪ (Some) men’s lack of understanding ▪ Resistance ▪ Fear of change ▪ Gender is seen as a foreign/western idea. ▪ Lack of numbers of judges and officials and the quality of these judges and officials ▪ The perception of gender of these officials ▪ Lack of gender awareness/sensitivity/training in Gaccaca jurisdictions. ▪ The police is not gender sensitive and there are few women in the police force ▪ Limited financial resources to address the issue ▪ Infrastructure and poverty dominate needs and agenda ▪ High fertility rates of women hampers their participation ▪ Vulnerability of women with HIV/AIDS and their stigmatization by the justice system. E-16 Strategy for engendering the justice system ▪ Build awareness of laws in Rwanda ▪ Build awareness that gender is cross-cutting (affects everything) ▪ Recommendation for a study on the popular perceptions of gender and justice issues. This could inform programming. ▪ Increased support to the issue by USAID program. ▪ Start a gender committee with partners at the SO level ▪ Improve infrastructure to address the issue (lack of enforcement capacity, lack of judges, etc.) ▪ Support gender training for the Gaccaca jurisdictions ▪ Support for gender desks in police stations and other local service delivery points. ▪ Felt that an integrated/ inclusive/ holistic approach is needed. ▪ Support self defense for women ▪ Female education seen as a priority; equality of education; gender and justice issues in curriculum at all levels. SO3 Session: Gender in Agriculture and Food Security Objective: to deepen knowledge of gender issues at the sector level This session analyzed the relationships between issues and practice at the national and sector policy-making level, the institutional level, and the field level. Government decentralization, poverty, and gender policies imply that top-down relationships must, at the very least, be supplemented by bottom-up information flows that will allow policy making and institutional development to be informed by the interests of rural men and women from all socio￾economic groups. Each of the participants in the session identified himself or herself as working at one or more of the three levels: policy-making, institutional, community. The analysis attempted to extend the analysis to all projects and partners in SO3, including the partners and USAID staff who were not present at the training. The group then conducted a limited analysis of the inter￾relationships among USAID projects and partners who work at different levels. Next, the implications of the recent modification of the SO3 Performance Indicators that will result in considerably more information on who is being reached were briefly discussed. Most field level NGO partners were not familiar with the performance indicators because only a few individuals had been trained in how to provide the USAID mission with the needed data. When the up-coming mission-wide strategic planning process was discussed, most of the participants working at field and institutional levels were similarly uninformed that such a process takes place and that a new strategic planning exercise will soon take place. E-17 This discussion revealed that field level partners have relatively few opportunities to transfer information to the mission level or to other USAID partners working at field, institutional, or policy making levels. This may mean that important lessons learned about gender and poverty are not being disseminated where they could have an impact on USAID programming. The discussion seemed to indicate that partners have few occasions to exchange information about specific problems related to gender and/or socio-economic status identified in the context of their field level projects, or about the ways that they have devised to identify groups that are excluded from their activities and the methods they use to assure that benefits are more gender balanced. In order to demonstrate how NGO partners have developed socio-economic analysis techniques that are Rwanda-specific, relatively easy to use, and highly applicable to the work of other partners, the participant from Save the Children Fund (Julien Ntezimana) explained how SCF uses participatory household wealth-ranking techniques with district-level and village informants in order to identify the levels and determinants of different grades of poverty and wealth at household level. The SCF analysis also identifies inter-relationships among different types of households (who works for whom, who provides aid) and patterns of change over the last decade as larger segments of the population have become impoverished. The discussion highlighted the need for increased networking among participants working at the same and at different levels (policy institutional and field). Several participants expressed an interest in developing a more formal program of interaction and networking that would allow the dissemination of lessons learned among all partners working in specific SOs. Improved systems for networking (regular meetings among partners; inclusion of partners in strategic planning exercises, etc.) can help USAID partners working in the Ministry of Agriculture, the University, and the ISAR agricultural research institution to become more familiar with gender and poverty issues in different regions. Partners working at the institutional and policy levels (most of who did not attend this round of gender training) need to become more familiar with the results of socio-economic and gender analyses being conducted at the village level so that policies can be better informed by an understanding of the changes taking place in inter-household and intra-household relationships. The session concluded with a presentation of a set of materials and tools that have been developed by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations to facilitate participatory socio-economic and gender analysis at the field, institutional, and policy making levels. These tools, some of which are adapted from PRA techniques, are highly relevant to both