Increasing women’s voice through agriculture

By Chelsea Graham, P4P, World Food Program

Throughout the pilot phase, P4P has focused on assisting women farmers to benefit economically from their work, gaining confidence and voice in their communities and homes. Mazouma Sanou, a farmer from Burkina Faso, has first-hand experience of these benefits as well as the challenges still facing women farmers.

 

“P4P started as a gender conscious project,” says P4P gender consultant Batamaka Somé’, during the 2014 P4P Annual Consultation. From its inception, he says, P4P faced many challenges to women’s empowerment, such as women’s limited access to inputs and credit, their unpaid contributions to farming, and the male-held control of household production and marketing.

 

To address these challenges, P4P’s first step was to create realistic goals, and a framework within which these could be achieved. This was documented in a gender strategy. The development of the strategy was led by the Agricultural Learning Impacts Network (ALINe), and included extensive field research and literature review, which provided a nuanced and culturally specific view of women in agriculture.

 

Today, a number of P4P’s targets related to gender have been met. Women’s participation in P4P has tripled since the beginning of the pilot, and some 200,000 women have been trained in various capacities. Skills and income gained through P4P have boosted women’s confidence, enabling them to participate and engage more in markets. However, many challenges remain to further assist women to access markets and benefit economically from their work.

 

One woman’s experience

 

Mazouma Sanou represented the Burkina Faso cooperative
union UPPA-Houet at P4P’s Annual Consultation in Rome.
Copyright: WFP/Ahnna Gudmunds

Mazouma Sanou is a 43-year old woman farmer from Burkina Faso. She is married and the mother of three children. Mazouma is a member of a P4P-supported cooperative union called UPPA-Houet. Today, the union has 20,500 members, 11,000 of whom are women. Mazouma contributes maize, sorghum, and niébé (cowpeas) to her union’s sales to WFP.

 

Mazouma also works as a field monitor paid by WFP and OXFAM to coach 25 rural women’s groups affiliated to her union, assisting them to produce and earn more. She works as an intermediary between groups and partners, and assists women to better organize their groups. She also supports them throughout the production process, making sure their products meet standards and working with them to improve their marketing and gain access to credit.

 

Changing family and community dynamics

 

P4P has contributed to an improvement in family dynamics by increasing women’s economic power through P4P-supported sales, finding that with money in their hands, women have more voice in their communities and homes. P4P and its partners also carry out gender sensitization training for both men and women, illustrating the tangible benefits which can be realized by households when women participate fully in farming activities.

 

Mazouma says that since their involvement in P4P, many women are able to make family decisions in collaboration with their husbands. She states that this has made income management easier, allowing families to plan for the possibility of unexpected illness, and to set aside money for enrolling their children in school.

 

Additionally, Mazouma has seen great changes at the community level. She says that thanks to their increased economic power, women are now more involved in decision-making and planning both in the cooperative union and their communities.

 

Challenges ahead

 

While Mazouma says that gender dynamics are certainly changing for the better in her community, she acknowledges that there are still challenges ahead. She says that certain men do resist women’s increasing voice, and that she often works with women to discuss family life and helps them negotiate with their husbands.

 

“Women have to help educate their husbands. Dialogue can certainly change attitudes, but you can’t command people to do things,” she says. “I ask the woman ‘if you get that money, what will you do,’ and she says ‘help the children,’ so I say ‘your husband can take another wife but your children can’t have another mother. Your children can really benefit from this.’”

 

Many women in Mazouma’s farmers’ group have benefited economically from their work with P4P. Despite this, while over 50% of the UPPA Houet’s members are women, only 32% of the farmers’ organization’s sales to WFP were supplied by women, putting just 22% of the union’s sales directly into women’s hands. The five-year pilot illustrated that progress has been made, however continued efforts are required to ensure that more women benefit economically from their work with P4P.

 

Future plans

 

When asked about the future of her cooperative, Mazouma says, “from the very start P4P has been a school where we have learned how to improve our work, how to improve quality. I think we need more training, so women can help women train each other and develop their work.”

