By Astrig Tasgian, University of Turin
As a result of limited access to assets and paid work, there has been a feminization of poverty in the last decades in developing countries, also because of the increasing share of households headed by women. Women are particularly vulnerable to poverty in rural areas, where gender inequalities in access to resources (education, health, land, credit and productive inputs) and thus in earned income and control over household resources are higher. Furthermore, rural women are particularly affected by discriminatory stereotypes and practices (child marriage, female genital mutilation, widows’ property-grabbing). In West Africa, the predominant social organization is patriarchal and patrilineal. Customary norms establish a strict gender division of roles. Parents prefer to invest in the education of boys rather than girls since they are intended for another family (that of the husband). Women and girls bear disproportionate responsibility for unpaid care and domestic work, including the collection of water and firewood, in rural areas even more than in urban areas.
In West Africa women represent about 50% of the agricultural labour force especially in small-scale, subsistence farming and produce most of the food for family consumption. However, their role in production is underestimated, they are unpaid family labour, neglected by extension services and usually have no say on the utilization of family production. They are also more deeply affected than men in case of land grabbing: being discriminated in the access to land, it is very difficult for women to acquire new land if they are expropriated.
This paper refers to the evidence from field surveys I carried out in West Africa (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger) on women’s activities exercised individually or in groups and in particular to the results of a survey of 138 randomly sampled women-only producer organizations I conducted in 9 out of the 13 regions of Burkina Faso in 2010-2012 using a semi-structured questionnaire.
In this paper, the analysis focuses on women’s organizations in rural areas (35.5% of the total sample) and their role in promoting women’s empowerment and poverty reduction. The main sector of activity of the surveyed organizations is agriculture, horticulture, livestock (41.3% of the total), followed by agro-processing (39.7%), which includes preparation of shea butter, parboiled rice, drying of fruits and vegetables, etc. The third place is occupied by handicrafts (11.1%): dyeing, weaving, pottery and especially the production of soaps and body creams, followed by trade (7.9%), which includes stocking of cereals.
This survey’s results reveal that female producer organizations do not only have a social function (mutual assistance, solidarity, exchange of ideas), but can also be a tool for poor women, especially in rural areas, to have access to credit and training and be able to start an income-generating activity. Psychological empowerment appears to be the main benefit for women from being involved in collective income generating activities. As far as the economic empowerment is concerned, it depends on the characteristics of the organization, its sector of activity, amount of capital, marketing capacity and on the way work is organized and remunerated.
The profit of economic activities of women's organizations often is low for the following reasons: a) projects and NGOs continue to confine women to low-productivity, precarious, traditionally female activities (there is no diversification, but in general production is concentrated in a narrow range of goods with the risk of market saturation); b) due to the lack of training in marketing, there are groups, especially in agro-processing, which, despite having their own equipment and workspace, have a lot of difficulty finding a market. Before starting production, groups should identify innovative and profitable sectors, carry out market research and marketing training. In addition, since an excessive dependence from fair trade is risky because of the volatility of external markets, it would be important to expand the domestic market through trade fairs, advertising, improved labelling and packaging, and cultural awareness campaigns to convince local rich people to consume good quality local craft and food products instead of imported ones.
From the findings of my research, it results that almost all women interviewed control their own earnings and allocate most of them to family expenses (meals’ condiments, clothes, and especially children’s education and health).They contribute on average to 45-50% of household budget. Women’s greater self-confidence and income can favour, but do not guarantee, changes in the power relations within the household. Unpaid care and domestic work need to be redistributed within the household to avoid women’s triple work burden. This requires a cultural transformation, social action and sensitization campaigns towards men and young boys.
