Empowering change: bridging gender inequalities in rural Africa

By Sofanit Mesfin, Gender and Social Inclusion Coordinator at Ripple Effect

Our programmes offer training in sustainable agriculture, so that smallholder farmers in rural Africa are empowered to grow more food, access more nutritious meals, and start businesses selling their harvests’ surplus. Within that work lies a key component that is essential in improving the entire household’s wellbeing as they grow themselves out of poverty: gender and social inclusion.

Most women have very little or no control over resources, and their level of participation in decision-making processes is extremely low. In times of food shortages, women, who are responsible for providing and preparing food, are those family members who receive less food, with severe consequences for their levels of malnutrition and exposure to diseases. 

Heavy physical workload has dramatic consequences on women’s overall fitness and wellbeing. This has significant impact at family-level, which includes high school drop-out rates of girls who have to support their mothers in carrying out daily work; and resort to seasonal migration of girls and women towards urban centers. These are major issues that our charity is  addressing.

"People are the centre of our work - not land, not agribusiness. Everyone must be included, and the benefits must be for everyone, if our work is to be effective." – Sofanit Mesfin, Gender and Social Inclusion Coordinator at Ripple Effect.

From the start of our programmes, we work closely with families to bridge gender inequalities, by giving them the opportunity to reflect on their household dynamics and how that affects each member’s wellbeing. Our gender and social inclusion approach also helps us tackle gender-based violence that is often triggered by the lack of involvement of women in decision-making. This is where our Transformative Household Methodology (THM) is used.

The Transformative Household Methodology (THM) is a tool that aims to create awareness of intra-household gender relations between women, men, girls and boys. The THM identifies the different roles and responsibilities of household members, their access and control over resources and their related benefits.

The methodology is developed combining the Harvard Gender Analytical Tool that makes use of activity profiles and analysis of access and control over resources (and related benefits) and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools such as proportional piling, wealth ranking and seasonal analysis.

While other methodologies focus on societal and community groups, the THM is used at household-level, putting a strong emphasis on gender relations and tailored to each family. This tool has proven to be particularly effective in rural contexts because it is illiterate-friendly and promotes a process that is simple and easily understood by all household members.

The THM exercise is practiced by all household members under the guidance of a trained facilitator. Participants build one grid with wooden sticks: each box represents an activity (fetching water, farming, cooking etc) or a resource (food, livestock, cash etc). Each household member adds stones or beans in the grid based on his/her workload related to a specific activity or based on his/her access and control over resources.

Following the exercise, household members count the number of stones or beans placed on the symbol for each activity and then correlate the result with the respective family members. Through facilitated conversation, outcomes are discussed, and it is typically found that women and girls have been assigned more stones than men and boys.

As household members become aware of the differences in workload and access/control over resources within the household, they develop a family action plan to follow, with the goal of achieving a more balanced distribution of activities. By empowering them to identify their own family’s inequalities and putting the onus on them to find their own solutions, women empowerment becomes more sustainable in the long run.

According to Rachel Jewkes, founder member of the Sexual Violence Research initiative, both structural and gender inequalities are drivers of violence against women and girls. This includes poverty, low education, patriarchal privilege and disempowerment of women, which are prevalent amongst communities in rural Africa.

The communities we work with are affected by all these drivers. Sustainable agriculture and enterprise development training offer long-term solutions to poverty. Family members of all genders who are included in the programmes gain the skills and confidence to build on their savings, which are used to increase their farming and business capacities and send their children to school.

The THM sessions and inclusion of women and people with disabilities in our training helps to bridge inequality gaps. While families are responsible for their own change following training, we have been able to make strides in encouraging new household dynamics through the THM sessions. In Busia and Bungoma, Kenya, 77% of women who joined Ripple Effect programmes reported full involvement in deciding which crops would be grown, up from 23%.

In rural Africa, gender norms and the patriarchal nature of society give men the highest authority, and women are expected to obey and perform household and caring duties. Timothy Ndagizimana, a 33-year-old man from Burundi, upheld this societal belief rooted in his culture’s traditions. Timothy is married to 22-year-old Esther from Congo. They both settled in a refugee camp in southwestern Uganda with their two daughters.

Timothy was the family’s sole decision-maker, and restricted Esther from any contribution to their family’s future, leaving all care responsibilities to her. This eventually led to Esther feeling burdened by her workload and she complained to her husband about his lack of participation in household activities.

When we interviewed her a few years later, Esther admitted that she became a victim of physical abuse because of these dynamics: “We had no peace. Because of constant fights, our shop, the only family business and source of income collapsed. Things got worse - for two years, 2022 and 2023, we were living separately in different rooms, though under the same roof”.

Timothy joined Ripple Effect’s Agriculture and Market Support programme in Uganda in 2023. He joined a THM session and learned about the value that his wife’s contribution could have, as well as understand the burden she felt. This session revealed a lot to Timothy, who gained a whole new perspective on his household’s dynamics.

“I realised I have been living in agony, and denial with my wife for years, while blindly proving my powers as a man, now I clearly know that the key to happiness at home between man and wife is respect, tolerance, shared decisions, and openness” says Timothy.

This was cheerfully confirmed by Esther who said: “Now, we live in peace at home while working together to achieve our family vision, we hired land worth 200,000 Ugandan Shillings (£42.43) from Kakoni Village and invested in growing onions, tomatoes, cabbages, and eggplants as a job. Our expected harvest is over 1,000,000 Uganda Shillings (£212.15). With this, we look forward to creating more employment opportunities for young people, we are overwhelmed by the magnitude of work in the farm, we need one or two casual labourers to support us”.

The THM session Timothy joined has proven to be transformational for their family and has rectified the physical violence that Esther previously faced. Timothy and Esther now have an inspirational vision of restoring their shop which previously collapsed. From their earnings, they look forward to sending their daughters to better schools and improving the food and income security of their home.

If you would like to continue hearing about our work and receiving success stories, you can sign up to our newsletter.

You can also make a difference by getting involved and helping us reach more families: