How Ripple Effect’s gender equality innovation is helping to improve farm yields in Africa

By Sofanit Mesfin, Gender and Social Inclusion Co-Ordinator for Ripple Effect NGO

Agriculture is the engine of growth and rural development in Africa. More than 60 per cent of women in sub-Saharan Africa work in agriculture and they produce up to 80 percent of the continent’s food.

However, deep-seated customs and land tenure laws preclude women from owning and inheriting land. In North Africa, fewer than five per cent of women are landowners. Across the rest of the continent the figure is 15 per cent.

So, although women are doing the great majority of the work of growing food, they are widely excluded from decisions about how the land will be used, and there is often an imbalance in the home between who does the work and who spends the money.

Despite the indispensable role women play within households and communities, their efforts are not widely recognised by society. What's more, women have very little access to their household’s resources and cash and almost no role in decision-making.

Add in the fact that East and Southern Africa has high rates of sexual violence against women and girls, and you have a very difficult situation for rural women. In seven of the countries in our region, one in five young women aged 15 to 24 report that they have experienced sexual violence.

Transformative Household Methodology (THM) is a tool developed by Ripple Effect Ethiopia that helps families to see, very visually, the overwork and disempowerment of female family members.

The training exercise is accessible and friendly, and most importantly involves everyone in a household in assessing who does the work and who makes the decisions. Its simplicity, and the way everyone is engaged, encourages each family to find the solutions for their own problems.

Family members draw a grid on the ground with sticks. Down one axis are the essential household activities, often represented by an object (a water container for fetching water, a hoe representing farming, a pot representing cooking…) or a resource (food, livestock, cash).

Down the other axis are all the family members. Each member of the household is encouraged to place stones or beans in the grid, based on his or her responsibility for that activity or control over resources.

Everyone in the family can immediately see who is doing most of the work, and who controls the resources. There are seldom any disagreements about who does what, but the gender differences in workload and decision-making are clear to everyone.

Together the family discusses the issues they can see in front of them, and decides on any actions they want to take.

Ripple Effect Ethiopia has tested this methodology within groups of households, and in community groups, and we have found that the truly transformative impact comes from working at an individual household level, guided by an experienced trainer. Personal issues can be addressed, and young family members are involved in the discussions, opening the door to generational change.

This innovative relationships methodology contributes to women’s empowerment by reducing their unpaid workload in the household, giving them more time and energy to be involved in community work and higher-value activities.

We see women becoming more involved in household decision-making, including discussions about how substantial amounts of money should be spent. Men got involved with decisions around cooking and food.

Our data shows that women's physical workload decreases as a result of THM sessions and that men became significantly more involved in nearly all household activities. Even when men reported that they were teased by others for performing what were perceived as “female” tasks they persevered, which indicates an authentic change in attitude.

Critically, when household workloads are more fairly shared, and women have a voice in what crops will be grown or what equipment or livestock will be bought, farm yields tend to increase. Families become more food secure, and this increased security improves family relationships further, cementing the changes in a positive feedback loop.

“Whenever I earned money, I never discussed with my wife how to spend it; it was mine and I spent it as I wished; sometimes on unnecessary things. I am glad now we jointly decide how we spend family income which has led to developments in our home.” - Jean-Baptiste, Ripple Effect project participant.

Transformative Household Methodology is a cornerstone of Ripple Effect’s work in sustainable agriculture, because when you empower women you empower the whole community too.