WEBVTT 00:00:00.226 --> 00:00:10.801 Hello everybody. I'm Dr Maria Elisa Christie. I'm director of Women and Gender in International Development at the Center for International Research Education and Development at Virginia Tech. 00:00:12.103 --> 00:00:22.605 Pratirakshya Koirala is my graduate assistant supporting the discussion series. She's a graduate student in the Geography department at the College of Natural Resources and the Environment here at Virginia Tech. 00:00:24.125 --> 00:00:29.612 Welcome to the virtual Women and Gender in International Development Discussion Series at Virginia Tech. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:38.999 This is our second event this fall and we're happy that you could all join us virtually for today's discussion featuring  Dr. Brenda Boonabaana as the guest speaker.   00:00:38.999 --> 00:00:42.099 Thank you Brenda for joining us. 00:00:45.268 --> 00:01:04.177 As of this morning, we had 63 people registered for today's event. Besides lots of students, faculty and staff from Virginia Tech, we have folks who registered from other US universities; UT Austin, Texas A&M, University of Florida and UC Davis. 00:01:04.177 --> 00:01:20.000 We have several organizations registered including Catholic Relief Services, Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture which is at Texas A&M, Cultural Practice and USAID as well as folks from Pakistan, France, Norway, Kenya, Uganda and Senegal. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:27.779 Welcome. I hope that many people got the time right and time zone right and are actually here. 00:01:28.793 --> 00:01:38.234 Please note that our event will be recorded and it will be available on our website later and through our library. 00:01:38.234 --> 00:01:44.714 So for all the participants here by staying on you're  consenting to be recorded. 00:01:44.714 --> 00:01:48.615 You can turn off your camera if you don't want your image  recorded. 00:01:49.215 --> 00:01:54.689 So before introducing the speaker, I invite you to reflect on Virginia Tech's land and labor recognition. 00:01:56.211 --> 00:02:04.491 This is a shortened version and Pratirakshya is going to put in the link to the page in chat. It has full one.  00:02:04.491 --> 00:02:14.002 Virginia Tech acknowledges that we live and work on the Tutelo / Monacan people’s homeland, and we recognize their continued relationships with their lands and waterways. 00:02:14.392 --> 00:02:29.265 We further acknowledge that the Morrill Land-Grant College Act (1862) enabled the commonwealth of Virginia to finance and found Virginia Tech through the forced removal of Native Nations from their lands in California and other areas in the West. 00:02:30.307 --> 00:02:40.182 We also recognize that enslaved Black people generated revenue and resources used to establish Virginia Tech and were prohibited from attending until 1953. 00:02:41.180 --> 00:02:54.728 Through InclusiveVT, the institutional and individual commitment to Ut Prosim (that I may serve) in the spirit of community, diversity, and excellence, we commit to advancing a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive community. 00:02:57.609 --> 00:03:09.730 Now some brief housekeeping notes. This event will last approximately 45 minutes. Our speaker presentation will be about 20 25 minutes and then we'll have about 20 minutes of discussions and Q&A with the audience. 00:03:10.349 --> 00:03:18.529 All of the participants will be muted to enable the speaker to present without interruption. So as always in order for our discussion to be as rich as it can be, 00:03:18.852 --> 00:03:25.398 We need everyone to be respectful and treat all participants with kindness and consideration and without discriminatory behavior. 00:03:25.826 --> 00:03:34.954 If anyone is disrespectful such as interrupting the speaker or bringing in off-topic issues, we will have to remove them from the zoom meeting.  00:03:34.954 --> 00:03:42.370 So you can post your questions at any time during Brenda's talk in the chat box because we'll be saving them in a Google doc. 00:03:42.370 --> 00:03:55.850 At the end of the presentation, I will either read them or you can unmute yourself and ask them yourself.   00:03:55.850 --> 00:04:01.413 Please wait for your turn to speak so that we can avoid interrupt and maintain netiquette. 00:04:01.413 --> 00:04:06.453 So again the webinar is being recorded and you will have access to it later via our website. 00:04:07.030 --> 00:04:18.585 If you would like to enable captions, Pratirakshya is going to put the instructions in there. So if you would like to enable captions so that you can see the words printed out at the bottom of your Zoom screen. 00:04:18.585 --> 00:04:24.425 You can find option more select and then select show captions and select English. 00:04:26.474 --> 00:04:33.953 In advance, I'd like to ask you to please answer the survey at the end that we'll share in the chat at the end and it'll also be emailed to you. 00:04:34.235 --> 00:04:41.444 It's very important for us to get feedback to help us with our programming and funding. 00:04:41.921 --> 00:04:49.229 Now finally to introduce our speaker, Brenda Boonabaana is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Texas at Austin. 00:04:55.837 --> 00:05:09.546 Boonabaana holds a PhD from the University of Otago in New Zealand. Brenda’s research focuses on sustainable development and gender, specifically in the areas of agriculture, tourism, and women empowerment in Africa. 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:22.918 She is a feminist geography scholar who pays attention to the importance of intersectionality, participatory qualitative methods, and gender justice. Sustainable food systems and environmental justice are core to Brenda’s work. 00:05:23.391 --> 00:05:43.163 She has published widely on gender, women empowerment, and development in Africa, as well as providing expertise to national (Uganda) and international agencies such as the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and Cornell University. 00:05:43.597 --> 00:05:59.127 Today, she will present findings from a study that focuses on the meanings of empowerment for rural women and men farmers in Uganda, key areas of rural women’s disempowerment, and implications for their meaningful participation in, and benefits from, agricultural opportunities. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:06.963 The title of her talk is the "Local meanings of empowerment and lessons for gender inclusive agri-food systems' programming in Uganda". 00:06:06.963 --> 00:06:21.515 So, please welcome Dr. Brenda Boonabaana. Brenda, please share your screen and I will mute myself. Ready to go. Thank you. 00:06:21.515 --> 00:06:28.266 Thank you so much Maria. Happy to be here. Happy to join at this meeting. 00:06:28.266 --> 00:06:37.707 Good morning, Good afternoon, Good evening wherever you're  seated or watching from all participants.   00:06:37.924 --> 00:07:02.102 Thank you for the kind welcome to the meeting. I appreciate it so much and the invitation and today, I'm going to talk about the local meanings of empowerment and and lessons for gender inclusive agri-food systems programming in Uganda as Maria has already indicated. 00:07:02.102 --> 00:07:17.443 This is a work that I'm doing with a team of great researchers based at both Makarere University, University of Florida and Villanova University. 