GENDER ASSESSMENT July 2012 1 MALI GENDER ASSESSMENT – AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE The research for this report was completed in February 2012, before the Coup. As such, we have not incorporated any of the events that have taken place after the Coup, although we are aware that many of the issues discussed in the report have been overtaken by the political situation the country is embroiled in. Emily Rupp from USAID/Senegal, Assitan Diallo, Malian Gender Specialist, and Sharon Phillipps, Gender Advisor for the Africa Bureau are the authors of the report. We also wish to acknowledge the support from Korotoumou Konfe, Gender Advisor, USAID/Mali and Sylvia Cabus, Bureau of Food Security, Washington for their support. We also wish to thank all the USAID/Mali colleagues who answered our many questions and provided us documents and information, and the Mali government officials and members of civil society organizations, who also graciously gave us their time and attention. The Authors, June 2012 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY After completing the gender assessment that will inform USAID/Mali’s efforts in the elaboration of their Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS), there are a series of issues that, although will be evident throughout the report, we want to highlight here. Being cognizant of these issues will facilitate, we hope, an approach that will consider the opportunities as well as the difficulties prevalent in Malian society, and that will lead to a successful development of the programs envisioned through the four development objectives (DOs). This in turn will assure that through USAID’s programming, the discrepancies and inequities encountered because of gender inequalities, will be overcome and will lead to a more just society for all, which will reap benefits for both Malian men and women. • Mali’s cultural and ethnic norms weigh heavily against women. This coupled with poverty, especially in rural areas, determines the low indices recorded for women. • Women have very limited capacity to make decisions or act independently. They have limited voice or agency. • Many of the cultural practices that women are subjected to are harmful and threaten their well-being. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and early marriage are among these, as well as domestic violence and other forms of Gender-Based Violence (GBV). • Rural women are extremely overworked. Women spend 7 to 8 hours on domestic chores, apart from the time they spend working in the fields. • The majority of women who work in agriculture are not remunerated for their labor. 77% of women farmers declared in a government survey that they have never received wages for their labor. • Women’s lack of agency contributes to the high fertility rates, and maternal and infant mortality. • There is a strong correlation between women’s level of education and the drop in fertility rates, the increased well-being of children and many other indices of development. • Every effort should be made to provide literacy training to women through the different programs the Mission supports. • Along with literacy, training in entrepreneurship and in other areas that will promote their sense of empowerment and leadership should be undertaken. • Men should be enlisted as partners that recognize women’s contributions and provide them support. USAID/Mali has had programs in the past that have achieved high levels of success in increasing women’s agency and leadership. These programs should be emulated and replicated. 3 Recommendations: DO1: Accelerated Economic Growth Sector • Conduct a gender assessment of the value chains that will be selected. • Provide different types of training, starting from the most basic literacy and numeracy, through leadership training and different types of entrepreneurship training. • Help women negotiate access to land and to productive assets. • Explore different types of credit: partnerships with banks and processors, lines of credit, leasing. DO2: Sustained Improvements in health through increased utilization of high impact services and healthy behaviors • Integrate advocacy messaging against FGM and girl’s early marriage in all health related programs. • Promote men’s involvement in behavioral changes at household and community level. • Customize health-childcare-practices messaging for primary caregivers such as grandmothers and housemaids. • Perform gender audits of health facilities targeted for quality reinforcement. DO3: Education Development Objective • Ensure translations of curriculum into maternal languages do not reinforce gender-based stereotypes. • Promote gender-friendly messaging and curriculum broadcasted in USAID-funded radio programs. • Promote equitable gender participation in school management committees. • Ensure that all efforts related to education include the curtailment of GBV and sexual harassment of students. DO4: Governance/Communications Development Objective • Promote gender budgeting in the communes. • Introduce trainings/capacity building activities to help bring women civil servant leaders up to scale. • Include national gender policies and rights sensitization in trainings and capacity assistance for civil society. • Ensure gender-sensitive processes for selecting small-scale infrastructure projects in community action plans. • Ensure that small-scale infrastructure projects benefit women and not increase their home labor requirements. 4 GENDER ASSESSMENT FOR MALI Introduction In preparation for writing their Country Development Cooperation Strategies (CDCS), USAID/Mali requested the completion of a gender assessment to inform their new strategy and comply with ADS requirements. A CDCS is a forward looking documents that will take into consideration input from other USG agencies, host-country governments, other donors, the private sector, and local civil society stakeholders. The aim of the CDCS is to ensure that USAID resources follow a strategic vision, critical development goals are achieved and needs are met in the most efficient manner. CURRENT GENDER SITUATION IN MALI Mali is a vast country of 1.2 million square kilometers. However, much of the population of 14.5 million is concentrated in the south due to desert conditions covering two-thirds of the land area. Almost half of the population is under the age of 15 (48.6%) and slightly more than half (50.4%) are women. The average annual population growth is 3.6%1. Despite good macroeconomic indicators (e.g., GDP growth rate of 4.5%), living standards are low. Less than half the working-age population is employed in the formal sector (45.1%), slightly lower in the rural sector (44.5%). Forty four percent of the Malian population is considered poor, with 33% of urban residents and 53.2% of rural ones falling within this category. The Human Development Index (HDI), which takes into account income, life expectancy at birth, the rate of adult literacy and school enrollment, ranks Mali 175 of 187 countries, and the Gender Inequality Index (GII) ranks Mali is 143 of 146 countries. The GII draws attention to major deficits in human development due to gender inequality.2 While Mali has made some improvements, it is believed that it will not reach the Millennium Development Goal on gender equality and women’s empowerment (MDG 3)3 by 2015. Many issues contribute to the low scores on the gender and human indices. While Mali exhibits examples of modernity, much of the country is still very much focused on traditional values and practices that impact on gender equality. The mix between modern and conventional practices provides a context of ambiguity where women and men have increasing access to international standards for living conditions, knowledge acquisition and participation in public life, yet live in a society centered in traditional cultural norms and practices. These practices include female genital mutilation, early marriage, polygamy, unequal division of domestic labor between women/girls and men/boys, and unbalanced roles in the production of food and commodities. Mali’s patriarchal system ensures men the permanent status of family head, and gives legitimacy to unequal access to resources and the exercise of power. Hence, key gender disparities include unequal access to financial resources, very limited capacity for women to engage in decision- making in families, low level of female leadership within state structures, and prominent representation of men in elective institutions. Government Commitment toward Gender Equality Since the change of political regime in 1991, Mali has made some positive changes towards creating a more democratic nation and establishing women’s rights. Women’s empowerment 5 has become a critical issue throughout these past two decades. Discriminatory statements regarding women and girls were removed from the national legislation, and the Ministry for the Promotion of Women, Children and the Family (MPFEF4) was created in 1997 to be the main State institution responsible for women’s empowerment and gender equality. The Ministry has a dual mission: to act as a catalyst/coordinator for gender-responsive actions in all the other ministries; and to implement programs focused on women's strategic interests such as the fight against domestic violence and female genital mutilation. In November 2010, the National Policy for Gender Equality (PNG) was adopted. The policy and its action plan are based on seven guiding principles and six strategic directions which are: (1) equal rights for women and men, (2) development of human capital (for women and men), (3)