Month: September 2020

by: Afrina Choudhury, Surendran Rajaratnam and Cynthia McDougall

“When we only collect data on men, we miss half the story. If we want to make informed decisions about our fisheries, we need to find ways to count all the people involved,” Dr. Danika Kleiber

Sex-disaggregated data and gender statistics are central to making informed policy and development program decisions for people reliant on the fisheries and aquaculture sector. However, this data is still not systematically collected and is overall lacking worldwide. This was problematic before COVID-19 but has been exacerbated with the onset of this global pandemic. As governments and other organizations are working to tackle the disastrous economic and social repercussions of the pandemic and its related restrictions, the lack of data and recognition about needs, resilience and relative risks to people of different wealth, caste, ethnic or minority groups including people without legal citizenship — all of which intersect with gender – creates gaps in the ability of policy and programming to work for the people who need it the most. This is particularly important in order to benefit the women and men reliant on the fisheries and aquaculture sectors, notably small-scale and informal fishers, processors and retailers. Below are some examples from India and Bangladesh on how and why COVID-19 related assistance and policy decisions have gendered implications for women and men who are reliant on fisheries and aquaculture.

Women play major roles in and make significant contributions to the fisheries and aquaculture sector worldwide, but these mostly remain unrecognized from household to policy scale and are often reframed as ‘supporting roles’ to ‘men’s work’ (Kleiber et al 2014; Harper et al 2020). This is no different for Bangladesh and India.

In fish and shrimp processing factories and drying sites in Bangladesh, almost 80 percent of the workforce are women. However, these women are predominantly employed in low level positions, with low income, inadequate safety standards and hygiene in place (Choudhury et al. 2017). These are some of the few employment opportunities for women in the sector. When COVID-19 hit Bangladesh, the lockdown issued by the government drastically reduced orders, fish landings, and supplies in general. Most of these plants and drying sites had to either shut down or significantly reduce operations, leaving thousands of women workers jobless and with few alternatives. Furthermore, male internal return migration as a result of loss of jobs is putting pressure on areas where women relied on for their livelihoods, such as shore-based fishing and gleaning.

To combat livelihood losses, the Government of Bangladesh has continued to issue rations to registered fishers, registered being the key word here. Women in Bangladesh are not recognized as fishers, are thus not registered as fishers, and are therefore unable to access this ration. Unfortunately, policy definitions of ‘fishers’ exclude people involved in other parts of the value chain as well as those involved in gleaning, which is where women are primarily involved. Therefore, dry fish producers (including women), laborers in processing plants and drying sites (mostly women) have no fisher ID cards — hence do not get government support. The narrow definition and resulting exclusion by governments perpetuates gender inequalities.

In a scoping study we conducted in communities reliant on pond aquaculture and beel (freshwater wetlands) fisheries in Assam, India early this year, we found women to be taking primary responsibility for reproductive activities such as food preparations. At the same time, however, members of the household (including women) conform to inequitable gender norms regarding intra-household food distribution. Women are treated as being lowest priority for a share of food because of the perception that they are not generating income for their family, as their reproductive work is unpaid and little recognized or valued. The state-wide lockdown imposed by the Government when COVID-19 hit the country affected the income and food supply of households, worst for the poor who do not have adequate food stocked. Women members in these lower socio-economic groups and families where reproductive work is not valued are likely to be heavily impacted by this inadequacy and the low quality of food, given the pre-existing inequitable norms. Even with food assistance given by government and non-government agencies, failure to understand and address gendered intra-household food allocation deteriorates women’s nutrition and health. Moreover, this has intergenerational consequences as it undermines critical nutrition in the first 1000 days, affecting the development of unborn children and infants.

Women’s engagement in, their contributions to, and the gender barriers that persist in the sector need to be identified and acknowledged in government and non-government responses to COVID-19 and future shocks. Moreover, policy, development, private sector and research actors need to rethink what counts as fisheries. In the field of research in development, we have been working to shed light on the importance of women’s contributions to the fisheries and aquaculture sector. However, we have a long way to go to achieve gender equality (Harper et al 2020, Bennett et al 2020, IHH project).

Looking ahead, we are conducting a number of studies to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on the fisheries and aquaculture sector. With the large number of invisible, unreported women working in the lower rungs of the value chain or in small scale production, sampling and contacting these women has proven to be challenging. Furthermore, there are also positively deviating women business owners and entrepreneurs working in non-stereotyped roles in this sector, who also remain unreported. Working with social distancing guidelines and using phone interviews, women are at a risk of being left out of these studies unless special measures are taken. At WorldFish, together with ACIAR, we have produced a blogpost about gender integration research during COVID-19 (see McDougall & Curnow, 2020) and a Guidance Note on Research Quality during distance research (forthcoming), which are helping us to combat some of these challenges.

We have to be extra cautious about gender integration since COVID-19 cases are fast rising in the South Asian countries of India and Bangladesh. Given the high populations and population density in India and  Bangladesh, the multiple challenges people face in accessing and benefiting from the healthcare services, the loss of livelihood and income and many other challenges the disease brought to the countries, the impact of COVID-19 in reality could be far worse than what is being reported. These impacts are gendered, with women and girls bearing the brunt and often not receiving the needed support to overcome the challenges brought by the pandemic. With persisting gender gaps in access to inputs and resources already, we need to take extra precautions to ensure the COVID-19 response is gender-responsive. Gender data gaps lead to not only gender blind policies and frameworks, but also to implementation of pandemic responses that may exclude women from the safety nets, support, and investments that are much needed for an inclusive recovery and building forward better.

Acknowledgment:

This work was undertaken as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Fish Agri-Food Systems (FISH) led by WorldFish. The program is supported by contributors to the CGIAR Trust Fund.

Sources:

Harper, S., Adshade, M., Lam, V.W., Pauly, D. and Sumaila, U.R., 2020. Valuing invisible catches: Estimating the global contribution by women to small-scale marine capture fisheries production. PloS one, 15(3), p.e0228912.

