“If the Drumbeat Changes, the Dance Must Also Change” Using a Gender-Integrated Approach to Enhance Household and Community Resilience to Food Insecurity in the Sahel Policy Analysis Exercise Submitted to: Professor Julie Boatright Wilson, Harvard Kennedy School Professor Martha Chen, Harvard Kennedy School Sahar Alnouri, Global Gender Advisor, Mercy Corps Prepared by: Allison Shean Candidate for Masters in Public Policy, 2014 Harvard Kennedy School March 25, 2014 This PAE reflects the views of the author and should not be viewed as representing the views of Mercy Corps nor those of Harvard University or any of its faculty. Acknowledgments I would like to thank Professor Julie Boatright Wilson and Professor Martha Chen for their input and guidance throughout this exercise, and for their continued dedication to Kennedy School students. I would also like to thank the Women and Public Policy Program for their financial support, without which my field research in Mali would not have been possible. Mercy Corps’ staff has been extremely generous with their time and understanding throughout this process. This Policy Analysis Exercise would not be possible without their willingness to brainstorm with me and facilitate my research. Many thanks to Shannon Alexander, Jon Kurtz, and Beza Tesfaye for taking their time to assist in the conceptualization of this project and for their helpful feedback throughout my research. I would also like to thank Lisa Robbins Garland for her excellent field research in Mali, Niger, and Nigeria, and her insightful observations from the field. Thanks also to Sarah Wardwell for her guidance on the Sahel context and for coordinating my field work in Mali. Finally, I am particularly indebted to Sahar Alnouri for her unyielding support, hours of Skype calls, and multiple reviews of frameworks and theories of change. She demonstrates a contagious commitment to the promotion of gender equality and has been an invaluable resource throughout the course of this project. i Key Definitions and Acronyms Key Resilience Terms: Absorptive Capacity – the ability to absorb the negative impact of shocks and stresses. The capacity to cope with change in the short-term. Adaptive Capacity – the ability to make proactive and informed choices about alternative strategies based on an understanding of changing conditions. The capacity to manage change in the medium-term. Disturbance – may come in the form of rapid-onset shocks (such as earthquakes and floods), slow-onset shocks (such as drought, human disease epidemics, plant pest outbreaks, and conflict), or longer-term stresses (such as environmental degradation, political instability, conflict, price inflation). By itself, a shock or a stress is not a disaster; it can, however, trigger a disaster because of underlying physical, social, economic, or environmental vulnerabilities. A disaster occurs when households, communities, institutions, or governments are unable to cope with a shock or stress. Idiosyncratic disturbances – those that affect only certain individuals or households. Covariate disturbances – those that affect an entire population or geographic area. Exposure – a function of the magnitude, frequency, and duration of a shock or stress. Duration only refers to the actual shock itself, not the resulting impact, which may be short- or long-term. Negative coping strategies – strategies that erode productive assets and undermine future options, making it more difficult to cope with the next shock or stress. Positive coping strategies – the strategies that households and communities use, based on available skills and resources, to face, manage, and recover from adverse conditions, emergencies or disasters in the short term. Resilience – the capacity of communities in complex socio-ecological systems to learn, cope, adapt, and transform in the face of shocks and stresses. Sensitivity – refers to the degree to which an individual, household or community will be affected by a given shock or stress. Sensitivity, or susceptibility, differs from exposure in that it reflects different underlying causes of vulnerability to shocks. Shocks (or hazards) – rapid or slow-onset discrete events with a clear beginning and end. For example, floods and droughts constitute discrete environmental shocks. Stresses – a long-onset pressure or condition faced by a population (that may or may not be recognized). Includes climate change, environmental degradation, political instability, along with other non-discrete events. ii Transformative Capacity – the ability to rely on governance mechanisms, policies, regulations, infrastructure, community networks, and formal mechanisms that constitute the enabling environment for innovation and systemic change. The capacity to manage and benefit from change in the long-term. Vulnerability – how various social groups or communities exposed to shocks and stresses are affected and how they differ in terms of their sensitivity and coping capacity, with an emphasis on how spatial, physical, and social characteristics influence vulnerability. Other Key Definitions: Empowerment – results from an equitable increase in access to assets and increased intra- household bargaining power over the distribution of these assets. Gender equality – a state in which an individual’s rights, responsibilities, and opportunities are not defined by his or her gender. This state does not depend on equality of outcomes, but rather on equality of the determinants of outcomes. Gender integration – Identifying and addressing gender differences and inequalities during program and project planning, design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. Acronyms Referenced: DFID – Department for International Development (United Kingdom) ECHO – European Community Humanitarian Office FAO – Food and Agriculture Association of the UN IFAD – International Fund for Agricultural Development IFPRI – International Food and Policy Research Institute IFRC – International Federation of the Red Cross OFDA – Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance UNDP – United Nations Development Programme UNISDR – United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction USAID – United States Agency for International Development iii Table of Contents Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................................... i Key Definitions and Acronyms ......................................................................................................................... ii Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction......................................................................................................................................................... 4 Mercy Corps in the Sahel ............................................................................................................................ 4 Purpose of the Research .............................................................................................................................. 6 Gender and Resilience as a Differentiator ............................................................................................. 7 Background and Context ................................................................................................................................ 8 A Chronically Vulnerable Sahel ................................................................................................................. 8 Gender Inequality in the Sahel – Further Entrenching Vulnerability to Food Insecurity .............. 9 Why Focus on Gender? ............................................................................................................................... 9 Why Focus on Resilience? .......................................................................................................................... 14 The Building Blocks for a Resilient Sahel ................................................................................................ 15 Resources, Assets, and Capital............................................................................................................. 16 Capacity for Collective Action ............................................................................................................. 18 Gender Integration and Resilience: A Theory of Change ....................................................................... 20 Gender Integration and Household Resilience ...................................................................................... 21 Critical Assumptions in this Theory ....................................................................................................... 22 Evidence to Support Assumptions ........................................................................................................ 22 Gender Integration and Community Resilience ..................................................................................... 25 Critical Assumptions in this Theory ....................................................................................................... 25 Evidence to Support Assumptions ........................................................................................................ 26 Applying the Theory of Change .................................................................................................................