Attachment_13_-_USAID-AgriFUTURO_Gender_Assessment_2013.pdf

August 2013

This publication was produced by USAID AgriFUTURO for review by the United States Agency for International Development.

GENDER ASSESSMENT

Prepared by Inez Hackenberg, Reshmi Majumdar and Helena Zefanias

DISCLAIMER

The authors’ views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) or the United States Government

AGRIFUTURO GENDER ASSESSMENT

AUGUST 2013

CONTENTS

Contents ........................................................................................ iii

Acronyms

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

1. Introduction

1.1 Background

1.2 Purpose and scope of the gender

assessment

2. Data collection

2.1 methodological approach

2.2 Report structure

3. Agrifuturo project description

4. Main findings

4.1 Findings per project component

4.2 Conclusions on the gender targets for

AGriFUTURO

5. What is the impact of gender relationship on programme results?

6. Household approach

7. Conclusions and recommendations

8. Missed Opportunities

9. Lessons learned on women’s participation and gender equity in AgriFUTURO

10. Recommendations

11. Developing gendered indicators

12. Example of gendered indicators for AgriFUTURO

13. References

14. ANNEX

iii

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Example of data selected from the

AgriFUTURO PMP (Programme Monitoring Plan) on some sex disaggregated indicators

Table 2. Number of fosc and fosc members, in

BEIRA corridor during april – june, FY13 ... 15

Table 3. Number of foscs and fosc members in nacala corridor during april– june, fy13 ... 15

Table 4. Number emerging farmers and producers reached by asc’s between april–june, fy13

Table 5. Feed the future women empowerment in agriculture index

Table 6. Gender based constraints identification iv

ACRONYMS

ADRA Adventist Development and Relief Agency

AgCLIR Agribusiness Commercial Legal and Institutional Reform

AICAJU Association of Cashew Industry in Mozambique

APC Production and Commercialization Agent

ASC Agribusiness Service Cluster

CEDAW Committee for the Elimination of all Discrimination Against Women

CLUSA Cooperative League USA

CTV Centro Terra Viva, environment organization

DUAT Direiro de Uso e Aproveitamento da Terra

FOSC Farmer Owned Service Centre

FtF Feed the Future

GALS Gender Action Learning System

GATE Greater Access to Trade Expansion

GFP Gender Focal Point

IKURU A farmer-owned company in Nampula

ITC Community Land Initiative

M&E Monitoring and Evaluation

ORAM Rural Organization for Mutual Support

PAC Project Advisory Committee

PMP Performance Monitoring Plan

PPP Public-Private Partnership

SADC Southern Africa Development Community

STTA Short Term Technical Assistance

TNS TechnoServe

USAID United States Agency for International Development

VC Value Chain

VCL Value Chain Leaders

WFP World Food Programme

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Embondeira team is grateful for the support received from the AgriFUTURO team members during preparation and realization of the gender assessment. The time invested by staff and members of the associations, forums, cooperatives and ASCs (Agribusiness Service Cluster) has been very valuable to provide insights and to develop recommendations.

There is consistent and unquestionable evidence that when women’s status and active participation in agriculture is improved and expanded, agricultural productivity increases, poverty is reduced and household nutritional levels increase.

USAID website

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND

Mozambique‘s persistent economic poverty, including the conditions rendering its agricultural productivity among the lowest in the world, has been well documented and amply discussed. In short, at least 55% of the country‘s 23 million people lives below the government-designated poverty line – which is measured in quite sparing terms. Approximately 80% of Mozambicans derive their livelihoods from agriculture, predominantly at the subsistence level. (AgCLIR, 2012)

At least 90% of farmers toil on small plots and grow food for domestic consumption, chiefly maize, rice, cassava, and various fruits and vegetables. Low productivity on these farms is endemic because, among other reasons, high-yielding, government-certified seed is rarely used; purchase and application of fertilizers is beyond the means of most farmers; the use of energy is unusually inefficient; and rainfall is unpredictable and irrigation underused. Once products have left the farm, inadequate storage facilities and problematic rural transport options contribute to pernicious rates of post-harvest loss. Compounding these issues is the country‘s inflation rate, estimated at 13.5% in 2010, which ranks among the worst in the world.

(AgCLIR, 2012)

Due to high levels of illiteracy, lack of skills and low mobility, Mozambican women are far more likely to work as unskilled agricultural labor than men. The overwhelming majority of women in the labor force work in the agricultural sector. It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that the long-term economic well-being of women is directly related to the performance and growth of the agricultural sector.

Of the unskilled agricultural laborers, women represent 59%, which corresponds to 88% of total female employment sector (Arndt, Robinson, Tarp. “Gender and Trade Reform in Mozambique”). Estimates indicate that skilled agricultural labor earns 64% more than unskilled agricultural labor1.

Mozambique´s constitution clearly establishes gender equality in all areas of society and prohibits discrimination in the legislative, political, economic and social development context. However application of the law still remains a challenge as well as its dissemination to women in rural areas.