00:07:17.443 --> 00:07:43.915 This is the team that I'm working with on this project and Professor Florence is in the house. I hope other members are also in the house. So we are a team of really seven women running the program in Uganda, which is ending this year. 00:07:43.915 --> 00:08:02.352 Actually we are funded by USAID through the University of California Davis and through the feed the future Innovation lab for markets risk and resilience for which generous funding we do appreciate.  00:08:02.352 --> 00:08:25.582 As part of the introduction, I would like to take you to Africa just a snapshot that agriculture is a major source of rural employment but also livelihoods for most Sub-Saharan African. You know women and men but also youth are engaged in agriculture.    00:08:25.582 --> 00:08:46.742 These days they are actually getting more active than even before and we see that 66% of rural women are employed in the agri-food systems compared to 60% of the men. Over 80% of the Ugandan women derive their livelihoods from agriculture for the Uganda perspective. 00:08:46.742 --> 00:08:57.533 It's mainly small holder farming in terms of food you know food crops and also livestock farming which people mainly call   00:08:57.533 --> 00:09:05.853 small animals you know the goats, the Sheep, the birds and and all that which women really are   00:09:05.853 --> 00:09:10.739 tied to and and also mainly food and nutrition for their families and they contribute 00:09:10.739 --> 00:09:18.379 significantly in terms of labor but also in terms of producing most of the food basket   00:09:18.379 --> 00:09:24.339 really for the country in Uganda. But  we see persistent gender inequalities in the   00:09:24.339 --> 00:09:31.859 Agri Food Systems across the region but also this is amidst other multiple shocks like climate   00:09:31.859 --> 00:09:46.019 change shocks like civil you know conflicts but also price fluctuations. 00:09:46.019 --> 00:09:52.539 Well we see huge Investments you know  from State and non-state actors at different   00:09:52.539 --> 00:09:58.499 governments different institutions different the Civil Society organizations working together   00:09:58.499 --> 00:10:04.939 as stakeholders to enable gender equality  and women empowerment and promote particular   00:10:04.939 --> 00:10:12.019 interventions in the Agri Food Systems  in the Global South but also we see slow 00:10:12.019 --> 00:10:19.059 progress. So there's that kind of contradiction in terms of investments address some of the problems   00:10:19.059 --> 00:10:26.739 but also the outcomes. For instance we see gender based violence rising, we see poverty rising,   00:10:26.739 --> 00:10:34.419 we see women disempowerment in particular areas also either stagnating or even rising.   00:10:34.419 --> 00:10:40.779 This calls for you know attention to tackle all those despite the some of the progress in 00:10:40.779 --> 00:10:47.699 you know financial and human capacity  Investments and we've seen that actually   00:10:47.699 --> 00:10:53.699 often this is the top down intervention design of some of the programs including the Agri food   00:10:53.699 --> 00:11:02.139 system programs which are less grounded in the local you know contexts in terms   00:11:02.139 --> 00:11:07.899 of contributions from those who are affected, those who are supposed to be the beneficiaries.   00:11:07.899 --> 00:11:14.459 Especially the women and the youth for  instance in particular for those social groups. 00:11:14.459 --> 00:11:24.379 This presentation ties to those narratives  around disproportion representation   00:11:24.379 --> 00:11:29.059 in terms of you know intervention design  in terms of implementation but also in terms   00:11:29.059 --> 00:11:39.219 of outcomes are being either stagnating or slowing down but also you know weakening   00:11:39.219 --> 00:11:47.019 even more yeah and our work is part of this. This presentation is part of the broader project,    00:11:47.019 --> 00:11:51.899 I've talked about strengthening the resilience and empowerment of women small holder farmers in   00:11:51.899 --> 00:11:59.379 Uganda. We started in 2021 and we are concluding the project and we are now conducting an impact   00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:07.200 evaluation or an endling this month. The team is in the field actually. So in terms of our area of   00:12:07.200 --> 00:12:14.920 study, we are in two districts Alebtong in the north and Isingiro in the southwestern parts of    00:12:14.920 --> 00:12:23.640 you know of Uganda and these are districts we call them administratively. We call them districts   00:12:23.640 --> 00:12:30.320 you know in terms of yeah language and they located in the cattle corridor region, most vulnerable   00:12:30.320 --> 00:12:37.200 to climate change shocks in the country, the most vulnerable characterized by semiarid   00:12:37.200 --> 00:12:44.000 conditions, low unreliable rainfall, prolonged drought but also dominated by agro pastoral rangelands.   00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:52.840 So there's a mix of you know crop farming but also pastoral regions as sometimes also   00:12:52.840 --> 00:12:59.880 in some parts which is nomadic like so the blue color is more   00:12:59.880 --> 00:13:07.240 of the corridor, the Cattle Corridor that I'm talking about and the pink is where our project is   00:13:07.240 --> 00:13:16.520 based in the two districts yeah and how did we approach and measure women empowerment. We are   00:13:16.520 --> 00:13:23.800 using the project level women empowerment in agriculture index which is a tool developed   00:13:23.800 --> 00:13:34.040 by IFPRI Gap 2 Team and definitely  anchored in the understanding that is provided by   00:13:34.040 --> 00:13:42.120 NAA cab about empowerment in terms of choices you know ability of one to drive their goals   00:13:42.120 --> 00:13:49.080 and see those goals come and enable outcomes looking at agency looking at  00:13:49.080 --> 00:13:57.040 you know resources and achievements  and for this particular tool it is focused on   00:13:57.040 --> 00:14:04.440 women's agency in particular and measures empowerment in terms of three 00:14:04.440 --> 00:14:11.880 domains which is intrinsic agency, collective agency and instrumental agency and comprised of   00:14:11.880 --> 00:14:20.720 12 indicators across those types of you know domains. As you can see the wheel we have,  00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:29.800 if you can observe take you know a second observe, we have different indicators like 00:14:29.800 --> 00:14:37.320 four indicators for intrinsic agency around  self-efficacy, autonomy of income and others but also   00:14:37.320 --> 00:14:46.320 about two for collective agency  and a number of them for instrumental agency   00:14:46.320 --> 00:14:54.360 which also includes work life balance. So for a woman to be considered empowered, 00:14:54.360 --> 00:15:02.320 we took the threshold of 75% as recommended by the tool that if nine out of 12 indicators,   00:15:02.320 --> 00:15:08.720 someone is adequate then they're empowered they're regarded as empowered. If they are   00:15:08.720 --> 00:15:18.160 you know if they are below that, they you know considered inadequate and disempowered,   00:15:18.160 --> 00:15:25.960 and in four or more indicators then, they are regarded as empowered. So this is the tool that we   00:15:26.400 --> 00:15:32.720 used and the conceptual anchoring  of the entire project is a you know has a gender   00:15:32.720 --> 00:15:40.200 lens has a women empowerment lens but also an intersectionality lens, partly and 00:15:40.200 --> 00:15:50.240 in terms of sampling, we reached out 1,280 women and men in terms of couples,   00:15:50.240 --> 00:15:57.440 women and their spouses and we sample those who are already in groups. So functioning   00:15:57.440 --> 00:16:05.880 groups in the communities and to reach out to particular numbers, we followed the systematic random   00:16:05.880 --> 00:16:12.800 sampling which was you know a scientific  process that we did and qualitative.   