WEBVTT 00:00.080 --> 00:04.000 00:08.240 --> 00:15.360 Okay so um hello everybody! I'm Dr. Maria  Elisa Christie. I'm Director of Women and   00:15.360 --> 00:19.760 Gender in International Development at  CIRED. it's the Center for international   00:19.760 --> 00:26.320 research, education, and development at Virginia  Tech. Welcome to our virtual women and gender   00:26.320 --> 00:31.760 in international development discussion series.  um we're so happy that you could all join us.   00:33.440 --> 00:38.560 Please uh well as of today as of this morning  there were 46 people registered from 11 different   00:38.560 --> 00:44.720 countries, so we'll see how many come in um as  we as we move along but uh we're excited to have   00:45.440 --> 00:50.640 people register and take note of Afrina's great  work and hopefully more of them will join us as   00:50.640 --> 00:56.000 we move along. So note that our event will  be recorded and it will become available   00:56.000 --> 01:01.040 usually takes a couple weeks before we get it  into our Virginia Tech VTworks library. So it   01:01.040 --> 01:06.240 will be on our website. So if you don't want uh  your image recorded just keep your camera off.   01:07.280 --> 01:12.080 um the full calendar and updates for well  next year's discussion series which we don't   01:12.080 --> 01:16.640 have up yet is on our website but it will  be up soon. Before introducing our speaker   01:16.640 --> 01:22.240 I invite you to reflect on Virginia Tech's  land and labor recognition. So Virginia Tech   01:22.240 --> 01:28.880 acknowledges that we live and work on the Tutelo/  Monacan people's homeland and we recognize their   01:28.880 --> 01:34.800 continued relationship with their lands and  waterways. We further recognize that legislation   01:34.800 --> 01:41.680 and practices like the Morrill Act in 1862  enabled the commonwealth of Virginia to finance   01:41.680 --> 01:46.400 and found Virginia Tech through the forced removal of Native Nations from their lands   01:46.400 --> 01:52.080 both locally and in western territories. We  understand that honoring native peoples without   01:52.080 --> 01:58.320 explicit material commitments falls short of our  institutional responsibilities. Through sustained,   01:58.320 --> 02:03.200 transparent, and meaningful engagement with the Tutelo/ Monacan Peoples, and other Native Nations,   02:03.200 --> 02:10.880 we commit to changing the trajectory of Virginia  Tech's history by increasing indigenous student   02:10.880 --> 02:16.080 staff and faculty recruitment and retention,  diversifying course offerings, and meeting   02:16.080 --> 02:20.800 the growing growing needs of all Virginia  tribes and supporting their sovereignty.   02:21.440 --> 02:26.640 We also have to recognize that enslaved black  people generated revenue and resources used   02:26.640 --> 02:34.800 to establish Virginia Tech and were prohibited  from attending until 1953. Through InclusiveVT,   02:34.800 --> 02:40.800 the institutional and individual commitment to Ut  prosim that I may serve in the spirit of community   02:40.800 --> 02:46.560 diversity and excellence we commit to advancing  a more diverse equitable and inclusive community.   02:48.240 --> 02:54.160 So now um just some brief housekeeping notes, so  this discussion will last approximately 45 minutes.   02:54.720 --> 02:59.680 Our speaker's presentation will be approximately  25 minutes followed by about 20 minutes of   02:59.680 --> 03:05.280 discussion and Q&A question and answer. All the  dial-in participants will be muted to enable the   03:05.280 --> 03:12.160 speaker to present without interruption and you're  welcome to post questions in the chat at any time   03:12.160 --> 03:15.680 throughout the conversation, because we keep track  of them, we put them in a google doc, and then   03:15.680 --> 03:21.680 I'll be reading from them at the end. So as you  think of your questions feel free to put them in   03:21.680 --> 03:26.080 and then if there's more questions after we  finish going through those that came in the chat   03:26.080 --> 03:32.000 um we can also ask you to unmute yourself and you  can ask the speaker directly or make a comment   03:32.000 --> 03:38.080 on um and give your input also on the topic that  is being discussed. So in order for our discussion   03:38.080 --> 03:43.280 to be as rich as it can be we need everyone  to be respectful and treat all participants   03:43.280 --> 03:50.160 with kindness and consideration and uh without  discriminatory behavior. So again the webinar is   03:50.160 --> 03:55.200 being recorded and you'll have access to it via  our website and also we'll send a link uh both   03:55.200 --> 04:01.200 through the chat and then also through email uh  for a survey that we really really need you to   04:01.200 --> 04:05.920 fill out because it helps us keep this  program going. You can tweet us by tagging us   04:06.560 --> 04:13.520 at wgd_vt which um I will put that in  after we get started here but now to introduce our   04:13.520 --> 04:19.040 speaker and first I have to thank Afrina Chaudhuri  for joining us so it is now almost midnight in   04:19.040 --> 04:25.520 Bangladesh so um aside from the fact that she's  both a Ph.D. student at Wageningen university   04:25.520 --> 04:30.320 in the Netherlands and has got a full-time  job at WorldFish in the Netherlands she's   04:30.320 --> 04:35.920 um she's very busy doing field work and  studies and now we're keeping her up but   04:35.920 --> 04:42.160 thank you. She's a research fellow and a senior  gender specialist at WorldFish Bangladesh.   