Bennett, N.J., Finkbeiner, E.M., Ban, N.C., Belhabib, D., Jupiter, S.D., Kittinger, J.N., Mangubhai, S., Scholtens, J., Gill, D. and Christie, P., 2020. The COVID-19 Pandemic, Small-Scale Fisheries and Coastal Fishing Communities.

Choudhury, A., McDougall, C., Rajaratnam, S. and Park, C.M.Y., 2017. Women’s empowerment in aquaculture: Two case studies from Bangladesh. Rome, Italy: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nation ; Penang, Malaysia: WorldFish

McDougall, C. & Curnow, J. Safeguarding gender integration in research during the COVID-19 pandemic. Retrieved from https://pim.cgiar.org/2020/05/29/safeguarding-gender-integration-in-research-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/

Kleiber, D., Harris, L.M. and Vincent, A.C., 2015. Gender and small‐scale fisheries: A case for counting women and beyond. Fish and Fisheries, 16(4), pp.547-562.

Photo credit: Mr. Suvendra Dash

Afrina Choudhury works as Research Fellow (Senior Gender Specialist) for WorldFish, Bangladesh where she is responsible for the design and implementation of pro-poor gender responsive strategies. Working in the field of aquatic-agriculture, her research has revolved around the integration of gender into technical interventions in ways that are sustainable and transformative. In particular, she has been focusing on building the evidence for gender transformative approaches as a way to break systemic inequalities in enhancing equitable development efforts.  She also co-created and chairs the Bangladesh National Gender Working Group, which brings together gender and equity work in Bangladesh. She holds a Masters degree in Development studies from BRAC University and is currently pursuing a sandwich PhD between WorldFish and Wageningen University with a focus on inclusive business development and women’s entrepreneurship in aquaculture.

Surendran Rajaratnam is a Postdoctoral Fellow at WorldFish, Malaysia. He is currently working to integrate gender into technical aquaculture and small-scale fisheries work with the Government of Assam, India as part of the Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project. His current research interest covers rural masculinities, collective action for gender equality, and feminist political economy. Surendran serves the GAF Section of the Asian Fisheries Society as an Executive Committee member and the editor of the section’s newsletter. He completed his Ph.D. in Social Work with the Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Cynthia McDougall is the Gender Research Leader for WorldFish and the CGIAR Research Program on Fish Agri-food Systems (‘FISH’). She is an interdisciplinary social scientist with over 20 years of experience in food security, gender and social equity, and natural resource governance. In her current role, she leads gender strategic research as well as the integration of gender in aquaculture, fisheries and nutrition research in Asia, Africa and the Pacific. Her particular interest is in mixed methods,  participatory action research and gender transformative approaches and how these can leverage scalable shifts towards empowerment, equality, poverty reduction, food and nutrition security and sustainability.

 

by: Kayla Yurco

The pandemic arrived as I was writing, among other life and work pursuits, from my home in Virginia about the ethics of care related to the gendered nature of livestock management in southern Kenya. As my capacity to make space for writing unraveled, so too did my understanding of care in the unprecedented world that emerged: care for myself, care for my loved ones, care for my students and colleagues, and care for the communities I was writing about halfway across the world.

Care is central to my focus in several ways. One of my major projects over the last decade in Kenya aims to unveil the gendered nature of livestock management in pastoralist communities and demonstrate how collaborative or conflictual livestock caretaking activities influence gender roles. This work recognizes that the existing rich body of literature on human-livestock-environment interactions in sub-Saharan Africa has tended to focus primarily on herding activities in rangelands where livestock graze under the supervision of men. Pastoralist women’s caretaking roles at home have been more often overlooked, yet, as my research demonstrates, they are integral to decision-making about household economies.

The care work that pastoralist women do is so significant, I’ve found, that gendered intra-household relations, rather than grazing activities or household assets like herd size, determine food security and coping/adaptive strategies: namely, availability of milk resources for individuals within households. Moreover, gender relations within pastoralist households are co-produced through milking practices that emerge as women exercise their responsibilities to apportion milk (to hungry calves and hungry children, husbands, guests, and for occasional sales) and as men attempt to preside over these activities (implementing, subverting, or affirming rules and norms of use). Women are also the holders of ethnoveterinary knowledge: with twice daily milking activities, it is women who physically connect with and observe the health of cows in dynamic milking events. These are embodied moments of care that inform women’s difficult decisions about limited resources.

My findings align with efforts to expose the uncomfortable truth that deep-rooted patriarchal traditions ingrained in resource management practices in the global South obscure the importance of women’s labor. More uncomfortable is the truth that patriarchal traditions ingrained in academic discourse, theory, and methods also obscure the significance of women’s labor. A clear example is the historical and normative conceptual focus on the household as a unit of analysis in agrarian settings, a focus that has translated to limited availability of empirical, gender-disaggregated data from within households across the global South. This is true even as evidence mounts for how resource use, access, and management decisions are differentiated within households along gendered lines worldwide.

The challenge here, and now more than ever, is that in order to understand gendered, embodied moments of care and their significance to women’s lives, we need to follow Joni Seager’s call to “lift the roof off the household” (2014) and see what makes a household work. Collecting gender-disaggregated data necessitates iterative feminist methodologies, collaboration with empowered research participants, and thoughtful reflections on positionality; i.e., it requires care. Practically, it also requires time actually spent in households. It requires so much time to understand the mundane, the ups and downs of the everyday, and the quirks that make us human – that which we might eventually codify as intra-household dynamics – time that allows us to process data points as characteristic of the collaborations and conflicts we all have across the proverbial dinner table.

Until now, I’ve had the privilege to put my boots on the ground for a lot of time and often in my efforts to write about care. Now, due to the global pandemic, I have the privilege to wrestle with new notions of care from home via reflections I suspect are shared by contributors and readers of this blog. For instance: How can we keep showing up for those we are writing about but cannot be with? And how can we care for ourselves in this uncertain era so that we can keep doing social and environmental justice work that empowers women in the gender-agriculture nexus now, and later?