agricultural and health sector activities. The FAO SEAGA toolkit includes the following handbooks: ▪ Field Handbook of tools for socio-economic and gender sensitive participatory appraisal at community and household levels; E-18 ▪ Intermediate Level Handbook of tools for institutional and organizational analysis; and ▪ Macro Level Handbook for macro-economic and sector policy analysis. The handbooks are available in both French and English. The SEAGA toolkit also includes sector and issue specific guides on: ▪ Project Cycle Management; ▪ Household Resource Management; ▪ Irrigation; ▪ Incorporating Gender in On-farm Management of Plant Genetic Resources; ▪ Microfinance; and ▪ Socioeconomic and Gender Analysis in Emergency Operations. Some of the guides are available in French, and others are currently being translated. Many of the SEAGA field handbooks and guides can be downloaded from the web at the following address: www.fao.org/sd/SEAGA. If certain publications are not available from the web, they can be ordered from FAO by filling in one’s name and address at the SEAGA website. The e-mail address of the SEAGA program is: SEAGA@fao.org. USAID partners are welcome to use the facilities of the AgriBusiness Center in Kigali (tel. 570443/4) to download these and other gender tools and materials relevant to their work. (See Annexes for a list of sources.) The SEAGA program also includes a training program. Interested parties should contact the program by e-mail to learn more about the possibilities of having FAO SEAGA experts conduct training tailored to project or program needs. THE GENDER COMMITTEE Day Two Afternoon Session for the Gender Committee ▪ Evaluation of Training: What was learned and what are the implications for the Gender Committee? ▪ Presentation of tools consultants provided to the Gender Committee ▪ Discussion of potential roles and activities of the Gender Committee ▪ Next Steps: Preliminary Results Planning for the Next Six Months Committee members were asked what they had learned and/or appreciated in the training workshop. This is a list of their responses: ▪ Leadership by MIGEPROFE in Rwanda was new information to the some of the committee members. E-19 ▪ The degree of interest by partners was previously not known to committee members. ▪ A willingness to make changes now was evident. ▪ A realization of gender as a cross-cutting issue, an increase in the understanding of the relationship to own work, accounting for gender at the beginning, cutting through all activities, monitoring and evaluation. ▪ Gender awareness is a process and needs careful application. ▪ Gender is more complex than thought and there is a need to deepen expertise and knowledge as well as the complexity of constraints that we have to struggle with in applying it to Rwandan society and laws. ▪ Build an awareness and knowledge of socio-economic analysis and gender analysis as a tool for better targeting, its links to the PRSP and to policy. Learnt more about activities possible at the project level. One of the WIDTECH trainers presented a variety of tools, analysis on various issues, guidelines, checklists, etc. which had been brought by the trainers. The Committee was asked what needs they could identify for the near future in rising to the challenge of engendering USAID programs in Rwanda. The following needs were mentioned: ▪ There is a need to have someone responsible for gender in the USAID/Rwanda team. ▪ There may be a need to have a USAID/Rwanda specific gender policy. ▪ It is important to know who is doing what; what other donors/NGOs/Ministries support gender mainstreaming. ▪ There is a need to know what is available in the country, studies, libraries (e.g., MIGEPROFE’s resource center), conferences and other training. ▪ There is a need for focused training on a sector or sub-sector level. ▪ There is a need to develop a Rwanda specific approach to gender training. ▪ There is a need for a gender committee but this should be larger and include NGOs and women’s associations in rural areas. The final item of discussion was an Action Plan for the Committee. The first three were deemed to be the priority in the next six months. E-20 1. Centralize all written resources, computerized, (in the Conference Room)—John Yaramba will take the lead on this item. 2. Collect CVs of local experts in the area, file them in a format easy to access (e.g., by sector), attach recommendations sheet to CVs giving name of person recommending the expert. 3. Due to partners interest, it is recommended that Gender Committees be established within each SOs. Generally, networking was felt to be a priority. 4. A committee member, particularly sector members should review all SOWs, RFPs and RFAs. At least one other member should provide input. Assign points for a gender strategy, gender experience of the firm, and individual CVs. 5. Participants recommended that follow-up training be organized at the sector level, using local resources to the fullest extent possible. There is still a need to gain more experience and additional training in order to be able to apply it on a daily basis in the job. Since Angelina Allen-Mpyisi, USAID/Rwanda’s Gender Officer, is leaving the Mission, it is important to have someone take the lead on the above recommended actions. Committee members felt the matter should be referred to Joan LaRosa, who should address this organizational issue. It was also felt that additional members may be needed for the Gender Committee. LESSONS LEARNED AND RECOMMENDATIONS Time Constraints As an introduction to gender issues, the time allotted to the training workshop was somewhat limited. There are a variety of exercises that can deepen the understanding of the concept of gender, perceptions on gender, and the understanding of the concept of gender equality. These can ensure that participants acquire a predisposition to using the tools of gender analysis that are presented. To a certain extent participation was sacrificed to expediency. There were many segments of the training that did not allow for participatory