A view of the transformation of Rwanda's highland through the lens of gender: A mixed-method study about unequal dependents on a mountain system and their well-being

Bigler, Christine; Amacker, Michèle; Ingabire, Chantal Marie; Birachi, Eliud Abucheli

doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2019.05.001

Cited by 15 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Around the world, women spend two to ten times more time on unpaid care work than men [ 85 ], which is a global issue and not unique to the DO and NDOs in Fielmon and Gia, nor to this region of Ghana [ 86 , 87 ]. Maiara (DO RIDF36), Abi (DO RIDF30) and Kali (NDO RIDF41), all mentioned having to earn money for their household, illuminated by Kali’s comment: “Anytime our husband fails to provide, my rival and I have to help.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Donkey Ownership Provides a Range of Income Benefits to the Livelihoods of Rural Households in Northern Ghana

Maggs

Ainslie

Bennett

2021

Animals

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Donkeys provide important resources and benefits for millions of people worldwide. However, global donkey populations are under increasing pressure from the growing demand for a traditional Chinese medicine, e’jiao, made from donkey-skin. The objective of this reflexive, qualitative thematic analysis was to examine the role of donkeys with 262 participants in northern Ghana and how donkeys contribute to livelihood outcomes, especially their use by women and children. Data were collected from four surveys, 12 in-depth interviews and 84 daily time budgets with the same participants, plus 16 focus groups, during one wet and one dry season across 2018-19. Uniquely, boys and girls between the ages of 10–16-years old were interviewed. Donkeys are highly valued by their owners as they play a valuable role in providing a pathway out of ultra-poverty. Donkeys’ contributions to livelihoods are significant and more complex than previously understood and documented in the literature. Donkey ownership confers up to six different income benefits in comparison to non-donkey owners. Female owners of donkeys reported that donkeys can contribute between 30–60% of their income. Children of both sexes can play an important role in the efficient deployment of one of these income generating activities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Donkey Ownership Provides a Range of Income Benefits to the Livelihoods of Rural Households in Northern Ghana

Maggs

Ainslie

Bennett

2021

Animals

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“…Examples include male capture, i.e. men's appropriation of crops with increased economic value (Clay 2017;Ingabire et al 2018), women's unequal participation in rural labor markets (Bigler et al 2017;Illien et al 2021) and farming cooperatives (Treidl 2018), and negative effects on women farmers' wellbeing and workload (Ansoms and Holvoet 2008;Bigler et al 2019;Clay 2017;Debusscher and Ansoms 2013). Such outcomes are often explained by, among others, unequal gender norms, gendered division of work, and institutional and structural constraints.…”

Section: Gender and Agriculture In Rwandamentioning

confidence: 99%

Window dressing inequalities and constructing women farmers as problematic—gender in Rwanda’s agriculture policy

2022

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Rwanda is often depicted as a success story by policy makers when it comes to issues of gender. In this paper, we show how the problem of gendered inequality in agriculture nevertheless is both marginalized and instrumentalized in Rwanda’s agriculture policy. Our in-depth analysis of 12 national policies is informed by Bacchi’s What’s the problem represented to be? approach. It attests that gendered inequality is largely left unproblematized as well as reduced to a problem of women’s low agricultural productivity. The policy focuses on framing the symptoms and effects of gendered inequality and turns gender mainstreaming into an instrument for national economic growth. We argue that by insufficiently addressing the socio-political underlying causes of gendered inequality, Rwanda’s agriculture policy risks reproducing and exacerbating inequalities by reinforcing dominant gender relations and constructing women farmers as problematic and men as normative farmers. We call for the policy to approach gendered inequality in alternative ways. Drawing on perspectives in feminist political ecology, we discuss how such alternatives could allow policy to more profoundly challenge underlying structural constraints such as unequal gender relations of power, gender norms, and gender divisions of work. This would shift policy’s problematizing lens from economic growth to social justice, and from women’s shortcomings and disadvantages in agriculture to the practices and relations that perpetuate inequality. In the long term, this could lead to transformed gender norms and power relations, and a more just and equal future beyond what the dominant agricultural development discourse currently permits.

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“…title transfers are painstakingly slow, especially for returnees trying to access land, and land markets exacerbate class differentiation as vulnerable households are prone to distress sales while land purchases remain prohibitively expensive for most. Although inheritance continues to be the main route to acquire land and women were granted equal rights of inheritance in 1999, their access to land remains problematic (Isaksson 2015;Bayisenge 2018;Bigler et al 2019). For many women, especially those whose parents died before the reform, access depends upon what they can claim through marriage and is often mediated by family relations.…”

Section: Property Relations In a Context Of High Pressure Over Landmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agrarian class relations in Rwanda: a labour-centred perspective

Illien

Niño

Bieri

2021

The Journal of Peasant Studies

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This paper explores the organization of production in Rwanda's main coffee producing zone. Most rural households in the region have limited access to land and stable employment. Yet, while differences in property and employment appear small from afar, this paper shows why they are consequential: even when marginal, these differences interact with time and market pressures (e.g. relative dependence on household food production or need for cash) that shape the complex and gendered labour relations between and within generally landpoor households. In a context of heightened precarity, such a labour-centred approach helps chart the prevailing trajectories of accumulation and exploitation.

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A view of the transformation of Rwanda's highland through the lens of gender: A mixed-method study about unequal dependents on a mountain system and their well-being

Cited by 15 publications

References 57 publications

Donkey Ownership Provides a Range of Income Benefits to the Livelihoods of Rural Households in Northern Ghana

Donkey Ownership Provides a Range of Income Benefits to the Livelihoods of Rural Households in Northern Ghana

Window dressing inequalities and constructing women farmers as problematic—gender in Rwanda’s agriculture policy

Agrarian class relations in Rwanda: a labour-centred perspective

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