1 AgriFUTURO final first annual work plan May 2009

The USAID gender policy (2012) defines three overarching outcomes for all its development investments:

• Reduce gender disparities in access to, control over and benefit from resources, wealth, opportunities and services economic, social, political, and cultural;

• Reduce gender based violence and mitigate its harmful effects on individuals and communities; and

• Increase capability of women and girls to realize their rights, determine their life outcomes, and influence decision-making in households, communities, and societies.

The seven guiding principles underpinning this policy outline the USAID gender reform agenda and inform programme cycle and strategies of all projects. They include gender integration, inclusive approaches reaching women and men, building partnerships, and harnessing new technologies and innovation. Besides, USAID aims to learn from successes and failures and share best practices throughout the Agency. Also, it considers gender equality and female empowerment as a shared Agency responsibility and the commitment of all staff at every level.

Over the last five years at the behest of USAID, AgriFUTURO has worked to increase Mozambique’s private sector competitiveness by strengthening targeted agricultural value chains. AgriFUTURO focuses on value chain development as a way of creating incentives for an enabling environment, expanding and strengthening business development services, building linkages between agribusinesses and financial service providers and increasing and improving public/private partnerships.

This assessment looked into how USAID’s gender policy was put into action, the level of realization of planned results, lessons learned, and in particular recommendations for the future.

Since 2011 the project comes within the purview of Feed the Future (FtF) initiative which integrates gender-based analysis into all its investments. USAID, with the support of IFPRI developed an innovative index to assess women’s empowerment- the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index. The index measures: empowerment, agency (the capacity to act independently and to make own free choices) and inclusion of women in the agriculture sector.

The USAID mission is now determined to analyze the roles and relationships of men and women in rural Mozambique and define a strategy going forward that will increase the participation of women in the country’s economic activities.

1.2 PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THE GENDER ASSESSMENT

The Embondeira Consulting team was commissioned by AgriFUTURO to conduct an assessment of the different ways that women and men participate in the agribusiness sector in Mozambique, with a specific focus on the four value chains included in the project; identify key gender issues, gaps and constraints that must be addressed in USAID interventions in Mozambique as it continues to support Feed the Future objectives. In particular, the purpose of this assessment is to focus on how to achieve greater “gender-equitable” value chain development.

The team reflected on the level of participation of women in project activities and the benefits they received as a result of that. Based on the findings, the report strives to articulate whether the women are integrated in income generating activities and increased their incomes and opportunities. The report also strives to draw attention to the constraints affecting the roles of men and women along the value chains.

Three basic questions about gender must be considered throughout the programming process, from design to implementation and final evaluation:

What is the impact of gender relationship on program results?

What is the impact of the program on the relative status of men and women?

What are the Lessons Learned considering gender equality?

2. DATA COLLECTION

The rationale for this undertaking is based on the fact that it is only when women and men are able to negotiate their gender interests and needs at the household level that women may increase their level of influence in decisions made over household resources. When women´s capacity grows, their status changes, productivity increases, and poverty levels at the household decrease. Therefore this assessment provides relevant information on how gender roles and responsibilities at the household, production and market level, impact the program and/or the lives of the different people involved in the fruits, oilseeds, pulses and cashew value chains.

To gather information for this study the following methods were used:

• A desk review of program documents, studies and publications produced by AgriFUTURO, USAID and other key stakeholders;

• Review of reports and publications on other projects in Mozambique and abroad, to extract best practices and lessons learned connecting to lessons and questions from the assessment ;

• A quantitative analysis and review of on-going project activities and results;

• A qualitative analysis including structured interviews2 and a questionnaire3 ;

• Three briefings on progress and results with appropriate USAID staff in Maputo;

• Visit to the project field sites in all three project areas (Nampula, Zambezia and Manica/Sofala), structured interviews with staff and interactive discussions with project beneficiaries (both male and female);

• Focus group discussions on land issues, value chain mapping and markets.

• Between 15th June and 30st of July the assessment team met with 93 women and 103 men representatives of 14 producer organizations (FOSCs and Cooperatives) and 5 men and 2 women owners of 7 companies participating in the project as Agribusiness Service Clusters (ASC). These organisations selected by the AgriFUTURO teams, were located in 11 districts in Nampula and Zambezia province (Nacala corridor) and Manica (Beira corridor). The Embondeira team had specified the need to meet with a variety of AgriFUTURO clients in small groups, with at least 6 women.

• The consultants used several tools from the Gender Action Learning System (GALS) methodology, 2 See annex A 3 See annex B developed by Linda Mayoux4 and others. The tools are highly participatory and allow each individual to express her/himself, often with use of drawings. Focus group discussion took place on market access and the role of the FOSC/cooperative in improving income and women participation.

• Interviews with the ASCs, Agribusiness Service Centres, focussed on business model applied reasons to partner with AgriFUTURO and possibilities to increase the gender focus in their work.

• In Catandica, Manica value chain analysis focused on two value chains: maize and soya. The data are presented as a case study.

• Documents for the desk review became available few days before the field visits. Having only broad understanding of the implementation of the project allowed for openness without many preconceived ideas.

