Att._J.5_IWMP_Gender_Analysis__Final_Aug_18_12.pdf

Gender Analysis

Irrigation and Watershed

Management Program

(IWMP)

July 31, 2012

This report was produced for review by the United States Agency for International

Development (USAID). It was prepared under contract with Checchi and Company

Consulting, Inc. for USAID’s Afghanistan “Services under Program and Project Offices for

Results Tracking” (SUPPORT) project.

ii

This report was contracted under:

USAID Contract Number: GS-10F-0425M

Order Number: 306-M-00-07-00502-00

Task Order Number 2007-012

Afghanistan Services under Program and Project Offices for Results Tracking (SUPPORT)

Checchi and Company Consulting, Inc.

Afghanistan SUPPORT Project

Wazir Akbar Khan

Kabul, Afghanistan

SUPPORT Project

Activity Signature Page

Evaluation Title: Gender Analysis: Irrigation and Watershed Management Program

Team Leader: Mary Worzala

Team Members: Hosay Rahimi and Mahmood Zarify

This Activity was initiated by through Mr. Sayed Aqa, COTR/SUPPORT Program OPPD

USAID/Afghanistan.

Activity Start Date: July 1, 2012

Completion Date: August 10, 2012

Team Leader Signature:

Paul King, Chief of Party/SUPPORT: _____________dated:_____________2012

Hoppy Mazier, Deputy Chief of Party/SUPPORT: _________Dated:______2012

Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the Government of Afghanistan, or any other organization or person associated with this project.

AKNOWLEDGMENTS:

The IWMP Gender Analysis Team gratefully acknowledges the time and cooperation of the staff of the

Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock and the Ministry of Energy and Water, and their respective provincial offices. We would also like to thank the staff of IDEA-New and ACDI/VOCA for arranging a visit to the dairy cooperative in Koshkak village, and DAIL in Balkh province for arranging a site visit to the pistachio farm.

Front Cover Photo: Women irrigating pistachio plants in Gushgu village (Photo by Haroon Lian) iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

II. INTRODUCTION

1. Overview of the IWMP Program

2. Purpose of the IWMP Gender Analysis

3. Methodology

III. FINDINGS

1. Role of the Government

a. Government policies on women

b. Women in leadership and technical positions

2. Role of Educational Institutions

a. Women in technical departments

b. Need for practical field experience

3. Private-Sector Opportunities for Women

4. Role of Professional Associations and Advocacy Groups

a. Professional associations

b. Advocacy groups

5. Women’s Role in Water Resource Management

a. Women’s role in irrigation

b. Household water uses

c. Women in water users associations

6. Effective Management Strategies for Increasing Women’s Involvement

a. Recruitment and retention strategies

b. LARA Program

c. IWMP program design

IV. CONCLUSIONS

1. Proven strategies to increase the supply of qualified women in the water sector

2. Safety and security concerns prevent women from full participation

3. More clarity is needed on the role of women in irrigation

4. There is strong institutional support for increasing women’s participation in the sector

V. RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Programmatic

2. Management

3. MAIL and Other Counterparts

4. USAID

ANNEX A: IWMP WORK PLAN

ANNEX B: BIBLIOGRAPHY/DOCUMENTS REVIEWED

ANNEX C: SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS

ANNEX D: PHOTOS

iv

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

ACDI/VOCA Agricultural Cooperative Development International and Volunteers in

Overseas Cooperatives Assistance

ADB Asian Development Bank

ANDS Afghanistan National Development Strategy

AREU Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit

AWBC Afghan Women’s Business Council

AWEA Afghan Women of Energy Association

BU Balkh University

CASP Contested Areas Stabilization Program

CDC Community Development Council

COP Chief of Party

DAIL Directorate of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock

DoWA Directorate of Women Affairs

FAIDA Finance and Advice In Development Assistance

FAO Food and Agriculture Organization

GIS Geographical Information System

GIRoA Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

HLP Horticulture Livestock Program

IA Irrigation Association

IDEA NEW Incentives Driving Economic Alternatives for the North, East and West

IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers

IWMP Irrigation and Watershed Management Program

KU Kabul University

LARA Land Reform in Afghanistan

MAIL Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and livestock

MEW Ministry of Energy and Water

MoJ Ministry of Justice

MoWA Ministry of Women Affairs

MRRD Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development

NAPWA National Action Plan for Women of Afghanistan

NEPA National Environmental Protection Agency

NPP National Priority Program

OAG Office of Agriculture

PMP Performance Management Plan

RBA River Basin Association

RBC River Basin Council

RFP Request For Proposal

SAWEC Society for Afghan Women in Engineering and Construction

SCWAM Supreme Council for Water Affairs Management

SWE Society for Women Engineers

USAID United States Agency for International Development

USG United States Government

VTC Vocational Training Center

WAPECA Water and Power Engineering Consultancy Authority v

WB World Bank

WFP World Food Programme

WIE Women in Engineering

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

USAID policy supports the commitment to gender equality as an essential component of all of its development programs. To this end, a gender analysis was conducted of the Irrigation and

Watershed Management Program (IWMP) to ensure that gender is incorporated in all aspects of the planning and implementation of IWMP. The analysis was conducted to identify both traditional and non-traditional ways for women to participate in and benefit from IWMP. The timing of the gender analysis is fortuitous in that the program implementer has not yet been selected, and specific activities have not yet been designed; therefore, the recommendations of this gender analysis can be used to create a holistic program that addresses both men’s and women’s needs and constraints.