exercises to explore the concepts and discuss the issues presented. This was done in order to get through the agenda and cover the major points in the exercise. While time was a constraint, this could perhaps have been balanced by a smaller group of trainees with sector-specific training. An exploration of issues within sectors can lead to understanding as it is applied immediately to the sector of concern of the participants. E-21 Adequate Preparation Time and In-Country Planning It is important for trainers to have adequate preparation time. This includes exploring the issues and obtaining information on sector approaches, gathering relevant materials for the participants, developing the agenda in consultation with trainees, planning/strategizing on the most useful exercises given the skills and knowledge of participants, exploring the programs and projects of the participants, etc. If a consultant is new to the country, she or he needs to explore the issues as they pertain to local culture and practices. If a consultant is new to the organization, she or he needs to understand the planning processes and gain knowledge of the working methods of staff. In the case for this training workshop, two external consultants arrived with a very brief time to consult with the local trainer. More time was necessary than had been allocated for in￾country team building and adequate discussion of workshop content and exercises. It is important to state here that there is no package of training that is ready-made and appropriate for all situations. There are inevitably differences in the countries where development activities are taking place, in the sectors and sub-sectors of programming, and in the background of the staff that are being trained. Knowledge of these differences is critical to good training initiatives. Participants Gender training programs for development practitioners aim at providing participants with tools for program and activity analysis that are applicable across sectors and that are tailored to the strategic programming objectives, results setting processes, activity planning, and monitoring and evaluation activities at policy-level, institutional level, and field levels in different sectors. If gender (and socio-economic difference analysis) training is to impact positively and effectively in the context of USAID programs, projects and activities, project directors and their professional staff as well as the staff of USAID project partners (NGOs and Ministry staff directly involved) need to attend sector-specific training together. This will facilitate the process of joint discussion of the usefulness of specific approaches and tools to increasing the effectiveness of development activities in different SOs. It also will facilitate joint planning for information sharing that will allow partners working at policy and institutional levels to be better informed about developments and impacts at village and district levels. Finally, it will allow USAID to develop more effective techniques for reaching women and youth of different socio-economic statuses, thereby contributing to the government of Rwanda’s gender and poverty alleviation objectives. E-22 Participation by the Ministry of Gender One of the very successful aspects of the workshop was the participation by a staff member of the Ministry of Gender in the delivery of training. Having the Minister open the session highlights the commitment of the country to the issue. Having a local training expert from the Ministry allowed for good discussions on local culture and its impact on the inequality between women and men in Rwanda. Language Issues The basic language problem in USAID staff and partner staff meetings is the fact that, while all Rwandans can easily communicate in one language, kinyrwanda, non-Rwandans communicate with Rwandans only in English or French. Rwandans who work with USAID are under enormous pressure to learn and to communicate in English because few US nationals communicate readily in French, but many Rwandans who work at the field and institutional levels are more fluent in French than in English. These language barriers have an important impact on training programs. If trainers know both English and French, they can attempt to simultaneously translate for themselves— especially when making key points. Time must be allocated to this, however. Thus training plans must allocate more time than would normally be planned for each session or activity. The trainers faced time difficulties because translation had not been anticipated. In order to continue to deepen the knowledge of staff and partners, it is recommended that follow-up training sessions be organized at the sector or the project level (or both). ▪ Gender training works best when it is organized on a sectoral or project level. Different approaches and tools are needed to inform the policy and planning level than those used to inform the project and activity level. ▪ Policy and planning levels need to be introduced to participatory methodologies to ensure that the differences between women and men, and between socio-economic groups in society inform the decisions (at policy and planning levels) intended to impact on their lives. Different consultations should take place with women and with men from different socio-economic groups so that their priorities are reflected and inform policy and plans. ▪ Project and activity level training should include all staff making decisions on the activities. The tools that inform project staff of the socio-economic differences between women and men and between different households should be included for this level of training. Improved project preparation can be expected to result in more effective projects and to more cost-effective results. ▪ Project level training will have a greater impact on both strategic and activity planning if all partners at the project level, as well as USAID program level, staff attend together. E-23 ANNEX 1: LIST OF PARTICIPANTS USAID Mission (Telephone, 570-940) 1. Richard