• Interviews with other institutions on land issues and agribusiness, as well as interviews with USAID, AgriFUTURO, staff members took place in the different provinces until end of July.

• In Chimoio, a focus group discussion with Iniciativa Terras Comunitarias, Forum Terra, Centro Terra Viva and AgriFUTURO allowed for inter-organizational exchange.

Forum FACANA in Moma: during the explanation of the meeting purpose in Macua.

Nampula Province . August 2013

4 See annex H for principles; check www.wemanresources.info for more information http://www.wemanresources.info/

2.1 METHODOLOGICAL

APPROACH

The Scope of Work5 presents three central questions to be answered. For each question the team followed a specific methodological approach:

Question 1 – What is the impact of gender relationship on program results?

Interviews with key program staff were conducted to identify the most significant changes in gender relations at the program level. The interviews gave clarity on the program goals and results indicators, on resources used to reach those goals; on the staff ability/skills as well as their willingness to use gender related tools and principles in doing their project activities. Besides, this question was answered by reviewing documents such as progress reports, monitoring and/or evaluation reports and any other written material related to the project implementation.

The first tool is the Gender Balance Tree which is used to establish the roles and responsibilities of household members. The tool helped to understand both reproductive and productive activities performed by each member of the household .It helps to understand the main source of income for the beneficiaries and how the income is then used at the household level. The tool helps to identify what decisions are taken by who at the household level as well as the resources that both women and men have access to and control over.

Since this is a tool that helps people to define priorities in using their income it also identifies expenses that negatively impact household resources. The information collected from using this tool was analyzed against the activities implemented and the changes the project envisioned.

5 See annex C

Gender balance tree exercise with forums and cooperatives at Facana, Moma district and Ruace, Gurue District.. August 2013. Photo: Consultant team

Question 2 – What is the impact of the program on the relative status of women and men?

To address the second question the team used three participatory tools6. The second tool used is the Increasing Income Challenge Action Tree – a tool that helped to understand gender constraints at household, production and market level. This tool provides further clarity on not only gender based challenges but also other aspects of the production (like quality of seeds) and marketing that have a greater impact in the relationship between women and men.

Question 3 - What are the lessons learned considering gender equality?

Value chain mapping of the actors, the third mapping tool, enabled us to understand where the women and men are positioned in the whole chain, which parts of the chain are more important or more profitable.

Through this mapping exercise the team was able to identify the role of the different actors in the development of the value chain and whenever possible, assess their willingness to work with a gender perspective.

2.2 REPORT STRUCTURE

Section I introduces the scope of this gender assessment. Section II contains a short project description with intended actions on gender issues. The core of this report, Section III, presents the findings of the desk review, interviews and fieldwork. This section is designed to assess the gender equity objectives in the AgriFUTURO project and to answer the questions posed in the scope of work.

Lastly, conclusions and recommendations are presented in Section IV. An example of the development of possible gender indicators for a future phase is included in Section V, followed by a list of sources consulted and annexes. Additionally lessons learned document is presented which links to the best practices and lessons gathered from the assessment.

6 Developed by Linda Mayoux and WEMAN programme. See annex 4

Income challenge action tree exercise – Forum FACANA, Moma district- Nampula Province.August 2013

3. AGRIFUTURO PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The USAID funded AgriFUTURO Programme supports the USAID Mission’s strategic objective of “Broad-based rapid economic growth sustained through expanded capacities and opportunities” and is part of the Mission’s Rural Income Program. The project is implemented by Abt Associates Inc. The AgriFUTURO project focuses on the Beira and Nacala corridors providing assistance to target groups active in high-potential agriculture value chains. Life of the project ran from its original period May 1, 2009-February 27, 2013 (three years, ten months) plus an 11-month extension, awarded earlier this calendar year, from March 2013 to January 31, 2014.

Abt Associates collaborates with two subcontractors, CLUSA and TechoServe:

CLUSA interacts with associations, forums and cooperatives in the Nacala corridor and Beira Corridor. It provides business support and promotes the creation and strengthening of the FOSCs (Farmer Owned Service Centres) and Cooperatives. Activities implemented are business training, technical assistance, elaboration of business plans, and facilitation of access to financial services, production inputs and markets, amongst others.

TechnoServe’s (TNS) contribution focused on the fruit and cashew value chain. They provided 3 technical staff to the Nampula based AgriFUTURO office, working in particular on quality control, linking to international markets and business development. Within this project, most of its interventions concentrated on business development, apart from the pineapple value chain which had a component with producer associations in Zambezia.

The selected value chains are:

• Fruits : mango, banana and pineapple;

• Oilseeds: soy beans, sesame and groundnuts;

• Pulses: pigeon peas, cowpeas, butter beans, and

• Cashews;

It is worth to mention that maize and forestry were originally included, but taken out of the targeted value chains in 2012 when the Feed the Future initiative started.

Geographical focus:

The geographic focus of the project area is the Nacala and the Beira Corridors. Currently the project implements activities in 30 districts of Nampula, Zambezia, Sofala, and Manica Provinces.