Lately, I’ve felt that a focus on care might help us communicate and position these personal-political overlaps in this unprecedented complexity of care needs. This is about confronting individual privileges inherent in admitting how challenging it is to work on these topics during this difficult time while continuing to forge forward anew. Honest reflections on the power of care – the vulnerability of needing, expressing, and giving it – as individuals might give us the means to keep offering it toward our local, national, and global communities in this extraordinary time. Embracing the dynamic nature of care at a variety of scales might help us keep harnessing it toward ally-ship, organizing, action, and all else that might be needed, especially to those experiencing heightened inequities in the agri-food system due to legacies of systemic marginalization, oppression, and violence.

Pre-pandemic, I didn’t imagine that these questions of care would become the centralizing focus of my day-to-day energies. But care looks really different to me now. Many days I try to hold space for care in discussions that pan out over text with the friends, colleagues, and research participants in Kenya who have made my career possible. COVID-19 has impacted their lives in ways I can only begin to understand from afar and has brought unprecedented challenges to their caretaking activities. Closer to home, a lot of my energy goes to holding space for local and community caretaking while asking difficult questions about my loved ones (e.g., is it care to visit my parents, or is it care to not visit them?). And with the fall semester looming, my work now includes regular readings on the ethics of care in trauma-informed pedagogy and focused preparation to encourage self-care practices for my students in, and outside of, the (virtual) classroom. It is less clear to me to what degree this work manifests as care for my students or as self-care.

What is clear to me is that there is so much care work to be done. I’m aiming to contribute to the complexity, in part, by holding an honest space to re-imagine and re-negotiate my sense of, capacity for, and commitment to care. I’m warmly looking to learn from others struggling and succeeding with the same.

Sources:

Seager, J. 2014. Background and Methodology for Gender Global Environmental Outlook. Nairobi, Kenya: United Nations Environment Programme.

 

Kayla Yurco is an Assistant Professor of Geographic Science in the School of Integrated Sciences at James Madison University. She is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University (Ph.D., Geography) and the University of Michigan (M.S., Natural Resources and Environment) and a former Graduate Fellow of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi, Kenya. Her research and teaching center on the intersection of gender, environment, and development.

 

By Alfredo Reyes, Hazel Velasco, Mercedes García and Olga Pérez

Positionality

Given current events and as Central American researchers, we are committed to highlighting the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in our region, especially in those communities that were already in a vulnerable situation as a result of the economic and social inequities that characterize our countries. After working for almost six years in the rural area of ​​western Honduras, mainly with the Lenca ethnic communities and specifically with women farmers, one of our first thoughts was: How will the pandemic impact those smallholders’ livelihoods?

In this entry, we seek to present the experiences, struggles, and tactics of Lenca women to cope with the pandemic’s effects. At the same time, we recognize our limitations by not being part of these communities and being currently outside the region. Therefore, we decided to write together with the Association of Renewed Intibucan Women (AMIR) to develop a narrative that prioritizes their voices, experiences, and perceptions. AMIR is a grassroots association of indigenous Lenca women that possess a long history of advocacy for women’s rights throughout the communities of the municipality of Intibucá in Honduras. Thus, the members of this organization possess the insider’s knowledge to understand the struggles faced and strategies implemented by their members throughout the pandemic.

A pre-COVID-19 glance at the smallholders’ horticultural producers in rural Honduras

The communities in western Honduras rely on agriculture and their harvests’ commercialization in the surrounding urban areas as their main livelihood. In the case of the Lenca populations that inhabit the department of Intibucá, their products consist mainly of fruits and vegetables, which are quickly perishable. Also, the communities lack adequate storage infrastructure, and in some cases, no electricity is available to maintain the cold chain needed to extend the crops’ life. These challenges force smallholder farmers to transport their products to the sale sites as soon as possible. Most households in the area are small vegetable producers who typically lack formal safety nets, such as agricultural insurance or access to emergency funds, which significantly limits their ability to respond to external shocks, such as a pandemic (Sanders 2019). Additionally, traditional gender roles in the region limit women’s ability to acquire and control productive assets access formal financial services and education (Larson, Castellanos, and Jensen 2019). These events impact their bargaining power within the household, which leaves them even more vulnerable to potential crises.

In general terms, the vegetables’ market in Intibucá is carried out in three main ways. The best quality vegetables are commercialized either through producers’ associations or through intermediaries; in both instances, the product is distributed to supermarkets in the country’s main cities. Men usually receive the payment for those sales, and therefore, they decide on the destination of that income. On the other hand, lower quality vegetables are sold in local markets, and women are usually responsible for those sales and are the ones who determine what to do with that income.

National and local context during the pandemic

On March 16, with eight confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country, the government of Honduras issued the first statement restricting the mobilization of people and requested the indefinite closure of non-essential businesses nationwide (UNAH 2020).   The local government relied on the military and the police to enforce the measures and deployed agents on the main highways, to deter and arrest the offenders.

In parallel, at a community level, the residents established mesas de seguridad (security councils), which regulated the neighbors’ movement and, although they did not have the power to penalize those who did not comply with the community quarantine, they were supported by the police to enforce the law. Besides, the few COVID-19 reported cases in the rural communities of Intibucá were linked to intermediaries moving agricultural products to the cities. This narrative reinforced the urgency to stop all types of mobilization and led to the blockade of roads for almost two months.

The effects on agriculture and rural women

The consequences of the movement restrictions on the agricultural sector were evident almost immediately. For example, during the first months of quarantine, households were unable to sell their products outside the community, which significantly reduced their income. Many smallholders lost most of the harvest, especially those households dedicated to the production of vegetables and potatoes. Regarding these events, one of AMIR members explained that:

“The quarantine has affected us severely because we hoped to sell our vegetables, and we could not. Many families invested and took out loans but could not generate income. We were unable to sell most of the harvest, and even what we sold was not at the expected price. The biggest problem now is that people have run out of working capital. In this new planting cycle, we see more corn being planted because the investment is low.”

Furthermore, AMIR members have expressed that, although intermediaries can now transit between communities, households do not have products to sell because they were unable to replant their fields or to provide the required quantities. Moreover, the Honduran government announces and extends the containment measures weekly, which gives producers insufficient time for planning and seeking alternatives.

