Compass assessment: 2002 document 44 august 2002

3.3 Membership of Advocacy Task Force

The Advocacy Task Force has a strong representation of NGOs that are very strong in gender advocacy issues. Some of these NGOs include OXFAM, Centre for Advice, Research and Education (CARER), Christian Service Commission (CSC), Churches Action in Relief and Development (CARD), National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE), Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), International NGO Training Centre (INTRAC), and Women and Law in Southern Africa (WILSA).

In addition, a committee that was created to look at the gender issues in the draft land policy is composed of renowned gender specialists in natural resource management like CURE and Women and Gender Advocacy.
3.4 Gender issues

1. 
   The Advocacy Task Force has a strong gender representation, according to the COMPASS Director. Gender issues particularly on land reform, are being handled by the gender committee.
   
2. 
   In the advocacy, the strategy is silent on gender
   

3.5 Conclusions and recommendations
COMPASS is actively involved in policy reforms on natural resource management through funding and participation in the various committees. This has provided opportunity and channels of communication for advocacy. The Parliamentary Committee on the Environment (now re-constituted as Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources) and the National Council on Environment’s CBNRM Working Group are active and genuine targets for grassroots advocacy.
COMPASS participates in the Advocacy Task Force presently involved in the Land Policy Review and a gender committee is working on gender issues on land policy. However, there are gender gaps in the advocacy strategy. The strategy is silent on gender issues. If the focus of the support is to create opportunity for the grass-root CBOs and community to advocate for changes in policy, then there should be an understanding of the issues that affect men and women and how they can be empowered to participate.
There are opportunities for local empowerment through the following channels. NGOs and CBOs have their bases and implement their activities at the community level. There is rapid decentralisation of administration of government services where Traditional Authorities have a central role of community empowerment and mobilisation at the grass roots.
Recommendations

1. 
   COMPASS should develop gender capacities at these different levels to facilitate integration of gender in advocacy activities. This will include gender awareness for NGOs and Traditional Authorities at the grass-root level, and gender analysis skills for NGOs to identify the needs of men and women on issues related to policies that affect natural resource management.
   

2. 
   It is also recommended that COMPASS should adopt a gender policy and a strategic framework. This policy will influence the activities of committees or task forces formed to support advocacy issues of COMPASS supported activities particularly in ensuring that gender concerns are integrated in activities as a procedure.
   

4. TR5. Support for Small Grants Program for CBNRM Initiatives

The objective of the COMPASS small grants programme is to finance and test innovative community-based natural resources management modules.

4.1 Grant Application Criteria
These have already been covered in Section E. Gender Sensitivity is among the social criteria for qualification of an award of the grant.
4.2 Progress Made
According to COMPASS the following has been achieved over the last 30 months of the project:

• 
  200 communities have adopted the CBNRM concept
  
• 
  36 grants out of 135 proposals have been awarded amounting to USD 420.000. This has been done over a period of about two years since the first CBNRM grants were awarded in January 2000. 26 grants have been awarded to CBOs, 8 to NGOs and 2 to Government Agencies
  
• 
  57% of the grant beneficiaries are women. The project plan is to have 60% of COMPASS small grants beneficiaries being female;
  
• 
  6 of the new grants in 2001 are existing grantees who have successfully utilised the first grants and started different activities
  
• 
  a grants manual and guidelines for developing a proposal for funding has been developed
  

4.3 CBNRM group membership by gender
COMPASS’ goal is to have 60% of grant beneficiaries being women. According to the information available, 57% of the grant beneficiaries are women.
Participation of men and women in CBRNM was determined by looking at membership of the various CNRNM groups and in management of the groups. It was found that women were more that half of the members. In 15 CBNRM groups visited, there were 1,333 members and 54% (722) are women while men form about 46% (511) of the members.
In the 15 groups, 66% (8) of the committees have more women in the committees than men. Women are involved in the management decisions of groups and day to day management of the activities.
4.4 CBNRM Group Skills Training

COMPASS and Partners provide training to members of CBNRM groups. A majority of members interviewed said that the training they received has been very useful in managing their natural resource management initiatives. The skills gained are in two areas:

1. 
   Technical skills. Technical skills vary according to the type of project or activity a CBNRM is involved in. The skills include; afforestation, wildlife conservation and management e.g. Cane Rat Farming in Salima, alternative energy, briquette making from waste paper, guinea fowl rearing, beekeeping etc.
   