The project is comprised of four components:

Component 1: Improve the Enabling Environment for Agribusinesses

The project aims to contribute to an increased and improved stakeholder base to articulate and lead the agribusiness enabling environment reform agenda. Under component one the project planned to address the following gender issues:

• Review the role of women in the target value chains when completing Competitiveness Assessments and address gender challenges in the strategies and action plans.

• Value Chain Associations will be representative of women if they are included and will address women’s issues.

• Project staff will recruit women’s organizations to participate in national forums and discussions and conduct explicit outreach to women in producer and business associations, as appropriate.

Component 2: Expand and Strengthen Agribusiness Development Services

AgriFUTURO seeks to improve the quantity, quality and appropriateness of business development services available to the target value chains and the agribusiness sector in Northern Mozambique. In this light the project intended to:

• Ensure that women advisors and extension agents are present in the agribusiness service clusters to work with women farmers and entrepreneurs.

• Establish ways for ASCs to convey information that take into account literacy levels, and will ensure that the ASCs’ hours of operation and location are responsive to women’s schedule constraints.

• Assess ways to tie funding of ASCs to women’s activities, with up to fifty percent funding allocated for women-owned businesses or for consortia in which fifty percent of the businesses are women-owned, amongst others.

Component 3: Build Linkages to Financing Services for Agribusiness Development

Several constraints restrict women’s ability to access finance and credit. Therefore,

• AgriFUTURO would facilitate the formation of partnerships that promote successful, mutually beneficial relationships within and across value chains.

• And intended to identify women-owned businesses that could benefit from investment from the Agribusiness Investment Fund.

Component 4: Increase and Strengthen Public-Private Partnerships

AgriFUTURO aims to facilitate the formation of partnerships that promote successful, mutually beneficial relationships within and across value chains. No specific gender issues were identified for this component.

4. MAIN FINDINGS

In this section, the team will bring the main findings of the field survey and desk review. First, the findings will be presented by project component. Following, findings will be related to other queries and priority areas in the Scope of Work. That is, the impact of gender relationships on program results, the household approach as a possible way to address women empowerment and gender gap, and a reflection on land issues and gender. A short reflection on gender at the organizational level is added.

4.1 FINDINGS PER PROJECT COMPONENT

To answer the question “What is the impact of gender relationship on program results?” The team look made an analysis of how the gender targets defined for each project component were dealt with in implementation. Although gender is described under the cross cutting issues in AgriFUTURO’s first work plan, gender activities were minimal which reflected lack of a strategy neither plan that could be used to analyses planning versus results over time.

COMPONENT 1: IMPROVE THE ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR AGRIBUSINESS

The project component 1 aims to increase business competitiveness and improves the enabling environment for agribusiness. Gender targets were defined on three main subjects: competitiveness assessments, value chain associations and outreach to women.

Competitiveness assessment:

• AgriFUTURO did a comprehensive agribusiness competitiveness assessment, where a number of constraints were identified namely:

• High costs, unreliable logistics and high taxes. In the fruit value chain the fruit fly restricts internal and external transports. The project considers that these constraints affect both men and women equally and thus were addressed without further gender analysis.

• The Agribusiness Commercial Legal and Institutional Reform (AgCLIR) study was an important contribution to discussions on Mozambique agribusiness competitiveness:

• The AgCLIR report7 provides more than 50 recommendations to improve the agribusiness sector in the country and lay the foundation for increased openness, productivity and competitiveness in the agribusiness sector through dialogue, analysis and action.

• Prior to conducting the AgCLIR assessment, the AgCLIR team received training which included ways of integrating gender contraints into the assessment. The report included a section specific to gender.

• From the fifty listed recommendations only one directly addresses gender equality constraints:

“Improve the conditions for women in Mozambique‘s labor market” which is listed as a high priority for all stakeholders on the short term. Other recommendations like promoting mobile banking facilities also contribute to creating a better enabling environment for women.

• The report also noted that Mozambique has a largely positive legal framework supporting women’s rights. However, implementation of this legal framework is weak. There is general lack of knowledge and little access to legal support.

• Although women are important as traders in the south, in the north, however, men dominate trade in agricultural products. “The more commercialized the crop, - according to one observer, - the fewer women involved.”The report presents good suggestions to improve the business environment for women. A quote from the report:

“…One area that is ripe for special focus is business development services oriented toward female entrepreneurs in the agriculture sector. It has been shown in other countries that women-focused, relational (as opposed to transactional) business support services provide:

nascent women business owners with confidence and counseling; new women business owners with important management skills; and growth-oriented women business owners with contacts, compatriots, and new market opportunities. …..”

The identified gender based constraints and suggestions in AgCLIR study provide a good basis to further gender equity in agribusiness. Some suggestions are integrated in the recommendations chapter of this assessment.

7 AgCLIR Moçambique Reforma Comercial Legal e Institucional no Sector Agricola de Moçambique Agosto de 2011 www.abtassociates.com/Impact/2011/Improving-Mozambique’s-Enabling-Environment-for-Ag.aspx http://www.abtassociates.com/Impact/2011/Improving-Mozambique's-Enabling-Environment-for-Ag.aspx

Development of Agribusiness Associations:

AgriFUTURO has been working actively with two value chain associations: Fruticentro and Aicaju.