In the case of women, the pandemic has made it impossible for them to mobilize to sell their products in the city of La Esperanza. As previously mentioned, this marketing channel has been essential for women in the area and their ability to generate income. Additionally, in the case of AMIR members, the restrictions coincided with the highest fruit production period.  In previous years, AMIR trained and supported its members on the establishment of fruit crops such as peaches, strawberries, and blackberries that are bought by AMIR’s processing plant to be transformed into wines, jams and sweets. The income generated by these sales have become relevant for AMIR members’ livelihoods.

Tactics implemented by AMIR and its members

To face the new economic difficulties in the face of COVID-19 in combination with government measures, AMIR members have used different strategies. At the community level, women have organized to sell and exchange available crops and products:

“People who had vegetables exchanged with those who had cheese or eggs. Inside the communities, neighbors started to move the products as they were needed; the groceries that usually came from the city became scarce. For example, the stores ran out of bakery products, and women started making bread to sell, and that is how they are finding other options.”

Moreover, AMIR members who had established home gardens had a variety of crops to meet household needs and, in some cases, they were able to sell or trade with their neighbors.

For AMIR’s staff, the pandemic represents an event that can strengthen their connections with international cooperation and an opportunity to seek projects that can benefit their members. As part of their actions, AMIR negotiated a new project with OXFAM Honduras and was also able to reallocate funds from an existing initiative with the Inter-American Foundation. These initiatives have allowed them to deliver food and cleaning kits to 436 households (each kit valued at 1,000 lempiras or approximately USD 40) and 1,000 lempiras cash bonuses to 400 members. The delivery of the bonuses in the form of cash was an essential decision since it considers that each woman has different needs. AMIR currently has 450 active members.

Future considerations

It is difficult to predict the pandemic’s long-term impacts on Lenca women and their households. Although the restriction measures have been effective in avoiding contagion in the area, they have jeopardized small producers’ livelihoods sustainability.

Within the immediate effects, we have evidenced drastic changes in the preferred crop choices. Households have increased planting corn and beans since they require low investment and are easy to store; however, they have a low economic value. The transition to basic grains and monoculture can harm the households by reducing their income. Nonetheless, in the long term, these changes can have a profound impact by limiting the diversity of available agricultural products in the communities, increasing their vulnerability to other threats such as climate change.

Furthermore, it will also be necessary to explore how these decisions are made and how will impact women’s position and power in the household, particularly after evidencing how their income sources have been affected. Additionally, in the face of external shocks, evidence suggests that women’s assets, such as minor farm species, are the first to be liquidated (Quisumbing, Kumar, and Behrman 2018).

Although AMIR members expressed concern about the future and the evident reduction of income in their households, they also consider that the restrictive measures have been necessary: “We are here [in the community] because we are afraid of getting sick, not because we have been locked up. We prefer to stay at home, even if we lack something, instead of going out and risking getting sick or making our family sick.”

Additional note:

By the beginning of August, a total of 43,197 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported nationwide (Secretaria de Salud de Honduras 2020). The concentration of these cases is found in urban centers mainly in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula cities with 13,500 and 8,000 cases, respectively. Other significant urban centers, such as the cities of Choloma, La Ceiba, and El Progreso, were among the first ten cities leading the cases of COVID-19 in Honduras (Domínguez 2020).

Enfrentando al COVID-19 en la zona rural de Honduras: las experiencias de una asociación de mujeres indígenas

Posicionalidad

Ante los eventos actuales y como investigadores centroamericanos nos sentimos comprometidos en visibilizar los impactos de la pandemia en nuestra región, especialmente en aquellas comunidades que ya se encontraban en una situación vulnerable a consecuencia de las inequidades económicas y sociales que caracterizan a nuestros países. Luego de trabajar por casi seis años en la zona rural del occidente de Honduras, principalmente con las comunidades de la etnia Lenca y en particular con las mujeres agricultoras, uno de nuestros primeros pensamientos fue: ¿De qué forma la pandemia impactará los medios de vida de esas pequeñas productoras?

En este escrito buscamos presentar las experiencias, las luchas y las tácticas de las mujeres Lencas para hacer frente a los efectos de la pandemia. Al mismo tiempo, reconocemos nuestras limitantes al no ser parte de estas comunidades, ni estar en la región en este momento. Por lo tanto, hemos escrito en conjunto con la Asociación de Mujeres Intibucanas Renovadas (AMIR) para desarrollar la narrativa, intentando priorizar sus voces, experiencias y percepciones. AMIR es una organización de base constituida por mujeres indígenas Lencas que posee una amplia trayectoria de lucha por los derechos de las mujeres a lo largo de las comunidades del municipio de Intibucá en Honduras.  De esta manera, las mujeres miembros de esta organización poseen el conocimiento para comprender las luchas enfrentadas y las estrategias implementadas por sus socias y sus comunidades durante la pandemia.

Una mirada previa a COVID-19 a los pequeños productores hortícolas de las zonas rurales de Honduras

Las comunidades del occidente de Honduras dependen de la agricultura y su comercialización en las áreas urbanas aledañas como principal medio de vida. En el caso de las poblaciones Lencas que habitan el departamento de Intibucá, sus productos consisten principalmente de frutas y vegetales, los cuales son rápidamente perecederos. Además, en las comunidades no suelen contar con una infraestructura de almacenamiento adecuada y en algunos casos no hay servicio de energía eléctrica que les permita mantener la cadena de frío para alargar la vida útil de sus cosechas. Esto retos los obliga a transportar sus productos a los sitios de venta en el menor tiempo posible. La mayoría de los hogares en el área son pequeños productores de vegetales que generalmente carecen de redes de seguridad formales, como los seguros agrícolas o el acceso a fondos de emergencia, lo que limita significativamente su capacidad de responder a las crisis externas, como una pandemia (Sanders 2019). Adicionalmente, los roles tradicionales de género en la región limitan la capacidad de las mujeres de adquirir y controlar los activos productivos, acceder a servicios financieros formales y educación (Larson, Castellanos, and Jensen 2019). Estos hechos impactan su poder de negociación dentro del hogar, lo cual las deja en una posición aún más vulnerable ante posibles crisis.

