The book “Transforming Gender Relations in Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa” is now available. The book is by Cathy Farnworth, Melinda-Fones Sundell, Akinyi Nzioki, Violet Shivutse, and Marion Davis.
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Click here for a low-res PDF of the entire book – the PDF file size is 3 MB.
Click here for a high-res PDF of the entire book – the PDF file size is 43 MB.
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“This book distills lessons learned about integrating gender equality into agricultural development initiatives in Africa, with case studies of efforts at all levels, from households to national government.
“The authors start from the premise that empowered women and men are better, more successful farmers who can make the most of the opportunities around them. They argue that there is a causal relation between more equal gender relations in the household and in the community, and better agricultural outcomes: the one underpins the other.
“This is a radical thing to say, because it means that the standard development interventions – more extension services, better information, more fertilizer, better machinery – will not fully achieve their goals unless women and men are on equal footing, able to make rational economic decisions unhindered by gender norms that limit what is “appropriate” for women or for men to do, or to be.
“Empowering women as decision-makers in all areas of their lives is challenging and exciting. It is a key to poverty reduction. Transforming gender relations will help to make smallholder agriculture and associated development efforts more effective and efficient, with knock-on effects for a variety of development outcomes…”
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See the link below for more on these matters:
Recognizing the African woman farmer
https://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/2012/09/01/recognizing-the-african-woman-farmer/
Feminist Philosophers 
Excellent – thanks for this. I look forward to reading it.
Same here. I remember being so surprised to find that control of the distribution of water is a feminnist issue in a lot of countries.
Water, unfortunately yes indeed. And sadly much more (for now anyway) – such as land. [Redoing my comment here.] Interested readers might want to check out:
Uganda: The Fight For Women’s Land Rights
https://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/uganda-the-fight-for-womens-land-rights/
In so many ways, empowering women and reducing if not eliminating gender inequalities is so key/central to development (economic development, social development, human development…)
Just to be clear, the difference between the low-res and the high-res PDF files of the book involves the resolution of the pictures in the book. Both PDF files are digital. The Swedish International Agricultural Network Initiative published the book and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency financed it. For those potentially interested, here are the main chapters:
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Developing Empowerment Pathways
– The conceptual framework
Chapter 3: Transforming the Enabling Environment
– Case Study: Gender-transformative research for development: The CGIAR research program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems
Chapter 4: Capturing and Using Data on Gender
– Case Study: CARE’S Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture (WEA) framework in Mozambique
Chapter 5: Household Methodologies
– Case Study: Household gender analysis for gender transformation (Ethiopia)
– Case Study: The Agricultural Support Programme (ASP), Zambia
– Case Study: The Gender Action Learning System (GALS) methodology for value chain development in Uganda’s coffee sector
Chapter 6 Community Empowerment
– Case Study: Engaging traditional leadership for women’s rights in Zambia
– Case Study: Grassroots Women Operating in Sisterhood (GROOTS), Kenya
– Case Study: The Men’s Network, Zambia
Chapter 7: Land
– Case Study: Women’s land rights under the Constitution of Kenya, 2010
– Case Study: GROOTS Kenya
– Case Study: Women and land in Zimbabwe
– Case Study: Fighting for land rights in Zambia: Mary Banda’s story
Chapter 8: Value Chains
– Case Study: Kenya Horticultural Crops Development Authority
– Case Study: ZOPPA – organic value chains in Zimbabwe
Chapter 9: ‘Climate-Smart’ Agriculture and Beyond
– Case Study: Improving capacity in gender and climate change research
– Case Study: Sustainable Agriculture in a Changing Climate
– Case Study: Reforming gender-biased institutional arrangements: PROMARA, Kenya
– Case Study: Biogas: A sustainable source of energy and manure
David, I know a young scholar in development, so I’m going to send this on.