The GIRoA has established key legislation (Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS) and the National Action Plan for the Women of Afghanistan (NAPWA)) that form the backbone for women’s empowerment in Afghanistan. There are women and men in leadership positions who are supportive of advancing women’s education and opportunities in all sectors of the

Afghan economy. However, cultural norms prevent more women from entering careers in engineering and agriculture because of family's resistance to allowing women to enter the traditionally male-dominated fields and the risks that are associated with fieldwork. Despite these constraints, women are working in government ministries and in the private sector and in leadership, technical and managerial capacities relevant to IWMP. There are opportunities to ring women into leadership positions within the IWMP staff. There are also significant opportunities within IWMP for women in the private sector as subcontractors to IWMP providing design and construction services, technical assistance, materials, and logistical services.

At the farm and household level, women's role in irrigation and in agriculture is not recognized.

Women play an important role in planting fields, weeding crops and in irrigation. Women are responsible for management and use of water for all household purposes and for small gardens and livestock maintenance at the farm level. The traditional mirab system of irrigation does not allow for women's participation in decision-making or management of water resources. Decisions relating to water allocation are based on historical precedence and land ownership; women's right to property ownership is not recognized.

The major conclusions of the gender analysis are:

There are proven strategies for increasing women’s participation in the sector.

Affirmative action, role models and networking are key strategies for attracting more women to technical careers. There is a strong correlation between adopting these strategies and increasing the number of women in technical careers, in this case water sector careers. In Afghanistan, there are resources within the Ministries, educational institutions and within women's professional associations and advocacy groups that IWMP can access to provide more opportunities for women that will lead them to technical and managerial jobs in the water sector.

Steps must be taken to improve safety and security to recruit more women. The issue of women’s security and safety needs to be addressed up front in the planning stages.

Developing cohorts of women who can work with each other will help to minimize the perceived social risk of a male-dominated environment.

More investigation is needed on the role of women in irrigation. There is only a minimal understanding at the community and household level of the role of women in irrigation and the impact of irrigation decisions on women. Women's lack of participation in irrigation management is a result of the mirab system which is based in property ownership. The mirab system effectively excludes women from decision-making on water management. More information is needed on the role of women in irrigation. A needs assessment on women’s role in irrigation should be conducted in cooperation with women’s shuras and DoWA. The vast amount of literature from international sources should be consulted as well for best practices that can be adapted to the Afghan context.

There is strong institutional support in the academic sector and within government ministries for increasing women’s participation in the sector. IWMP can leverage this strong institutional support to establish its own gender action plan to serve as a model for others.

Key steps must be taken to ensure women's participation at every level in implementing the

IWMP:

Programmatic Recommendations: Internships for women that tie into university programs should be established within IWMP. Capacity-building activities need to take into account women’s specific needs and constraints, including venues, timing, day care and women trainers. Professional associations provide networking opportunities.

Management Recommendations: The implementing contractor can make gender a hallmark of its programming by taking specific steps at the outset, including making gender a cross-cutting component of IWMP, recruiting and mentoring an equitable number of women on its staff—including at least 30 percent in management positions--providing gender sensitization training to men and women at all levels, and including gender criteria , with points, in evaluation of sub-contractors’ proposals as well as including measurable gender indicators in subcontracts.

Recommendations for MAIL and Other Stakeholders: MAIL can be a leader in gender by including women in higher-level management in the water sector. A working group with representatives from MAIL and MEW should be established to identify ways to increase security for women working in the field, to establish career pathways for women to advance into management, leadership and decision-making positions, and strengthening its Gender Unit and implementing a non-discriminatory gender policy.

Recommendations for USAID: Gender-related performance indicators should be included in the on-budget agreement with MAIL, and funding tranches should be tied to the achievement of benchmarks. USAID should encourage collaboration across sectors and programs in gender-related areas.

II. INTRODUCTION

1. OVERVIEW OF THE IWMP PROGRAM

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Agriculture (OAG) is launching a new program in integrated water resource management, the Irrigation and

Watershed Management Program (IWMP), in Afghanistan. IWMP is a comprehensive effort to improve both watershed management and irrigation for agricultural uses. The program is slated to start in the fourth quarter of FY 2012 and run for a five-year period until 2017. IWMP includes a technical assistance component of on-budget support direct to the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL), as the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

(GIRoA) Ministry partner for the program. The estimated cost for the five-year program is

$150,900,000, of which $100,000,000 will be on-budget support to MAIL.