Goldman, Director 2. Joan LaRosa, Deputy Director 3. Angelikna Allen-Mpyisi, GHAI Coordinator 4. Brian Murphy, Director SO1 5. Kim Pease, SO1 6. Pierre Munyura, SO1 7. Beth Drabant, Director SO2 8. Serge Rwamasirabo, Acting Director SO3 9. Tim Muzira, SO3 10. Venant Safali, SO3 11. Heather Goldman, REDSO Food Security 12. John Yaramba, Program Office 13. Diogene Ndazigaruye, Program Office 14. Richard Warin, Controller 15. Betty Hakizimana 16. Jacqueline Masika 17. Triphine Numganyinka 18. Anastasia Mamusana 19. Paatricia Mwanuyera Projects and Partners 1. Christine Hjelt, Women in Transition Project Telephone: 08-302-640 2. Samson Nzayisenga, Women in Transition 08-531-811 3. J. Bosco Seminega, ADAR Project 570-433/37 earoscf@form-net.com 4. Yvan Porcheron, MSD Justice Project 501-236 5. Helene Mufunga, MSD Justice Project 501-236 6. Jane Mutoni, FAWE-Rwanda 517-533 7. Moses Gahigi, FAWE-Rwanda 517-533 8. Louise Nunviyabagabo, World Relief 584-664 9. Immaculee Mukarushema, URWEGO 511-692 10. Hadiza Linganwa, URWEGO 511-692 11. Stamis Nkgarukiye, N.P.A. 513-074 12. Deo Butera, Handicap International 08-538-382 13. Philo Mpyisi, ACDI/VOCA 571-358 14. Laurence Mukanyindo, AFRICARE 577-484 15. Nicole Tammelleo, IRC 516-175 16. Delphine Pinault, IRC 516-175 17. Natalie Williams, ADRA 574-770 18. Wendy Brooks, ADRA 574-770 E-24 19. Beatrice Nukankusi, Concern/Butare 530-692 20. Laurent Munyankusi, FSRP/MINAGRI 582-572 21. Julien Ntezimana, Save the Children 572-921 22. Samuel Munyankindi, CARE International 535-063 23. Jean Karambizi, JHU/PCS/Rwanda jkarambiz@yahoo.com 24. Oswald Samvura, SERUKA 578-093 25. Adelinde Murekatete, World Vision/Ginkongoro 530-389 26. Veronique Niyonsaba, World Vision/Ginkongoro 530-389 27. Tarsis Kagwisagye, Heifer International/Byumba 564-340 28. Jane Morgan, Consultant 08-303-191 E-25 ANNEX 2: GENDER-SENSITIVE LIVELIHOOD ANALYSIS TRADITIONAL GENDER RELATIONS IN RWANDAN RURAL HOUSEHOLDS MEN WOMEN Responsibilities To Household (What are men expected to provide to the household?) ▪ Participants suggestions: ▪ Shelter ▪ Land ▪ Cows and goats ▪ Meat and purchased food ▪ Food (if wife cannot provide) ▪ Beer ▪ Clothing for wife and children ▪ School fees ▪ Medical care ▪ Bridewealth ▪ Money management ▪ Protection ▪ Representation of family in public (What are women expected to provide to the household?) ▪ Participants suggestions: ▪ Childcare ▪ Family care in illness, etc. ▪ Cooking & Housekeeping ▪ Food crops she grows (beans, sweet potatoes and other staples, vegetables, fruit) ▪ Selling crops for income to transfer to husband’s management ▪ Care for small livestock ▪ Receiving visitors ▪ Advisor to husband Rights to Resources (control and use rights) ▪ Land (use and control rights) ▪ Cattle (use and control rights) ▪ Goats (use and control rights) ▪ Tools for agriculture (use and control rights) ▪ Income (use and control rights) ▪ Land (use rights only) ▪ Cattle (none) ▪ Goats (use rights) ▪ Chickens (use and control rights) ▪ Tools for agriculture (use rights) ▪ Income (use for expenditures approved by husband) ▪ Kitchen utensils (use and control) On-Farm Work ▪ Field clearing ▪ Banana cultivation ▪ Export crop production ▪ Cattle management Average Daily Labor hours: 8.9 ▪ Food crop production ▪ Help husband with his crops ▪ Goats/chicken management Average Daily Labor hours: 8.7 Off-Farm Work ▪ Beer brewing ▪ Processing export crops ▪ Selling export crops (incomplete due to lack of time) Average Daily Labor hours: 4.1 ▪ Selling surplus crops ▪ Processing food crops (incomplete due to lack of time) Average Daily Labor hours: 2.3 Household Tasks ▪ Building and repairing house ▪ Cooking ▪ Cleaning/washing clothes E-26 MEN WOMEN Average Daily Labor hours: 0.9 ▪ Child care ▪ Care of sick ▪ Provision of water and fuel Average Daily Labor hours: 4.8 Total Average Daily Work 13.9 hours 15.8 hours Meals, Social Activities, Sleep 10.1 hours 8.2 hours Access to and Control of Benefits From ▪ On farm production ▪ Off-farm income ▪ Household tasks (not discussed due to lack of time) ▪ On farm production ▪ Off-farm income ▪ Household tasks (not discussed due to lack of time) Gender-Specific Constraints (not discussed due to lack of time) (not discussed due to lack of time) Source for labour hours: Rwanda Ministry of Agriculture, Le Role de la femme dans l’agriculture Rwandaise. Division des Statistiques Agricoles. Kigali, Juillet 1990. p.5 E-27 ANNEX 3: ELEMENTS OF GENDER-SENSITIVE COMMUNITY ANALYSIS HOUSEHOLD TYPES: ▪ Male head of household with wife: 25.2 percent ▪ Male head of household living without a spouse: 11.2 percent ▪ Wife of head of household living alone: 25.5 percent ▪ Female head of household, no spouse: 32.7 percent ▪ Unknown (household head not interviewed): 5.5 percent Percentages from a random sample survey of 840 households in Gikongoro Prefecture. “Rapid Appraisal of the Farm Situation in Gikongoro Prefecture” by Jean Nyemba Ambela, DAP Manager, World Vision Rwanda Program, with collaboration of T. Ventimiglia, USAID/Washington and E. Asante, World Vision Rwanda. October 2000 SOCIO-ECONOMIC DIFFERENCES AMONG HOUSEHOLDS: LOCALLY DEFINED WEALTH GROUPS AS percent OF TOTAL HOUSEHOLDS ▪ Destitute: individuals or small households completely dependent on others: 1-10 percent ▪ Landless & Labor-poor: one working adult with children, depend on others: 10-20 percent ▪ Landless Poor: two or more working adults, depend on labor for others: 15-25 percent ▪ Land-Owning Poor: Farm 0.25 ha also and work for others: 30-40 percent ▪ Middle: Own about 0.5 ha; may hire others (10-20 percent) ▪ Rich: Own about 1 ha; may rent out land; provide employment for poor (5-15 percent) ▪ Very rich: Own 1.5-3 ha; often have income from businesses outside area (0-5 percent) Note: Wealth Groups are defined as groups of households characterized by a similar capacity to take advantage of specific food and income-earning strategies, and therefore faced with similar patterns of vulnerability to food insecurity. These data are based on a participatory rural appraisal (PRA) methodology. See pages 