Story by Patience Nyagato
GENDER mainstreaming in agriculture has been identified as key towards eliminating gender-based violence (GBV) in agro-based communities.
Mr and Mrs Muparadzi from Masvingo’s Mushandike Irrigation Scheme, who are beneficiaries of a Gender Action Learning System where they were taught to work together in their climate-proofed agriculture project, are a testimony that gender mainstreaming is effective in reducing gender-based violence.
“For many years I knew money belonged to my husband. I am now directly involved in production and farming. When the Gals project came we now plan as a family. We sell our produce together and are a happy family now. As a woman, I am now empowered,” said Mrs Muparadzi.
“Working together as a family has improved our income, my wife has money I have money and our conflicts have reduced. We know where we are going and we practice equality in the distribution of resources,” said Mr Muparadzi.
The Smallholder Irrigation Revitalisation Programme which has implemented the Gender Action Learning System aimed at integrating a gender equality perspective at all stages of agriculture in rural areas for the past two years, believes the strategy can help to eliminate GBV at the household level.
“This is a community-led empowerment methodology that uses principles of inclusion to improve income, food, and nutrition security of vulnerable people in a gender-equitable way. It positions poor women and men as drivers of their own development rather than victims identifying and dismantling obstacles in their environment,” said Smallholder Irrigation Revitalisation Programme (SIRP) Senior Social Inclusion Specialist, Enestia Mudzingiri.
A Smallholder Irrigation Revitalisation Programme research revealed that some social norms, practices, attitudes, beliefs, and values are barriers to women’s inclusion and empowerment and have contributed to inequalities in the distribution of benefits from farming systems.
