Case Study Gender Profile for Nias

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Case StudyGender Profile for Nias
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Agricultural/tree production and livestock

• women and men undertake a range of activities.
  Some done by both others are done by men and
  women alone
• roles exclusively undertaken by women are
  domestic labour and childcare, which means that
  women work up to five hours longer than men.
• women commonly run local market stalls. They sell
  excess fruit or vegetables, home-made cakes and
  sweets, and salted fish. Women have the role of
  drying and salting fish.
• men exclusively fish and sell fresh fish. Waged
  employment is also dominated by men

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Agricultural/tree production and livestock

• rubber and cocoa are major export crops and
  important income sources.
• women are involved in cultivation, and have a
  central role in drying and basic processing of
  cocoa beans. In fishing communities, women
  dominate both the rubber and the cocoa sectors
• both women and men sell this produce to the local
  traders although women have a greater role in the
  fishing communities as the men are often absent
  when the traders visit the villages.
• in Christian communities, pigs are a major
  household asset and have great social and
  cultural importance. Women have the sole
  responsibility for managing all aspects of pig
  rearing.

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Asset ownership control

• most women have joint ownership of household
  assets with their husbands, and may discuss their
  use.
• however, men usually have the final
  decision-making control on the use, and/or
  disposal, of all household assets including land,
  the major productive asset for most households.
• in Christian communities, women are considered to
  be the owners of the pigs. However, the control
  over the asset lies with the men.
• all cash coming into the household is controlled
  by men. Women are in charge of daily budgeting
  for household needs. Any purchases of significant
  value, however, must be made with their husbands
  approval.

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Mobility

• women go to their fields and gardens, some
  walking up to seven kilometres each way.
• they also travel, usually with other women, to
  the local markets in their own or neighbouring
  villages.
• their movements are normally discussed with their
  husbands or fathers, who would know and approve
  their whereabouts.
• in most cases, men are more mobile than women.
  They have opportunities for paid employment, go
  out fishing and have more access to and control
  over transport, making it easier for them to
  travel outside of their village.

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Community decision-making

• in Indonesia, the husband or father is the legal
  head of the household and is called on for any
  official matters.
• at the village level in Nias, community formal
  decisions will be made at public meetings
• these are primarily attended by men, as the
  representatives of their households
• women may attend these meetings, although their
  attendance is not encouraged by men, as their
  domestic work is considered the priority
• meetings are often in the late afternoon.

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Community decision-making (contd)

• when women do attend meetings, they have a
  limited role to play, as men dominate
  discussions.
• men commonly assert that women could contribute
  if they had something relevant to contribute
• women are often actively discouraged by men from
  speaking up
• Additionally, some women do not feel confident
  enough to participate in public forums, and may
  not have anything to contribute, as they have
  limited education.

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Domestic violence

• domestic violence is an issue e.g., husbands
  become very angry and hit their wives if they
  spend money without their husbands approval.
• its not widely acknowledged nor documented.
  Its considered a private issue

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Small group work

• Analyse the Nias context in terms of
• gender division of labour
• gender needs (practical and strategic)
• access and control

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Case StudyNias Livelihoods Programme
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Background

• The December 2004 tsunami affected the west coast
  of Nias island
• An earthquake, 3 months later, caused significant
  damage and loss of life across the island. 700
  people were killed, over 13,000 families
  displaced, and many roads, ports, markets,
  schools and other public buildings damaged or
  destroyed.
• Nias was already experiencing significant levels
  of underdevelopment and poverty, compared to
  other areas of Indonesia
• This case study concerns a post-tsunami/earthquake
  livelihoods programme

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Background

• the programme was primarily based on an initial
  three-day assessment to one fishing community.
  Only household heads were consulted no were
  women were met. No gender analysis was conducted
• the Livelihoods Programme field team consisted of
  six men and only two women.
• male field staff were uncomfortable working with
  groups of women
• the programme was also based on a Household
  Economy Assessment, which provided no gender
  disaggregated information and an AusAid study
  which described Nias men as the tree based
  farmers, particularly rubber and cocoa, and women
  as being focused on domestic activities,
  pig-rearing and growing vegetables.

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Overall Context Nias Island

• Population 715,000 people. 85 Christian, and
  15 Muslim
• mostly rural 91 of women and 83 of men
  involved in primary production activities
  fishing, rice-farming, pig-rearing (in Christian
  communities), and cultivation of cash crops such
  as coconuts, cocoa and rubber

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The programme

• In December 2005, the Nias Livelihoods Programme
  was established with two aims
• to increase the incomes of 1,500 vulnerable rural
  households which were dependent on cocoa and
  rubber farming, through providing resources,
  including both direct inputs, and training
• to enable women and men to access credit for
  small enterprise and farming businesses by
  establishing micro-credit groups.

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The rubber and cocoa programme

• programme support targeted household heads i.e.,
  men. They received almost all agricultural
  inputs and training.
• less than 5 of trainees, such as for grafting
  and caring for rubber and cocoa seeds/trees, were
  women
• some women reported that their husbands had
  passed on the content of the training though
  this was an exception
• cocoa seeds and rubber grafts suffered from a
  high rate of fungal attack resulting in large
  failures in the programme

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The Livelihood micro-credit groups

• women were specifically targeted to join the
  groups based on an assumption that women had
  restricted mobility due to childcare and domestic
  responsibilities, only working in and around the
  home.
• most women invested their loans in low-income
  activities e.g. cake making, sewing and
  embroidery (some womens groups had been advised
  that they could only choose between sewing and
  cake making).
• these activities did not provide enough income to
  allow the women to stop other income-generating
  activities, meaning women worked another 2-3
  hours per day, on average, due to the programme

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The Livelihood micro-credit groups

• many of the womens livelihood groups were not as
  successful as the mens groups in areas such as
  repayment of loans, record keeping and group
  management.
• men were able to earn more as they have focused
  on higher paying livelihoods activities (e.g.,
  fishing and fish selling) which were ones they
  already worked in, thereby not increasing their
  workloads.
• support to purchase pigs and training in their
  health care was provided predominantly to men.
  Though women are traditionally responsible for
  pig rearing, they comprised only 14 of
  pig-rearing livelihood groups, with one group
  having no women members at all.

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Small group work

• How would you describe the project? (gender
  negative, neutral, sensitive, positive,
  transformatory)
• Explain your decision in terms of gender
  analytical concepts (e.g., gender division of
  labour, gender needs, access and control)
• What is the impact of the project on gender
  relations in Nias?