00:16:12.800 --> 00:16:19.680 The protocol really uses mixed methods qualitative quantitative but also we   00:16:19.680 --> 00:16:27.000 use the randomized control trial as part of  the experimental design that we are following up.   00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:36.200 So what did we find in our Baseline? In  our Baseline, we found negative local sentiments   00:16:36.200 --> 00:16:44.120 about empowerment in general and an empowered woman in particular and these negative   00:16:44.120 --> 00:16:51.600 sentiments were actually more you know this is from the qualitative now are drawn from the men's   00:16:51.600 --> 00:17:00.040 experiences and perceptions of and ideas  around empowerment and an empowered woman and   00:17:00.040 --> 00:17:06.520 compared to the women, I think it was a more positive outlook actually   00:17:06.520 --> 00:17:12.080 which is understandable because of the patriarchal nature of the most of the societies most of   00:17:12.080 --> 00:17:16.720 the cultures that we were working with. So they were considered as witches, they are considered as   00:17:16.720 --> 00:17:22.680 proud incapable of managing and sustaining a good marriage and some of them said okay they are not   00:17:22.680 --> 00:17:29.240 marriage material they are dangerous to marriage stability and peace for the household and for   00:17:29.240 --> 00:17:36.680 the community. They are prostitutes disrespectful and uncultured less submissive and some of them   00:17:36.680 --> 00:17:43.920 say they're competitors with their husbands with men and that ties to the importance   00:17:43.920 --> 00:17:51.520 of loyalty to marriage that people were attaching to empowerment and an empowered woman   00:17:51.520 --> 00:17:58.000 gender systems you know really shaping the empowerment narratives and but also looking at   00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:06.400 increased women's economic independence. As you  know a weak point for men's   00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:15.600 authority to continue. So these continuities of men's authority, patriarchal systems   00:18:15.600 --> 00:18:23.080 were tied the understanding that people really generally gave especially the men that we   00:18:23.080 --> 00:18:32.360 talk to but also some women. Other than the negative sentiments about an empowered woman and   00:18:32.360 --> 00:18:40.080 the whole idea about empowerment, we found positive but contradictory sentiments as well where they   00:18:40.080 --> 00:18:46.760 said actually empowered women we know that they hardworking, they have   00:18:46.760 --> 00:18:52.640 the ability to earn an income to meet essential household needs to pay you know school fees for   00:18:52.640 --> 00:18:59.200 their children, provide food and security, benefits for the households and   00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:06.080 and also leadership capabilities especially  for the women groups in particular. 00:19:06.080 --> 00:19:14.000 Also you know identified that being a women, group leader was very good indicator   00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:19.760 for women especially tied to an  empowered woman who was able to lead a group   00:19:19.760 --> 00:19:27.480 decision making power around economic resources, food production but the joint decision making was   00:19:27.480 --> 00:19:34.520 really spotlighted as very important but that you know it's   00:19:34.520 --> 00:19:41.320 good if they work together with their spouses and then having a decent house and living environment   00:19:41.320 --> 00:19:48.600 but also interestingly disciplined and decent children who are not like taking drugs or taking   00:19:48.600 --> 00:19:56.520 a lot of alcohol are in good schools and  can study up to the university. So this kind of   00:19:56.520 --> 00:20:05.520 picture of this empowered woman that they were portraying kind of contradicts to what 00:20:05.520 --> 00:20:12.520 you know the negatives that we talked about of the same woman and the same 00:20:12.520 --> 00:20:19.840 you know concept of empowerment and  simultaneously these women importantly what we   00:20:19.840 --> 00:20:26.480 picked are expected to respect their gender expectation to be ideal women who actually   00:20:26.480 --> 00:20:33.280 sealed the exist patriarchal norms so they  are supposed to go out work bring the money but   00:20:33.280 --> 00:20:39.680 also be able to do all like the gender roles and all that so we found that really interesting and   00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:45.680 contradictory and that was a good entry  point for us to understand people's mindsets,   00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:53.120 people's views for us before we intervened. So having heard that the negative sentiments the   00:20:53.120 --> 00:21:01.080 positive you know and contradictory narratives around empowerment, what do   00:21:01.080 --> 00:21:09.360 our quantitative findings say? Actually they tie to this, they show how you know people   00:21:09.360 --> 00:21:17.880 the women are not empowered. 42% of them were found to be you know oddly empowered and   00:21:17.880 --> 00:21:23.880 that's less than 50%. These are women in groups so if we went to women who  00:21:23.880 --> 00:21:30.880 were not in groups, I'm sure the number would have been like half and these women who are in 00:21:30.880 --> 00:21:38.520 groups, social groups. Women's groups are those who are relatively you know better economically in 00:21:38.520 --> 00:21:43.800 the community who can afford membership or can afford some mobility so it should give you   00:21:43.800 --> 00:21:51.960 a picture of that context and for the men it's the same 48% less than 50% are empowered and that   00:21:51.960 --> 00:21:59.440 gives us a picture of what is happening and what how this is tied to the narratives the qualitative   00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:08.400 narratives that that we've seen which are really negative and contradictory. 00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:15.200 Again this takes us to the areas of disempowerment. We found that women were more disempowered   00:22:15.200 --> 00:22:23.000 around work life balance, attitudes about domestic violence, control over use of income, self-efficacy,   00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:31.280 respect among household members and autonomy in income. The bigger the box,   00:22:31.280 --> 00:22:38.440 the more you know disempowerment. So  this to me was very interesting because it helped   00:22:38.440 --> 00:22:46.680 us to know where the core problem was.  