 

Though women such as Mazouma have received benefits from their participation in P4P, there is still is a long way to go. Change at a community and household level is slow, and many of the deep-seated cultural and social challenges identified at the beginning of the project have still not been completely overcome. However, the progress made so far is an indicator of the potential impact of culturally specific, flexible and nuanced gender programming.

 

“A great deal of work still needs to be done for gender equity to be fully realized,” says WFP gender advisor Veronique Sainte-Luce. “But P4P has been identified as something valuable, something positive, which has made a difference in women’s lives.”

 

For more information go to www.wfp.org/purchase-progress

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Africa in control of its fortune

By Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International

Several African countries are amongst today’s fastest growing economies in the world, boosted in many instances by new discoveries of oil, natural gas and strategic mineral reserves. Extreme poverty on the continent is in decline, and progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals has accelerated. A number of very poor African countries, including Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Ethiopia have made recent and substantial improvements in their levels of income equality.

 

Yet Africa’s impressive growth is not shared by millions of its people. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to a third of the world's poorest people, and six of the top 10 most unequal countries in the world. Where income inequality is high, the benefits of economic growth are inaccessible to poor people. Poverty and exclusion are bad for social stability, preventing productive investment and undermining growth itself.

 

The continent’s potential is also being undermined by illicit capital hemorrhaging out of African countries – often in the form of tax evasion and trade mispricing by multinational oil, gas and mining companies, and in collusion with corrupt elected officials. In 2010, Africa’s oil, gas and mineral exports amounted to $333 billion in 2010. But estimates of illicit financial outflows from Africa are estimated as up to $200 billion annually, dwarfing the development aid it receives.

 

Together, income inequalities and illicit capital flows are cheating Africa of its wealth and potential for the investments in education, agriculture and healthcare needed to support productive citizens.

This month in Cape Town, African business and government leaders met at the World Economic Forum on Africa. My message to them was: For Africa to meet its real potential, you must stand behind the millions being left behind by economic growth. Otherwise, social and economic progress on the continent will be undermined.

 

The European Union last month agreed a deal on a law that will make oil, gas, mining and logging firms companies declare payments to governments in the countries where they operate. This bolsters similar, recent legislation in the United States under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, and is excellent news. Transparency is a great disinfectant. It will put pressure on governments to account for how they spend money they receive from fees and royalties.

 

Some African states are making some of the right moves to manage resource wealth responsibly. In Ghana, the Petroleum Revenue Management Act has compelled quarterly disclosures of payments and production figures while in Liberia the voluntary Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) has been turned into a binding statutory requirement.

 

But Africa can’t do it alone. The private sector is the engine of Africa’s economy, and if working responsibly, holds the key to fair and sustainable economic development. Companies’ policies and practices must respect the rights of the people in the countries where they operate. Communities affected by extractive projects must be informed and consulted, and given the opportunity to approve or reject proposed operations.

 

For their part, Africa’s development partners can deliver aid which will promote good governance, and support civil society to keep their leaders accountable.

 

We are witnessing a scramble for Africa’s natural resource reminiscent of the period of the industrial revolution in Europe. It is urgent and imperative that policies are in place in each country to protect the rights and interests of African people, most especially those living in poverty. To sustain high growth rates, priority must be placed on forging inclusive policies that ensure that growth is both equitable and sustainable. Much more of the proceeds of the African resource boom need to go directly into education, health and nutrition and improving the productive capacities of the poorest citizens. If not, efforts to boost economic growth in a sustainable way will be undercut.

 

It is time for a new, fair deal for poor people in Africa, one that gets Africa’s resources working for all its people.

For more go to http://www.oxfam.org/fr
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Mali in crisis. The power of music

By Oxfam

Music is the heart of Mali - the country is known throughout the world for its talented musicians. In this short film, Malian musicians tell how conflict has devastated the North of the country and how people are working across the divides for peace and development.

This film was produced by Oxfam in collaboration with the Sahel Calling project.