Fruticentro is a fruit value chain association of the central zone of Mozambique. This association promotes a collective approach to develop the fruit sub-sector in the Beira corridor. AICAJU is a cashew value chain association and is highlighted as a case study on women participation in the cashew industry association in

BOX 1.

As per the first work plan, AgriFUTURO should have assisted these associations to represent women and address their issues. As mentioned above, the main strategic position has been that the issues at stake are equally important for men and women and the latter have equal access to the associations.

Box 1: – The case of AICAJU - Women Participation in Cashew Industry Association

Cashew processing industry, traders, government institutes and cashew producers are represented in AICAJU, the

Cashew Industry Association. The AgriFUTURO project supported the development of AICAJU’s organizational capacity to lobby, to bring issues affecting the cashew value chain association under attention of policy makers and advocate for its inclusion in the national policy reform agenda. Additional tasks include integration of the producer associations and forums and the cashew industry. Two technical staffs were employed by AICAJU with project support.

Women representation: Women are represented in AICAJU as members Cashew producers associations and forums. Out of 2500 members of 11 associations supported by AICAJU, 837 are women.1 Amongst these women some 30% are tree owners, in general widows or nieces who inherited the trees. Many married women do not participate in AICAJU meetings with cashew producers when their husband is the official member. The majority of the women are linked to a forum (85%). 19% of the women (159) are members of the boards (Mesa de Assembleia, Conselho fiscal e Conselho de Direcção). They function as presidents, vice presidents, secretaries, treasurers and councillors.

Women participation in decision making processes of AICAJU is limited: AICAJU technical staffs witnessed the participation of maximum 2 women per half yearly meeting where challenges are discussed and decisions are taken.

In line with the scope of work, the team looked into the place of men and women in the cashew value chain. In short, women are found at the production level and are most active in the cleaning and the harvest (picking). Men generally lead pruning and spraying. After harvest, the family decides how much is for consumption and how much will be sold.

Women control the cashew for consumption while generally the men negotiate and control selling.

A lack of policy and strategy to increase women participation and to facilitate representation of women producers in

AICAJU was noticed. No value chain specific analysis was used to discuss gender constraints with AICAJU. Regular internal project meetings discussed progress on sex disaggregated indicators but rarely used the opportunity to discuss how far progress was made on gender equity and female empowerment.

The staff members confirmed that the linkage between processors and producers, facilitated by AgriFUTURO did lead to an increased market access, higher minimum price, an improved and more direct relationship between the two sides and more cashew production. Also, 34 women were trained as promoters to inform and sensitize other women.

Analysing this case, demonstrates that increased female representation in producer associations, their participation in production training combined with work on gender division of labor will enable more women to take leadership and management positions in the associations and thereby become eligible as a representative to participate in the value chain association.

Gender capacity building and empowerment activities:

Under this heading AgriFUTURO supported participation of women entrepreneurs and women’s organizations in national and international events. In total de project supported 42 events. The following activities were targeted at entrepreneurial women:

• 2011: Ms. Judite Macuacua participated at the AgriBusiness Forum entitled “ Engaging the Private Sector for Africa’s AgriFood Growth”, 16-19 October, Johannesburg-SA – Financed by USAID;

• 2012: Ms. Judite Macuacua participated in a Symposium in Washington DC, entitled “Advancing Food and Nutrition Security” at the G8 Summit – Financed by USAID;

• 2013:

• Ms. Macuacua present for the first time in the 6th edition of the International Fair organised by the Association of Korean Inventors, Innovators and Entrepreneurial women, 1 to 8 May in Seoul, South Correa where she won a silver medal and was attributed a certificate of recognition by the Republic of Macedonia.

• Ms. Macuacua received a grant as well as technical assistance to build a small processing unit in Mutivasse, and a selling point for her products in Nampula ;

• Ms. Macuacua, financed by USAID/AgriFUTURO, participated in the launch of the Mozambique chapter of WASAA, Women in Agribusiness in Southern Africa.

Outreach to women

The project intended to conduct explicit outreach to women in producer and business associations.

Many of the questionnaire responses indicate that no specific strategy to reach both women and men was developed. Nonetheless, the different implementing partners’ project methodologies encourage female participation through participatory approaches (support builds on local knowledge and involves members at all stages), and directing extension activities and training to both men and women.

Association members are sensitized to welcome women in their activities and decision making bodies.

Throughout the report some limitations to this approach are elaborated upon.

AgriFUTURO by numbers

AgriFUTURO has a set of useful indicators disaggregated by sex. The main indicators are listed below including a reflection on their use:

• Number of new jobs created, occupied by men and women: This indicator combines seasonal and permanent jobs. No analysis is shown whether men and women move up to permanent jobs from seasonal employment and how they are spread over technical work and production labor.