It should not surprise you because 00:22:46.680 --> 00:22:55.640 we saw men themselves are not empowered like 42 48 is not a big difference although they are    00:22:55.640 --> 00:23:02.880 relatively higher a bit. You see their  levels are also not far from the women's although   00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:09.880 women's boxes are really more significant and more outstanding. The detailed   00:23:09.880 --> 00:23:16.640 quantitative levels of significance show really that women are not doing   00:23:16.640 --> 00:23:22.280 better than men but men are themselves  not doing better and this shows that   00:23:22.280 --> 00:23:29.880 actually disempowering women and putting them in a position where they can advance you know in   00:23:29.880 --> 00:23:35.920 terms of their potential and opportunities and goals and choices is not good for everyone. 00:23:35.920 --> 00:23:43.480 Men themselves are not doing well. It means the the community is actually not doing well. 00:23:43.480 --> 00:23:49.200 So this is the picture. These are the results and you can see where you   00:23:49.200 --> 00:23:58.880 know the major issues are and relatively closer in terms of gender differences. 00:23:58.880 --> 00:24:07.280 What did we do after this? We had to rearrange, we had to reorganize, we were able to think   00:24:07.280 --> 00:24:17.520 working with very flexible funder, UC Davis and also USAID. They gave us   00:24:17.520 --> 00:24:26.520 the mandate to actually be and we rearranged things, we redefined the proposal design and 00:24:26.520 --> 00:24:34.320 implementation and they supported us. They said to use the baseline to really   00:24:34.320 --> 00:24:41.520 redefine your agenda, redefine your process. We are able to now target   00:24:41.520 --> 00:24:48.200 the areas of disempowerment which we identified around instrumental and intrinsic agency but   00:24:48.200 --> 00:24:54.480 you know the things I read about work balance, attitudes about domestic   00:24:54.480 --> 00:25:02.560 violence, control over use of income, self-efficacy, respect and autonomy in income. 00:25:02.560 --> 00:25:09.600 We are looking at issues in empowerment and issues in resilience. So we had to co-design and co-create   00:25:09.600 --> 00:25:14.320 with the intervention packages, with women to address these areas of disempowerment and we   00:25:14.320 --> 00:25:22.880 took a genda transformative approach and there is you know report that has   00:25:22.880 --> 00:25:30.280 the toolkit, the compendium of good practices that we drew on. We really developed   00:25:30.280 --> 00:25:36.560 the interventions with the women on ground engaging men women and community leaders trainings. 00:25:36.560 --> 00:25:42.800 We had these packages training in  Climate Smart Technologies, practices, business skills 00:25:42.800 --> 00:25:49.800 and then we had a revolving fund. At first, we also had Insurance weather index insurance   00:25:49.800 --> 00:25:54.200 which we dropped because after consulting the stakeholders and the women they said that will   00:25:54.200 --> 00:26:03.480 not work because these premiums are really kind of obstruct. They bring this when when we've already you   00:26:03.480 --> 00:26:11.080 know it doesn't work for us and after  consultation with the experts. 00:26:11.080 --> 00:26:19.480 We dropped it and focused on more of those interventions that were deemed useful by   00:26:19.480 --> 00:26:24.600 the women at this point. Although we don't say that weather index is not important, it's important but   00:26:24.600 --> 00:26:30.880 it's now business for the future. After trying these we agreed to the revolving fund   00:26:30.880 --> 00:26:39.840 was about $40 per woman. We didn't give all because 1,280 was men and women. 00:26:39.840 --> 00:26:47.800 So half were the women meaning that we had about 600 plus. So it's not that we gave all.  00:26:47.800 --> 00:26:56.640 We selected 10 women per group who first used the money and then the money rotates around.    00:26:56.640 --> 00:27:03.480 They return it after a few months; after using the money for 9 months, 6 months and then other women   00:27:03.480 --> 00:27:10.960 borrow it and then it revolves. Then peer  learning sessions were ongoing. We worked   00:27:10.960 --> 00:27:17.240 with existing local structures like trainers, gender officers, agriculture officers, 00:27:17.240 --> 00:27:23.800 environmental officers. We were looking at the more long-term   00:27:23.800 --> 00:27:29.040 opportunities in terms of sustainability of the good, the best practices that might come out 00:27:29.040 --> 00:27:33.680 of this program but also localization  of the monitoring and evaluation process.  00:27:33.680 --> 00:27:39.880 This is very important and  exciting for us. We put women at the center   00:27:39.880 --> 00:27:45.760 of the monitoring and evaluation ongoing and they were able to in their local language   00:27:45.760 --> 00:27:51.120 understand the guidelines and we trained them. We gave them paperwork and they kept on  00:27:51.120 --> 00:27:56.440 giving us information and we tracked progress and they were very excited to be part of   00:27:56.440 --> 00:28:01.480 the monitoring and evaluation process. So  we have all the documentation. We've documented   00:28:01.480 --> 00:28:09.600 the process with the women. It's been transformative for them so the   00:28:09.600 --> 00:28:16.120 lessons we've learned from qualitative midline and M and E data that we've gathered from you know   00:28:16.120 --> 00:28:22.280 from our team and the women themselves. The flexibility with women's investment choices   00:28:22.280 --> 00:28:30.200 has been amazing. We allowed women for instance, we allowed women to be flexible in terms   00:28:30.200 --> 00:28:36.160 of the investment choices, to be creative,   Innovative considering those realities that   00:28:36.160 --> 00:28:42.280 they were in. For instance, some invested the $40, they invested in livestock which was deemed less   00:28:42.280 --> 00:28:48.760 risky compared to crop Investments that they demanded a lot of checking   00:28:48.760 --> 00:28:58.120 and was definitely more liable  to climate risk. So some went into livestock   00:28:58.120 --> 00:29:05.960 especially the goats and the pigs. Those  were lucrative for them and they invested in areas   00:29:05.960 --> 00:29:11.520 where they felt they had control over income, benefit, resource support systems, where they   00:29:11.520 --> 00:29:19.240 had prior experience including the market knowledge of the commodities the related   00:29:19.240 --> 00:29:25.720 commodities, targeted income and food  security. So they was very strategic for them.   00:29:25.720 --> 00:29:30.800 There was also high interest. We learned that high interest and willingness to adopt   00:29:30.800 --> 00:29:38.680 low cost climate smart agronomic technologies and practices, particular organic manure  00:29:38.680 --> 00:29:46.720 and other organic related fertilizers, Zai pits, mulching and improved seed varieties as long   00:29:46.720 --> 00:29:57.280 as they are low cost, accessible and helpful for their preferred Investments. 00:29:57.280 --> 00:30:04.720 The revolving fund we are very excited because we've had almost 100% recovery of the revolving   00:30:04.720 --> 00:30:13.120 fund in the two districts. Women bring their money without even being looked up for because they're   00:30:13.120 --> 00:30:18.600 working in their groups and they bring it to  fellow women they bring and give another 10 women   00:30:18.600 --> 00:30:26.200 who use and bring another 10 women following the guidelines we've given and the innovations. 