15-29 of “Rebuilding Livelihoods: A Household Food Economy Assessment of the Health Districts of Gatonde (Ruhengeri Prefecture) and Kabaya (Gisenyi Prefecture), Rwanda.” Food Security Unit, Save the Children Fund, October 1999. OTHER ELEMENTS OF COMMUNITY ANALYSIS Natural Resources Infrastructure Institutions E-28 ANNEX 4: RWANDA’S GENDER MAINSTREAMING POLICY Presented by Justine Uvuza—MIGEPROFE Legal Department Governments and Development agents have recognized the importance of participatory approaches as the key to sustainable development. Real participation can only be achieved through Gender Mainstreaming in development programs and projects. Gender mainstreaming is a concept that aims at promoting gender equality and equity by ensuring equal opportunities, benefits and social justice for both sexes. The gender question became very critical after the 1994 genocide that left many widows and orphans. Widows had to head families without necessary resources and skills since traditionally men owned tangible assets and skills of income generating activities. Such a situation became an eye opener for Rwandans to see the necessity of participation of both sexes in the development process. The Rwandan government put in place the Ministry of Gender and Women in Development as a national machinery to promote gender equality and integration of women in the process of national development. MIGEPROFE facilitates gender mainstreaming in policies, projects and programs so as to address the existing gender inequalities that hinders full participation and social justice for all citizens. This is done by use of two approaches: Gender and Development (GAD) and Women in Development (WID). In order to mainstream gender, MIGEPROFE, after consultation with stakeholders, developed a draft National Gender Policy and when finalized and passed by the Cabinet, will provide a mandatory role for different sector ministries and other structures. Gender and Development Strategies used by MIGEPROFE Since gender is a cross-cutting concept, MIGEPROFE works closely with other sector Ministries, Commissions and programs. This is done through capacity building in gender awareness, analysis and planning. A gender analyst is employed to analyze and mainstream gender in the mentioned sector. For example: ▪ Engendering decentralization ▪ Engendering Poverty Reduction Program ▪ Engendering the Constitution ▪ Engendering the budget ▪ Gender concerns/issues in Gacaca Law and system ▪ Gender concerns in the Human Rights and Unity and Reconciliation Commissions. Four Main Strategies are used in Mainstreaming Gender ▪ Gender awareness raising E-29 ▪ Gender training, i.e. trainer’s training for MINALOC staff in charge of training, training for Community Development Committees in all provinces in gender analysis and planning. ▪ Gender advocacy and lobbying ▪ Engendering the law and justice system. Women in Development The basis of this approach is to focus on integrating women into development by empowering them. Strategies used ▪ Setting up communal and guarantee funds aiming at economic empowerment in income generating activities ▪ Training women in project formulation and management ▪ Setting up of women councils aiming at giving women a forum to air their views and problems as well as participating in addressing their individual and family problems thus, developing the nation ▪ Increasing the number of women in leadership, i.e. the thirty percent reserved for women portrays the Government’s effort and political will to mainstream gender in decision making and politics. Constraints Despite the existence of political will, there are many constraints: ▪ Many people are not yet gender aware due to lack of resources (both human and material) to cover the entire country ▪ Lack of reading materials, reading centers and communication skills ▪ Lack of gender planning and planning skills ▪ The existence of discriminatory laws and gender blindness of the justice staff ▪ Lack of enough resources to empower women. Identified Needs There are needs yet to be addressed. ▪ To train women councils in gender analysis and planning ▪ Gender awareness raising at all levels (from the grass-roots) ▪ Continuous training because leadership keeps changing (and because cultural beliefs take a long time to change) ▪ Communication skills for the Ministry E-30 ▪ Information centers especially for rural women. These can help to inform on available markets, information on laws and legal services, exchanges of ideas and skills, etc. ▪ Multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary services for women victims of violence ▪ Building the capacity of the Law Review Commission plus legal division staff with expertise on gender and law. ▪ Promotion of women to higher levels of education thus enabling them to compete in the labor market and in decision making, as affirmative action is often short lived. E-31 ANNEX 5A: INSTITUTIONAL TOOLS: GENDER INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS Adapted from Gender and Institutions, Guiding Questions Working Paper, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, DANIDA Policy Level: Does the gender vision/perspective of the organization acknowledge the existence of power inequalities between women and men? Does it refer to: welfare, access, values, participation, control? Does the political will to respond to gender equality goals exist? Products/outputs/services Was a gender analysis conducted on the interests and needs of women and men respectively prior to the design of the organization’s products, outputs and services? Are resources (human, financial, physical) adequate to deliver services and opportunities to both women and men and to ensure that both men and women participate in and benefit from the service? Do financial control systems allow for gender disaggregated budget control & financial monitoring? Impact Monitoring Does the organization have an impact towards a change in macro-policies and/or legislation with regard to gender inequalities? Organizational structure Does the