Upon completion of class you should be able to…
1. Identify Indigenous Knowledge Challenges
2. Give Examples of Cultural Norms
3. Recognize Gender Roles and Rules
Concepts and Definitions
1. Cultural Norms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_(social)
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Cultural-Norms.topicArticleId-26957,articleId-26853.html
Examples of Various cultural norms (see attached Document)
2. Gender Roles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_role
http://www.people.vcu.edu/~jmahoney/gender101.htm
Pre-Class Activities
Required Materials
1. Watch: Kavita Ramdas: Radical Women, Embracing Tradition
2. Read When Rights and Cultures Collide (Santa Clara University)
3. Read The Impact of Gender Roles on Men (UNFPA)
4. Communication Norms; a Comparison of Cultures
Case Study
This case-study is a continuation from the case from last class:
In a certain region of East Africa, the growth of ~35% of the children is stunted due to poor nutrition. Traditionally, maize and bananas are the items most commonly made into a gruel and fed to infants beginning at ~2 months of age. The gruel is integrated into a child’s diet to complement breast feeding until they are ~24 months of age. Mothers in the area firmly believe that the gruel is highly beneficial for their children, but scientific research has shown that it does not provide some key nutrients.
HIV/AIDS is very prevalent in this region. The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breast feeding until an infant is 6 months of age, but the longer a child nurses when the mother is HIV+, the greater the chance that the virus will be transmitted to the child. You have received a grant to establish a women’s cooperative in this region. The donor’s intent is to simultaneously improve the nutritional status of children and improve the livelihoods of rural households. The grant for the women’s cooperative has sufficient funds for the women’s group to process and market a nutritious, shelf-stable porridge made from a large mix of locally grown produce. The nutritious porridge is intended to wean children off of breast milk at about 6 months of age.
Approximately 500 women from three contiguous sub-locations have indicated their interest in joining the cooperative, in hopes of improving their livelihoods. However, they are skeptical of the porridge and it’s use as an early weaning food. Cash crops as well as subsistence crops are grown in the area, including maize, sorghum, cassava, several varieties of legumes (dried beans), French beans, coffee, pineapple, bananas, pumpkins, tomatoes, carrots, kale, white (Irish) potatoes, sweet potatoes. Pesticides are typically used in growing some of these crops and can result in adverse health implications for infants.
How would you address the ethical health issues associated with prolonged breastfeeding in an area where there is a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS and few women are tested for the virus, very early introduction of supplemental foods to the diets of infants and the possibility of pesticide residues in foods developed for infants and young children. What are your next specific steps to develop this cooperative?
______
Grassroots Diplomacy Case for this week:
Six months after launch, the efforts of the women working in the cooperative you established are paying off, and business is thriving. The women work for about nine hours every day and earn KES 200 (about $2.2). Besides the wages earned, they have the opportunity to sell the produce grown on their personal farms to the cooperative. This transaction is done at the prevailing market rate and helps the women make a little money on the side. The women like this arrangement because it saves them a trip (time + money) to the village market to sell their produce. The women enjoy working with each other and are happy with the cooperative; they have a strong sense of community and identity. However, there is one big problem. When a woman brings her hard-earned money home, she has no choice but to turn it over to her husband, father or brothers. Rather than using the money to support their families, the men waste it on alcohol and frivolous things. Though the cooperative is thriving, it is not achieving the dual social outcomes of improving the nutritional status of children and the livelihoods of rural households.
As the entrepreneur who helped establish the cooperative, you are pained about the situation. Though you are loved and respected by the entire community, you don’t have a direct say in the cooperative’s functioning. You are one of seven members appointed to the leadership committee that oversees all operations. The committee is elected on an annual basis and you have six months left on the committee, after which you will practically leave the cooperative completely. The other six members of this committee are local women who understand the problems and want things to change. They are not necessarily opposed to the men taking away their money but are upset that their hard-earned money is not used to feed their children. They are convinced that nothing can be done about it because that’s just the way it works in their community.
What is your strategy to get the cooperative back on track to meet the duel social outcomes for the cooperative on a sustainable basis?
Points to Ponder
- What gender roles or cultural norms affected your ventures this past summer?
- How relevant are universal human rights when attempting to implement a venture?
- If the country in which you are working does not acknowledge universal rights what can you do to ensure that individuals receive their deserved respect?
- How can a balance be struck between cultural relativism and sovereignty (or self-determination)?
Bring to Class
- Three (3) take-aways from each of the required materials
- Fill out the methodology for the case study, and include explicit details of your strategy to achieve the social outcomes for the cooperative.