Of Agriculture and the Rural Sector in Sri Lanka
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COUNTRY GENDER ASSESSMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND THE RURAL SECTOR IN SRI LANKA COUNTRY GENDER ASSESSMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND THE RURAL SECTOR IN SRI LANKA Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Colombo, 2018 Required citation: FAO. 2018. Country Gender Assessment of Agriculture and the Rural Sector in Sri Lanka. Colombo. 80 pp. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. 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If the work is adapted, then it must be licensed under the same or equivalent Creative Commons license. If a translation of this work is created, it must include the following disclaimer along with the required citation: “This translation was not created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). FAO is not responsible for the content or accuracy of this translation. The original [Language] edition shall be the authoritative edition. Any mediation relating to disputes arising under the licence shall be conducted in accordance with the Arbitration Rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) as at present in force. Third-party materials. Users wishing to reuse material from this work that is attributed to a third party, such as tables, figures or images, are responsible for determining whether permission is needed for that reuse and for obtaining permission from the copyright holder. The risk of claims resulting from infringement of any third-party-owned component in the work rests solely with the user. Sales, rights and licensing. FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/publications) and can be purchased through [email protected]. Requests for commercial use should be submitted via: www.fao.org/contact-us/licence-request. Queries regarding rights and licensing should be submitted to: [email protected]. Cover photograph: FAO photo from Flickr, © FAO/Ishara Kodikara Contents Acknowledgements v Acronyms and abbreviations vii Executive summary ix 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Methodology 2 1.2 FAO presence in Sri Lanka 3 1.3 Structure of the Assessment 4 2. Sri Lanka country context 5 2.1 Global development indexes 6 2.2 Demography and population dynamics 7 2.3 Poverty 8 2.4 Health, food security and nutrition 10 2.5 Education and literacy 13 2.6 Employment 17 2.7 Civil and political rights 19 2.8 Marriage and family relations 20 2.9 Violence against women 20 3. Legislative, policy and institutional context 21 3.1 Constitution 22 3.2 Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) 22 3.3 Land rights and inheritance 23 3.4 Traditional and customary laws 23 3.5 Laws pertaining to violence 25 3.6 Government mechanisms addressing gender 25 3.7 Policies and plans related to women and gender 27 4. Assessment findings and gender analysis 29 4.1 Agriculture value chains 30 4.2 Rural institutions 39 4.3 Government commitment, investment plans and policies 45 4.4 National non-governmental organizations 53 4.5 The international community 53 5. Conclusions and recommendations 57 5.1 Conclusions 58 5.2 Recommendations 60 References 63 Annexes Annex 1: Details of focus group discussion participants 68 Annex 2: List of key stakeholders interviewed 69 Annex 3: Male and female roles in crop value chains 70 Boxes, figures and tables Box 1: Shortcomings in promoting public health 13 Box 2: Gender in the school curricula 17 Box 3: Family Background Report 19 Box 4: Citizenship rights for women 19 Box 5: Social community-based organizations 39 Box 6: Administrative boundaries 40 Box 7: Uva Wellassa Women’s Farmer Organization 53 Box 8: Development Partner Gender Working Group 54 Figure 1: Map of field locations visited during the Assessment 3 Figure 2: Gross Domestic Product (GDP) 10 Figure 3: Service delivery to women in villages 27 Figure 4: Participation of women and men in the fisheries value chain 36 Table 1: Sri Lanka’s position in global human development and gender empowerment indexes 6 Table 2: Population of Sri Lanka 8 Table 3: Poverty indicators 9 Table 4: Basic health and nutrition indicators 11 Table 5: Level of education 14 Table 6: Labour force participation in 2017 17 Table 7: Women’s development activities of the MWCA 26 Table 8: Areas and types of cultivation for key crops in Sri Lanka 30 Table 9: Women’s and men’s involvement in the crop value chain 31 Table 10: Dairy value chain 37 Table 11: Insurance coverage 43 Table 12: Gender units and focal points 46 Table 13: Men and women holding positions in the Administrative and Planning Service of Sri Lanka 48 Table 14: International agencies working to reduce gender gaps in agriculture and rural development 54 iv Acknowledgements This country gender Assessment was commissioned by the Food and Agriculture Organizations of the United Nations (FAO) Sri Lanka. It was prepared under the overall supervision of Nina Brandstrup, FAO Representative, who also commented on the content. The funding for the Assessment was provided by FAO Strategic Programme 1: Help eliminate hunger, food security and malnutrition. The process was guided by Itziar Gonzalez, policy officer and Tina Jayaratnam liaison officer for the FAO Sri Lanka country office, who worked closely with the consultant, Visakha Tillekeratne. The report was reviewed and valuable comments were provided by Francesca Distefano of the FAO Social Policies and Rural Institutions (ESP) Division, and Clara Park and Lois Archimbaud of the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. We appreciate the editorial support provided by Gordon Ramsay. Dihan Hettige and the team from FAO administration and field staff gave their fullest support. Their contributions are gratefully acknowledged. This Assessment could not have been completed without the cooperation and response of state service providers, non-governmental organizations, civil society groups, the female and male farmers who have benefitted from FAO initiatives and other farmers who have not. These men and women have given their time and responses without reservation. v Acronyms and abbreviations ADB Asian Development Bank CBO community-based organization CEDAW UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women DAD Department of Agrarian Development DOA Department of Agriculture FAO Food and Agriculture Organization GDI Gender Development Index GDP Gross Domestic Product GGGI Global Gender Gap Index GII Gender Inequality Index HDI Human Development Index ILO International Labour Organization MWCA Ministry of Women and Child Affairs NGO non-governmental organization UNDP United Nations Development Programme WEOI Women’s Economic Opportunity Index WFP World Food Programme WHO World Health Organizations vii Executive summary The Country Gender Assessment of the Agriculture Local economists and policy makers have done little and Rural Sectors of Sri Lanka has been commissioned research to calculate at the national level the losses of by FAO Sri Lanka. The Assessment is a required productivity and reduced economic gains in agriculture contribution for the Organization’s next long-term due to gender inequality in the agricultural sectors and plan of assistance to Sri Lanka. It is also intended to the added benefits that could be obtained if women influence agricultural and rural development policies were given the same opportunities as men to reach and programmes in the country. their full potential. There has been no quantification of the contribution made by women to agricultural In FAO gender policy, a gender country assessment value chains and subsistence agriculture. As a result, is one of the requirements for mainstreaming gender women’s role in these processes and sectors has not in national agricultural and rural development policy been recognized. processes. This Assessment involved a comprehensive desk review and a gap analysis, and field work that There are large gender disparities in access to included focus group discussions, key stakeholder and control over resources (e.g. land, water and interviews and observations. The lack of inputs), access to markets and access to skills sex-disaggregated information to determine gender training, all of which are critical for agricultural gaps in the agriculture and rural sectors represents the production and livelihoods. Sri Lanka’s constitution is main limitation of the Assessment. nondiscriminatory regarding land ownership. However, inequalities in land ownership persist due to gender Sri Lanka offers women and girls good health care biases in Sri Lanka’s Land Development Ordinance coverage. Health care services are available during and other customary laws. Only 16 percent of all pregnancy and for breast-feeding mothers.