For more go to http://www.oxfam.org/fr and http://www.sahelcalling.com/
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Learning the Lessons in the Sahel

By Elise Ford, Humanitarian Policy Advisor / Oxfam

In 2012, the Sahel region of West Africa faced in 3 crises in 7 years.  It was unprecedented in its scale – it affected 18 million people across 9 countries – from Senegal in the West across 4,000km to Chad in the East. And yet, the crisis rarely received the media headlines and attention it deserved.  Marred in a cycle of hunger and chronic poverty, the story of a crisis in this region is no longer seen as news. Suffering was not thought to be sufficiently extreme. And yet, going to communities such as those in the Guera region in Chad, there could be no doubt that poor and vulnerable people had been pushed to the brink of survival. Mothers told me of how they had cut back the number of times they ate to just once or twice a day.  They were forced to bring together scraps to find enough to eat – resorting to boiling nettles or digging anthills for grain. 

 

I came to West Africa from Nairobi having dealt with the response to the famine that savaged part of Somalia the previous year.  In East Africa, there had been outcry and disappointment at the collective failure to respond to the early warnings received.  Oxfam had pointed to a widespread culture of risk aversion that had resulted in a ‘dangerous delay’, resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of lives and livelihoods. We knew that it could have been different.

 

As warnings emerged that the harvests had been poor and that the Sahel could face a similar crisis, food security experts in the region appeared determined that they would not repeat the mistakes of East Africa. This time they wanted things to be different.  In a Oxfam report released today ‘Learning the Lessons: assessing the response to 2012 food crisis in the Sahel to build resilience’, we analyse to what extent we really were able to do better this time and come to some worrying conclusions.

 

First, the good news. As soon as the first warnings were issued, governments began to issue appeals and agencies and donors came together to begin planning an appropriate response.  Some donors provided the first contributions for the crisis already at the end of 2011, allowing assistance to provided to those communities most in need before they even began to feel the effects of the critical food shortages and rocketing prices to come.

 

But the overall verdict is mixed at best. Although there were some initial positive steps, it is clear that the response was still not as good as it could or should have been, nor as many have been claiming. Despite new willingness from governments in the region, there were still critical gaps in their capacity to lead – something we must all take responsibility for.  A lack of consensus around the severity of the crisis led to a critical delay in the response. Donors still preferred to wait for certainty, rather than act on the basis of risk. 50% of the funding requested was still lacking by June. 5.6 million farmers didn’t receive the seeds and tools they needed in time for the main harvest, to help them produce the food to recover. The same old mistakes and flaws from past response reappeared. We’re still failing to learn the lessons.

 

There is increasing acknowledgement – from Oxfam and others - that the only way these challenges will be overcome is by adopting a new model of doing business rather tweaking an old one. Resilience - the ability of households to survive and thrive despite shocks and stresses – has become an important concept, offering hope that the cycle of hunger can be broken once and for all.  In the immediate resilience means investing in the poorest and most vulnerable communities so that they can recover from this latest crisis and build up the capacity to better cope in the face of future shocks. 

 

Whilst the 2012 crisis may have come too soon, it is also clear that we can afford no further delay. Conditions in the region are becoming increasingly precarious and unpredictable. The population in the Sahel increases 3% each year – making it constantly harder to produce enough food to meet needs. Climate change threatens to further exacerbate the problem – reducing yields and cultivable land.  According to the FAO, with appropriate action, climate change could mean an additional million people in Mali could fall into poverty by 2050. For some communities that Oxfam works with in Niger, that they describe only one in every three years as a ‘normal’ year.  Rocked by one crisis after another, there are limited prospects for the most vulnerable to escape from poverty.

 

The challenge is making change happen. The failings of the 2012 response and the poor showing so far in 2013 demonstrate the huge gap between the rhetoric and the reality that still needs to be overcome. Ongoing needs in the region are huge. 10 million people are still food insecure. 5 million are acutely malnourished. The road to recovery will be long. And yet, UN humanitarian appeals for 2013 – designed to meet immediate humanitarian and recovery needs and build the foundations of resilience in the region – remain desperately underfunded. Less than one quarter of the funds needed have been provided so far this year.  Donors have provided few concrete commitments on money to build resilience and improve food security in the region. National governments still need to convert unprecedented political will into actual policies.