04:42.160 --> 04:48.240 At WorldFish, she's responsible for the design  and implementation of pro-poor, gender-responsive   04:48.240 --> 04:53.840 strategies working in the field of aquatic  agriculture. Her research has revolved around the   04:53.840 --> 04:59.840 integration of gender into technical interventions  in ways that are sustainable and transformative in   04:59.840 --> 05:05.680 particular. She has been focusing on building the  evidence for gender transformative approaches as a   05:05.680 --> 05:12.480 way to break systematic inequalities in enhancing  equitable development efforts. She also co-created   05:12.480 --> 05:17.920 and chairs the Bangladesh national gender working  group, so we might have some questions on that as   05:17.920 --> 05:23.840 well as a separate topic which currently brings  together gender and equity work in Bangladesh   05:24.640 --> 05:29.680 and as I said she's doing her Ph.D. She's doing  a sandwich Ph.D. between WorldFish and Wageningen   05:29.680 --> 05:34.720 with a focus on inclusive business and women's  entrepreneurship development and agriculture. The   05:34.720 --> 05:40.960 title of her presentation today is experiences  in merging gender transformative approaches with   05:40.960 --> 05:49.440 development efforts in aquatic food systems in  Bangladesh. So thank you and it's all yours Afrina!   05:50.960 --> 05:58.640 Thank you thank you so much um so today um I will  talk about our learning journey in Bangladesh   05:59.200 --> 06:04.080 as we transition to using uh gender  transformative approaches. I'm Afrina   06:04.080 --> 06:11.280 Choudhury uh and I thank you all for being here  today um Lumbini could just share the slides? thanks. 06:14.000 --> 06:20.960 so um as this as the slide is uploaded  I'll just continue um so could you go to   06:20.960 --> 06:28.640 the next slide, please? Thank you so before um we  started with gender-transformative approaches   06:29.200 --> 06:34.320 uh we were looking for ways to enhance women's  participation in aquaculture through technologies   06:34.320 --> 06:39.600 as a way to fill the gap in women's access  and benefits from aquaculture. The idea was   06:39.600 --> 06:44.640 that through women's enhanced participation  we can alleviate poverty, improve nutrition and   06:44.640 --> 06:49.360 consumption and even empower women. Back then we  did not have a strict definition for empowerment   06:49.920 --> 06:54.880 it's nuanced to multi-dimensional aspects were  not clearly understood and we mainly attained up   06:54.880 --> 07:02.000 empowerment at the access and welfare levels for  women. So we targeted women at the homestead area   07:02.000 --> 07:06.160 around the homestead pond because that was  a convenient area for women's involvement   07:06.160 --> 07:10.560 because it's close to home it caters to their  mobility constraints and their time and labor   07:10.560 --> 07:15.120 burdens. Furthermore, the homestead pond is  an underutilized resource whose productivity   07:15.120 --> 07:22.080 can diversify food and income options provide  nutritional food and thereby build resilience.   07:23.360 --> 07:28.400 Next slide, please. As are different projects  targeted women at the household level what   07:28.400 --> 07:34.160 technical training trainings and demonstrations  we conducted both diagnostic and impact studies   07:34.160 --> 07:37.920 and these studies pointed towards a need  from for changing our approach from an   07:37.920 --> 07:42.800 accommodative one to a transformative  one. These studies are listed over here   07:42.800 --> 07:47.520 in this slide, most of these studies look at the  implications of gender relations and dimensions   07:47.520 --> 07:53.840 on aquaculture technologies and innovations  um Gennovate which I have put in two more   07:54.480 --> 08:00.720 publications from Gennovate it was a  multi-country CGIAR qualitative study on norms   08:00.720 --> 08:04.720 which produced multiple papers that  emphasized the need to tackle norms. 08:06.800 --> 08:12.720 Next slide, please. These studies findings  showed that our gap killing approaches   08:12.720 --> 08:17.280 can actually reinforce inequity by not  changing women's status and position and   08:18.080 --> 08:23.360 accommodating to existing norms that already  constrain them because without social change   08:23.360 --> 08:27.920 sustainability of impact will also be limited.  We try to involve our target women but women   08:27.920 --> 08:32.640 do not women who use these technologies do  not exist in a vacuum without influence from   08:32.640 --> 08:38.320 other actors and institutions power relations and  especially gender power relations at every level   08:38.320 --> 08:43.520 affect the extent to which women can actually use  and benefit from these innovations. So we realized   08:43.520 --> 08:48.480 that while we were reaching women and benefiting  them to a certain extent we were not empowering   08:48.480 --> 08:54.080 them in all domains nor were we transforming norms  or addressing the root causes next slide, please. 08:56.560 --> 09:07.840 So uh so we moved so if you look at this continuum  here sorry previous slide previous slide, please 09:08.480 --> 09:13.600 uh the continuum generated yeah thank you. So  um the continuum of this continuum provides   09:13.600 --> 09:17.600 a spectrum to understand and design  gender approaches uh from exploitative   09:17.600 --> 09:21.200 to accommodative to transformative for  practitioners and researchers alike   09:21.760 --> 09:25.840 the ultimate goal is equality and better  development outcomes. The pathway for that   09:25.840 --> 09:31.120 is to be gender aware and for the very and at the  very least to be gender accommodative uh gender   09:31.120 --> 09:35.440 blind approaches ignore the different rights,  responsibility, roles, risks, etc associated with   09:35.440 --> 09:41.360 being a man or woman including the power dynamics  between them. Gender aware approaches examine and   09:41.360 --> 09:45.120 address these considerations  however, in doing so may exploit   09:45.120 --> 09:48.320 the differences in stereotypes and  hence it's called exploitative approach.   