The goal of IWMP is to “expand and strengthen government and community-level capacity to better manage water resources to improve agricultural production and productivity.”

Support will be provided to enhance MAIL’s capacity to plan and manage watershed and irrigation systems and to implement provisions of the Water Law that was passed in 2009. IWMP will work to build capacity within the Directorate of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (DAIL) at the provincial level as well as with traditional irrigation management systems. IWMP has four components:

1. Governance and capacity building to support the implementation of the Water Law and provide technical assistance to MAIL and other stakeholders;

2. Water supply management to provide more sustainable and efficient water for agricultural uses;

3. Water demand management on farms and in irrigation; and

4. MAIL implementation of on-budget irrigation and watershed management activities.

In accordance with USAID policy and USG development priorities in Afghanistan, the IWMP gender analysis will be used to inform and direct the program design and implementation of activities. Gender shall be an underlying theme for all of the activities implemented under the

IWMP.

2. PURPOSE OF THE IWMP GENDER ANALYSIS

The purpose of the gender analysis is to identify opportunities in the project design and execution to ensure that Afghan women have equitable opportunities to participate in, contribute to, and benefit from the activities of IWMP. The outcome of the gender analysis will be a set of actionable recommendations to USAID, IWMP, MAIL, and the implementing contractor to include women in all aspects of IWMP to build their knowledge, skills, and expertise so they

Request for Task Order Proposals (RFTOP) SOL-306-000045, p. 7.

Ibid, p. 18.

more fully participate in sustainable water management. On the demand side, the recommendations will ensure women’s needs for water for on-farm and household uses are considered in the provision of water at the community level. Any other demand side needs of women? On the supply side?

The gender analysis is guided by USAID’s Framework, which includes the following guiding questions:

How will the different roles and status of women and men within the community, political sphere, workplace, and household affect the work to be undertaken?

How will the anticipated results of the work affect women and men differently?

The USAID Gender Unit in Afghanistan requested that the IWMP gender analysis focus on women as opposed to “gender” and how women’s meaningful participation in IWMP activities can be increased. Thus, the focus of the gender analysis is on how IWMP activities mobilize educated women who can be catalysts in positively changing women’s traditional and non-traditional work in ways that empower them.

3. METHODOLOGY

The IWMP gender analysis was conducted between June 28 and July 31, 2012, with the fieldwork taking place from July 2 to July 23 (see Annex A for the Work Plan Schedule). The analysis included key documents review, semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, and site visits to two agricultural projects to interview women beneficiaries (see Annex B for contact details and interview schedule). The document review included project documents, international best practices in irrigation and water supply management that are gender-focused, and documents relating to other USAID and donor programs. Interviews were conducted with the following:

USAID

MAIL and DAIL

Ministry of Energy and Water (MEW): Gender Unit, Water Management

Department, Water and Power Engineering Consultancy Agency (WAPECA), and

Vocational Training Center (VTC)

Parliament Gender Unit

Kabul University and Balkh University

Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA) and Directorate of Women’s Affairs

(DoWA) in Balkh Province

Other USAID implementing partners: IDEA-NEW and LARA

National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA);

Women who graduated from engineering or agricultural programs in the past five years and are working in their professional fields;

Site visits in Balkh province to dairy village cooperative and pistachio farm to interview women working there.

The gender analysis team consisted of one international consultant, Ms. Mary Worzala, and two national consultants, Ms. Hosay Rahimi and Mr. Mahmood Zarify. Interviews were conducted in person in either English or Dari with translation. The team traveled to Mazar-e-Sharif for four days to conduct site visits and to interview provincial officials and stakeholders. Mazar-e-Sharif was selected because IWMP will focus activities on the Northern Watershed Region during the first two years of the project. The team visited two project sites in Balkh province to obtain a clearer understanding of women’s role in water supply and management at the farm and community levels. These two site visits provided valuable clarification on the role of women in on-farm water management.

The analysis uses a supply and demand framework (market "push" and "pull" framework) to identify issues and constraints relating to women’s participation in IWMP. The supply side analyzes where women are qualified and capable of providing inputs and influencing the activities of IWMP, with the objective of making recommendations that will increase the supply of qualified women to participate in IWMP and in the water sector. On the demand side, the team analyzed issues that pertain to women’s access to and use of water at the community and farm level and made recommendations that will ensure that women’s needs are taken into account in

IWMP activities relating to water demand. Also on the demand side is the demand for women to participate in the activities within the sector, which can be stimulated by the IWMP activities.

III. FINDINGS

The findings in the gender analysis are organized according to the stakeholder groups involved in water management (government, educational institutions, professional associations and advocacy groups, private sector); women’s role in irrigation; and effective management strategies for increasing women’s involvement in any development program.