• Number of rural households benefitted (e.g. with seeds, good prices, new technologies) divided in male and women headed households: This indicator provides information on access of men and women to the benefits of project investments in new technologies, market linkages and alike. However, it was not clear whether all households stated under female are female headed and controlled. An analysis should be done to identify what intervention and new technologies are directed at male households and what at female headed families and whether this led to increased income and agribusiness.

• Firms and producer organizations assisted through the project: These data enable monitoring progress in project outreach to women, percentage of loans allocated to women and how this compares to loans allocated to men.

• Use of new technologies and management practices: Is measured by increase in hectares farmed, number of organizations and farmers applying them or benefitting from them. To get insight in effectiveness of project activities, the data should detail what new and improved technologies are in reach of men and of women. Do they have equal access to mechanization or processing? Based on the questionnaire and the group value chain analysis (see above) women seem to have mainly access to improved seeds and production methods.

• Number of female and male members of cooperatives and producers organization: An important indicator of presence of women and men in the farmer organization. Combining the result with data on participation of women in management and boards and at what positions, provides further insights and lessons on the integration process of women at all levels of organization

TABLE 1. EXAMPLE OF DATA SELECTED FROM THE AGRIFUTURO PMP (PROGRAMME

MONITORING PLAN) ON SOME SEX DISAGGREGATED INDICATORS

Indicator Beneficiaries inQ1 of FY13 Beneficiaries in FY12

Male Female Male Female

New jobs created 19,471 13,630 18,286 9,039

Rural households 46,393 (70% of target) 28,496 (41% of target) 63,960 68,366

Value of agro-credit (in US$) $ 645,203 $ 23,041 3,893,400 17,085

Hectares for improved technologies8 44,043 ha = 124%/target 18,766 ha = 124%/target 31,221 13,161

Farmers using improved technology 37,812 16,449 72,936 42,242

Source: AgriFUTURO, August 2013

No evidence was found that these numbers are deeper analysed from a gender perspective to inform the decision makers and to measure effective outreach to women and men. Section V proposes a methodology to define gendered indicators in a way that facilitates analysis of changes over time and in comparison with men.

Above the main achievements and challenges in relation to agribusiness environment and gender targets were explained. The next subchapter looks at gender and agribusiness development service.

8 Improved technologies like mechanization; using inoculants and application of one or more improved management practice

COMPONENT 2: EXPAND AND STRENGTHEN AGRIBUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

SERVICES

The project envisioned women’s associations and entrepreneurs to actively participate in Agribusiness development services. To this end, AgriFUTURO is promoting two approaches:

Farmer-owned service centers (FOSCs):

Provide services to members or associations that belong to, or own, the service center. Under this approach the project has supported in Manica 5 FOSCs and in Zambezia and Nampula each 4 FOSCs.

TABLE 2. NUMBER OF FOSC AND FOSC MEMBERS, IN BEIRA CORRIDOR DURING APRIL –

JUNE, FY13

Name of the FOSC Member Sex Total # Associations/clubs

M F

Barué/Manica 3.565 856 4.421 103

Dombe 520 359 879 32

Mossurize 864 170 1.034 39

Total 4.949 1.385 6.334 174

Source:AgriFUTURO, July, 2013

TABLE 3. NUMBER OF FOSCS AND FOSC MEMBERS IN NACALA CORRIDOR DURING APRIL–

JUNE, FY13

Name of the FOSC Sex

Total # Associations M F

Nampula Province:

SANA Associations 11, 472 7,914 19,386 721

SANA Cooperatives 243 59 302 17

IKURU 2,786 1,540 4,326 133

AICAJÚ 6,202 2,919 9,121 11

Total 20,703 12,432 33,135 882

Zambezia Province:

ADRA Associations 1,490 1,960 3,450 11

FedaMoz 869 359 1,228 55

Associações da Alta Zambezia (which includes Prosoja and GATES Associations)

6,339 3,891 10,230 140

Nicoadala-WV Associations 55 26 81 3

Total 8, 753 6, 236 14,989 209

Source: AgriFUTURO, July 2013

Agribusiness Service Clusters (ASCs):

The AgriFUTURO ASC approach is designed to strengthen the competencies and strategies of local, regional, national and in some cases international stakeholders to develop and support local “agribusiness clusters”. These clusters comprise farms, firms and business development and financial services, and are targeted at specific commodities value chains and market “segments”. Results of the project up to date: 6 ASCs in Manica, 4 in Zambezia and 5 in Nampula Province.

TABLE 4. NUMBER EMERGING FARMERS AND PRODUCERS REACHED BY ASC’S

BETWEEN APRIL–JUNE, FY13

Location Number of ASCs Sex of the producer

F M

Beira Corridor 6 5 31

Nacala Corridor 11 1,871 4,099

Source: AgriFUTURO, July, 2013

Both Agribusiness Service Clusters and Farmer Owned Service Centers support between 40 to 60% of women. However, interviews showed that the percentage of women present in decision making bodies, in training sessions and commercialization are noticeably lower than the percentages of women members mentioned above. According to staff, women are incorporated in particular in weeding the harvest, threshing and packing produce in sacks. Most of these jobs are seasonal and by task. They are the lesser paid jobs.