09:49.680 --> 09:54.800 The competitive approach understands norms and  works with them works with and around them to   09:54.800 --> 10:00.880 enable women's participation and benefits. This  may reinforce any inequalities by leaving women   10:00.880 --> 10:05.760 within their gendered niche and may not address  the systemic and structural inequalities that   10:05.760 --> 10:10.720 create and perpetuate inequalities. This is where  gender transformative approaches are important as   10:10.720 --> 10:15.360 drawing on feminist theories and ideologies they  work to address systemic and structural challenges   10:15.360 --> 10:20.240 by fostering critical reflection and dialogue  on harmful norms gender roles and power dynamics   10:20.240 --> 10:25.360 while promoting equitable norms. uh gender  transformative approaches differ from the   10:25.360 --> 10:30.240 current undertakings of empowerment in that  gender transformative approaches focus also on   10:30.240 --> 10:35.920 the relational and structural angles of inequality  along with women's agency. Next slide, please. 10:38.400 --> 10:42.720 So I'm going to share with you an example today  of how we incorporated gender-transformative   10:42.720 --> 10:49.600 approaches within a fish harvesting technology  in Bangladesh. Next slide please. So this fish   10:49.600 --> 10:54.000 harvesting technology was introduced in the  aquaculture for income and nutrition project   10:54.000 --> 10:59.040 which was a USAID funded project in southwest  Bangladesh. So we designed a fish harvesting   10:59.040 --> 11:04.080 technology with women's needs in mind. This new net  would help women catch nutrient-rich mola fish   11:04.640 --> 11:07.680 the frequent consumption of which we  encouraged and created a demand for   11:08.400 --> 11:15.200 without much time or physical exertion and without  the need to get in the water and get wet. This   11:15.200 --> 11:21.280 technology was pilot tested with 155 women, however  the technology solution did not solve the social   11:21.280 --> 11:26.880 stigma associated with women catching fish which  is considered a man's job. So we combine gender   11:26.880 --> 11:31.440 transformative approaches within the technology  dissemination process. We worked at the household   11:31.440 --> 11:37.040 level with 86 households at the community level  with 251 households to spark critical reflection   11:37.040 --> 11:42.080 and dialogue around the nomadic barriers that  hinder women's ability to use and benefit from   11:42.080 --> 11:49.520 this technology. Next slide, please. So these are the  rest research questions that I had for the study   11:50.400 --> 11:55.200 our paper called walking the line balancing  general accommodative and gender transformative   11:55.200 --> 11:59.920 approaches tales from mixed methods assessment  of women's empowerment aquaculture in Bangladesh   11:59.920 --> 12:03.760 is planned for this year and it's going to be  coming out this year we're almost finished with   12:03.760 --> 12:10.880 that paper. Next slide, please. So we followed  a mixed-methods approach with the control who   12:10.880 --> 12:16.480 did not have gill net and two types of treatment  which was GTA plus gill net and only gill net. We   12:16.480 --> 12:21.520 also did attitude surveys with community members  um one year after the project we did a qualitative   12:21.520 --> 12:27.680 assessment uh most and least empowered women and  men across the three groups. Next slide, please. 12:29.920 --> 12:34.720 We mainly used two tools to intervene at these  multiple levels of the individual household and   12:34.720 --> 12:39.680 community uh nurturing connections which  is shown here which is a manual developed   12:39.680 --> 12:43.840 by Helen Keller international and then the  second manual shown here which is a manual   12:43.840 --> 12:49.200 developed by promundo and WorldFish on engaging  men and boys, so we use mainly these two manuals   12:49.920 --> 12:53.760 the theory of change behind nurturing connections  is that gender transformative change can be   12:53.760 --> 12:57.760 achieved by learning through questioning and  critical reflection on gender norms to develop   12:57.760 --> 13:02.720 new attitudes and skills. The theory of change  for the second manual shortening shown here   13:02.720 --> 13:08.240 is that behavior change is a process that requires  internalizing of new concepts by men and women   13:08.240 --> 13:15.200 and that adults learn best through action and  experience next slide please so in doing so we   13:15.200 --> 13:21.840 also tackle the four dimensions of power around  agency resources and structure uh this whole GTA   13:21.840 --> 13:27.600 plus technology process helped women gain power  over the mola harvest. The power to act on the   13:27.600 --> 13:32.880 training knowledge and utilize the technology  the power within which is the belief in oneself   13:32.880 --> 13:37.440 and one's abilities and the power with to attain  support and cooperation from family and community.   