En términos generales la comercialización de las hortalizas en la zona de Intibucá se realiza principalmente por tres vías. Las hortalizas de mejor calidad se comercializan ya sea, a través de asociaciones de productores o por medio de intermediarios; en ambos casos, el producto se distribuye a supermercados en las principales ciudades del país. Los hombres suelen recibir el pago por estas ventas y por lo mismo, ellos toman la decisión final sobre el destino de esos ingresos. Por otro lado, las hortalizas de menor calidad son vendidas en los mercados locales y las mujeres suelen ser las responsables de estas ventas y son las que deciden qué hacer con este ingreso.

Contexto nacional y local durante la pandemia

Para el 16 de marzo, con ocho casos de COVID-19 confirmados en el país, el gobierno de Honduras emitió el primer comunicado que restringía la movilización de las personas y solicitaba el cierre indefinido de los negocios no esenciales a nivel nacional  (UNAH 2020). Como consecuencia de estas medidas, en Intibucá la movilización entre las comunidades rurales y los centros urbanos se estancó. Para hacer cumplir las medidas, el gobierno local se apoyó de la fuerza militar y la policía quienes se ubicaron en las principales carreteras para sancionar y detener a los infractores.

De forma paralela, a nivel comunitario los pobladores establecieron mesas de seguridad, las cuales regulaban el movimiento de los vecinos y aunque no tenían poder para penalizar a aquellos que no cumplieran la cuarentena comunitaria, contaban con el respaldo de la policía para hacer ejercer la ley. En adición, los pocos casos de COVID-19 que se reportaron en las comunidades rurales de Intibucá estaban ligados al movimiento de transportistas y comerciantes agrícolas hacia las ciudades, lo que reforzó la urgencia de detener todo tipo de movilización. Como resultado, todas las vías de acceso fueron bloqueadas por casi dos meses y medio para evitar la circulación de vehículos y motocicletas.

Efectos en las mujeres rurales y la agricultura

Las consecuencias de las restricciones de movimiento sobre el rubro agrícola fueron evidentes de forma casi inmediata. Por ejemplo, durante los primeros meses de la cuarentena, los hogares no pudieron vender sus productos fuera de la comunidad lo cual redujo significativamente sus ingresos económicos. Muchos perdieron la mayor parte de la cosecha, especialmente los hogares dedicados a la producción de hortalizas y la papa. Ante estos eventos, una de las socias de AMIR explicó que:

“La cuarentena nos ha afectado bastante porque teníamos la esperanza de vender nuestras hortalizas y no pudimos. Muchas familias habían invertido y sacado préstamos y no se pudo generar ingresos. No logramos vender la mayor parte de la cosecha y aun lo que se vendió no fue al precio esperado. El mayor problema ahora es que la gente se ha quedado sin capital de trabajo. En este nuevo ciclo estamos viendo mucho maíz sembrado porque la inversión es baja.”

Además, las socias de AMIR han expresado que, aunque los intermediarios ya pueden transitar entre las comunidades, los hogares no tienen productos para vender porque no han podido sembrar nuevamente en la misma escala. En adición, las medidas de confinamiento son anunciadas y extendidas semanalmente lo cual da poco espacio para planificar actividades y buscar alternativas.

En el caso particular de las mujeres, la pandemia ha hecho imposible que puedan movilizarse para vender sus productos en la ciudad de La Esperanza. Como se mencionó anteriormente, esta vía de comercialización ha sido importante para las mujeres de la zona y su capacidad de generar ingresos. Adicionalmente, en el caso de las socias de AMIR, las restricciones coincidieron con el período de mayor producción de frutas. Como parte de las actividades de la asociación, en años anteriores se han hecho inversiones en el desarrollo de cultivos como melocotones, fresas, moras entre otros. Estas frutas son comercializadas por las mujeres y representan una importante fuente de ingresos para las socias.

Tácticas tomadas por AMIR y sus socias

Para enfrentar las dificultades económicas las socias de AMIR han utilizado diferentes estrategias. Algunas tomaron la iniciativa de organizar la comercialización e intercambio de los cultivos y los productos disponibles a nivel comunitario.

“Las personas que tenían hortalizas intercambiaban con las que tenían cuajada o huevos. A lo interno de las comunidades se movían los productos, como dejaron de llegar las panaderías, las mujeres hacían pan y lo vendían y así se estuvo haciendo.”

Además, las socias de AMIR que tenían establecidos huertos caseros contaron con una variedad de cultivos para suplir las necesidades del hogar y en algunos casos pudieron vender o intercambiar con sus vecinos.

A nivel de asociación, la gerencia de AMIR ha visto que la pandemia les ha permitido reforzar sus conexiones con la cooperación internacional y gestionar proyectos de apoyo para sus socias. Como parte de estas acciones, han logrado gestionar un nuevo proyecto con OXFAM Honduras y reasignar fondos de un proyecto existente con la Fundación Interamericana. Esto les ha permitido entregar alimentos y kits de limpieza a 436 hogares (cada uno valorado en 1,000 lempiras o USD 40 aproximadamente) y bonos de 1,000 lempiras en efectivo a 400 socias. La entrega de los bonos en forma de dinero en efectivo fue una decisión importante ya que se tomó en consideración que cada una de las mujeres tiene necesidades diferentes. Actualmente AMIR cuenta con 450 socias activas.

Futuras consideraciones

Es difícil predecir cuáles serán los impactos a largo plazo de la pandemia para las mujeres Lencas y sus hogares. Por el momento, aunque las medidas de restricción han sido efectivas para evitar el contagio en la zona, han puesto en peligro la sostenibilidad de los medios de vida de los pequeños productores.

Dentro de los efectos inmediatos se ha observado un cambio drástico en la elección de cultivos. Los hogares han incrementado la siembra de maíz y el frijol ya que requieren de una baja inversión y son de fácil almacenamiento, sin embargo, poseen un bajo valor económico. Además de reducir sus ingresos potenciales, la transición a granos básicos y monocultivos puede limitar la diversidad de alimentos en las comunidades y volverlos aún más vulnerables ante otras amenazas como el cambio climático.