According to the enabling environment AgCLIR report, only 30% of people attending vocational and agricultural schools are women. They encounter constraints in mobility through marriage and domestic responsibilities and are a minority in extension work. Very few female extension agents are present in the agribusiness service clusters. The Agribusiness Service Centres, ASCs, confirm they work only with male technical staff. Yet, many need women for majority of the farm labor, and have an interest to see technical guides are disseminated and applied.

Support to women entrepreneurs:

AgriFUTURO is supporting individual agribusiness entrepreneurs and companies through its grant program as well as through facilitation of loans. Two out of 19 grantees are women. The two women recipients of a grant are from Maputo and have honed their entrepreneur skills in Nampula. The culture in Southern Mozambique is more conducive to women developing a commercial business. Especially WISSA (see below) prioritizes employing local women to transmit skills and insights.

The overview of March 2013 AgriFUTURO M&E report states that the grants provided to the two women totals US$17,000 out of a total of US$ 862, 626 expended on grants, or just 2 % (some grants went to men but benefited women.

Following some examples of support of women entrepreneur’s activities:

WISSA: Ms. Judite Macuacua, the owner of WISSA9 (which stands for resting in Macua, the local dialect of northern Mozambique) received support to design and construct a sales outlet for selection of cassava processed food products in Nampula city. Her vision is to promote Mozambique’s cuisine, nutrition and also to save her customer’s processing time-particularly women working outside the

9 See success story in annex E home. AgriFUTURO supports this enterprising widow who already had prior experiences on a foray of initiatives. In the meantime she had continued her own local production of cassava produce. In 2011 she started with oilseeds (groundnut, sesame) with technical support from AgriFUTURO. She employs 11 workers of whom 10 are women. She also makes provision for sale of cassava for a number of smallholder farmers.

GRAMITER: Gramiter is the amalgam of the words “Graos da Minha Terra” (Grains of my Land) a company formed and run by Maria Nhantumbo10 . Founded in 2009, the company is into agro-trading with associations and sells to a largely women owned and operated group of buyers. In 2011, she bought 60 hectares of land in Muriaze and government made available another 240 hectares. She contacted AgriFUTURO to support her dream journey in farming by getting a tractor. In future she hopes to acquire a manual shelling machine. Maria employs many women as seasonal laborers and helps them by providing guidance on nutrition, hygiene and farming.

ACOF : A Seed Production Company managed by Olinda Fondo11, works with farmers’ associations formed by ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency) in Zambezia Province. Her company was identified as a potential Agribusiness Service Cluster to receive a grant for the installation of a fruit processing factory but her candidature was not honored as the project had already entered in its final phase and ACOF process was in pipeline. Nonetheless, ACOF received technical support for a business plan, a viability study for the food processing factory and support to improve seed production.

AgriFUTURO also facilitated a loan with BOM (Banco Oportunidade de Moçambique).

NOSSARA: The women soya production and processing cooperative Nossara12 in Ruace was facilitated by the American Embassy in its business plan and in obtaining a grant of 5.810 USD. The 12 women (1 widow, 1 single and rest are married) who individually were farming and processing 42 ha of soya joined their businesses and are now building a warehouse where they plan to process derivatives of soya like cakes, milk etc. The women were motivated to start their own co-operative to ensure they did not lag behind their male counterparts. They also increased their regular savings with the revenue earned from soya “because when the money is in the house it is difficult not to spend it”. Analyzing the findings on support to women entrepreneurs, claims there are few women entrepreneurs considered champions within this program. Due to the program approaches and selection criteria there seem to be less openings for potential women entrepreneurs to benefit from the project. The GALS approaches can assist the program to create an environment more conducive to have women come to the forefront.

Job creation:

An important indicator under this component 2 is the number of jobs created. AgriFUTURO backs job creation through their support to the growth of agribusiness companies, improved access to financial services and increased field sizes and yields of Forums and Farmer Owned Service Centres (FOSC). In first Quarter of 2013, a total of 13.630 jobs were created for women against 19.47113 for men. The data does not separate seasonal and permanent employment, nor the type of employment.

Based on the data, it is difficult to analyze whether women and men have managed to increase their activities at different levels of the value chain and whether they have been able to considerably increase their family income and apply it to improve family well-being. Constraints around this will be discussed below.

10 See annex F for success story of GRAMITER 11 ACOF stands for Agricultura e Comercialização de Olinda Fondo 12 See annex G for history of Nossara 13 Quarterly Performance Indicators Report January-March 2013

Some of the jobs created due to increased land areas and yields might be lost again when the machineries procured under the grants will become operational at ASC and FOSC level. Programme subsidized mechanization of peeling, sieving, picking and packaging might specifically reduce the employment of women in activities related to land preparation, but women are given other jobs In return the programme could consider other alternatives like introducing these women to small processing or commercialization of processed products in FOSCs or linked to ASCs.

The as per the first AgriFUTURO work plan foreseen fifty per cent of funding to ASCs allocated for women-owned businesses or for consortia in which fifty percent of the businesses are women-owned have not coincided with our findings and will need different strategies, to be discussed later in the report.

