Conclusion

This book presents a research and capacity development experience in MENA region.The project, in which the presented research was implemented,was formulated on the hypothesis that among the reasons for the very slow development of gender research capacity in the MENA region is paucity of local reference of research experience.As a result this project had two main objectives: 1) to conduct case studies of gender research in order to generate local experiences for reference in the region and collate them in the form of a reference book and 2) to build the capacity of research teams in gender research.The results of these two main objectives have been presented in this volume. The project applied two main methodologies: 1) In the research, participatory

research methods and tools were selected from the SAS2 Guide to Collaborative Inquiry and Social Engagement (Chevalier and Buckles 2008) and applied in the field. The analysis has mostly been qualitative. 2) For the capacity development during the lifetime of the project, we deployed an iterative process of training, field applications of methods, further training, mentoring and support by a technical support group; and validation of the data through bringing it back to the research participants. The research in Djelfa, Algeria, confirmed that there is a strong relationship

between the degradation of productive natural resources (rangelands) which is affecting grazing patterns of livestock, and the consequent drop in the supply of raw material, and the loss of local knowledge related to women’s production of a traditional garment, qashabiya (Chapter 2).The results highlighted how the environmental changes affected women’s decision-making regarding the organization of labor within families in terms of the use of different types of fibers to weave qashabiya. In addition, there is clearly a lack of interest among the youth to take over this activity from the elders. Results also show that women produce these valued local garments but only partially capture their value as a result of social constraints on women’s participation in the market place.The findings show that despite important economic changes and modernizing the textile industry at the national level, the qashabiya market remains heavily compounded by the traditions excluding women from selling their products at the market place, thus having the opportunity to bargain over the price of their products and earn a good income from their labor. But rather those restrictions give (male) intermediaries and traders

a free ground to control qashabiya marketing, leaving little control and bargaining power for women producers.This disparity in market access makes male intermediaries the main beneficiaries (see Chapter 4). The low earnings from this craft affects women’s interest in this traditional work, particularly the girls, and count among the major constraints on the sustainability of this national heritage. This research also investigated women’s occupational health resulting from qashabiya production (see Chapter 5). Results indicate that women are affected by a wide range of ailments associated with their age, raw material processing activities,weaving and other socio-economic factors, and that this sector of activity is potentially placing women and children at risk of serious illness, as they are not covered by the national insurance plan due to the informal and home-based nature of their activities. Furthermore, the sector has not developed for many decades most probably because the activity is mainly performed at home, thus hidden from development initiatives. Many women and also medical doctors in the area are unaware of the relationship between women’s illness and their activities. Improvements to the working conditions are discussed, and the research identifies also some areas where technology interventions can ease women’s working conditions. It is important to elevate this activity to the national level: it should be considered a formal activity covered by national laws that would contribute to changing the gender relationships and power of this activity. The research on the market access of rural women’s cooperatives (RWCs) in

Lebanon (Abou Habib, Chapters 6 and 7) confirmed the observations drawn from daily practice, namely that material capital investment can only be useful when there is day-to-day engagement with rural women to support the development and building of a battery of technical and inter-personal skills,understanding and improvement of intra-household gender relations and the ability to understand and subsequently address obstacles that block market access.There are some top-down large and costly aid programmes which have presumably diverted the attention and capacities of rural women from looking at and addressing marketing issues throughout their diversified efforts. The tools used in this research allowed the construction of a timeline of research on women’s cooperatives and draw, as a result, an interesting pattern of international funding and its impact on women and their small enterprises. Analysis of the male-dominated food industry through case studies generated

lessons for the rural women’s cooperatives (see Abou Habib,Chapter 7).The analysis shows that activities of RWCs are generally small in size and have low production capacities, have low financial means, but have women with high production skills and strong motivations as leaders and decision-makers in their enterprises.The study provided strategies for improving market access and gaining steady market share, among these are: sustaining quality and consistency, linking with agent distributors and attractive packaging. The study also noted that rural women’s cooperatives have a strong comparative advantage over the private sector, namely in the quality of their production and the nature of their enterprises. The case study in Boudinar,Morocco (Khattabi et al.Chapters 8 and 9), provides

a detailed description of gender division of roles and tasks in a remote, conservative, rural society.The effects of and resulting vulnerability from climate-related events

(droughts, water shortage, floods and landslides) by gender and particularly on women’s workload are analyzed. The analysis provides insights on how environmental factors can further exacerbate gender inequality, making rural women particularly more vulnerable, and thus calls for redoubled efforts in regions that are more vulnerable to climate variability.This research shows how men and women farmers cope with climate variability, and explores how coping strategies are shaped by gender power relations and the decision-making process. At the same site, a ‘case study’ approach was applied involving 28 individual women of different socio-economic levels and documenting their day-to-day situation under environmental and socio-economic challenges.These case studies support the call that for any agricultural effort aimed at benefiting both men and women in the rural commune of Boudinar, gender differences need to be understood in their complex, real and dynamic life situations. The second Moroccan case, in Maâmar, (see Chapter 11) presents the case of a

large development project which had not sufficiently integrated gender in its design and how that could have limited the success of the project.The development project in the community was to implement sustainable utilization of herbal and medicinal plants for community income generation. However, although the project supported women’s groups, the project, for reasons not fully explained, did not fully integrate gender in the implementation of its major development initiative. The dichotomy of supporting women’s groups but not fully integrating them in the major development initiative was surprising. This study documents the importance and role of women in the herbal and medicinal plant industry, and demonstrates that women play a major role in the utilization of and in maintaining knowledge for herbal and medicinal plants. The results illustrate that lack of sufficient gender integration in local community development initiatives is a program design flaw which could result in a failure of such initiatives. In the same study, researchers (see Chapter 10) show that during the application

of participatory research methods men and women have different capacities to participate due to their level of education, exposure to external ideas and ability to express thoughts. Women had greater difficulty in applying some tools. These analyses show that when designing implementation of participatory research tools, the factors that may affect the level of participation of both men and women should be considered and remedies should be made to avoid incomplete participation. This study also examined the extent to which local participants found the results generated by the participatory process useful.This raises the point that one should not use participatory tools only for extractive purposes but rather should use them for transformative purposes by providing space for participants to reflect and think about making changes on their own, while considering possible socioeconomic factors and gender differences in the level of participation.This would be the first step for transformative gender research in the form of participatory evaluation of interventions after the diagnosis phase is completed. One of the studies, at the Boudinar site,Morocco, (Chapter 12) investigated the

effects of the participatory research on the local community in terms of awareness of and aspirations for better interactions with external agents.The research results

recognize that participatory research is the start of a change process. Furthermore, the participatory activity itself as factor of change deserves a solid conceptualization, planning and action, and then the effects of the process, in terms of changes in participant attitudes and actions, are equally as important and should be observed.They are the essence of the research process and therefore deserve due attention and are certainly worthy of recognition and wide dissemination.