organization have an organization staffed with specific gender expertise and responsibilities? Representation & Decision-making Are women equally represented or participating at policy and decision-making levels? Are women participating at policy and decision-making levels sensitive to gender issues? E-32 Human Resource Management Are the needs and concerns of women taken into account in human resource management systems (recruitment, nomination and selection procedures, performance appraisal, promotion procedures)? Is this reflected in a gender sensitive human resource development plan and investments in human resources? E-33 ANNEX 5B: FORCE FIELD ANALYSIS FOR ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE Source: SEAGA (FAO/ILO) Socioeconomic and Gender Analysis Programme, Intermediate Level Handbook Purpose: It is a simple planning tool that can be used to assess the forces that can facilitate or constrain the change that is desired. It is useful when developing strategies linked to organizational change, e.g., development of a gender strategy for the institution’s programs. It allows the planner to develop specific activities aimed at either enhancing the facilitating forces within the institution or activities aimed at minimizing or removing (or changing) restraining forces. Facilitating Forces and Constraining Forces ▪ Facilitating forces act to support the desired action or change. These forces should be enhanced whenever possible. ▪ Constraining forces act against the desired action or change. These forces should be minimized, or removed whenever possible. ▪ Force field analysis is an action planning tool to achieve the enhancement or minimizing of forces. The First Step is to identify these forces on a table: Questions to consider Facilitating Forces Constraining Forces What existing conditions can help achieve the change you desire? What resources, including financial, human, and social can contribute to the change? How can existing infrastructure and services support the change? Which groups are already working on the issue and how can your efforts be coordinated? Which groups support the change? What existing conditions constrain the change? What financial, human and social resources are lacking or limited? Will the lack of infrastructure or services hinder change? Are there groups or individuals who do not support the change? Once the facilitating and restraining factors have been identified, they should be prioritized in terms of the intensity of their force supporting or constraining the action or change being analyzed. E-34 The second step is to prioritize facilitating and constraining forces. Facilitating Forces Constraining Forces 3 community support 1 donor resources 2 active NGOs in community 3 extension services 4 farmer’s groups 5 lack of experience 2 weak infrastructure 3 lack of a policy 4 low literacy rate in community 1 low participation rate at community level Note: Example of ranking: (1 strongest—5 weakest) After the facilitating and constraining forces are prioritized, each force should be analyzed to identify actions that can be taken to maximize or minimize the force. Putting each force on a flip chart is helpful in this process. It is usually most helpful to first think about actions to maximize the strongest facilitating forces and then, to think about actions to address the constraining factors. E-35 ANNEX 6A: TOOLS FOR MAINSTREAMING GENDER IN ACTIVITY PLANNING— CASE STUDY: LABOR INTENSIVE RURAL ROAD REHABILITATION ACTIVITY The case study outlined below is directly relevant to SO3’s Intermediate Result 3.1: Enhanced ability of farmers to produce and market targeted crops. Labor intensive rural road projects are also relevant to improving the access of rural populations to health services and to issues of governance (decentralization, institutional strengthening, and poverty alleviation.) How to Conduct Institutional, Socio-Economic, and Gender Appraisals of a Rural Road Rehabilitation Activity in order to alleviate poverty and improve gender equity. District and Community level tools for gender-sensitive project identification and design (These tools can be found in the SEAGA field manual.) 1. Tools for district level meetings: Village ranking to identify resource rich and resource poor villages along the road corridor in order to place priority on recruiting laborers from poorer villages. 2. Tools for community/village level meetings: Meetings should be held in the villages located along the road corridor. The following tools can be used with full village groups and with men’s and women’s groups separately. It is also important to conduct separate meetings with the poorer households in the community as they can be targeted as road workers 3. Maps of travel patterns by different groups in the community (men farmers, poor farmer workers, women traders, women farmers, etc.) ▪ Seasonal calendars and daily activity schedules of men and women from average farming households and with men and women from poor and/or landless households ▪ Wealth ranking and social mapping to determine the socioeconomic composition of the community and to ensure that the disadvantaged groups have the opportunity to register for work on the road ▪ Venn diagram institutional analysis tools to identify community organizations and institutions, their inter-relationships, and the organizations that can reach the poorer households, men, and women. Gender and socio-economic analysis tools that can be used with different communities and focus groups to strengthen the design of the activity and improve its prospects of contributing to the missions strategic objectives. Stakeholder Analysis Primary Stakeholders: Different types of road users Institutional Stakeholders: Institutions and businesses with interest in project Institutional Analysis of the Project’s Partners at Ministry, District, and Village Levels: Identify institutional partners at all three levels and assess their capacity and willingness to E-36 design and implement a labor-based, gender and poverty-sensitive rural