COMPONENT 3: BUILD LINKAGES TO FINANCING SERVICES FOR AGRIBUSINESS

DEVELOPMENT

Limited access to finance and credit is a serious constraint for agribusiness in Mozambique, both for men and women. However, women encounter additional constraints. Therefore within component 3, Building Linkages to Financing Services for Agribusiness Development, the project raised awareness amidst financial institutions to create different, more accessible financial products by meetings, conversations and providing general information. The new Banco Oportunidade Moçambique (BOM) has responded positively to the project efforts. However, this is not a specific response to increasing women’s access to credits.

Facilitating credit and loans:

Several ASCs, emerging farmers, cooperatives and Forums were facilitated to obtain loans from Banco Terra, and Banco Oportunidade Moçambique (BOM) who provides commercial loans to traders during the harvest and sales season for grains and oilseeds; and Standard Bank. Private companies like OLAM, Sunsmile, IKURU, and FDD, have also provided credits.

“FinAgro” and new funds like “AgDevco” as well as credit through ASCs are designed to reach different categories of farmers. Women’s main access to these loans and grants is through their membership of the cooperatives and forums or as individual emergent farmer organized in groups for bank credits. In 2013, 17 women got individual access to credit.

AgriFUTURO supports clients in elaboration of business plans and linking them up with most suitable funding. AgriFUTURO accompaniment augments probability of financing. Within AgriFUTURO project Agribusiness clients and financial officers are requested to identify eligible women yet, without strategy or policy to guide them.

Analyzing new funding opportunities, FINAGRO considers gender inequality and encourages female entrepreneurs to apply. The programme provides grants to small and medium enterprises, associations, cooperatives, working in agriculture. Criterion for approval includes a contribution of minimum 30%, guarantee of technical assistance during the project and legal registration. Finally, grants should not just benefit an individual beneficiary. Only few women entrepreneurs or groups respond to these criteria, obliging them to group with men. However, as mentioned before, in mixed cooperatives and forums women are not well represented in decision making spaces.

AgDevCo14, a not-for-profit distribution agricultural development company investing "social venture capital" seeks to design and invest in businesses that incorporate opportunities to maximize improvements in household welfare by supporting women farmers and women entrepreneurs.

14 http://www.agdevco.com/about_us.php http://www.agdevco.com/about_us.php

Potentially an interesting partner in the project, their website does not reflect on how they seek to reach those women.

Targets on agricultural loans:

AgriFUTURO 2012 overall targets for agricultural loans "Backed by DCA (Development Credit Authority)" and without DCA were largely met: target $2,764,552 versus realized $5,540,936. Sums lent to men exceeding planned targets by 170% on average. This is in stark contrast with the amounts lent to women. In 2012 this was 0% and in the first quarter of 2013 it went up to only 1%. Not DCA backed loans to women were both 3% of target and 3% of the total loans.

In the M&E report the team mentions that the reason for this is that “most clients are men and the few women in the group do not qualify for loans, unless acquired through the association, which are predominantly male led.”

Actions undertaken to make women eligible for loans are mainly to support business planning and financial management training. The project does not have any specific strategy to identify women who are credit-worthy, communication strategy to disseminate financial plans, or specific selection criterion to decide on loan recipients. “All our potential clients are to benefit from the financial component;

however the majority of the beneficiaries are men.”

4.2 CONCLUSIONS ON THE GENDER TARGETS FOR

AGRIFUTURO

The AgriFUTURO components have targets defined for contributing to gender equity and female empowerment. Many targets were not fully met. The consultants did find little evidence of actions taken and implemented to counter the problems. Ideas were launched like the grant-fund gender strategy and discussions with financial institutions on accessible inclusive products, but not fully realized or sufficiently backed by internal policies.

Most strategies seem based on the assumption that provision of inputs, equipment, loans and jobs will impact positively on gender relations.

The project should strive to understand men’s and women’s roles and relationships taking into account power relations and influence of cultural norms, and look for ways to challenge them, including men and women in the definition of the problems and the solution.

Articles 15-19 of the SADC protocol on gender provides for the equal participation of women in economic policy formulation and implementation15. It reflects the Mozambican government’s commitment. AgriFUTURO could have increased its contribution to the realization of the SADC’s protocol on gender for instance through the AgCLIR study follow up, gender equity studies and formulating, testing and reporting on innovative strategies.

15 www.sadc.in/documents-publications http://www.sadc.in/documents-publications

5. WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF GENDER

RELATIONSHIP ON PROGRAMME RESULTS?

As explained in the introduction of this section II, the assessment made use of several participatory GAL’s tools to gather data at the production, market and household level to know where men and women are based in the value chain, where most value is added and how accessible markets are.

Issues around production and participation:

• At all levels of FOSCs, associations, and forums women put in most of the farming labor as well as the domestic work. School going children in particularly girls, also assist in household work.

Producer organizations all confirmed they strive for women to participate more. Yet, little change is observed in the gender division of labor and most women still work up to 16 hours a day.