1. ROLE OF THE GOVERNMENT

a. Government policies on women

Progressive policies are in place for improving women's inclusion in the government. The

Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS) details a five-year agenda (2008-2013) for national development and poverty reduction. In the ANDS, gender is considered a cross-cutting strategy, with the ultimate goal being gender equality, defined as “a condition where women and men fully enjoy their rights, equally contribute to and enjoy the benefits of development, and neither is prevented from pursuing what is fair, good, and necessary to live a full and satisfying life.”

The National Action Plan for the Women of Afghanistan (NAPWA) is the policy framework through which the ANDS gender objectives are to be implemented. The Ministry of Women’s

Affairs (MoWA) is responsible for implementing NAPWA and the ANDS Gender Strategy. With the help of MoWA, each of the Ministries has established a gender unit to develop a strategy and action plan to increase the number of women in the workforce and take women’s needs into account in reaching development objectives. NAPWA establishes the goal to increase female employment within the government to 30 percent by 2018. The gender units have been established by MoWA with support from the international donor community.

The IWMP gender analysis team met with the head of the gender units for MAIL, MEW, Parliament, and the Ministry of Transport. The head of each gender unit had been in her position from six months (Parliament) to three years (Transport) and expressed similar frustrations concerning her role and responsibilities. The gender unit heads reported that they are under-resourced, lack specific action plans, and are sidelined in the organizational structure.

The MAIL Gender Unit is typical of other Ministries with a gender strategy (produced with donor funding by Development Assistance Facility for Afghanistan (DAFA)) that is focused on the recruitment and retention of female staff. The unit reports that MAIL currently employs some 300 women out of a total staff of approximately 9,300. The gender unit has four staff, including the head of the unit, Ms. Adela Yusufzai.

According to a gender advisor within MAIL who is

3 ANDS Strategy, 2008.

4 Interviews with head of gender units in MAIL, MEW, Transport, and Parliament.

5 Interview with Adela Yusufzai, Head of Gender Department, MAIL.

working on the Horticulture and Livestock Program funded by the World Bank, the MAIL

Gender Unit currently lacks technical knowledge and has poor management support.

b. Women in leadership and technical positions

More women in leadership and technical positions will play a critical role in expanding opportunities for other women. Establishing strong role models for younger women is an effective strategy for increasing women’s involvement in male-dominated professions. In some

Ministries, there is a core group of women in key managerial and technical positions. For example, in MEW, five out of eight leadership positions at the directorate level are held by women (WAPECA, VTC, Policy, Planning, and Water). These women are in their forties and fifties and have worked in MEW for the past two decades. They graduated from Kabul

University, Kabul Polytechnic University, and Russian universities during the Russian occupation. They were encouraged to apply for leadership positions by the Minister and have his personal backing.

In MAIL, there are two directorates that are headed by women (Family

Economics and Horticulture). While there are women in leadership positions, the gender units within both MAIL and MEW have not sought their cooperation in furthering opportunities for other female staff, nor have the women reached out to help the gender units develop. The gender units are essentially side-lined within the ministries and not given the resources or standing that they need to make women's issues a high priority.

In the rank and file, there are women in management and technical positions within both MEW and MAIL.

Education Leadership Management Technical

MAIL/MEW MAIL/MEW MAIL/MEW

Master’s Degree 2/3 3/1 0/12

Bachelor’s Plus 0/1

Bachelor’s Degree 20/5 1/20

Associate’s Degree 20/1

Total 2/4 43/7 1/32

MAIL and MEW are key Ministries in the implementation of the Water Law. The Supreme

Council on Water Affairs Management (SCWAM) is the highest-level governing council and includes the top-level Ministers from MEW, MAIL, Ministry of Urban Development (MUD), Ministry for Rural Reconstruction and Development (MRRD), and the National Environmental

Protection Agency (MEW). The Ministers meet on a monthly basis to discuss high-level water issues. There are no women who participate at the highest level on SCWAM.

6 Communication with Eng. Sima Abadi, Director of WAPECA.

Data obtained from MEW and MAIL gender units.

At the regional level, MEW is responsible for establishing the River Basin Authorities (RBA) and the River Basin Councils (RBC) that will manage water resources at the river basin level. MAIL is responsible for agricultural uses of water, for maintaining the irrigation canal network and for establishing irrigation associations. To achieve gender equity objectives, both MAIL and MEW will need to be committed to providing opportunities for women to participate at all levels of water resources management, including the highest-level governing bodies such as the RBA and

RBC. At the provincial level, there is support and commitment to providing more opportunities for women, but at the central Ministry-level the commitment is weak. As discussed above, there are women in management and technical positions that could be tapped for these roles.