00:30:26.200 --> 00:30:32.200 Some of them have come up with like  charging small interest and expanded the fund   00:30:32.200 --> 00:30:37.240 and we are not charging interest. But  some have put an interest and they have expanded   00:30:37.240 --> 00:30:43.320 the grant. Improved gender relations, we've noted that there's sharing of domestic roles. 00:30:43.320 --> 00:30:49.840 For instance at the household level, reduced levels, domestic violence. We have records from security   00:30:49.840 --> 00:30:55.400 agencies saying areas where you intervene the treatment areas, we are not 00:30:55.400 --> 00:31:02.480 seeing people anymore fighting, we are not seeing people spouses coming to report violence and   00:31:02.480 --> 00:31:08.840 and there seem to be good relations in terms of sharing roles which everyone is talking about. 00:31:08.840 --> 00:31:15.880 We've been in the field most of the time and it's been a story a high demand   00:31:15.880 --> 00:31:21.600 for scaling technical people, policy people,  community members, there's consensus that the   00:31:21.600 --> 00:31:27.080 model is working for them and should be scaled to other communities but also to other districts of   00:31:27.080 --> 00:31:31.800 Uganda and they comparing with government programs. They're saying why is it that yours is   00:31:31.800 --> 00:31:36.120 working and the government programs are not working where there's even more money and that   00:31:36.120 --> 00:31:42.640 is now another conversation. Training of spouses together, man and woman is a key contributor.   00:31:42.640 --> 00:31:48.840 It has been amazing people coming together. They are 70 years old and   00:31:48.840 --> 00:31:56.640 they're saying where have we been. I've not hugged my wife over the last 50 years and now here 00:31:56.640 --> 00:32:06.120 we are happy and you know taking part in this and it also made them really excited   00:32:06.120 --> 00:32:12.640 but also maintaining this flexibility with  women's investment choices has really worked   00:32:12.640 --> 00:32:19.040 well where they have invested, where they felt comfortable. These are some of the examples.   00:32:19.040 --> 00:32:26.520 The pictures you can see where they invested their incomes, rice. They already   00:32:26.520 --> 00:32:33.640 selling and eating the food, rice, chicken. I  haven't put all the pictures the goats,  00:32:33.640 --> 00:32:42.440 lady number six invested in her banana plantation, the one number, four both 00:32:42.440 --> 00:32:48.840 processing machine. You can compare number one to number four. Number one is from Alebtong. You see the   00:32:48.840 --> 00:32:55.120 the technology she's using in one. Number four is using a better technology but it shows you where   00:32:55.120 --> 00:33:00.960 our women are positioned at the moment in this era of technology, processing that 00:33:00.960 --> 00:33:07.000 they have to go through. Number three and number one are from the north Alebtong and these are the   00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:12.520 old ancient things that they are still using  and these are the empowered women, we   00:33:12.520 --> 00:33:20.080 are talking about. Number two is selling  second hand clothes, bras and   00:33:20.080 --> 00:33:26.200 she's paying school fees at university for  her children. I visited all these women number   00:33:26.200 --> 00:33:33.680 five is selling you know invested in  livestock goats produced and 00:33:33.680 --> 00:33:41.120 there's a lot more to talk about. Here we see a man who we randomly went for   00:33:41.120 --> 00:33:48.040 monitoring and checking and randomly visited their household. The wife had gone for a meeting   00:33:48.040 --> 00:33:57.880 and we found and we went with her back home and we found the man cooking, peeling   00:33:57.880 --> 00:34:04.120 and as he waited for his wife. Couple that was trained and this   00:34:04.120 --> 00:34:10.840 is amazing. The man was keeping the baby when they were both cooking and doing child care. 00:34:10.840 --> 00:34:17.720 On the left is a manual that we've published for gender transformative of culture practices. 00:34:17.720 --> 00:34:24.160 I think it is available for sharing and it packages all that we did in terms of   00:34:24.160 --> 00:34:29.080 capacity building that I talked about climate smart agronomic practices and technologies, 00:34:29.080 --> 00:34:34.560 business skills, gender relations and  how we went through the entire process to train   00:34:34.560 --> 00:34:40.720 the trainers of trainers. In terms of lessons as I conclude, lessons for gender inclusive agro-food systems, 00:34:40.720 --> 00:34:45.720 I think we're already picking these  co-designing and co-creating interventions with   00:34:45.720 --> 00:34:52.960 the intended beneficiaries especially women from the gender perspective and Global South   00:34:52.960 --> 00:34:59.760 is very important understanding the context, power dynamics, helps us to have 00:34:59.760 --> 00:35:06.200 acceptability but also entry points for  our interventions but also processes of change.   00:35:06.200 --> 00:35:12.920 Engaging spouses rather than individuals, it is very good. It protects women to drive their agenda   00:35:12.920 --> 00:35:19.320 and addresses inequalities in a more meaningful way and everyone being on board because   00:35:19.320 --> 00:35:26.120 like the men signed women to take the $40. Man signed and the wife also signed   00:35:26.120 --> 00:35:32.160 to guarantee that the woman would bring it back. Locally grounded partnerships are very important   00:35:32.160 --> 00:35:38.680 to build trust and sustainability. Resource  demanding, we need to invest in time, human capacity   00:35:38.680 --> 00:35:44.600 and the kind of teams that we are working with who can deliver on the intended outcomes, financial   00:35:44.600 --> 00:35:52.120 capacity worth investing in and to increase opportunity for success.    00:35:52.120 --> 00:35:59.320 Capacity train train train, we've trained trained and been there in the field, be there on ground and target   00:35:59.320 --> 00:36:04.120 the deep rooted gender barriers through local partnerships and collective community engagements. 00:36:04.120 --> 00:36:11.280 Thank you so much. I acknowledge USAID, feed the future Innovation lab for markets risk   00:36:11.280 --> 00:36:16.040 and resilience at the University of California Davis in partnership with the International Center   00:36:16.040 --> 00:36:21.880 for evaluation and development under the advanced local leadership and Innovation Network in Kenya. 00:36:21.880 --> 00:36:28.400 I acknowledge women and men participants and all stakeholders that participated. Thank You.   00:36:28.680 --> 00:36:40.040 Over to you, Maria. Okay. Let's see. We  have one question. Now let's see. Cheikh, have you responded? 00:36:40.040 --> 00:36:46.160 Let's see. 00:36:46.160 --> 00:36:54.960 Maybe new message. Oh yeah so Pratirakshya is sharing some of the Publications but   00:36:54.960 --> 00:37:01.120 Okay Cheikh, if you don't unmute yourself and ask. I'm going to go ahead and read your question. 00:37:01.120 --> 00:37:05.800 All right. Thank you thank you very much  for the presentation and we really   00:37:05.800 --> 00:37:13.440 appreciate. This study that has very  good you know outcomes and I have a question.   