Benefiting Women and Men Equally

“What do I have to do to make sure that both men and women will benefit from this project?”

This is the question that CHF’s program managers must try to answer before beginning livelihoods projects in developing countries around the world. To do this, they conduct a gender analysis that asks how men’s and women’s rights, roles and responsibilities affect how they will benefit from project activities.

“The purpose of doing a gender analysis is to identify the gender inequalities that affect project results and that block men and women from benefiting equally from project activities,” explains Margaret Capelazo, CHF’s Gender Specialist. “For development projects to be sustainable, all members of the community must benefit.”

Currently at CHF, eight of 12 projects have either completed or are conducting a gender analysis to strengthen the CHF’s response to community needs.

Gender in Rural Ghana

One of CHF’s most recent gender analyses, performed in the Yendi district of Northern Ghana, showed gender inequalities in decision-making and ownership of resources. From raising children to agricultural business, men are expected to take the lead in decision making. They have more access to productive land and better farming tools and fertilizer. Women are expected to agree with their husbands’ decisions and have much less access to good land, seeds, water and manure.

By performing a gender analysis, program staff realised that if this situation continues, women will not benefit from the project as much as men. To address this obstacle, field staff has changed how they do their agricultural training to ensure that women have equal access to agricultural tools.

Local partner ACDEP and CHF have also begun to raise the issue within the community. Field staff is offering workshops and meetings with community leaders in an effort to raise awareness and promote the benefits of greater equality between men and women.

CHF's Decade-Long Partnership in Ghana

Improving the livelihoods of the world’s poor is a monumental task. For this reason, CHF works closely with local partners to maximize project results. One of these regional organizations is the Association of Church Development Projects (ACDEP) in Ghana.

ACDEP, founded in 1977, is a non-profit umbrella organization representing a network of 48 grassroots development partners in Northern Ghana. Together with CHF, they work to improve the livelihoods of rural households in Ghana.

“CHF’s partnership model assures that we asses and meet the needs of the rural poor effectively,” explains Leslie Gardiner, the Program Manager for Africa. “Through organizations like ACDEP, the communities themselves are implementing and taking ownership of the projects. This is the key to the sustainability of results.”

As one of CHF’s longest partnerships — ACDEP has been a partner for a decade — the two organizations have worked together on numerous projects. The partnership’s current initiatives include the Building Resilience in Northern Ghana and the Sustainable Poverty Reduction in Northern Ghana projects. These projects aim to reduce poverty in rural areas by increasing household income, improving opportunities for women, and sustainable food security.

Learn more about ACDEP here
For an overview of the Ghana projects, click here