13:38.800 --> 13:45.360 Next slide please. So this shows our research  design. We conducted a preliminary qualitative   13:45.360 --> 13:50.320 assessment to understand the social barriers that  may arise as a result of introducing this net   13:50.880 --> 13:55.360 uh then we did a quantitative baseline  before the technology plus GTA was introduced   13:55.360 --> 13:59.760 and an end line after the end of the process then  we did another qualitative year under after the   13:59.760 --> 14:06.800 project was over. The reason was because we found  unanticipated changes uh with the qualitative   14:06.800 --> 14:11.520 that helped explain some of the puzzling results  from the quantitative results like for example   14:11.520 --> 14:16.400 from the quant it seemed men were taking over the  net whereas there was actually more collaboration,   14:16.960 --> 14:21.440 men were actually helping women more also some  of the exercises seem to have a lasting impact   14:21.440 --> 14:25.760 on men and women participants. Some of the lessons  from the gender transformative approach spilled   14:25.760 --> 14:30.800 beyond just the net. Men were more positive about  women's involvement in aquaculture in general.   14:32.160 --> 14:36.320 Now in this slide I'm going to talk about  our evaluation tools uh we used mixed   14:36.320 --> 14:41.280 methods longitudinal designs we adapted the  women's empowerment and agricultural index   14:41.280 --> 14:46.560 which was developed by IFR and our customized  women's empowerment and fisheries index   14:47.440 --> 14:51.280 empowerment surveys. We also looked  at self-efficacy power within using   14:51.280 --> 14:56.000 psychometric measures. Gender attitude surveys were  conducted at the household and community level   14:56.880 --> 15:01.840 and for the qualitative we adapt it from  the generate tools. Next slide please. 15:05.280 --> 15:08.880 So our emerging some of our results show  some positive results from the gender   15:08.880 --> 15:14.480 transformative approach usage so GTA softened  the backlash from women around technology uptake   15:14.480 --> 15:18.880 and new roles for women because the net  created a new role for women. It promoted   15:18.880 --> 15:23.280 collaboration by bringing men on board at the  family and community level. There were changes   15:23.280 --> 15:28.160 in self-efficacy amongst women, there was also  enhanced consumption of mola by our target group   15:28.160 --> 15:33.680 and there was overall changes in attitudes of men  which was really encouraging. Next slide please. 15:35.840 --> 15:41.040 So GTA actually helped in technology diffusion  by building acceptance towards women's new role.   15:41.760 --> 15:46.480 We saw we see a value in a combination of a  technology plus gender transformative approach.   15:47.040 --> 15:50.640 Gender transformative approaches also help  tackle different dimensions of empowerment at the   15:50.640 --> 15:55.200 individual hustle and community level the tools  are beneficial in tackling those different levels   15:55.200 --> 16:00.000 and addressing power relations by involving those  in power for example, mother-in-laws and husbands   16:00.640 --> 16:04.960 involving the community and nutrition  education also built wider acceptance.   16:06.080 --> 16:12.160 Next slide please. um so we want to reinforce the  importance of being cautious around how we measure   16:12.160 --> 16:17.120 impact of gender transformative approach and make  conclusions the quant side may not always tell   16:17.120 --> 16:22.480 the whole story we were actually able to unpack  our quantitative findings with the qualitative.   16:22.480 --> 16:26.480 This points towards the importance  of mixed methods to impact the nuance   16:26.480 --> 16:31.760 of what is happening at different levels. We also  conducted the qualitative study one year after the   16:31.760 --> 16:37.280 quant and this helped understand the impact over  time. It is important to understand intricacies   16:37.280 --> 16:41.040 of implant implementing gender transformative  approaches and the importance of measuring the   16:41.040 --> 16:45.840 impact over time using mixed methods approaches  and actually the value of giving sufficient   16:45.840 --> 16:50.400 time for the effects to be visible that's  because social change does take time to unfold.   16:51.600 --> 16:56.400 Next slide please. Now I'm going to talk about how  we are trying to connect gender-transformative   16:56.400 --> 17:00.480 approaches to women's entrepreneurship  efforts and this is also a part of my PhD.   17:02.160 --> 17:04.720 Next slide please. Before I begin  I want to give a little background   17:04.720 --> 17:08.880 about entrepreneurship. There are various  contesting definitions of entrepreneurship   17:08.880 --> 17:13.120 and women's or female entrepreneurship especially  coming from the fields of business management   17:13.120 --> 17:18.160 and economics. For this presentation I've chosen  a simple definition of women's entrepreneurship   17:18.160 --> 17:24.560 which is that can be defined as women or group  of women who initiate or innovate operate   17:25.280 --> 17:31.280 organize or adopt a business enterprise. Rural  women's entrepreneurship emerges in rural areas.   17:31.280 --> 17:36.560 Early women's entrepreneurship literature  focused on women's shortcomings and compared   17:36.560 --> 17:41.200 women's performance to that event. This was  because from the economic growth perspective   17:41.200 --> 17:46.240 entrepreneurship was important and therefore the  growth and performance of women's businesses had   17:46.240 --> 17:50.560 to be studied with the results that women's  businesses were found to be underperforming   17:50.560 --> 17:54.800 with little or no growth and this was  attributed to women's individual traits   17:55.600 --> 18:00.400 contrary to the beliefs and hypotheses. Then the  results showed very few differences between men   18:00.400 --> 18:05.200 and women if you look at studies by de roots  and Henriksen and Watson, but the authors   18:05.200 --> 18:09.120 try to explain it away based on individual  characteristics rather than structural factors.   