00:37:13.440 --> 00:37:22.320 on it means that because you talk about food security and nutrition about investment that   00:37:22.720 --> 00:37:29.000 woman were doing we doing when they make their choices and i' like to know you   00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:36.000 know how this investment on the especially on the security has been dealt you know   00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:42.840 by the woman? Thank you very much. Cheikh, Can you come again? You would like to   00:37:42.840 --> 00:37:49.880 know what has been dealt by the woman? Yeah about the investment choices that they made you know   00:37:49.880 --> 00:38:00.840 dealing with food security and maybe  yeah thank you okay thank you very much yeah. 00:38:00.840 --> 00:38:08.480 Should I take that first or there. Okay thank you Maria. 00:38:08.480 --> 00:38:16.120 You shed women are very strategic  and they made choices. We left them flexible   00:38:16.120 --> 00:38:23.320 to make choices and to invest but then when we went back to ask in the midline, qualitative   00:38:23.320 --> 00:38:28.840 midline and now I've said that the end line is ongoing for both you know quantitative and 00:38:28.840 --> 00:38:32.966 qualitative and during the qualitative  midline, we asked why they had chosen those   00:38:32.966 --> 00:38:38.926 particular enterprises and the answer was we had to choose where we had more authority we could   00:38:38.926 --> 00:38:46.806 exercise more authority around our investment and income so those who had like gardens, land access   00:38:46.806 --> 00:38:52.526 to land. Some of them could not invest in the land when they thought that the money wouldn't be   00:38:52.526 --> 00:38:59.486 controlled by themselves or the investment so they went for instance, second hand clothes shop and   00:38:59.486 --> 00:39:05.166 and we allowed them and you know others went for a goat they bought like a goat and it has produced   00:39:05.166 --> 00:39:11.886 like three kids, others went for like a pig and you hear it has produced eight piglets and then they   00:39:11.886 --> 00:39:17.726 have sold two when you hear the stories you're like is this happening and they tell you I have   00:39:17.726 --> 00:39:24.966 built this house and the house is there struggling to you know and you're like   00:39:24.966 --> 00:39:32.286 is this $40 that we've given. This is from the American people so we acknowledge   00:39:32.286 --> 00:39:41.086 the contribution. So this is amazing so yeah and then they target to get income   00:39:41.086 --> 00:39:46.966 from all these Investments be able to feed their children, feed their families from all these   00:39:46.966 --> 00:39:54.406 enterprise but also importantly the education of their children but also the crops   00:39:54.406 --> 00:40:00.286 you know to get food for the family and and those who have the shops, they are able   00:40:00.286 --> 00:40:07.206 to support like buying milk for the children  and education. One of them actually told us the   00:40:07.206 --> 00:40:12.766 truth and said when I got the money I had issues. I paid school fees for my daughter because she   00:40:12.766 --> 00:40:18.046 had been chased away from school but immediately I had to get the money back and this is what I   00:40:18.046 --> 00:40:25.526 have invested in. So immediate needs are  there and women ensure that they get back   00:40:25.526 --> 00:40:32.166 the money and pay in the group. I don't know whether I've answered you but it was strategic   00:40:32.166 --> 00:40:32.666 where they had control where they felt they needed to be in charge of those investments   00:40:32.666 --> 00:40:42.526 and where they knew the market for instance, was conducive for those particular enterprises. So   00:40:42.526 --> 00:40:49.886 we could not prescribe for them. Thank you. I think makes sense.   00:40:49.886 --> 00:40:54.726 Thank you very much. So Larry Vaughan,  would you please go ahead and unmute yourself?  00:40:54.726 --> 00:41:00.686 Yes. Thank. Thank you Brenda. It's been very interesting with the similar levels of 00:41:00.686 --> 00:41:06.286 disempowerment between the men and the women. I was wondering if there was any correlation   00:41:06.286 --> 00:41:13.126 between disempowered households and empowered households? Did you have disempowered women 00:41:13.126 --> 00:41:18.966 more likely to be found in households where the men also felt disempowered or or was there some   00:41:18.966 --> 00:41:28.766 kind of opposite relationship or no correlation? Whatsoever thank you. Thank you so much Larry. 00:41:28.766 --> 00:41:36.766 I think that relationship I need to  check in with the quantitative data to   00:41:36.766 --> 00:41:42.006 see the correlation that is a very interesting question. I don't know. Florence, what you think? 00:41:42.006 --> 00:41:54.046 But most likely, I should say yes yeah but  I need to get the the data very clear. 00:41:54.046 --> 00:41:58.286 Florence is here. I don't know she has been checking in more details with the data. I don't know whether   00:41:58.286 --> 00:42:06.006 you would like to add that our PI. Well Brenda, you can also respond to me later if you   00:42:06.006 --> 00:42:12.166 have a follow up. Larry works right here in our office at CIRED. Okay good. I'll be happy to share   00:42:12.360 --> 00:42:18.320 that as I do think that's an interesting  question. Yeah. Florence would you like to add? 00:42:18.320 --> 00:42:28.920 Maybe Florence has dropped off sorry. 00:42:28.920 --> 00:42:33.680 Okay so if we have another question or comments. Also this is a discussion Series this is why we   00:42:33.680 --> 00:42:38.480 have this as a zoom meeting and not as a webinar. We can have discussion. So please raise your   00:42:38.480 --> 00:42:44.800 hand and so we don't have. Everyone talking at once, let me choose from the many hands but 00:42:44.800 --> 00:42:50.720 I don't see any right now and I really enjoyed the presentation. I've worked in a lot of different   00:42:50.800 --> 00:42:55.680 regions in Uganda and it was very  exciting to hear your research and see the picture   00:42:55.680 --> 00:43:02.120 and also the comparison and food preparation is one of my areas. So I really like the technology   00:43:02.120 --> 00:43:06.720 and I'm actually gonna ask a question because nobody has their hand up so.   00:43:06.720 --> 00:43:16.120 I'm always interested in you know technology often reduces women's time and labor but it often   00:43:16.120 --> 00:43:23.560 makes them dependent on men for something that was previously in their area and sometimes it affects   00:43:23.560 --> 00:43:28.200 the income that they make from it. Have they had that you know the Mills   00:43:28.200 --> 00:43:33.200 or whatever it is that they're using long enough? Have you seen anything like that or do   00:43:33.200 --> 00:43:41.080 you have any ideas on that? In terms of better technology for the men? No so when if women used   00:43:41.080 --> 00:43:48.080 to grind things by hand and now there's a machine, do they have the training and do they have 00:43:48.080 --> 00:43:55.480 the money to maintain the machine, you know to use the machine or does it become something that   00:43:55.480 --> 00:44:03.200 is now in men's control? Excellent question. I think we found that women in Isingiro in particular   00:44:03.200 --> 00:44:10.000 in Southwestern Uganda which is more position in terms of political alignments and developments   00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:15.320 compared the north. Yeah there political yeah issues and backgrounds in terms of you know   00:44:15.320 --> 00:44:22.160 even civil conflicts. So the women in Southwestern Uganda Isingiro were relatively better in terms of   00:44:22.160 --> 00:44:29.720 even the technologies they were accessing like in processing and really they were kind of   00:44:29.720 --> 00:44:36.760 in charge when they chose those technologies like processing of the food products like 00:44:36.760 --> 00:44:45.280 grinding kind of cereal and storage water storage technologies. So they   00:44:45.280 --> 00:44:53.120 were in charge and they were able to to really manage them but in the north, it's   00:44:53.120 --> 00:45:01.000 different and very difficult. Women are  are under more precarious conditions and it's 00:45:01.000 --> 00:45:06.745 really a big difference and that's why you can see more of ancient laborious technologies in   00:45:06.745 --> 00:45:15.385 the north compared to the Southwest Uganda and yeah control might be more difficult in   00:45:15.385 --> 00:45:21.465 the north especially among the households where we've not intervened. But households   00:45:21.465 --> 00:45:27.025 where we've trained the couples, it's been smooth that's where we even saw the man peeling 00:45:27.025 --> 00:45:32.985 as he took care of the child and this was random. Florence and I were there. 