road rehabilitation project. Gender Sensitive Rapid Appraisal and Participatory Rural Appraisal techniques that could be used in project promoters first meetings with villagers along the road corridor -Village maps focused on travel patterns -Seasonal daily activity schedules of men and women -Village ranking to identify resource rich and resource poor villages -Wealth ranking of households within villages Poverty Analysis as it relates to a labor-based road rehabilitation activity. How do you do a wealth/poverty ranking at community, household, and individual levels? Characteristics of poor communities, households, and individuals Gender and poverty impact analysis of a labor-based road rehabilitation: A tool to analyze the probable impact on women and poor men laborers and their households: Assessing benefits, costs, and socio-cultural factors affecting who will actually be able to work on road construction and maintenance What can be done when the tools identify hard-to-overcome constraints? ▪ What if the activity’s institutional partners are not gender and poverty sensitive? Analyzing why and drawing the implications for what should be done. ▪ What if village institutions and male elders are against the activity’s poverty and gender objectives? Analyzing why and drawing the implications for what should be done. ▪ What if poor women do not have time to participate as paid laborers? Identifying major constraints and analyzing what can be done. (ex. project provides day care services.) Participatory Approaches to Finding Ways to Overcome Constraints ▪ Project can provide gender and poverty sensitization training as part of the activity planning work with institutional partners. ▪ Special focus group discussions should be organized among targeted beneficiaries (poor women and men) in gender-separate and then joint discussions with the aim of identifying the most serious constraints and potential ways of overcoming them. ▪ Special focus group discussions should be held with community leaders (village council and institutional and social group leaders) in order to discuss ways the community can contribute to overcoming constraints. E-37 ANNEX 6B: STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS Local Stakeholders The following tables provide examples of how use of the tool might provide the results cited in the boxes. In actually work, the tables should be filled in during meetings with stakeholder groups at district, community, and especially focus group meetings with poor men and women and men and women from average income households.) Local stakeholders Interests Project contribution to interest (positive, negative, neutral) Level of ability to influence activity (high, low) Men farmers Access to cheaper inputs Better prices for output Depends on project’s willingness to consult them and take their interests into account Women farmers Casual laborers Men Women Traders All households in community Access to public transport Access to schools and clinics and markets Institutional and business stakeholders Interests In Road Project Project contribution to interest (positive, negative, neutral) Level of ability to influence activity (high, low) Ministry of Roads More resources for ministry positive High District Authorities More resources for district. District authorities may gain influence with communities positive Must be determined Road Contractor Income and profits positive High Truck owners Must be determined E-38 Institutional and business stakeholders Willingness to Design and Implement Gender and Poverty Sensitive Project Ability to Design and Implement Gender and Poverty Sensitive Project Implications for project design District authorities Ministry of Roads Public Works Contractors (road builders) E-39 ANNEX 6C: CHARACTERISTICS OF POVERTY AT COMMUNITY, HOUSEHOLD AND INDIVIDUAL LEVELS Level Characteristics Factors that might exclude them from project benefits Implications for Project Community No or few shops No clinic Poor primary school or school with limited grade levels Need to develop a mechanism to identify poorest communities and to make sure they have priority for labor recruitment Types of Poor Households Landless Landless and labor￾poor Very small land owners Widow headed households Have to engage in casual labor to meet food needs. May be afraid to interrupt work for normal employer (ex. for a richer farmer) Need to convince all groups in the community that working on the road by members of poorer households will increase overall community benefit from project Types of poorer individuals in less poor households Young men Women, especially single women Married women Male heads of households may prevent young men or their wives and female dependents from working on the road. Lack of time or ability to find others to cover their normal responsibilities Need to convince heads of households that allowing their dependents to work on the road will provide benefits for all members of household. E-40 ANNEX 6D: ANALYZING POTENTIAL IMPACTS Positive Impacts Negative Impacts Socio-cultural Observations Poor Men Road Workers Greater income May have better opportunities for off￾farm labor (trading, micro-enterprise) Income from road work is temporary Potential for over-work Poor Women Road Workers Earn Income May have better opportunities for off￾farm labor (trading, micro-enterprise) Income from road work is temporary Less or no time for childcare Potential for over-work Community may be able to organize child care help Other Household Members of Road Worker Greater income in household Husbands and children may not have usually services performed by women Need to provide more housekeeping and child care services Men need to be convinced that allowing their wives to work on the road will have a positive impact on household Community as a whole Greater income in community Better access to markets, clinics, schools, etc. E-41 ANNEX 7: GENDER INDICATORS Gender Indicators—Justice After discussion the participants thought that qualitative indicators should be added to the