Women in Development - The Land O Lakes Experience

Women in Development: The Land O’Lakes Experience -Strong commitment to gender integration for over two decades -By applying a “gender” lens to program design, we seek to:  Maximize access to program benefits by ALL beneficiaries  Maximize economic growth for ALL members of the HH and community

Women in Development: The Land O’Lakes Experience -Land O’Lakes intentionally integrates gender considerations into our programs by:  Analyzing how cultural attitudes and practices impact agricultural practices, household decision-making and designing interventions that address gender related constraints.  Providing services targeted to women and girls.  Encouraging women to move into training, leadership and management roles.  Building greater awareness of gender constraints and barriers among women and men.  Working with implementing partners to integrate gender into program activities.

School Nutrition Programs -From 2000-present in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malawi. -Significant impact: Dramatic improved enrollment and attendance rates among girls.  Bangladesh: Increased female attendance in schools with a 49:51 ratio of boys to girls  Malawi: The percentage of girls attending classes increased by 70 percent.  Pakistan: Enrollment of girls in primary schools increased by nearly 200 percent and the nutritional status and physical health of all school children had significantly improved.  Vietnam and Bangladesh: Provided separate girls lavatories to increase attendance.

Malawi -Malawi Dairy Development Alliance, Significant impact: Over 1000 women received a pass-on heifer and earn $1,200 per year from dairy farming alone, a 250 percent increase from what they previously earned through subsistence farming.

West Bank -Accelerating Economic Growth in the West Bank, Significant impact: Increased farm management techniques of women farmers who were trained by female extension agents.  Provided farm management training to 123 women farmers in 23 villages.

Kenya -Kenya Food for Progress, Significant impact: Reduced time women spent daily fetching water and firewood.  Working directly with 13,000 women, facilitated the rehabilitation of communal water schemes to provide increased access to water.  Assisted investments in biogas for cooking to reduce reliance on firewood.  Freed up hours each day which were redirected to implementing techniques to increase dairy production.

Iraq -Dairy Development for Fallujah Women, Significant impact: Increased household incomes and reduced economic and social insecurity of Iraqi widows  21 Iraqi widows gained skills to become effective dairy producers.  Women trained will pass on skills to other women, thereby increasing household income through dairy production.

Key Lessons -Most farmers in the developing world are women; gender integration is critical to the success of agriculture and food security programs. -Women and girls are under-served and have specific needs; programs must be tailored to them be effective. -Active involvement of women in decision making leads to improved food security at the household level.

Key Lessons -Women must be encouraged to move into training, leadership and management roles that enable them to reach out to and empower and support other women. -Increasing gender equity doesn’t just involve women; where appropriate, engaging men in programs is critical. -Gender-related attitudes and practices are culturally deep-seated. Conducting trainings to build greater awareness of gender constraints and barriers, and promote equitable decision-making among women and men is important.

Thank You!