00:45:32.985 --> 00:45:40.640 Thank you. Kayla, I just wrote. Do you want to ask your question or should I read it? 00:45:40.640 --> 00:45:44.400 We have one from Sienna and Larry, I don't know if you've raised your hand again or if it's still   00:45:44.400 --> 00:45:48.240 raised? and by the way Florence just joined again. So she might have dropped out at some 00:45:48.240 --> 00:45:57.320 point. Okay okay I'm gonna go ahead and and read Kayla. So did you ask questions to the   00:45:57.320 --> 00:46:02.480 woman about their opinions relating to  men's empowerment as you did asked to   00:46:02.480 --> 00:46:07.400 the men about women's environment? Yes. We ask the same question and there's a whole   00:46:07.400 --> 00:46:13.440 protocol on IFPRI website Gap 2 which  really both qualitative and of course you   00:46:13.440 --> 00:46:21.280 contextualized qualitative questions and but then the quantitative tool the pro WEAI index is   00:46:21.280 --> 00:46:26.920 not changeable. So they were able to answer the same questions. 00:46:26.920 --> 00:46:33.800 Sienna, would you like to unmute yourself and ask your question otherwise 00:46:33.800 --> 00:46:46.520 I'm going to read Sienna, when you started  to conduct this research in Uganda were the   00:46:46.520 --> 00:46:51.360 women, men, families and groups welcoming to your help or was it a challenge to build   00:46:51.360 --> 00:46:58.240 trust with your participants? Great question. First of all, maybe I forgot to say that I'm a   00:46:58.240 --> 00:47:08.240 Ugandan. Most of our team members are Ugandan Dr. Laura Meinzen-Dick and Dr. Nargiza 00:47:08.240 --> 00:47:14.760 are mentors. So for them they were best in the US. We were on the ground and most you know   00:47:14.760 --> 00:47:21.200 we understood the language. For us who knew the Western Uganda language, we went to the Western   00:47:21.200 --> 00:47:26.840 Uganda. Those team members who understood the northern language went to Northern Uganda.   00:47:26.840 --> 00:47:32.920 So we really planned very well. The entry  points and we knew the challenges. 00:47:32.920 --> 00:47:39.960 We were so welcoming that some of those goats called Makarere University. They are called USA. They have named   00:47:40.200 --> 00:47:47.560 them after the project. They are called  in particular USA and Makerere University. I think   00:47:47.560 --> 00:47:55.600 not much about UC Davis so far I haven't found a goat called UC Davis so far but they were so   00:47:55.600 --> 00:48:02.720 welcoming such that very respect they respect us so much in terms of the approach that we used of   00:48:02.720 --> 00:48:10.840 involving them working from the bottom up rather than top down. I think that was very helpful 00:48:10.840 --> 00:48:16.000 to ask them even choosing the intervention areas. We did it with the local authorities at   00:48:16.000 --> 00:48:22.120 the district level. We came and said we found this from the baseline so how do we select even   00:48:22.120 --> 00:48:28.280 the sub counties where to put these interventions, the treatments and then we did the exercises with   00:48:28.280 --> 00:48:34.960 them sampling and say and and they we had reasons the criteria let's go to this not this because of   00:48:34.960 --> 00:48:39.800 these reasons and that's where we we respected their voices that's where we went and those are   00:48:39.800 --> 00:48:45.760 the same people we trained as trainers because as professors still there's some power   00:48:45.760 --> 00:48:52.280 dynamics that is there so we wanted them the local people, the local leaders, the local technocrats to   00:48:52.280 --> 00:48:59.960 be in charge of the process so that women are not seeing these Makerere University professors   00:48:59.960 --> 00:49:08.680 or University of Texas professors coming in with big language and all that so 00:49:08.680 --> 00:49:14.680 they were already used extension workers so we felt comfortable to give the skills to these   00:49:14.680 --> 00:49:21.440 extension workers very intensively practical and then they went in locally to be able   00:49:21.440 --> 00:49:29.720 to deliver these trainings. So it was like a   00:49:29.720 --> 00:49:45.080 stepwise cascading process but which  was really locally grounded yeah which was   00:49:45.080 --> 00:49:50.760 appreciated. Thank you so much for that question and that makes why the program   00:49:50.760 --> 00:49:57.452 has been. I could say so far with confidence very successful. We are yet to see the results. They're   00:49:57.452 --> 00:50:03.932 coming the end line but all the midline M and E work shows great success and we are putting   00:50:03.932 --> 00:50:09.812 together a documentary and at one point I hope we'll be sharing all these maybe with even the   00:50:09.812 --> 00:50:17.772 USAID show this the actual voices of these people speak and showing what they have been able to   00:50:17.772 --> 00:50:24.172 do within these three years. Yeah thank you that's great. This the next question by Elizabeth   00:50:24.172 --> 00:50:29.532 Smith is actually you've addressed some of it but she asked can you speak more about the training   00:50:29.532 --> 00:50:37.092 process? I'm not sure which training process but maybe you will know okay the training process.   00:50:37.092 --> 00:50:45.252 We developed a manual after you know as we were doing the contextual   00:50:45.252 --> 00:50:51.972 analysis and understanding and knowing the challenges then as part of the intervention   00:50:51.972 --> 00:50:58.252 design and roll out, we developed a trainer manual which I showed in the slide and it's   00:50:58.252 --> 00:51:05.692 available for sharing. It's open resource or  funded resource. So we can share it for for   00:51:05.692 --> 00:51:11.732 you to use. We develop this manual  to guide us and like I mentioned the trainers of   00:51:12.400 --> 00:51:18.000 trainers on ground did that but also as we built their capacity, they were able to pick up skills   00:51:18.000 --> 00:51:23.760 which continue even because as local government workers and we were very selective also for who   00:51:23.760 --> 00:51:29.760 we were working with and within which position they trained in the local language that people   00:51:29.760 --> 00:51:35.680 women understood women came with their spouses for the trainings, for the gender trainings,   00:51:35.680 --> 00:51:41.400 for the climate smart