También será necesario explorar cómo estas decisiones impactarán la posición y poder de las mujeres en sus hogares, en particular, al reconocer que las vías por las que solían percibir ingresos han sido impactadas. Además, se ha demostrado que, ante choques externos, los activos que poseen las mujeres, como las especies menores, son los primeros en ser liquidados.

Por el momento, aunque las socias expresaron estar preocupadas por el futuro y el efecto de la reducción de ingresos al hogar, también consideran que las medidas de restricción han sido necesarias: “Nosotras estamos acá [en la comunidad] porque tenemos temor a contagiarnos, no porque nos tengan encerrados. Preferimos estar en la casa, aunque nos falte algo, a salir y enfermarnos o enfermar a nuestra familia.”

Nota adicional:

Para inicios del mes de agosto, se han reportado un total 43,197 casos confirmados de COVID-19 a nivel nacional (Secretaria de Salud de Honduras 2020). La concentración de estos casos se encuentra en los centros urbanos principalmente en las ciudades de Tegucigalpa y San Pedro Sula con 13,500 y 8,000 casos respectivamente. Otros centros urbanos importantes como las ciudades de Choloma, La Ceiba y el Progreso se encontraban entre las primeras diez ciudades liderando los casos positivos de COVID-19 (Domínguez 2020).

Photo credits: Photos 1, 3, & 4: AMIR; Photo 2: Credits: Dany Barrientos, archive footage from the Honduras-WAgN project. 

Sources:

Domínguez, Eduardo. 2020. “El Mapa Del Covid-19 En Honduras Municipio Por Municipio.” Diario El Heraldo. Retrieved August 3, 2020 (https://www.elheraldo.hn/interactivos/1376851-523/mapa-coronavirus-honduras-municipios).

Larson, Janelle B., Paige Castellanos, and Leif Jensen. 2019. “Gender, Household Food Security, and Dietary Diversity in Western Honduras.” Global Food Security 20:170–79.

Sanders, Arie. 2019. “Assembling the Horticulture Value Chain in Western Honduras.” Penn State University.

Secretaria de Salud de Honduras. 2020. “Datos Estadísticos Covid-19.” Retrieved August 3, 2020 (http://www.salud.gob.hn/site/#).

UNAH. 2020. “Cronología de La Pandemia Covid 19 En Honduras.” Retrieved August 3, 2020 (https://mdd.unah.edu.hn/publicaciones/cronologia-de-la-pandemia-covid-19-en-honduras).

 

Alfredo Reyes is a PhD student in Rural Sociology and International Agriculture and Development. His research interests are found in three broad areas, international rural social change, international migration, international development with specific interest on the intersection of gender, agriculture and the diffusion of innovations.

 

Hazel Velasco Palacios is a master student in Rural Sociology and International Agriculture and Development. Her interests are found broadly in the sociology of international rural social change and the determinants of effective collective action, with special attention on the intersection of gender, and indigenous communities in Latin America.

 

Mercedes García is a member of AMIR and has played an essential leadership role in the organization. Currently she works as the administrative coordinator for AMIR and is one of the members leading the COVID-19 response team supporting the communities.

 

Olga Pérez is AMIR´s project coordinator, she has played an important role in the search, development and implementation of new projects for AMIR. Currently she is leading the COVID-19 response team to support the communities.

 

by: Saeqah Kabir and Dr. Jacqueline Ogega

The COVID-19 pandemic is negatively impacting individuals, families and communities, and exacerbating gender inequalities and social exclusion for the most vulnerable. World Vision’s Nobo Jatra project, a USAID Development Food Security Activity (DFSA) in Bangladesh, is pivoting its efforts to improve gender equitable food security, nutrition and resilience for vulnerable populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our approach is based on a sound analysis of the gendered and social impacts of COVID-19, and then formulating measures to address those challenges.  Interventions are focused on addressing four areas of intersecting vulnerabilities faced by women, adolescent girls and girl children during the COVID-10 crisis: economic loss and depravity, reduced access to healthcare services and facilities, increased pressure and burdens of unpaid care and domestic work, and a surge in gender-based violence.

Mitigating economic loss and depravity of COVID-19 on women and girls

One of the major impacts of COVID-19 that has emerged is economic loss and depravity of the most vulnerable – women and girls. The COVID-19 impact assessment conducted by World Vision in June 2020, found that 84.9% of Nobo Jatra’s direct participant households had reduced incomes in the previous month. The assessment also showed that 6.9% of households had no incomes in the previous month. The gender differentials revealed that the number of female headed households reporting no incomes was at 14.7% in comparison to 5.6% male headed households reporting no incomes. Women are especially vulnerable to loss of income because, in Bangladesh, 93.3 % of women hold more insecure jobs in the informal sector. [1] This sector is hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic due to Government lockdowns and restrictions on movement. A majority of women are therefore less able to absorb the economic shocks arising from COVID-19 shutdown than men, and their economic and productive lives have been affected. Disrupted livelihoods are resulting in women’s loss or decline in incomes and labor force participation. The reduction in income, or in some cases a total loss of income, is limiting women’s ability to support themselves and their families, especially women in female-headed households. All of this has spillover effects on household food security, health and resilience – particularly for rural, female headed households. The decline in purchasing power for women is already resulting in negative coping strategies. The options that women are left with are not good choices—they include using up  savings, borrowing loans at  high interest loans from micro-finance institutions or local money lenders, or even selling  productive and household assets. In some instances, girls are forced into marriage as families try to lessen economic burdens in their households. The nutrition of women and girls is also threatened as households reduce food consumption quantities and rely on cheaper less nutritious food for survival. These deepening economic challenges, if not mitigated, will have long term effects on gender equality and social inclusion. They will result in an increase in poverty heightened food insecurity, reduced resilience capacities for future shocks and stresses and perpetuate a chronic cycle of malnutrition, particularly for women, girls, adolescents and children.

To mitigate the economic impacts of COVID-19 on women and girls, Nobo Jatra is implementing a number of measures.

