Women in Development - The Land O Lakes Experience

1. Women in Development - The Land O Lakes Experience

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

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

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

5. Malawi • Malawi Dairy Development Alliance, 2007-2010. • Significant impact: Over 1000 women received a pass-on heifer and earn $1,200 per year from dairy farming alone, a 250 percent increase from what they previously earned through subsistence farming.

6. West Bank • Accelerating Economic Growth in the West Bank, 1997 -2000. • Significant impact: Increased farm management techniques of women farmers who were trained by female extension agents. • Provided farm management training to 123 women farmers in 23 villages.

7. Kenya • Kenya Food for Progress, 2006-2010. • Significant impact: Reduced time women spent daily fetching water and firewood. • Working directly with 13,000 women, facilitated the rehabilitation of communal water schemes to provide increased access to water. • Assisted investments in biogas for cooking to reduce reliance on firewood. • Freed up hours each day which were redirected to implementing techniques to increase dairy production.

8. Iraq • Dairy Development for Fallujah Women, 2008-2010. • Significant impact: Increased household incomes and reduced economic and social insecurity of Iraqi widows • 21 Iraqi widows gained skills to become effective dairy producers. • Women trained will pass on skills to other women, thereby increasing household income through dairy production.

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

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

11. Thank You!