agriculture training, business skills, they were able to give us business plans   00:51:41.400 --> 00:51:47.840 before they got the the $40 just everyone wrote what they wanted to invest in, what is their   00:51:47.840 --> 00:51:56.360 proposal and eventually we trained them to do all this and they felt really connected   00:51:56.360 --> 00:52:02.360 to the project so when we are there and we invite, they really come with their spouses even   00:52:02.360 --> 00:52:08.360 up to now and they're asking is this continuing, is this going to be scaled, is this going to   00:52:08.360 --> 00:52:13.520 other communities because we see these communities where you're working different from the other ones   00:52:13.520 --> 00:52:19.480 where you didn't go. So is there a chance  for others so the training were very   00:52:19.480 --> 00:52:26.240 significant as I mentioned as one of the key pillars for including gender inclusive programming   00:52:26.840 --> 00:52:31.969 future programming. Thank you. Thank you. So Kayla, I see your hand is up. I assume this is a   00:52:31.969 --> 00:52:37.609 separate question, right? Please unmute yourself and go ahead and then after that I'm gonna ask   00:52:37.609 --> 00:52:44.609 Florence but yeah Kayla go ahead. I was  just gonna ask what's the reason for choosing the   00:52:44.609 --> 00:52:50.289 two different districts as far as the north versus like Southwest Uganda and choosing those different 00:52:50.289 --> 00:53:00.769 districts? I didn't see Kayla well the  selection. Did you ask about the selection?   00:53:00.769 --> 00:53:06.249 Yes of the two different districts related  to different parts of the country.   00:53:06.249 --> 00:53:12.329 We selected them because first of all focusing and this was also more of a scientific   00:53:12.329 --> 00:53:18.289 sampling of the district because we  followed the certain criteria being located in   00:53:18.289 --> 00:53:25.169 an area more prone to climate change shocks in the Cattle Corridor but also the the districts that   00:53:25.169 --> 00:53:32.449 had more problems with gender inequalities in Uganda. I think Florence will speak  00:53:32.449 --> 00:53:39.929 to the data that we used for that select  the worst performing districts in terms of gender   00:53:39.929 --> 00:53:45.769 equality from the record so these became part of those and then they are the   00:53:45.769 --> 00:53:51.609 ones, we picked up because to make an impact we had to know all this kind of baseline that   00:53:51.609 --> 00:54:01.049 was happening. Florence has her hand up.  Please welcome. Thank you thank you so much 00:54:01.049 --> 00:54:16.049 for having us listen to Dr. Boonabaana and you know for Virginia Tech allowing Dr. Boonabaana to share   00:54:16.049 --> 00:54:25.369 some of our works. I just wanted to add a  little more about the trainings, the process 00:54:25.369 --> 00:54:33.809 the previous colleague asked about our  trainings were three it of course they started   00:54:33.809 --> 00:54:40.929 with the training of trainers of local government staff, the community development officers and  00:54:40.929 --> 00:54:49.289 agricultural officers and then  when we went to the communities, we trained couples   00:54:49.289 --> 00:54:58.329 for three cool days training  and on the first day of course we dealt with   00:54:58.329 --> 00:55:07.769 understanding gender, taking the couples  through a reflection process of understanding   00:55:07.769 --> 00:55:15.529 how gender relations the gender dynamics within you know their families in their homes   00:55:15.529 --> 00:55:24.969 looking at issues of power, the different  forms of power and reflecting on learning and   00:55:24.969 --> 00:55:32.009 unlearning those negative social norms that often create tensions within the home and then on the   00:55:32.009 --> 00:55:40.049 second day, we did we went into more technical issues relating to gender responsive climate Smart   00:55:40.049 --> 00:55:49.769 agricultural technologies and then on the  third day, we went into you know discussing   00:55:49.769 --> 00:55:57.409 business skills, entrepreneurship savings and you know economic decision making 00:55:57.409 --> 00:56:05.849 within the homes during the trainings. We of course as Brenda has said we used the local staff   00:56:05.849 --> 00:56:13.729 using the local languages, we ensured that we designed training materials that were locally   00:56:13.729 --> 00:56:21.849 grounded that depicted the local context, the photographs, the visuals we use   00:56:21.849 --> 00:56:29.929 the visuals more than you know the words for people to really relate with what was happening   00:56:29.929 --> 00:56:40.329 in their communities and that we found  very helpful. 00:56:40.329 --> 00:56:47.489 We at first thought that you know these women and  men would not go on for three days but it was   00:56:47.489 --> 00:56:55.809 interesting to see that they were interested all through to be in the   00:56:55.809 --> 00:57:04.009 trainings. That was about the training then the selection, I think Brenda you've   00:57:04.009 --> 00:57:12.689 explained it well but maybe to just say that we considered exposure to climate shocks and   00:57:12.689 --> 00:57:22.729 agriculture shocks but also we considered the levels of discrimination based on   00:57:22.729 --> 00:57:33.129 the social institutions index where we  were looking at sites that had high levels   00:57:33.129 --> 00:57:43.289 of discrimination against women.  Thank you over to you. Yeah the CG that is   00:57:43.289 --> 00:57:50.329 the the abbreviation that I want the CG is yeah  social yeah yeah yeah thank you Florence uh yeah   00:57:50.329 --> 00:57:56.089 Maria over to you. Anything else. I'm gonna this is very exciting and wonderful presentation.  00:57:56.089 --> 00:58:01.769 Great discussion. Thank you all for attending. Thank you Brenda. Some people joined late and I'm   00:58:01.769 --> 00:58:06.129 not sure if they you know so because we're like across time zone sometimes people have the time  00:58:06.129 --> 00:58:11.849 zones confused so I'm sorry if you thought that we have another hour in front of us but we don't.   00:58:11.849 --> 00:58:17.289 I appreciate everybody who joined  to learn and also shared their thoughts and   00:58:17.289 --> 00:58:22.169 questions. So, we are sharing a short survey. Pratirakshya has already has it in the chat. 00:58:22.169 --> 00:58:27.249 So please fill it out. It is very helpful  to us and it helps us bring speakers even even   00:58:27.249 --> 00:58:34.369 by Zoom from outside. Our next event is November 14th. it's Dr Kalpana Giri who's a senior manager   00:58:34.369 --> 00:58:39.929 in the World Resources Institute. Her presentation is titled 00:58:39.929 --> 00:58:45.289 "Beyond the critiques and Ambitions of  equity mainstreaming and restoration practice: lessons from the global restoration initiative"   00:58:45.289 --> 00:58:49.929 Don't miss that one. It will be hybrid. So it'll be in person in the library here and also on   00:58:49.929 --> 00:58:54.809 zoom and you can check our website for more information and you can let us know in the survey   00:58:54.809 --> 00:58:59.649 if you'd like to be added to our list serv  where you will receive updates   00:58:59.649 --> 00:59:05.809 of future events. So have a wonderful day and hope to see you on November 14th and Thank you again Brenda.   00:59:05.809 --> 00:59:15.831 Thank you so much for having us.  Yeah thanks everyone. Thank you. Bye Bye. Bye Bye.