• Sustaining nutrition and livelihood needs in the household. Using the innovation of mobile banking, our program is providing cash grants to women and other vulnerable families to help them meet urgent needs relating to nutrition, livelihoods and other immediate household needs. The Nobo Jatra program is also actively seeking to increase production of saline tolerant, nutritious vegetables for household consumption and to sell surplus at local markets.
• Accelerating income generating activities. The Nobo Jatra program is also accelerating income generating opportunities that reduce the risk of transmission of the Corona virus, while at the same time taking advantage of the market driven opportunities of the crisis. Our programs are pivoting to support women producers to transition into making cloth face masks through cost share mechanisms, and scaling up health and nutrition business models through partnerships with private sector. Successful practices have included piloting such partnerships with the Social Marketing Company and Advanced Chemical Industries Limited to have Gold Star Members and Village Agents (basically local entrepreneurs) sell health and hygiene products at village and household level even during the COVID-19 crisis. The entrepreneurs are able to earn incomes whilst also ensuring that health and hygiene messaging and products continue to be accessible to families. Partnerships with the private sector are intended to continue in the long term.
• Supporting adaptation of community-based savings and loans. The programming efforts include supporting the revival and adaptation of community-based savings (Village Savings and Lending Associations) to provide extreme poor women with much needed access to finances. Women are also being provided with cash transfers for nutrition and when possible have invested a small proportion of funds into the savings groups. This means that women can avoid borrowing from micro-finance or micro-lending institutions that burden them with exorbitant interest rates that would perpetuate a vicious cycle of poverty long after the COVID-19 pandemic.

  

Increasing access to healthcare services and facilities for women, adolescent girls and children

Another major impact of COVID-19 is the reduced access to healthcare services and facilities for women, adolescent girls, children and other vulnerable groups. The government lockdowns to contain the pandemic have limited mobility and access to community level maternal and reproductive health care services. Health care systems in Bangladesh have limited public resources which are directed to COVID-19 resulting in disruptions to health services for women and adolescents. In Nobo Jatra working areas health services at the community level were scaled back in April and May during the Government lockdown. Flooding and heavy rainfall caused by cyclone Amphan in May also reduced access to health services such as pre and postnatal healthcare, access to sexual and reproductive health services, and care and support for survivors of gender-based violence. The impacts at the moment and in future include increased rates of adolescent pregnancies, malnutrition of pregnant and lactating women and children and maternal mortality. The reduced household purchasing power due to the economic downturn also impacts if and how families access healthcare. For example, the Nobo Jatra COVID-19 impact assessment showed that falling sick and being unable to afford treatment was cited by 36.2% of households as one of the main impacts of reduced incomes.

The impacts of reduced access of healthcare services and facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic will be felt in the longer term, especially if measures are not taken to mitigate them now. Nobo Jatra is working to increase women’s and girls’ access to health services and facilities in a number of ways:

• Ensuring that women and girls have access to COVID-19 public health messages. The program is facilitating the development and dissemination of targeted messaging on public health to women and girls. With limited access to education and therefore low levels of literacy, messaging must be accessible, culturally appropriate and understandable by all. Based on an assessment of the most popular choice for accessing information on COVID-19, the program is using public awareness messaging via megaphones and will also transition to usingradio or local cable TV to share messages.
• Ramping up household level social behavior change to encourage families to access maternal and reproductive health care services. The programming is actively mobilizing communities through facilitators who help to dispel fears around exposure to COVID-19 at health service delivery points and explain health, safety and do no harm measures in place. Since June, regular services at health facilities have resumed and social behavior change messaging is critical to ensure that families access services.

Addressing the increased pressure of unpaid care and domestic work

COVID-19 has also resulted in increased pressure of unpaid care and domestic work for women and girls.  Social distancing measures, school closures and having families stay at home have put an increased demand on women and girls to cater to the basic survival needs of the family and care for children, the sick and the elderly. Adolescent and teenage girls are also having to take on increased unpaid care work, as they are home due to school closures. Nobo Jatra’s impact assessment found 57.7% of households reported increased time spent on childcare and 51% of households are spending more time in unpaid work, particularly cooking. The pressure of unpaid care and domestic work is constraining women’s ability to carry out paid work, if any.

These burdens of unpaid care and domestic work, if not mitigated, can have long-term effects on women and girls. Adolescent and teenage girls who are out of school for a long period are at risk of dropping out and not returning to school even after the crisis is over. Adolescent and teenage girls are also at risk of early marriage (and early pregnancy) as families look to alleviate economic burden.. The increase in women’s unpaid care work will drive inequalities such as wage disparity, , and physical and mental health stressors. Nobo Jatra is working to address these challenges by:

• Constructive male engagement. Leveraging Nobo Jatra’s Male Engagement for Gender Equality module, activities across the project consistently include messages on shared decision making, fair division of domestic and caregiving tasks, improving and supporting healthy relationships within families, and supporting gender equity, nonviolence and discouraging child marriage.
• Public health messaging inclusive of messaging to mitigate risks of Gender Based Violence and child marriage. Given the inherent risks of spikes in child marriage, particularly as schools are closed, Nobo Jatra’s public awareness messaging includes information on child marriage legislation and reporting mechanisms. Nobo Jatra also works with faith leaders and child protection committees and provides life skills education to adolescents to raise awareness on the risks of child marriage.
• Ensuring access to sufficient and affordable water services for women and girls. The program is focusing on business models for water service provision that limit the time spent by women and adolescent girls in collecting water. These include tapping into local entrepreneurs to deliver water to households. Our interventions support Water Management Committees to tap into local entrepreneurs who deliver water from Nobo Jatra supported water points directly to households. In doing so, families are able to access safe water without having to venture out or wait in lines, which would further expose them to COVID-19 infections.