18:09.840 --> 18:14.080 The very few studies that did look at  structural factors like bank loans did not find   18:14.080 --> 18:18.800 discrimination to be a factor but that woman's  lack of collateral led them to have difficulties   18:18.800 --> 18:25.040 in getting roles. Women's entrepreneurship participation and performance still lags that   18:25.040 --> 18:30.240 of behind of men and that has been the focus of a  lot of literature. Women also face constraints to   18:30.240 --> 18:35.360 participation and performance with personality  factors motivations and resource constraints   18:35.360 --> 18:40.640 being noted as key factors and being analyzed in  comparison to them. Recently there have been shifts   18:40.640 --> 18:45.440 towards understanding constraints in terms  of the social climate in which women operate   18:45.440 --> 18:51.040 indicating a movement from the individual  to the social perspective. Next slide, please.   18:53.760 --> 18:58.560 So women's ag entrepreneurship it's quite  different from non-agricultural entrepreneurship   18:58.560 --> 19:02.640 and though it is it is thought to be a part of  rural entrepreneurship. It can be linked to urban   19:02.640 --> 19:07.360 entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship.  So most ag entrepreneurship has been studied   19:07.360 --> 19:12.720 and developed developed countries very few and  developing um in ag discourse women farmers are   19:12.720 --> 19:19.840 increasingly being termed um are increasingly  being termed as women entrepreneurs. Women and   19:19.840 --> 19:23.600 women in agricultural entrepreneurship  face unique challenges due to climate   19:23.600 --> 19:29.200 change, scarcity of resources, infrastructural  challenges, access and control of site resources,   19:29.920 --> 19:34.720 mobility, and family burdens, and  enactment of existing policies   19:34.720 --> 19:40.160 that may not favor non-stereotype rules and  businesses for women in practice. The predominant   19:40.160 --> 19:45.040 focus in entrepreneurship is on economic growth  most women ag entrepreneurs have been pushed   19:45.040 --> 19:50.160 into entrepreneurship because of poverty and it's  part of their livelihood diversification strategy.   19:50.160 --> 19:54.320 However the profit the this poverty-driven  women's entrepreneurship in ag is seen as   19:54.320 --> 19:59.200 problematic to economic growth. This type of  entrepreneurship is not seen as true profit-driven   19:59.200 --> 20:04.000 um in economics that are dependent on agriculture  lack of such true entrepreneurial ventures   20:04.000 --> 20:08.720 may not encourage innovation innovative youth and  women to start profitable businesses in the sector   20:08.720 --> 20:15.120 which has implications for food security and  growth. uh women's uh entrepreneurial participation   20:15.120 --> 20:20.960 and constraints have been popular study areas in  women's ag entrepreneurship but women's roles in   20:20.960 --> 20:27.840 business are still in invisible and unrecognized.  Women also face resource access constraints um   20:27.840 --> 20:32.160 and women's ag entrepreneurship literature and  developing nations have focused on training and   20:32.160 --> 20:38.160 business capacity development a woman which is  a repetitive policy strategy which is important   20:38.160 --> 20:41.600 but it has not really brought change for women  without addressing the structural and general   20:41.600 --> 20:49.440 relational constraints which are an emerging topic  and means ag entrepreneurship. Next slide please. 20:51.600 --> 20:57.600 um I want so for my PhD I wanted to merge  gender within the field of innovations and   20:57.600 --> 21:02.400 the social-technical transitions framework  all the multi-level perspectives. So the MLP   21:02.400 --> 21:08.240 is a theoretical framework that predicates the  transitions come come about through interactive   21:08.240 --> 21:15.040 processes within and among three analytical levels  which are the niche social technical regimes and   21:15.040 --> 21:20.160 social technical landscapes. This framework  has been widely used in innovations research   21:20.160 --> 21:24.320 but gender has not been explicitly applied to  understand how the social works with the technical   21:24.320 --> 21:28.800 to bring about transitions and furthermore  the role women entrepreneurs play in this.   21:29.680 --> 21:34.560 So I want to understand how and what and what how  and to what extent can experiences and success   21:34.560 --> 21:39.680 drivers for women entrepreneurs be connected  to business-related interventions especially   21:39.680 --> 21:43.840 overcome landscape and regime level constraints  and advanced gender transformative change.   21:44.640 --> 21:49.840 I also bought in brought in Gomez and  Wolsenberg's theory about institutional ripple   21:49.840 --> 21:54.640 effects which they explained as unintended  or spontaneous dissemination of change   21:54.640 --> 21:58.240 of rules in one institutional field upon  rule than another institutional field   21:59.040 --> 22:04.080 with consequences that can be either positive  or negative because they are not susceptible to   22:04.080 --> 22:08.720 control planning. I think this theory also  adds value to understanding how and when   22:08.720 --> 22:13.040 gender transformative changes can occur as women  manufacture within the larger social technical   22:13.040 --> 22:18.400 regime. So in this multi-dimensional framework  social norms and institutions encompass all   22:18.400 --> 22:23.920 levels was entrepreneurial niche happens at the  individual or household level where she innovates   22:23.920 --> 22:30.480 for whatever reason be it push or pull factors.  