Gender Roles in the Jute Value Chain in Bangladesh: a Case Study on the Bangladesh Agricultural Value Chains (AVC) Project
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Gender Roles in the Jute Value Chain in Bangladesh: A Case Study on the Bangladesh Agricultural Value Chains (AVC) project Deborah Rubin,1 Emily Myers2, Salma Akhter3, Berber Kramer2, Alan de Brauw2, and Mike Murphy2 November 26th, 2018 (Revised) 1 Cultural Practice, LLC 2 International Food Policy Research Institute 3 University of Dhaka 1 Contents Acknowledgements 4 Acronyms 5 Executive Summary 6 Background 7 Methodology 8 Context: Gender, Agriculture, Jute, and the Agricultural Value Chains (AVC) Project 10 Gender Relations in Bangladesh 10 Gender Relations in Agriculture 11 The Jute Value Chain in Bangladesh 12 The Bangladesh Agricultural Value Chain (AVC) Project 14 Findings: Activities at each nodes of the Jute Value Chain 16 Input Suppliers 16 Producers 17 Cultivation 17 Fertilizers 19 Post-Harvest and Homestead Processing 20 Jute Traders and Transporters 21 Trader Profile 25 Trader Profile 25 Manufacture of Jute Products 25 Findings: Participant Engagement with the Agricultural Value Chains (AVC) Project 26 Agricultural Training 26 Observations and Recommendations from Agriculture Officers 27 Findings: Empowerment and Respect 28 Empowerment and the pro-WEAI 28 Women’s Views on Respectable Women 28 Women’s Views on Respectable Men 29 Men’s View on Respectable Women 29 Men’s View on Respectable Men 30 Findings: Empowerment and Decision-making 30 Men’s Views on Empowered Women 30 Women’s Views on Empowered Women 32 2 Men’s Views on Empowered Men 32 Women’s Views on Empowered Men 33 Areas of Men’s and Women’s Decision-Making 33 Findings: Group Membership 34 Findings: Mobility 35 Findings: Education 36 Implication of Findings for USAID and the AVC project 36 Integrating women into a market systems approach 36 Supporting Group Membership. 38 Empowering Gender Transformation 38 Benefits of participation in the jute value chain 40 Benefits of technology 40 Benefits of mixed-methods approaches 40 Appendix 1: NGOs/Organizations working in the interview locations 42 Appendix 2: Focus Group Discussion Guide: Men or Women 43 Appendix 3: Key Informant Interview Guide: Men and Women (individually) 46 Appendix 4: Key Informant Interview Guide: Supplier 51 Appendix 5: Key Informant Interview Guide: Traders 53 Appendix 6: References 55 3 Acknowledgements This work was undertaken as part of the Gender, Agriculture and Assets Project Phase 2 (GAAP2) led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and funded by CGIAR Fund donors. Funding support for this study was provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The authors are grateful for the contributions of the researchers at the University of Dhaka, IFPRI Dhaka office, the USAID Agricultural Value Chains project, Cultural Practice, USAID, the farmers and agricultural extension officers who participated in this study, and the field team. Thanks to the Pro-WEAI principal Investigators Agnes Quisumbing, Ruth Meinzen-Dick, and Hazel Malapit for their support in implementing this study. The opinions expressed here belong to the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of GAAP2, IFPRI, CGIAR, or USAID. Acronyms A4NH Agriculture for Nutrition and Health AVC Agricultural Value Chains {the project] BADC Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation BJRI Bangladesh Jute Research Institute BMGF Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women DAI Development Alternatives Incorporated DJP Diversified Jute Products FGD Focus Group Discussion FTF Feed the Future GAAP Gender, Agriculture, and Assets Project IFPRI International Food Policy Research Institute KII Key Informant Interview M&E Monitoring and Evaluation NGO Non-Governmental Organization OPHI Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative pro-WEAI Project level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index USAID United States Agency for International Development WEAI Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index 4 Executive Summary This report presents the results of a qualitative research study conducted in conjunction with the International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI) impact evaluation of the Bangladesh Agricultural Value Chains (AVC) project implemented by DAI.4 This report presents background information about the study, the qualitative methodology used, study findings, and implications for the both the AVC intervention and for the use and interpretation of project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) findings. The study describes gendered participation in the jute value chain in four districts across Bangladesh. To gather data, the study team used focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth key informant interviews (KIIs). These tools enabled researchers to elicit local understandings of empowerment, uncover the perceptions and experiences of women’s empowerment within the context of agricultural intervention projects, and provide context useful for understanding the operation of value chains. In total, 16 FGDs – 8 with men only and 8 with women only – and 55 KIIs were conducted. Overall, the sample includes men and women with different empowerment statuses (based on baseline empowerment scores calculated by the quantitative survey) who participated in jute production, processing, and/or trading, or worked as an input supplier. The sample also includes spouses of individuals working in jute, jute suppliers, and jute traders. The results presented include local (emic) perspectives of empowerment, gendered patterns of work, decision-making, mobility, and education, and a discussion of how this influence barriers to and opportunities for men’s and women’s participation in the jute value chain. The results discuss several components of women’s empowerment, including mobility, education, decision-making, group membership, and the importance of respect as a social value. Women and men who are respected are those who are well mannered, educated, and religious. However, perceptions of respect for men emphasize their financial status, while characterizations of respected women emphasize their roles as caretakers. The study finds that social norms restrict women’s mobility. Education is perceived as equal between boys and girls, though poorer households may support jute cultivation even if it causes children to miss school. Several community-based organizations exist in the study area, and some women in acknowledged the transformative power of group membership. Empowerment was defined in the study as being able to make important decisions and to act on them. Local perceptions of empowerment, especially women’s empowerment were mixed. Women’s independent decision-making was not well regarded, especially by men. It was accepted when seen as part of a woman’s role as a caretaker, for example, if her husband was absent, disabled, or deceased. Both men and women expressed a more positive view of women who make decisions and act on them, seeing them through a lens of serving others. For example, a man from Narail said that women who make decisions and act on them are “good. They are contributing to society.” Results indicate that women’s participation in the jute value chain is primarily limited to specific post- harvesting tasks, for the most part. Many of the tasks related to growing jute away from household plots and marketing jute are dominated by men. Even processing employment in Bangladesh appears to be 4 Originally named Development Alternatives, Inc. abbreviated with the acronym DAI, the company has been renamed as DAI Global, LLC. 5 dominated by men, even though women work in jute processing plants in relatively large numbers in both India and Nepal. Considering the USAID AVC program, participants interviewed are quite receptive to agricultural trainings, but the trainings that occurred in the AVC before the change to a market systems orientation were not very gender sensitive. The market systems approach to provide, through the private sector, promotional discounts and information on high-quality fertilizers, addressed key constraints around fertilizer adoption (price sensitivity and information barriers) but were not gender sensitive either. Therefore, some thought is required about how to make the market systems approach, as it relates to training farmers in the use of inputs or on selling output, more gender sensitive. Second, a major challenge in attempting to improve empowerment relates to what appear to be entrenched attitudes about empowerment, as well as barriers to movement among women. Women’s movements on their own is often restricted in rural areas, which makes it difficult to perform agricultural tasks if not accompanied, or to market or sell jute fibers. It is fairly clear that group membership is a way to overcome this barrier, as women are empowered in numbers. Further, the findings make clear that a way to improve women’s empowerment in general might be to ensure that they have additional control over income. So finding ways to work with women’s groups in a market systems orientation would appear to be a potential method of making the market systems approach more gender inclusive. A third major result of the research relates to the concept of women’s empowerment. It became clear from interviews that the concept of women’s empowerment embodied in the WEAI quantitative questionnaires is not necessarily the same as the concepts as understood by the population studied here. Therefore, the WEAI results, no matter which version of the WEAI is used in measurement, may mis- measure the