Preventing the shadow pandemic: Gender-Based Violence

In the context of a pandemic, there is a risk of  surges in incidents of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence resulting from financial loss, health stresses, restrictions in movement, crowded homes and reduced peer support. Child marriage is a pervasive practice in Nobo Jatra working areas – and there is an inherent risk of spikes as families contend with economic impacts and look to alleviate perceived burdens. The Nobo Jatra COVID-19 impact assessment in June 2020, showed that 3.9% of households married their children off early due to reduced or no incomes. 28% of households also reported that risks of child marriage and other forms of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence had increased during COVID-19. The surge in Gender-Based Violence would have lasting impacts such as increased poverty rates, spikes in adolescent pregnancies, and a chronic cycle of malnutrition for women, adolescents and children. Nobo Jatra is working to address these challenges by:

• Expanding programs on social and behavior change to include awareness and messaging on prevention of gender-based violence through local radio and cable TV networks as these are the preferred medium for 59.2% of households surveyed in the impact assessment. The messaging is targeted at men, women, children, grandparents. The program is partnering with faith leaders to disseminate messages on prevention of COVID-19, as well as to discourage child marriage and other forms of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.
• Capacity building on referral systems for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence. This referral system is weak in Nobo Jatra working areas, with no specific services at community clinics or Union Health and Family Welfare centers. Health staff are not trained to respond to sexual and gender-based violence. Accessing the Government One Stop Crisis Cells (at district and sub district level) is a key challenge for women, adolescent girls and victims of sexual and gender-based violence in rural areas. These barriers and challenges were further compounded due to Government measures to control the spread of COVID-19 andrestrict movement. Health staff (both male and female) in community clinics, Union Health and Family Welfare Centers and sub district health complexes need training on how to respond to sexual and gender-based violence including on psycho-social support confidentiality, respect, safety, referral and the non-discrimination of victims.

Lessons learned

Clearly, the USAID DFSA Nobo Jatra program is implementing a number of interventions, strategies and actions to address the gendered impacts of COVID-19 in southwest Bangladesh. There are a number of lessons we have learned through this process:

1. Integrating gender equality and social inclusion in COVID-19 analyses. It is essential to carry out aCOVID-19 impact assessment that considers gender equality and social inclusion considerations. Such an analysis allows for deeper understanding of the intersectionality of COVID-19 and its gendered impacts. It also helps illuminate ways that such challenges can be addressed to mitigate impacts of COVID-19 not just in the short term, but to strategically lay foundations that can address midterm and long-term impacts.
2. Adaptive management and use of technology. With measures such as social distancing, we have learned to pivot to the use of technology, and to ramp up efforts we had used prior to COVID-19. For instance, mobile phone penetration in Nobo Jatra working areas is high. Nobo Jatra have used digital cash transfers linked to e-wallets on mobile phones to reach over 44,000 women since 2015. This has proved to be very useful to scale during this period of COVID-19. Our program has effectively adapted the use of digital cash transfer during COVID-19: Over 7,000 pregnant and lactating women and Ultra Poor Graduation participants have continued to receive monthly digital cash transfers. In response to the COVID-19 context, conditions for regular cash transfer activities were relaxed as it was not possible to meet some of the criteria (participation in trainings, VSLA groups, courtyard sessions or Growth Monitoring Promotion sessions). This adaptation has ensured that poor and extreme poor women continue to receive cash support for nutrition and emergency household needs.

   

3. Utilization of women’s village savings and loan networks. Village Savings and Lending Associations (VSLAs) have proven to be resourceful, resilient and are supporting to revive local economies in Nobo Jatra working areas. VSLA’s, (100% women participants) have been taking the lead in shaping how the groups restart operating and Nobo Jatra have been supporting them to navigate adaptations. Groups have changed meeting processes, scaled up health and hygiene awareness, created social funds for COVID-19 and revised lending methods to better meet the needs of members during the crisis. Since June 2020, 1077 VSLA’s have restarted operating. 20,010 VSLA members have started saving cycles and deposited $55,305. Given the reduced or total lack of incomes during COVID-19 and the losses from cyclone Amphan, 11.9% of members have taken loans to meet immediate household consumption needs, repair homes damaged by cyclone Amphan and revive livelihoods.
4. Apply a gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) lens in responding to COVID-19. Our World Vision GESI lens allows us to focus our interventions along a continuum of the GESI domains of access, decision-making, participation, systems and wellbeing. Our interventions increase equal access for women and girls at various levels. For economic empowerment, access includes access to finances through cash grants in the short term and through Village Saving and Lending Associations in the long term. Health access includes access to information, facilities and services, including Sexual and Gender-Based Violence grievance and referral systems. Women and girls are supported to make decisions that impact their lives, and on shifting social norms and behaviors. Interventions actively seek to promote the participation of women and girls in socially distanced safety nets and women’s networks such as Village Saving and Lending Associations to access finance, health hygiene and Gender-Based Violence messaging. While it is challenging, it is essential to continue efforts to strengthen referral systems for Sexual and Sexual and Gender-Based Violence through training of frontline Government health staff, village court representatives, Child Protection Committee members. It is also necessary to monitor Child Protection Committees so that they continue to act as ‘watchdogs’ to mitigate and report cases of child marriage and sexual and gender-based violence.
5. Targeting interventions to women require continuous Social Behavior Change and counselling to all members of the household – so that there are no unintended consequences for women. Especially if cash support is being directed to the hands of women.

Notes: 

[1] Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics Labor Force Survey 2016-2017

Photo caption (header): Halima A VSLA Group Leader who has also taken a loan to revive her grocery shop after lockdown

Ms. Saeqah Kabir is the Senior Manager – Knowledge Management and Communications, for USAID’s Development Food Security Activity Nobo Jatra, led by World Vision Bangladesh. Saeqah and her team are responsible for reporting and documentation, strategic learning and adaptations and communications for impact. Before joining World Vision, Saeqah worked in research and communications roles in the UK and Bangladesh with Asia House, British Asian Trust, Save the Children, United Nations Development Programme and Hellen Keller International. Saeqah holds a BA in Anthropology and Sociology and a Masters in Social Anthropology from the London School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Dr. Jacqueline Ogega is the Director of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) at World Vision US, where she leads a team of technical experts in GESI integration. Dr. Ogega has over 18 years of experience in international development and peacebuilding. She has worked with various organizations including Creative Associates International, World Learning and Catholic Relief Services.  She has led multi-million-dollar programs involving multi-sector donors including USAID, DFID, the Ford Foundation, Nike and United Nations agencies. Dr. Ogega holds an M.A in gender and development studies from the University of Nairobi and a doctorate in peace and conflict studies from the university of Bradford in the United Kingdom