She works within the social-technical regime   22:30.480 --> 22:38.080 within which she maneuvers and may even  shape. Next slide, please. So my study is titled   22:38.080 --> 22:42.960 revisiting women's entrepreneurship from a gender  transformative perspective understanding positive   22:42.960 --> 22:47.440 deviance in the aquaculture and fisheries  sector in Bangladesh, and my larger research   22:47.440 --> 22:52.160 questions are in what ways do the literature and  documentation around women's entrepreneurship and   22:52.160 --> 22:58.000 inclusive business models and food systems of low  income income economies represent and connect to   22:58.000 --> 23:03.200 aspects of gender transformative change and social  institutional barriers and opportunities for women.   23:03.200 --> 23:07.920 And my second quite large question is how and  to what extent can the experiences and success   23:07.920 --> 23:12.640 drivers for women entrepreneurs be connected  to business related interventions especially   23:12.640 --> 23:16.480 overcome landscape and regime level constraints  and advanced gender transformative change.   23:17.840 --> 23:22.160 Next slide. So I am studying some of  the entrepreneurial efforts made by the   23:22.160 --> 23:27.040 project called increasing income diversifying  diets and empowering women in balance and Nigeria   23:27.040 --> 23:32.080 project funded by the Bill and Melinda  Gates Foundation. In this project they're   23:32.080 --> 23:36.480 exploring different models to build women's  entrepreneurship and agriculture aquaculture.   23:37.280 --> 23:42.960 These include a couple's business development  model business accelerator program to empower   23:42.960 --> 23:48.320 women with small businesses with partner named  Lightcastle, building women as local service   23:48.320 --> 23:53.200 providers, a group based women's agriculture  business by landless women on government ponds,   23:53.840 --> 23:58.160 and the usage of government's extension  network of local extension agents for fisheries.   23:59.200 --> 24:04.000 The the project has also worked at the  community level to build acceptance of women   24:04.000 --> 24:09.200 as fish entrepreneurs to bring about normative  change through forum theater and video shows.   24:10.240 --> 24:16.640 Next slide please. uh one exam one study  one example of a study of a business model   24:16.640 --> 24:21.760 I'm studying is provided here the aim is to help  build a gender transformative approach in women's   24:21.760 --> 24:26.480 entrepreneurial business models these are the  key elements of the business development model. 24:28.640 --> 24:31.840 Sorry next slide please. 24:33.280 --> 24:38.000 so these are the key elements of the business  development model these include training knowledge,   24:38.000 --> 24:45.840 the couple format, engaging them as local service  providers, training the community, the business plan,   24:45.840 --> 24:50.960 making a business plan, making a bank account,  TIN and trade license aunderwomen's names. Next   24:50.960 --> 24:56.800 slide please. uh this business this business model  also has certain gender-transformative elements   24:56.800 --> 25:02.320 uh these include engaging men and women as  couples emerging social consciousness-raising   25:02.320 --> 25:06.080 within the business development training  uh for example around women's work burden   25:06.720 --> 25:12.080 changing men's attitudes towards women's capacity  and roles through theater and videos and changing   25:12.080 --> 25:17.120 men's behavior through creation of trade  licenses and and and TINs underwomen's names.   25:18.480 --> 25:25.280 So um this is uh this is how we're I'm trying  to bring in gender-transformative approaches um   25:25.280 --> 25:31.920 uh research into the field of entrepreneurship.  I'm still in the process of exploring all this   25:31.920 --> 25:37.680 but I just wanted to share a bit of the research  that I'm doing around it that's all for today.   25:37.680 --> 25:42.240 Thank you very much for taking the time to listen  to me. If you have any questions please go ahead. 25:47.680 --> 25:52.480 Thank you so much Afrina. um well since I  didn't see another another question I went   25:52.480 --> 25:58.240 ahead and put in one of my big questions that I  have um often in this work, especially as gender   25:58.240 --> 26:06.000 transformative approaches have become  um more common in discussion and among   26:06.000 --> 26:12.800 gender the people who work and gender in  development um so and I took part of this   26:12.800 --> 26:18.320 from the title of your of your upcoming paper  but how do you balance the gender accommodative   26:18.320 --> 26:23.200 and gender transformative approaches and then  especially how does a community how does the   26:23.200 --> 26:28.400 community and especially men respond differently  to these different approaches to women's   26:28.400 --> 26:34.080 empowerment and I guess accommodative is not  women's empowerment. Actually it's just accommodating.    