 

The region will inevitably face more crises in the future. When those crises do hit, we must hope communities will be better prepared to withstand and thrive despite of them.  It is the actions that we do or do not take over the next months and years that will be critical in deciding that.

For more go to www.oxfam.org
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Un autre regard sur la situation des femmes déplacées au Mali

Par Habibatou Gologo,Coordinatrice Média et communication, Oxfam GB Mali

Kadidiatou Yara est chargée de programme Education et coordinatrice d’un projet d’Oxfam destiné à maintenir les filles scolarisées dans la capitale du Mali, Bamako, depuis 2010. Elle a fait partie de l’équipe d’Oxfam qui a conduit une évaluation en février 2013 dans les régions de Mopti et de Ségou, au centre du Mali. Elle nous raconte ci-dessous le déroulement de cette mission d’évaluation et le choc qu’elle a eu lors de ses rencontres avec des femmes déplacées.

L’objectif de notre mission était entre autres de mesurer l’impact du conflit en cours au Mali sur la population déplacée, les communautés hôtes et les personnes aux revenus faibles.

Notre équipe était composée de sept personnes représentant chacune un domaine de compétence différent comme la logistique, la sécurité alimentaire, l’hygiène et l’assainissement, le suivi-évaluation et la communication. Je m’occupais de l’aspect protection et ne travaillais donc pas de la même façon que les autres membres de mon équipe parce que mes groupes de discussion étaient uniquement réservés aux femmes et jeunes filles et abordaient des sujets qui requièrent beaucoup de discrétion.

 

A la périphérie

Cette précaution m’a permis d’avoir un autre regard sur les quelque 200 femmes avec qui j’ai pu discuter à Sévaré, Konna, Douentza et San* au cours d’un périple d’une dizaine de jours sur plus de 1500 kilomètres.

Mon impression personnelle, au-delà du travail d’Oxfam, était un sentiment de compassion pour ces femmes qui ont quitté leurs foyers pour s’installer dans un environnement malsain. Elles vivent en insécurité, et dans des conditions précaires, dans des maisons de location ou des maisons inachevées, souvent à la périphérie des zones urbaines.

Kadidiatou Yara est allée à la rencontre de femmes déplacées dans plusieurs villes du
Mali, notamment à Konna (Habibatou Gologo, Oxfam)

 

 

Des difficultés différentes d'une ville à l'autre

D’une ville à l’autre, les difficultés rencontrées par les femmes ne sont pas identiques. Par exemple à Konna et Douentza,  où l’armée a procédé à des frappes aériennes,  il n’y a pas beaucoup de déplacés et  les besoins exprimés sont principalement l’eau et l’électricité.

Alors qu’à Sévaré, où on trouve de nombreux déplacés, les femmes, bien que recensées par les autorités, déplorent un manque de soutien qui, pour elles, se traduit par leur non accès aux dons distribués par les différentes organisations. Ces femmes vivent  en permanence dans la peur, la tourmente et la psychose. La nuit, certaines n’arrivent pas à trouver le sommeil. D’autres disent avoir perdu du poids.

A Konna, notamment, les femmes rencontrées revivent sans cesse les frappes aériennes de l’armée française aux alentours du 10 janvier 2013.

Des conditions de vie difficiles

La plupart se plaignent de l'insalubrité à laquelle elles ne sont pas habituées et d’autres conditions de vie qu’elles trouvent difficiles. Elles n’apprécient donc pas qu’on les voit ainsi.

Afin de les aider à retrouver leur dignité, ces femmes ont besoin d’un soutien psychologique. Cet appui pourrait commencer par l’organisation de discussions qui les pousseront à parler, à raconter leurs difficultés. Ensuite, nous pourrons les appuyer avec des activités génératrices de revenus comme elles en ont exprimé le besoin. »

* Sévaré, Konna et Douentza se trouvent dans la région de Mopti et San dans la région de Ségou.