following lists ▪ The enforcement of legislation related to the protection of human rights ▪ Number of cases related to women’s rights heard in local courts, and their results; ▪ Number of cases related to the legal rights of divorced and widowed women heard in local courts, and results; ▪ The effect of the enforcement of legislation in terms of treatment of offenders; ▪ Increase/decrease in violence against women; ▪ Rate at which the number of local justices/prosecutors/lawyers who are women/men is increasing/decreasing ▪ Rate at which the number of women/men in the local police force, by rank is increasing or decreasing, Gender Indicators—Governance ▪ Percentage of seats held by women in local councils/decision-making bodies; ▪ Percentage of women in decision-making positions in local government; ▪ Percentage of women in the local civil service; ▪ Percentage of women/men registered as voters/percentage of eligible women/men who vote ▪ Percentage of women in senior/junior decision-making positions with unions; ▪ Percentage of union members who are women/men; ▪ Number of women who participate in public progress and political campaigning as compared to the number of men. ▪ To what degree are women aware of local politics, and their legal rights? Are women more or less aware than men? Does this differ by socio-economic grouping, age or ethnicity? Is this changing over time? ▪ Numbers of women in local institutions (e.g. women’s associations, NGOs) as members, staff and positions. ▪ Extent of training or networking among local women, as compared to men? E-42 ANNEX 8: FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYZING POTENTIAL INTER-RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN USAID PROJECTS IN AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY (with references to materials currently available at the USAID-Rwanda mission) SECTORAL POLICY MAKING LEVEL ▪ Ministry of Agriculture Food Security Project ▪ Ministry of Agriculture Policy-Development Assistance Project ▪ USAID Mission Sector Policy ▪ USAID Strategic Planning ▪ USAID Results Reporting Activities (Note: Tools in SEAGA Macro Level Handbook and Project Cycle Management Handbook are relevant. CIDA Indicators Guide is relevant. All SEAGA and CIDA materials can be downloaded from the internet in English and in French.) INSTITUTIONAL LEVEL ▪ PEARL Project work with University of Rwanda ▪ PEARL Project work with ISAR agricultural research institute ▪ AgriBusiness Center ▪ Ministry of Agriculture Food Security Project ▪ WIT project work with local associations ▪ N.P.A. work with civil society and local associations ▪ I.R.C. work with Rwandan institutions (Note: Tools in SEAGA Intermediate Level Handbook, Macro Level Handbook and Project Cycle Management Guide are relevant. SEAGA has a guide for participatory, gender and socio-economic sensitive agricultural research. CIDA’s Indicators Manual and Guide to Gender-Sensitive Indicators are relevant.) FIELD LEVEL (Some partners are also working at institutional level.) ▪ AgriBusiness Project work with business development and export linkages ▪ ACDI/VOCA food security work ▪ CONCERN child survival work ▪ CARE food security, micro-finance, agriculture, poor households ▪ WIT low income households, micro-finance, small livestock, shelter ▪ FAWE girls’ education ▪ WORLD VISION work in agricultural activities E-43 ▪ N.P.A. health, local associations (Note: Tools in SEAGA Field Handbook, Project Cycle Management Guide, and Micro￾Finance Guide are relevant. SEAGA also has a post-emergency project guide. The CIDA Indicators Manual and Guide are relevant.) E-44 ANNEX 9: SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND GENDER ISSUES IN SO3 Questions to consider during the formulation of a new ISP 1. What is SO3’s intervention strategy with respect to the gender and poverty alleviation dimensions of agricultural development in Rwanda? How is it reflected in the design, implementation, and results monitoring of intermediate results and activities? 2. How and to what extent can the managers and implementers of current activities determine whether or not these activities are having a positive effect on gender equity and poverty alleviation? If SO3 has little evidence on the extent to which its activities reach different socio-economic and gender groups in the rural population, what are the implications for the process of developing a new ISP? 3. Should a Rwandan food security program make special efforts to reach women farmers? Why or why not? If yes, what types of women farmers should be targeted? How can this be done? 4. Are agricultural researchers who are developing new technologies and improved seeds working with women farmers in proportion to their numerical importance in producing various food crops? What are the constraints on women’s and poor men’s access to the new technologies USAID is working to disseminate? What implications do these constraints have for the new ISP? 5. The current ISP discusses trends toward a dual economy in Rwanda consisting of: (1) a rural, subsistence-based economy and (2) a commercial, export crop-oriented, often urban-based economy. The ISP stresses the need to forge links between the rural economy and the formal private sector. How is SO3 orienting/designing its activities to promote linkages between export-oriented agribusinesses and the men and women farmers in the traditional rural economy? What, if anything, could participatory socio￾economic and gender analysis contribute to the objective of linking these two different sectors? 6. The ISP states the “good policy formulation needs to be based on solid data and analysis and on participatory inputs from various levels of society…” How can women farmers contribute to policy making? How can poor men farmers contribute? Young men and women? E-45 Crop Benefits Flow Chart ISP focus crops How used? Who decides use? Who uses the crop If sold, how is cash used? Who decides on cash use? Beans Maize Food Stalk Irish Potato Cassava Tuber Leaves Sweet Potato Tuber Leaves Banana fruit Leaves Stalk Coffee