Women in Development - The Land O Lakes Experience

Women in Development: The Land O’Lakes Experience

- Strong commitment to gender integration for over two decades

- By applying a “gender” lens to program design, we seek to: Maximize access to program benefits by ALL

beneficiaries Maximize economic growth for ALL members of the HH

and community

Women in Development:The Land O’Lakes Experience

- Land O’Lakes intentionally integrates gender considerations into our programs by: Analyzing how cultural attitudes and practices impact

agricultural practices, household decision-making and designing interventions that address gender related constraints.

Providing services targeted to women and girls. Encouraging women to move into training, leadership and

management roles. Building greater awareness of gender constraints and barriers

among women and men. Working with implementing partners to integrate gender into

program activities.

School Nutrition Programs

- From 2000-present in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malawi.

- Significant impact: Dramatic improved enrollment and attendance rates among girls. Bangladesh: Increased female attendance in

schools with a 49:51 ratio of boys to girls Malawi: The percentage of girls attending

classes increased by 70 percent. Pakistan: Enrollment of girls in primary

schools increased by nearly 200 percent and the nutritional status and physical health of all school children had significantly improved.

Vietnam and Bangladesh: Provided separate girls lavatories to increase attendance.

Malawi

- Malawi Dairy Development Alliance, 2007-2010.

- Significant impact: Over 1000 women received a pass-on heifer and earn $1,200 per year from dairy farming alone, a 250 percent increase from what they previously earned through subsistence farming.

West Bank

- Accelerating Economic Growth in the West Bank, 1997 -2000.

- Significant impact: Increased farm management techniques of women farmers who were trained by female extension agents. Provided farm

management training to 123 women farmers in 23 villages.

Kenya- Kenya Food for Progress, 2006-

2010. - Significant impact: Reduced time

women spent daily fetching water and firewood. Working directly with 13,000 women,

facilitated the rehabilitation of communal water schemes to provide increased access to water.

Assisted investments in biogas for cooking to reduce reliance on firewood.

Freed up hours each day which were redirected to implementing techniques to increase dairy production.

Iraq- Dairy Development for

Fallujah Women, 2008-2010.

- Significant impact: Increased household incomes and reduced economic and social insecurity of Iraqi widows 21 Iraqi widows gained skills

to become effective dairy producers.

Women trained will pass on skills to other women, thereby increasing household income through dairy production.

Key Lessons

- Most farmers in the developing world are women; gender integration is critical to the success of agriculture and food security programs.

- Women and girls are under-served and have specific needs; programs must be tailored to them be effective.

- Active involvement of women in decision making leads to improved food security at the household level.

Key Lessons

- Women must be encouraged to move into training, leadership and management roles that enable them to reach out to and empower and support other women.

- Increasing gender equity doesn’t just involve women; where appropriate, engaging men in programs is critical.

- Gender-related attitudes and practices are culturally deep-seated. Conducting trainings to build greater awareness of gender constraints and barriers, and promote equitable decision-making among women and men is important.

Thank You!