26:35.840 --> 26:45.120 to social norms yeah um so so when we work with uh  gender we found that we can't actually skip a step   26:45.680 --> 26:50.480 and go into gender transformative approach  without actually doing some gender accommodative   26:50.480 --> 26:57.200 approaches because it's um in a country especially  like Bangladesh social norms are very important so   26:57.200 --> 27:03.440 we actually work with the norms and we actually  do design gender accommodative approaches but then   27:03.440 --> 27:09.360 we try to build gender transformative approaches  within that. So it's it's actually um   27:10.400 --> 27:16.880 one with the other and we don't actually skip  that step but it is important to go to that   27:16.880 --> 27:25.920 next step beyond just reach benefit empower and  then and then transform so um so so that that   27:25.920 --> 27:30.080 is the next step that we're trying to go towards  but we don't want to do away with accommodative   27:30.080 --> 27:37.760 approaches and um for us for men we found that  when we when we did other other organizations like   27:37.760 --> 27:43.520 when Helen Keller international did uh gender  a general transformative approach without any   27:43.520 --> 27:50.240 technology incentive men did not respond well  to that but the technology incentive actually   27:51.120 --> 27:56.080 helped build better acceptance of actually  coming to these video shows or foreign theater   27:56.080 --> 28:04.400 or coming to these gender transformative social  consciousness raising exercise meetings because   28:04.400 --> 28:10.160 you know they knew that there was a technology  incentive so so that worked well for um helping   28:10.160 --> 28:16.480 come bring men on board as well. So there was also  always that incentive of the net or the technology   28:16.480 --> 28:22.640 for the training that really helped. So you're  actually starting to get into but I'd like to be   28:22.640 --> 28:26.480 sure to state I don't know if you're seeing Sarah  Harper's question. I'm curious in these projects   28:26.480 --> 28:30.320 how men are drawn in initially so um I don't  know if you saw that and that's what you were   28:30.320 --> 28:35.280 talking about but that's and then and what is the  selling point for them to engage? I imagine this is   28:35.280 --> 28:39.760 voluntary so how to get them through the door in  the first place? Speak a little bit more to that.   28:40.880 --> 28:47.120 So um so so in the beginning it's always  important um when because a lot of these   28:47.120 --> 28:51.840 technologies that we are designing a lot of them  we're doing gender transformative approaches with   28:51.840 --> 28:59.120 are these technologies are designed for women  um initially or um because it's a it's it's   28:59.120 --> 29:03.600 because we want to build a woman's acceptance  acceptance of women towards in working in these   29:03.600 --> 29:08.880 technologies. So when we do that um it's important  to bring men on board from the very beginning by   29:09.440 --> 29:15.360 um you know by consulting with them by bringing  them in you know working on hopes and fears um to   29:15.360 --> 29:21.040 understand you know you know what we're trying to  do with the with the woman but and then you know   29:21.040 --> 29:24.560 building that trust in the very beginning and  that rapport in the very beginning really helps   29:25.200 --> 29:32.400 to later later get these men to come to some of  the sessions or come to try to understand what's   29:32.400 --> 29:37.280 going on with the women what we're trying to do  and then and then in the process also get involved   29:37.920 --> 29:44.320 in the gender transformative social consciousness  raising exercises that we do, so that and and   29:44.320 --> 29:48.880 they they take it as part of the technology  dissemination process because it's not separated   29:48.880 --> 29:52.560 it's it's so when we're doing a technology  training we also have a session on   29:52.560 --> 29:58.960 on these kind of um normative issues then then  they don't see it as something separate they don't   29:58.960 --> 30:04.240 see it as a gender training because if you say  gender there's always some opposition to that. So   30:04.240 --> 30:12.720 so that works well for us to actually merge  it in. Great! thank you um so I have a question   30:12.720 --> 30:16.400 something that I've been working on for a while  and actually is in is with a research project   30:16.400 --> 30:25.280 in Bangladesh um also working in the what I  call the house lot garden but I'm curious because   30:25.280 --> 30:30.800 you mentioned psychosocial measures or something I  mean how do you deal with qual how do you measure   30:31.440 --> 30:36.560 specifically the qualitative indicators of  empowerment like confidence and self-esteem   30:37.280 --> 30:42.400 and what is the attitude within development? so  since you're both in academia and in WorldFish  30:42.400 --> 30:48.240 in a CGIAR center, what is the attitude in  this real econometrics world where numbers   30:49.360 --> 30:55.760 are what people want to count and you know  economic impact through numbers, what is um   30:57.040 --> 31:02.560 what is attitude towards the legitimacy of these?  