Propos recueillis par Habibatou Gologo,Coordinatrice Média et communication, Oxfam GB Mali .

Pour plus d'informations visitez http://www.oxfam.org/fr
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Conflict in Mali: A survivor’s story

Citizens of Konna are now returning to their homes, but not without vivid memories of fleeing for their lives.

 

By Maura Hart, Senior Press Officer | Oxfam America

 

 

January 10, 2013: it’s a day that Nanaï Touré*, and other residents of Konna, Mali, will never forget.

Konna is a small city near the border between northern and southern Mali, the main dividing line of the current conflict. The city was home to about 41,000 people, mostly farmers, herders, fishermen, and traders. When armed rebel groups from the north arrived in January, followed closely by the French airstrikes that were targeting them, 90 percent of the population fled the city within a day, joining hundreds of thousands of displaced Malians.

 

Nanaï Touré imitates how she covered her head when the armed
groups arrived in Konna on January 10.
 Photo: Habibatou Gologo/Oxfam
.

“I live in the third district of Konna near the fishing port, which was partially destroyed by an airstrike,” said Touré. “When the armed groups came  to Konna on January 10, like other inhabitants of Konna I fled by pirogue [a small, flat-bottomed boat] to the surrounding village of Diantakaye because a projectile fell on the roof of my hut.

I have three children. I grabbed the youngest to flee and had water up to my shoulders. I asked people to help my husband who is disabled. I didn’t know where my other two children were. But a week after the military intervention, we found each other again at home.”

A few weeks later, Konna’s central city market has reopened and citizens are now returning to their homes, but not without vivid memories, like Touré’s, of fleeing for their lives.

Oxfam is helping displaced people in Mali as well as refugees in Mauritania, Burkina Faso, and Niger with food, water and sanitation services, health and hygiene kits, as well as classroom construction and gender sensitization training in some areas.

 

*Not her real name

Originally posted in Oxfam America’s First Person Blog.

For more go to http://www.oxfamamerica.org/

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Sahel food crisis update: Lifting a heavy load

Humanitarian action helped avert the worst possible outcome in the Sahel, but farmers need more support to avoid future food shortages.

 

 

By Chris Hufstader/ Oxfam



Before completely turning my back on 2012, I am reflecting on Oxfam's work in the Sahel over the last year. After a season of poor or erratic rains across the region in 2011, Oxfam and many other humanitarian groups feared that another bad harvest in 2012 would push millions into starvation. I visited farmers in far eastern Senegal in April of 2012 to see what they recommended: They wanted seeds so they could plant, and food so they could work. They also said they needed rain, never guaranteed in the Sahel.

Oxfam responded to the crisis in seven countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, The Gambia, Niger, Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal. We assisted more than 1 million people with a variety of programs tailored to the specific location: We helped people fleeing violence and instability in Mali get the food and clean water they needed to survive. Oxfam repaired wells, and provided fodder for animals, and paid people to work on erosion control and soil improvement projects. We distributed soap so people could keep clean, and the means to treat water, to reduce vulnerability to waterborne diseases. We distributed food in places where none was available, and money to buy it where it was.

Semaine Espoir et Résilience à Dakar, Sénégal

Photos: La crise au Sahel, vue par les jeunes étudiants à Dakar

Rencontre- débat universitaire sur la crise humanitaire au Sahel

Avec la participation du Professeur Saliou Ndiaye, Recteur de l´ Université de Dakar (UCAD); de David Gressly, Coordonateur Humanitaire pour le Sahel; du Professeur Salimata Wade, Université UCAD; de Saliou Sarr, Représentant de l´association agricole ASPRODEB au Sénégal; des élèves du Lycée Jean Mermoz de Dakar et des étudiants de l´université de Dakar (UCAD).

Facilitateur: Jérôme Gérard, Coordonateur Régional Recherches et Politiques à Oxfam

Présentation de Prof. Wade. À droite, Prof. Wade et Recteur M. Ndiaye

Coordonateur Régional Humanitaire, David Gressly

READ MORE: VOIR PLUS DE PHOTOS DE LA RENCONTRE!

