Household Resource Management and Food Security – Role of Home Economics

1. Household Resource Management and Food Security – Role of Home Economics Seminar presentation by Leena M. Kirjavainen Widagri Consultants Ltd Helsinki, Finland 23.09.2008 at IFAD, Rome leenakirjavainen@hotmail.com

2. Home Economics – milestones -past, present and future • Ellen H. Sallow Richards – (1842-1911) ”man is a part of organic nature, subject to laws of development and growth” • Chemist • Environmentalist • Consumerist • Mother of Public Health • Founder of ”home economics”

3. Women Men Household Needs Resources Community Socio-Political Economic Environment Natural and Infra-Structure Environment Source: Adapted from Bubolz, M. M. (1991). Reflection on Human Ecology Past, Present, and Future

4. International Federation for Home Economics (IFHE) -100 years • Mission: improve the quality of life of daily life of people - individuals, families and communities • Dimensions of practice: basic education, technical skills and academic discipline • Influence: political, social, cultural, ecological, economic and technological systems at ”glocal” levels

5. Home Economics Contents - disciplinary diversity • Food, nutrition and health • Textiles, clothing, design, technology • Shelter and housing • Consumerism and consumer science • Household management • Food science and hospitality • Human development and family studies • Education and community service

6. Present and future themes • Poverty reduction - population education • Water, sanitation, housing, shelter • Food security and nutrition • Environment, climate and NRM • Labour, household technology & ICT • Functional literacy, girls education and skills training, extension • Gender and HIV/AIDS vs. agriculture

7. Food Security Conditions: • availability – disasters – food crisis! • access – distribution: local/global • adequacy – nutritional/energy needs; • acceptability - food habits/culture; • stability of supply – seasonality! • affordability – price fluctuations/hikes! • quality and safety – contamination/fraud

8. Coping strategies • Eat less, reduce meals and foods • Cultivate new of vegetables • Keep livestock • Collect NWFPs – foods from forests/fields (over 60 % hhs in Laos) • Collect acquatic resources from rivers, ponds and paddy rice fields

9. Increased vulnearability • Degradation of forest sources • Decreasing yields • Lack of credit • Lack of off-farm opportunities • Proness for floods and droughts • Low level education • No agricultural support services

10. Household Resource Management Issues • Basic household resources: - human (physical labour, skills, knowledge, educational attainment) - material (land, capital, technology, money), and - time • Diversity of households: defining family, household composition and membership

11. Roles and responsibilities: by gender, age, relation to household head • Intra-household dynamics: decision making, power structures • Inter-household relations: conflict resolution at community level • Time and task allocation: by gender/age • Management and control: over income and resource use

12. Pilot Study - ”Gender Issues in Household Resource Management” • Decentralized Agriculture and Forestry Extension Project (DAFEP) - WB • Java, Northern Sumatra and Southern Sulawesi, Indonesia (World Bank, 2002)

13. Semi-structured questionnaire Mini Handbook with a Questionnaire: Basic household data • Module I: Household Division of Labour • Module II: Participation in Decision-making • Module III: Time Allocation-24-hour recall • Module IV: Seasonal Household Calendar • Module V: Income & Expenditure profile • Module VI: Case Studies

14. Findings • Agriculture major source of income; • Food largest item of expenses – demonstrates household food security concerns • Non-farm income earning activities are limited • Agro-forestry practiced in homelots • Traditional social obligations monetarized, strains limited cash income

15. Findings, continued.. • Men dominate decision-making, but women’s influence growing • Men’s and women’s ownership of assets influences decision-making power • Women have a role as the household ”banker” - a decision-maker on investments, marketing and choice of household enterprise

16. Findings - continued... • Men’s and women’s gender roles are merging • The gap between men’s and women’s leisure time is narrowing • Education increases options open to extension for men and women. Principal resources in farm households are labor, farming skills and land – these define income earning activities

21. Why a Household Resource Management – ”Livelihoods Study” is Recommended for all Project Locations?

22. 1. For Capacity Building For Staff and Extension workers: • participatory planning • gender awareness • location specific data for training, extension and research programming • gender mentoring and gender monitoring

23. 2. For Policy Making • Use gender-disaggregated data for M & E • intra- and inter-household dynamics in families and communities - relevance to policy • see women and men as different client groups - - to enhance targeting • see the relative contribution of men and women in food production

24. 3. For Village Extension Planning • coping mechanisms - new livelihood strategies • socio-economic caracteristics of HHs • men’s and women’s roles in productive and reproductive activities in different ethnic groups • recognize gender/age division of labour, workload, time use, and control over their earnings and impact on family members well-being

25. 4. For Training • identify practical training needs • in-service training in agriculture and forestry and household resource management • hands-on-training for project staff in the field – in data collection, coding and analaysis on rural households • capacity building in data analysis, coding and interpretation • local-level participatory planning

26. 5. For Networking and Parnerships • to establish contacts with professionals in affiliated institutions • to initiate collaborative efforts – to have uniformity in gender analysis methods • to mobilize resources and enahance partnerships for co-financing • to enter in partnerships

27. understanding household resource management through gender lens