GRAMEEN FOUNDATION
THE COMMUNITY
KNOWLEDGE WORKER
INITIATIVE
APPLAB UGANDA
Potential Impact of Targeting Women
Improving Agricultural productivity
Women do 85% of the planting, 85% of the weeding, 55% of land preparation and 98% of all food processing in Uganda -IFAD
Alleviating food Security
Women in rural areas produce at least 50% of the world’s food – FAO
Improving livelihoods
In Uganda, 72% of all employed women and 90% of all rural women work in agriculture. Only 53% of rural men do so - IFAD
The hungry are farmers, most of the farmers are women and nearly all farmers are smallholders – 2010 Action Aid Uganda Report
Challenges of Targeting Women
Cultural norms and domestic demands reduce women’s mobility and therefore their likelihood to seek information away from home
Can’t afford information resources
Less likely to approach male agricultural extension workers who form the majority of the tradition extension network
Out of Reach
88% of Uganda women live in rural areas – UBOS. Poor infrastructure makes them hard to reach
Community Knowledge Worker
Real-time feedback
loop
Actionable targeted content
Shared technology
platform
Network of village level field agents
Model for Improved Ag Extension
•More, poorer farmers reached •Higher-quality, contextualized services•Increased rate of adoption
1 2 3 4
Layered over Existing Ag Ext to Reach More Farmers 5
Network of village-level field agents
Available at the grassroots . One CKW covers:
4-6 villages
500-800 households
5-10 km radius
Goal is for women to make up a considerable proportion of the network:
35% women composition in the first phase
40% women in phase 2
Emphasis on poor farmers
50% poor farmers among all reached
Shared Technology Platform
18,551 information tips disseminated via mobile phones since June 15th, about 30% of them to women
Database with 4,234 (and growing) on-demand tips on 35 crops, 32 markets, 50+% of the information is on crop lifecycles and food crops to target women
530 WFP baseline survey responses from Oct 1-28, 25% of them from women.
Real-time support to 192 (33% women) CKWs
Farmer databank with 6,005 registered farmers
Salesforce.com based analytical tools and dashboard for M & E, and reporting purposes
Actionable Targeted Content
Information targeting women
Information targeting men
Dynamic Feedback Loop
CKWs: Feedback Relayed from farmers, use case stories, mobile surveys (farmer registration &
poverty stats (1CKW:500 SHFs)
Salesforce.com: Farmer Databank Analytics
Central Database: Usage Reports
Layered Over Existing Ag Ext To Reach More Farmers
CKW candidates are nominated by local agricultural service organizations but the network is more dense/deeper and further reaching than the traditional
extension service
CKW Source/Partner
Organizations
World Food Program (WFP)
Kapchorwa Commercial
Farmers Association
(KACOFA)
National Agricultural Advisory
Service (NAADS)
Uganda Agricultural Input
Dealers Association
(UNADA)
Stability Peace &
Reconciliation in Northern
Uganda (SPRING)
Agency for Technical
Cooperation and
Development (ACTED)
Traditional Extension Agent
CKWs
An Engendered Approach
With our Gender M&E consultant, we developed an approach for ensuring gender and social equity in the project outcomes
An engendered Results Framework and Balanced Scorecard
A Gender Needs Assessment for CKWs and SHF is conducted for every district we operate was conducted in Kapchorwa
All Staff Training on gender mainstreaming
Program & departmental gender metrics reviewed on quarterly basis
Women 33%
Men 67%
Gender Composition of CKW Network
Some CKW Gender Targets
40% women of total farmers served*
35% women composition of CKW network of agents in Phase 1
70:30 male to female CKW profit ratio
35% very poor farmers of total reached
15% repeat users among both male and female farmers
Early Results: Who we are Serving
Females below $1/day
11%
Males below $1/day
35%
Females above $1/day
18%
Males above $1/day
36%
Gender & Poverty Status of Registered Farmers (Kapchorwa SHFs)
Early Results: Strong Demand For Information
54%39%
5%
2%
Information Services: Frequency of use by farmers
(Sept 1 – Oct 21, 2010)
1
2-5
6-10
>10
Performance Against Key Indicators
Indicator Target Actual
Farmers Reached FemaleMale
3,5361,4141,237
46511,0302,939
Total Interactions 11,520 14,616
Total CKWs deployed
200 192
Early Findings: Gender Dynamics in Outreach
72%
28%
82%
18%
Gender dynamics in SHF outreach •30% female CKWs•Female CKWs more likely to reach female farmers (28%:18%)
•Female farmers return to female CKWs 3x in 6 weeks
•Targeting women’s groups
•Researching female demand & barriers to usage
•Exploring incentives for outreach to female farmers
Early Findings: Information Needs for Female Farmers
61
21
71
18
118
7081
3817
41
210
16 13 20 2111
36
0
50
100
150
200
250
Topics Searched by Female Farmers
Early Findings: Female Farmers’ Preferred CKWs
78
42
11
22 22
37
25
8 9
23
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
1 2 3 4 5>
Nu
mb
er
of
farm
ers
wh
o c
on
sult
ed
th
e C
KW
o
f gi
ven
Ge
nd
er
Number of farmers consulted a CKW of given gender
Rate at which female farmers consult Female and Male CKWs
Female CKW
Male CKW
Female CKWs63%
Male CKWs37%
Early Findings: Summary
Our Network of CKW is 33% female
Of all the farmers reached, only 29% are female
Female CKWs drive outreach to female farmers Female CKWs served 63% of the female farmers served between Sept,
1 to Oct 25
Registered more than half of the female farmers in the system
Register higher repeat usage among female farmers than the male
Female farmers are very interested in market information, a diversion from early hypotheses
Challenges in Meeting Gender Targets
Greater Inclusion of Women in the CKW Network
Low literacy levels among rural women
Stronger male competition
Heavy Domestic Demands
Greater Outreach to Female Farmers
Low numbers of female CKWs
Unanswered questions around gender information needs and barriers to usage
Skepticism regarding technology
Based a lot on the farm – hard to reach unless extra incentive is given to CKWs to do house calls
Some Solutions to Gender Challenges
Using gender disaggregated data to get better visibility on what our gender impact looks like
Qualitative research to give context to the numbers/data
Gender mainstreaming training for all staff
Recruiting from women’s organizations
Affirmative action in recruitment
Exploring incentive bonus to CKW for reaching women
Questions that Remain
How to incentive CKWs to go the extra mile to reach immobile women
Understanding women information needs and use barriers better
How to include more women given the barriers like illiteracy and domestic demands
Understanding women’s attitudes towards technology solution
We are learning that equipping a network of village level intermediaries with the right technology can lead to greater reach of the rural poor. We still need to understand how to ensure the benefits spread equitably among both men and women as well as the poor and non poor
20
CKW “Information Hub”
How do I deal with this yellow pus on my banana stems?
Appendix 1: Mobile Information Service
Appendix 2: Survey Application
Select surveyTake GPS location
Begin survey