Semaine "Espoir et Résilience" à Dakar, Sénégal 

Photos: Concert de Ismaël Lô pour le Sahel!

Par OCHA Sahel, Oxfam & Institut Francais de Dakar

 

 

 Pendant la répétition...

  Read more: Entrez voir toutes les photos du concert de Ismaël Lô!

Semaine Espoir et Résilience à Dakar, Sénégal

Photos: Vernissage de l´expo photo "Espoir et Résilience" à Dakar, Sénégal (Institut Francais)

Par OCHA Sahel, Oxfam et Institut Francais

 

 18 photos qui proviennet de 11 acteurs (UN, ONGs et pays donateurs) du Sahel.

 

Il est toujours temps d´aller les voir à l´Institut Francais de Dakar (exposées jusqu´au 21 Décembre 2012)!!

À 19h, le cocktail-vernissage commence à l´Institut Francais...

READ MORE: BEAUCOUP PLUS DE PHOTOS!!

Semaine Espoir et Résilience à Dakar, Sénégal 

"Espoir et Résilience" au Sahel

Ismaël Lô sera le grand protagoniste de la rencontre!

 

Par OCHA Sahel, en collaboration avec Institut Francais de Dakar, Oxfam et l´UCAD

 

L´événement "Espoir et Résilience" braque les projecteurs sur l´importance de la résilience pour mettre fin au cycle de la faim au Sahel à travers l´art et la culture. Au rendez-vous, une exposition photos, la voix et les messages du chanteur musicien Ismaël Lô, des discussions à l´université et la projection d´un film documentaire, qui  essaieront d´ouvrir la voie vers le nouveau chemin de la résilience.

L´agenda de la semaine "Espoir et Résilience" à Dakar:

Mardi 13 Novembre 19h: Vernissage de l´exposition "Espoir et Résilience". Photographies prises par différents acteurs dans les neuf pays du Sahel. Institut Francais de Dakar. Jardins de l´Institut.

Mardi 13 Novembre 21h: Ismaël Lô chante pour le Sahel. Institut Francais de Dakar. Théâtre de Verdure de l´Institut Francais.

Mercredi 14 Novembre 10h: Rencontre- Débat universitaire sur le Sahel à l´UCAD (Université de Dakar)

Jeudi 15 Novembre 19h: Projection du film de Marie Monique Robin Les Moissons du futur. Institut Francais de Dakar.


Pour plus d´infos sur le Sahel, suivez @DavidGressly

Pour plus d´infos sur la résilience, venez nombreux à l´événement Sahel!

How a savings group helps a mother survive Sahel food crisis

By Chris Hufstader, Oxfam

Senegal. Mariama Ly is getting ready for the Tabaski holiday in her village, Bandafassi, in eastern Senegal. It’s a quiet day in the village, as most are away at area markets buying what they need for the holiday feast in two days. But Ly seems more or less prepared: She already owns two sheep, the center of the traditional feast on the holiday, commemorating Abraham’s sacrifice to Allah.

Mariama Ly. CREDIT: Holly Pocket- Oxfam America

Ly sells food like dried fish, vegetables, cooking oil, and spices. “It’s going well, “she says, standing near her thatched-roof home. “We’re meeting all our needs with this business.”

Celebrities lending their Voices to GROW

 By Abdulazeez Musa – Livelihood & Private Sector Coordinator, Oxfam GB Nigeria

 

The GROW campaign in Nigeria has been working with 3 popular Nigerian artist; Sound Sultan, Lami and 2face to raise awareness and mobilize support for small scale agriculture. They have so far held two press conferences led a twitter campaign and produced a song—Act 4 Africa as part of the campaign. The song is being used to further reinforce the message of the campaign to a larger audience and awaken a broader consciousness on the current food crisis especially in the Sahel. The song is being played on several radio stations across the country and has already started generating the appropriate level of interest intended.