2. 
   Management skills. These skills include; leadership, management of groups, group motivation as well as book-keeping
   

As a result of the training, men and women group members said that a number of things have changed in the community. Some examples of these changes include:

1. 
   Communities have developed skills to manage their own CBRNM initiatives and are able to link the initiative they are involved in with the broader environmental conservation concept. In one of the best practice sites in Bwanje, the community now have firewood, they are practising beekeeping in a forest they have replanted and some community members have started harvesting honey for sale. One woman in Bwanje said ‘Our children will appreciate our effort of planting trees because they will not lose soil through erosion and they will have firewood and poles for building their houses and the environment will look beautiful’.
   

2. 
   Village Natural Resource Committees (VNRCs) have been created. For example, Liwonde National Park has facilitated creation of 55 VNRCs around the Park. The collaborative management of park resources has reduced conflicts between the community and the park personnel. Women suffered most in these conflicts because they were arrested and sometimes assaulted by the park rangers when they went into the park to collect firewood.
   

3. 
   In Dedza, the mud stoves technology has assisted women in using less firewood. Some community members have started making mud stoves for sale.
   

4. 
   Some groups have taken the initiative to start community based natural resource management activities without funding using the skills acquired through COMPASS training. For example, the Matindi Youth Group (a best practice site) in Blantyre District has initiated community tree nurseries in six villages. The group has provided the technical skills independent of COMPASS funding.
   

4.5 Gender participation in CBNRM activities (Gender Analysis)

In order to help understand how much time men and women spend in performing CBNRM activities, the Harvard Gender Analysis Framework was used to do an activity profile and access and control of resources and benefits. This framework was useful in identifying individual roles in the group activities. It assists in comparing men and women’s productive, reproductive and community roles in relation to project activities.
In order to do this analysis, men and women were interviewed separately. It was evident that in some projects like tree nursery, briquettes, cane rat farming, women spend more time working in the project than men. Taking into consideration their domestic (reproductive) roles as well as their farm work (productive) and community activities they were involved in, it is true that women’s workload was much higher than that of men.
4.5.1 Division of Labour
An example of the analysis done is given for the afforestation project in Bwanje, Ntcheu District (see Annex 2, Tables 1 and 2). This division of labour analysis was done during the rainy season and the activities are typical of the season when there is land preparation and planting. From this analysis, women and girls in Bwanje do most of the household and farm work compared to men and boys. It is also evident that men and women participate equally in project activities (Annex 2,Table 2). However, it is important to point out that increased participation of women does not mean a corresponding change in the division of labour. Rather than transform existing gender roles, women become more over burdened as a result of participation considering their reproductive, productive and community roles.
In general, division of labour analysis assists groups and project people to understand the various work burdens of men and women in an activity because sometimes women’s roles are assumed or taken as normal. This information can be useful in negotiating with the less burdened to take on some responsibilities or introduce labour reducing technologies in the project where possible.
4.5.2 Access and Control Profile
What seemed to emerge in the discussions is that men have more control of resources and benefits than women. Although women said that whatever they have belongs to the family, to a large extent, men are the major decision-makers.
For example in Bwanje, women can collect firewood from the trees they have planted for firewood but if the trees have to be sold for income, then it is the man’s responsibility.
When men were asked who owns the trees, one man said ‘it is obvious, the men own the trees and make decisions on what should be sold’.
An access and control profile of forestry resources in Bwanje was compiled (see Annex 3, Table 3). This profile shows that largely, men control the resources and benefits. What emerged in this profile is typical in most projects visited during this evaluation. Women provide most of the labour but have minimal control of the resources and benefits.
4.5.3 Implications on Social Equity
The imbalance in men and women participation activities shows that women are probably not benefiting as much as the men. The assumption in social equity is that a given person or group benefits from an activity to the extent that they invest resources or energy. This means that women could be discouraged in continuing to participate if they are not benefiting.
The project should therefore develop mechanisms that are sensitive to issues of men and women and try to minimise the disparities that may exist so that social equity may be achieved.