2. ROLE OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

a. Women in technical departments

Increasing the number of women in the workforce in technical fields will require more women graduates in engineering and agriculture. In Balkh University, five of the 23 faculty members (21 percent) in the agriculture department are women; eight out of 32 faculty members (25 percent) in the engineering department are women. Furthermore, the Dean of Engineering at Balkh

University is a woman. In Kabul University (KU), only 2 out of 100 engineering faculty (2 percent) and 4 out of 75 faculty (5 percent) in the agriculture department are women.

However, the percentage of women in the student body is low; approximately ten percent of the students in agricultural and engineering programs are women.

At Kabul University, there are 100 female students out of 725 students (14 percent) in the engineering programs, and 75 female students out of 850 (9 percent) in the agricultural programs. Nationwide, the percentage of women in agriculture and engineering is even lower. At Balkh University, 50 out of 600 (8 percent) in the agricultural department are female; 40 out of 748 (5 percent) in engineering are female.

The recruitment and retention of women in technical degree programs is a significant challenge.

Within the universities, there do not appear to be any targeted efforts to recruit or retain women in technical fields. The gender analysis team interviewed six women who graduated within the past five years with engineering degrees to learn about their university experiences. Half of the women did not select engineering as their first choice for a degree; their first choice was either medicine or aviation. However, their scores were not high enough to admit them into their first choice school and they were instead placed in the engineering programs. Three of the women cited the importance of a cohort of women to their finishing the degree program. These women felt more comfortable and were able to perform better because they had a cohort of women that were in their same classes. More than half of the women who started in the engineering program dropped out before graduation; in the worst case, only 25 percent of the women who started ended up

Interviews with Dean of Agriculture and Dean of Engineering at Balkh University.

graduating.

Some of the women dropped out because they were not keep up with the studies while others got engaged or married and dropped their studies under pressure from their families.

At the vocational school level, the percentage of women is reported to be even lower, at five percent, despite the fact that 30 percent of the faculty positions in engineering and water are held by women. The barriers that women face include not feeling confident about being able to pass the entrance exam, lack of confidence in applying for technical positions, family concerns about fieldwork, and age discrimination. The head of VTC is trying to change this: “My method to encourage women to join VTC is that I don’t check their entry exam score, I accept women who are less than 40 years old, and when they graduate from VTC I help them to find jobs.” She also aggressively recruits female faculty members, promoting women where she can: “Women need to help other women by pulling them up. When I hired the department head (hydrology faculty), the men complained about my hiring a woman, saying there are men who could do this job. I did it because she is a woman and I want to promote gender equality.”

b. Need for practical field experience

One of the requirements for completing both the engineering and agricultural degrees is that students complete practical fieldwork in either the second or third year of the program. This practical experience is vital to women's job opportunities. Male students have no limitations on the type of fieldwork that they can do; however, opportunities for women to gain practical field experience are constrained due to family concerns and for safety and security reasons. Safety in this case means that women need to be in a team where there are other women doing the same work. If there are no other women doing field work in the same team, women will not consider doing the work; their families will not allow them to do field work; or they will be harassed by the men on the team. Often there are no sanitary facilities for women available, particularly in the field work. If field opportunities are only working exclusively with men, women's opportunities are severely limited.

Without the field experience, women’s job opportunities and hence career advancement is limited.

According to the Dean of Engineering at Balkh University: “It is difficult for women to get jobs in the government or private sector due to a lack of experience with fieldwork. They have theoretical knowledge but not practical experience. Some of the female students will start teaching in high schools or technical institutes. The best thing I can do as Dean is try to improve security and have more practical activities. If there is no issue of security, female students should be able go to the field and learn practical aspects of whatever they studied.”

Interviews with recent graduates from KU and KPU.

Interview with Tajnesa Besmel, Director of VTC.

Interview with Dean of Engineering, Balkh University.

Practical experience for three of the recent graduates who were interviewed consisted of working in the MEW department (WAPECA), where they eventually found jobs. Working in one of the

Ministry departments in Kabul is considered acceptable because it does not require going out to the field for practical work. One of those interviewed cited constraints on the fieldwork due to family concerns regarding safety.

3. PRIVATE-SECTOR OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN

Once women graduate from the university, they rarely find work in the private sector. The barriers cited are the same ones that prevent women from gaining field experience while in school. Women do not consider applying for jobs in the private sector because they lack the required field experience. In addition, families are reluctant to support (in the best case) and frequently discourage or prohibit them (in the worst case) from doing fieldwork due to safety and security concerns. Having women work together in groups should help to alleviate concerns about safety and security.

There are a small number of women-owned businesses in the construction field that are attempting to change this. For example, of the 13 women-owned business representatives who attended a USAID-sponsored conference in Delhi, three were listed as construction and logistics companies.

Three women-owned and -operated construction companies provided the team with information on their activities. Courageous Afghan Women Construction Company (CAWCC) currently employs 34 women in its Kabul and provincial offices. CAWCC has an independent design and construction team and has completed a broad range of infrastructure development projects around Afghanistan, including in such insecure provinces as Paktia, Khost, and Ghazni.

