Gender in decision making, access to and control over labor and extension services: A Perception survey in Burkina-Faso

Abstract

The new knowledge, technologies, practices, institutions and policies developed by the CGIAR and partners change the social and economic returns to key productive resources for agriculture (e.g. biodiversity, land, water, forests, livestock and fish, seeds, fertilizers, and machinery). These changes in the returns to productive resources alter the balance of power in gender relations, causing change in the ways men and women control these resources and how they benefit from their use. Shifts in control over resources and their benefits contribute to and interact with changes in the accepted gender norms, rules and customs that regulate cooperation, conflict and the balance of power among men and women in farm households, communities and other institutions. Positive changes in women’s empowerment will help all the other IDOs reach their objectives: changes in empowerment can affect whether men or women want to adopt CGIAR innovations and how they share the resultant increases in production, food or income. Conversely, technological and institutional innovations that do not take into account their potential influence on gender norms and differences between men’s and women’s control over resources and benefits can lead to unanticipated harmful outcomes. Hence the present gender strategic study launched in the southern Burkina Faso to assess gender equity in decision making, access to and control over labor and extension services. Carried out on the CGIAR West African Sahel and Dry Savannas (WAS & DS) intervention site namely the villages of Samogohiri, Mahon and Diéri in the province of Kénédougou, Orodara, the study objective is two folded: (1) analyzing gender equity in decision making and in access to and control over agricultural resources, labor and related resources and (2) providing scientific evidence on strategies to improving women’s access to and control over agricultural and veterinary extension services.