but also like how did you measure things like   31:02.560 --> 31:09.040 self-confidence and self-esteem? Yeah we used  uh we used psychometric measures to uh measure   31:09.040 --> 31:15.120 it like um um I forgot which psychometric  measure we used but I have it somewhere   31:15.680 --> 31:22.240 um let's follow up with you um to learn more  yeah so we did uh we did use them and we did use   31:22.240 --> 31:30.560 attitude surveys like the gem skill and different  skills um and but we didn't we didn't use economic   31:30.560 --> 31:37.600 economic measures to actually assess the  results um we just did a simple analysis   31:38.720 --> 31:46.160 difference in difference analysis of the changes  from going after but we didn't go into all those   31:46.160 --> 31:53.280 um different um we didn't do economic econometric  measures of these uh indicators that we used.   31:55.120 --> 32:02.880 So did you find that um both in your where  you're in your foot in academia and in you   32:02.880 --> 32:10.320 know the practice practitioner world that those  measures are accepted as a measure of empowerment   32:10.320 --> 32:20.880 and impact? Yeah so um especially for because if  you if you look at um because the self-efficacy   32:20.880 --> 32:26.560 and um attitudes have been it initially wasn't  included in the women's empowerment agriculture   32:26.560 --> 32:32.400 index that was designed by IFPRI but later on they  did include attitude survey uh you know looking at   32:32.400 --> 32:38.960 different attitudes and looking at self-efficacy  they did add it into the uh later on and um   32:39.760 --> 32:43.920 and they they do do it differently because they're  they're looking at it like looking at it as an   32:43.920 --> 32:51.280 index but when I did my analysis uh of the of  the I did use components of the Wii and the Wefi  32:51.280 --> 32:56.000 but I didn't look it as it as look at  it as an index I looked at separate indicators   32:56.000 --> 33:02.240 separately look at how how they improved so I  looked at it more from an M&E side looking at   33:02.240 --> 33:06.800 different indicators and how they've improved  using difference and difference analysis.   33:08.720 --> 33:14.240 So i'm gonna put in I don't have enough there's  not another question I'm gonna put in one more   33:14.240 --> 33:17.600 question and then I'm gonna ask people to  maybe raise their hand maybe they'll feel   33:17.600 --> 33:22.640 more comfortable raising their hand but I'm gonna  put it in so you can see it so um since you are in   33:22.640 --> 33:26.800 the Bangladesh national working group I wonder  what the priorities are and who are the chief   33:26.800 --> 33:36.720 allies? So um in the Bangladesh national gender  working group um it's mainly a sharing network so   33:36.720 --> 33:42.400 we basically share research, our  experiences uh our frustrations our um   33:43.120 --> 33:49.200 uh you know experiences what we've been doing. So  usually we have a team, it's based on a theme every   33:49.200 --> 33:56.320 uh we have a meeting every two months and it's  usually thematic um so so last last month we had   33:56.320 --> 34:02.480 it on child marriage so um suddenly everyone  comes and shares what they've been doing on   34:02.480 --> 34:08.000 child marriage or what issues they've faced and  challenges they face or tools they've developed.   34:08.000 --> 34:13.840 So it's very basically a knowledge-sharing network,  a lot of the members all the members that we have   34:13.840 --> 34:19.920 all the allies that we have in this group are all  gender specialists in different organizations. Some   34:19.920 --> 34:24.000 some of them are not gender specialists some of  them are um are people that their organizations   34:24.000 --> 34:28.080 send to represent their organization but  they are interested in gender as well   34:28.640 --> 34:35.200 um but most of us are gender specialists and  um and a lot of a lot a lot of the members do   34:35.200 --> 34:41.680 want us to go into advocacy uh but for now we're  just a knowledge sharing uh a learning platform. 34:43.920 --> 34:50.640 Thank you appreciate that um so we have some  people on here still who had nobody's um no   34:50.640 --> 34:55.200 additional questions but if anybody would  like to raise their hand you have the little   34:55.200 --> 35:00.560 I think the little reactions thing down here let's  see how do you raise your hand this looks like a   35:00.560 --> 35:10.000 clap that's not it there's a thumbs up um emojis  anyway you can uh put any emoji and I will assume   35:10.000 --> 35:14.080 that it means that you're raising your hand. There  it is there now I found it there's raise your hand.   35:14.080 --> 35:29.840 Does anybody have a question for Afrina before we let her go to sleep? 35:39.920 --> 35:43.840 35:47.440 --> 35:50.320 okay I'm gonna give just a  few seconds for the shy people 35:57.200 --> 36:02.640 okay well then I want to thank everybody  for attending and of course, I want to thank   36:02.640 --> 36:08.240 you Afrina for your wonderful presentation for  sharing uh what you're doing both in your work   36:08.240 --> 36:12.480 and your research which you're able to merge which  is wonderful. I look forward to seeing that article   36:13.280 --> 36:19.680 we have shared a survey on the chat just before  my thing and especially since we have not so   36:19.680 --> 36:23.760 many people really would be helpful if you would  click on that but we will send it to you also if   36:23.760 --> 36:28.720 you don't do it now, take you just two minutes.  This was our last event for the academic year   36:28.720 --> 36:35.760 um which was all on zoom. We do have some excellent  speakers lined up for the fall already and uh   36:35.760 --> 36:41.680 talking about a diverse range of issues including  gender in academia, climate change research, and   36:41.680 --> 36:45.760 other contemporary issues related to gender and  international development and in the survey I   36:45.760 --> 36:50.400 think we have a place for you to recommend topics  if you're if you would like to do that and you can   36:50.400 --> 36:55.840 always do that anyway regardless of whether we  asked in the survey. um so check our website for   36:55.840 --> 37:01.520 information and have a wonderful day and I hope that you can join us again in the future.   37:03.120 --> 37:06.400 Thank you so much! Good night! thank you!   37:06.960 --> 37:16.240 Bye everyone! Jess is clapping, Okay yes  we have some clapping, virtual clapping.