The second company, Saifi Corporation, has been in the construction business for 11 years and employs 37 women, who design and build roads, irrigation systems, commercial and residential buildings, and other physical infrastructure. The third company, Foxtail Logistics, provides construction and logistic services. Foxtail has 52 women staff and cites the key factor of having qualified personnel to work in construction. All three companies expressed a commitment to breaking through barriers that women face when attempting to work in a professional capacity in the infrastructure development business.

4. ROLE OF PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS AND ADVOCACY GROUPS

a. Professional associations

In the United States and other countries, it is common to find professional women’s associations and women’s interest groups within a larger association established to provide a forum for networking and advocacy on issues to facilitate women’s advancement. For example, IEEE

List of businesses obtained from FAIDA Project.

Women in Engineering (WIE) is the “largest international professional organization dedicated to the status and advancement of women in science, technology, engineering, and math professions.

The mission of IEEE WIE is to facilitate the recruitment and retention of women in technical disciplines globally.”

Similarly, the Society for Women Engineers (SWE) has as its mission to

“stimulate women to achieve full potential in careers as engineers and leaders, expand the image of the engineering profession as a positive force in improving the quality of life, and demonstrate the value of diversity.” SWE’s objectives are to:

Inform young women, their parents, counselors, and the general public of the qualifications and achievements of women engineers and the opportunities open to them;

Assist women in readying themselves for a return to active work after temporary retirement;

Serve as a center of information on women in engineering;

Encourage women engineers to attain high levels of education and professional achievement.

In Afghanistan, the Society for Afghan Women in Engineering and Construction (SAWEC) was formed in January 2011 to provide a support network for female construction and engineering company owners and university students. Two leaders from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and one Afghan businesswoman thought it would be a good way to encourage and support

Afghan women in an industry where no support existed. SAWEC has had meetings with as many as 75 participants to promote women’s participation in the construction industry. The women support and learn from each other: “The older women have a lot to learn from the students, who come in with energy and a new outlook on life because they have been raised in a different era. At the same time, the young women have a lot to learn from the older businesswomen, who have been around a long time and have a lot of experience.”

Another example of women’s professional networking in Kabul is the Afghan Women of Energy

Association (AWEA). Initiated under the USAID-funded Afghanistan Clean Energy Program, AWEA exists to support professional development opportunities and networking amongst its members, who currently number 30. The Association plans to fulfill this purpose by meeting the following objectives:

To create a national network of professional women whose expertise is in the energy sector;

To build and improve capacity among women working in the energy sector;

To train women trainers to be able to reach women in rural areas;

http://www.ieee.org/membership-catalog.

http://www.societyofwomenengineers.swe.org.

“Afghan Women Break into Construction Engineering and Management,” ISAF, June 18, 2011.

http://www.ieee.org/membership-catalog http://www.societyofwomenengineers.swe.org/

To teach women in rural areas about the integrated benefits of energy efficiency and specific renewable energy technologies using local natural resources;

To support women’s rural organizations for promoting the acceptance of women in the energy sector;

To seek to influence government agencies that develop the country's energy policy to create gender-sensitive policies; and

To promote young Afghan women enrolling in engineering field programs by working in collaboration with universities and holding seminars in high schools.

However, despite the enthusiasm and commitment of its members, AWEA has faced resistance from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in its official registration. MoJ insists that the name chosen by the group is not appropriate and needs to be changed. Despite letters of strong support from MEW and MRRD, MoJ has thus far refused to register AWEA because of what it sees as an inappropriate name for the organization.

b. Advocacy groups

Advocacy groups can provide a strong collective voice for women's issues to be heard and addressed. The Afghan Women’s Business Council (AWBC) advocates on behalf of women entrepreneurs throughout the country, thereby facilitating women’s entry into the private sector.

Since its inception, the AWBC has worked directly with 23 associations, representing 5,000 registered members from Kabul, Parwan, Kapisa, Laghman, Herat, Ghazni, and Mazar-e-Sharif provinces. The AWBC has also expanded operations to the provincial Women's Resource

Centers, facilitating training programs in business skills development and production for local markets. In the city of Kabul and in Kapisa and Parwan provinces, more than 900 women have attended these programs; AWBC does not conduct the rigorous type of tracking that is required to measure impact of these programs.

In the Land Reform in Afghanistan (LARA) program funded by USAID, a women’s task force on land and property rights was initiated to advocate for women’s right to own land and to access to their legal inheritance rights. Since water rights are tied to property rights, cooperation with the

LARA task force could be productive in promoting women's right to be part of decision-making on allocation of water. Led by MoWA, the women's coalition on land rights has its own action plan and is becoming quite vocal in promoting land and property rights for women. LARA has provided media training for the task force so that they are effective spokeswomen for reform.

LARA is also conducting awareness campaigns in Jalalabad and Kabul and held a women’s conference on land and property rights to raise awareness of the issues for women in land and property rights. The conference discussed the role of the media in raising awareness of women’s inheritance rights; the role of education in raising awareness of communities concerning women’s inheritance rights; and possible strategies for GIRoA to ensure that there is enforcement of the http://www.unifem.org/afghanistan/prog/CEED/activities/AWBC.html.

http://www.unifem.org/afghanistan/prog/CEED/activities/AWBC.html law in support of women’s inheritance. Several recommendations from the conferences will be incorporated in LARA’s option work plan.

5. WOMEN’S ROLE IN WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

a. Women’s role in irrigation

Agriculture is a key component of livelihoods and economic growth in Afghanistan. Irrigation is also the main use of water, accounting for over 95 percent of all water consumption.

Around 90 percent of canal irrigation systems are managed by communities of water users in the traditional

Mirab system, which has been in place for centuries in some parts of Afghanistan. Men manage the irrigation canals, and the mirab, or water manager, is selected by the shura for a certain section of the canal. The water allocation to a specific farm is based on the amount of property in cultivation and historical precedence. Water rights are based on land ownership, and since women don't have land ownership they have no voice in decisions on water allocation.

All of those interviewed stated that women have no role in irrigation. This perception was communicated to the team by DoWA, DAIL, and the women who were interviewed as part of site visits made to a pistachio farm and dairy cooperative. Women do not participate in mirab elections or in any other decision-making in irrigation water management; therefore, it is a widely held perception that women have no role in irrigation.

Under the Water Law, MAIL will establish irrigation associations that operate in parallel with the mirab system of irrigation canal management. The Law does not specify how the irrigation associations will function or the composition of the membership. Technical assistance to develop the rules and regulations of irrigation associations will be provided by the IWMP implementing contractor. Women's involvement in the water users and irrigation associations is crucial to their ability to influence decision-making on irrigation and water resource management. IWMP can have a major impact in making sure that women are represented on the irrigation management bodies.

b. Household water uses

Women are responsible for all domestic water needs such as cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, and other household uses. In many cases, women also have small gardens and livestock in their

17 Recommendations include: 1) Hold periodic media workshops to inform the press of the rights of women; 2) Develop media campaigns with earned media opportunities to raise awareness; 3) Engage Afghan men in efforts to strengthen land rights for women and raise awareness of property rights of women under Afghanistan Civil Code; 4) Additions to curricula in schools that discuss the rights of women in Afghanistan’s

Constitution; 5) Form student groups in universities around the country that advocate for women’s rights; 6) Law enforcement; 7) Amendments to the existing law; 8) Engage Afghan women in efforts to strengthen land rights for women; 9) Understand the specific source of women’s’ insecure property rights and target interventions accordingly; 10) Encourage mahr as a way to ensure that women gain some land at marriage.

18 Gender Analysis of the LARA Project, draft August 2012

Afghanistan Human Development Report 2011, Robert Zimmerman, 2011.

household compounds and are responsible for their care. Some farms have another source of water such as a well, but in many cases women use water from the irrigation canals for household uses as well as irrigation. If domestic uses of water compete with irrigation, there may not be enough water to satisfy all of the needs, and women’s uses are more likely to be neglected.

The participation of women in farming is critical to the success of the farm. Women are responsible for many chores that are associated with farming. For example, women are often found in the fields planting, weeding, and watering the crops. However, these are not considered by those interviewed as irrigation-related.

In limited cases, women take the primary responsibility for irrigation. For example, the gender analysis team visited a six-square-kilometer pistachio farm that was being completely irrigated by women from the surrounding villages. In this case, the women travel to the fields every day to irrigate portions of the field by hand. The day that the team visited, there were about 60 women and children who had come to do the irrigation. They were organized and paid by the World Food

Programme (WFP) in an arrangement whereby they received food for work each week. Most of the women were widows, and it appeared that nearly half of the workers were under 18. This may be an extreme case, but it illustrates women’s undeniable role in irrigation.

c. Women in water users associations

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recognizes the key role that women play in natural resource management, including water resources. “Understanding gender dimensions of natural resources management is the starting point for reversing environmental degradation.”

Improved water management, especially irrigation, is critical to higher productivity and water conservation. Women farmers in many countries have limited access to irrigation networks, or when they do, to irrigation management decisions since management in water users associations is often linked to land ownership.

In Nepal, FAO’s Livelihood Support Program improved women farmers’ production and income by promoting their participation in water users committees. The project also provided them with training in literacy, leadership, and women’s rights at the same time. Increased access to water allowed the women to improve their agricultural practices, resulting in less soil erosion and improved watershed management. Integrating gender-specific approaches into natural resource and water management programs has resulted in improved efficiency of water use, improved protection of water resources, and improved social and economic development.

“Bridging the Gap: FAO’s Programme for Gender Equality in Agriculture and Rural Development,” FAO, p. 22.

21 “Why Gender Matters: A Tutorial for Water Managers,” FAO, pp. 25-26.

6. EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR INCREASING WOMEN’S INVOLVEMENT

a. Recruitment and retention strategies

Affirmative action has been widely used to encourage more women to enter traditionally male-dominated fields. The MAIL Horticulture and Livestock Program sponsored by the World Bank has developed targeted strategies for increasing the number of women in MAIL and working on the program. Initially, the gender focus was primarily on the recruitment and retention of women;

however, the program is currently developing a gender action plan for all components. The updated action plan is expected to focus on “how to”/entry points for women and to include targets for women’s inclusion at all levels including mid- and high-level positions.

The recruitment and retention strategies recommended by Ms. Marziya Mina, Gender Advisor at

MAIL, include:

Develop a female-friendly TOR/job description;

Advertise widely for positions in places where women are more likely to see the advertisement;

Include women on the interviewing team;

Include women in the short-listed candidates;

Develop women-specific positions such as extension agents working with women in the rural communities;

Cover transport, child care, and a bonus or minimal payment for a mahram (a male escort) when it is necessary for a male relative to accompany the woman on fieldwork.

According to Ms. Mina, taking these steps has increased the percentage of women working in middle and top management positions from about five percent to 15-20 percent in the past three years. They also demonstrate a strong commitment to increasing the number of women in professional positions.

b. LARA Program

As part of the analysis, it was suggested by USAID that the team interview the staff of the LARA program as one example of a program funded by USAID that has an aggressive gender component. Findings from the interview relating to gender include:

The LARA Chief of Party (COP) strongly supports gender activities and has a gender unit consisting of four people. The gender unit was originally led by an international advisor;

however, the team is now all Afghans and led by an Afghan woman.

The LARA project conducted an internal gender assessment and gender sensitization training for its staff. There are 11 women on the local staff out of approximately 50

Afghans.

Interview with Marziya Mina, Gender Advisor, MAIL.

Gender considerations are integrated into all of the project’s activities and components.

The unit provides gender-sensitive inputs to all capacity-building programs with the

Ministry and provincial governments.

c. IWMP program design

The IWMP design is relatively strong on gender considerations. The SOW that has been developed by USAID requires that “For all IWMP activities, gender shall be an underlying theme, and analysis of how to include women in IWMP activities shall be completed and implemented.”

A gender analysis must be completed within 45 days of contract award. The

Gender Advisor is a required member of the implementing contractor’s team, although not one of the key personnel. The contractor is required to develop accounting and management systems to separately track and report expenditures supporting women and girls during each fiscal year. Five gender indicators are to be reported in monthly, quarterly, and annual reports:

Total number of women and girls participating in and benefiting from IWMP;

Number of women in each district of implementation empowered through increased access to basic extension and advisory services, including access to knowledge and improved technologies and farm inputs;

Number of interventions leading to increased employment and economic opportunities for women, as well as number of beneficiaries;

Number of women advancing into district level planning, project design, and implementation positions as a result of interventions;

Outcomes for women who have participated in farmers or women’s groups that collaborate with and benefit from IWMP interventions.

The gender indicators are vague and will need to be further defined in the implementer's

Performance Management Plan (PMP). For example, in the first indicator above, in addition to the number of women participating and benefiting from IWMP, the indicator should also measure the level; women in mid-level and leadership positions, at the household level, in academic or vocational school. In the second indicator, how will “empowered” be measured? IWMP must track what women actually do with the access to services, knowledge, technologies and inputs.

For the third indicator, it’s really the number of women who increase/improve their employment

(and by how much) rather than the number of interventions that needs to be tracked.

Unlike the general program indicators, no targets have been included in the RFP for the gender-specific indicators. Targets for the gender-specific indicators also need to be defined in the PMP.

In addition to these gender-specific indicators, three other IWMP indicators should be tracked on a gender-disaggregated basis:

USAID RFP, p. 18.

Number of individuals who have received agricultural-related short-term training;

Number of labor-intensive short-term jobs created; and

Number of farmers using improved irrigation techniques.

The above indicators are output indicators, not outcome or results indicators. Outcomes should also be measured, i.e. how the training or job creation benefited the recipients.

The SOW for the implementer technical assistance to MAIL for managing the on-budget funding does not mention whether MAIL is also required to report on any gender-specific indicators.

Establishing benchmarks and requiring MAIL to report on these same indicators could be an effective way to increase women's participation in the Ministry and in construction-related work of IWMP. MAIL should be required to establish and report on sex-disaggregated indicators, including outcome indicators. If specific benchmarks are not achieved, MAIL should not receive the next installment of funds.

IV. CONCLUSIONS

1. PROVEN STRATEGIES TO INCREASE THE SUPPLY OF QUALIFIED WOMEN IN THE WATER

SE…