A
recent IFAD event discusses the use of GALS methodology to understand gender
and to boost financial inclusion
By
Fred Iga Luganda and Vivienne Likhanga
Standard approaches to
gender mainstreaming are based on the assumption that empowering women
"outside" the household domain will automatically increase women's
bargaining power within households.
For successful gender
mainstreaming, in order to empower women, experience has shown that it is not
enough to promote their participation in community decision-making and in the
workplace or the market. It is also vital to address their status and their
role within the home.
Household Methodologies
are participatory approaches used to promote equitable intra-household
relations, fair division of labour and shared decision-making processes. GALS
comprises of a series of specific participatory processes and diagram tools
that enable household members to negotiate their needs and interests to find
innovative, gender-equitable solutions in livelihoods planning and value chain
development.
It
aims to give women as well as men more control over their lives as the basis
for individual, household, community and organizational development. GALS is
not only a ‘methodology for women’, but a mainstreaming methodology for women
and men to address gender issues important to the effectiveness of any
development. How can we enhance the
integration of the Gender Action Learning System (GALS) and Household
Methodologies in project design and implementation? In every country,
conditions are different, how do we adapt GALS throughout the world? How do we
measure the impact of GALS integration at project level?
These and many more were
part of the pertinent questions raised during the Forum on Empowerment through Household Methodologies organized jointly
by IFAD, OXFAM and Hivos, and held in Rome between the 27 and 29 of June, 2016.
The forum was held in order to capitalize on the positive results so far and to
meet the high demand for GALS, identifying partners that can bring household
methodologies and GALS to scale, through sharing of experiences, exchange and
replicating.
PROCASUR having worked on
several learning initiatives on the GALS methodology
was pleased to attend the forum and contribute to the discussions. PROCASUR had
a poster session on the use of the Learning Route (LR) methodology as a tool to
scale up the GALS methodology, based on our experience with LRs focusing on
GALS. The forum was well attended by
practitioners and key players with a special focus on GALS. There were also
valuable contributions from experts and champions in household methodologies,
including from IFAD supported projects in East and Southern Africa (ESA) and
West and Central Africa (WCA) and observers from NGOs, UN agencies and private
sector. Several presentations of experiences with household methodologies
and GALS were made highlighting challenges, achievements and impact.
Participants discussed how the approaches have been used in value chain
development, rural finance and extension services.
Fred Iga Luganda, a gender
and micro-finance expert and consultant on gender related issues in PROCASUR implemented
learning route projects gave his contribution on the modalities of using GALS methodology to understand gender
and to boost financial inclusion.
Gender roles, status and
relations vary according to place (countries, regions, and villages), groups
(class, ethnic, religious, and caste), generations and stages of the lifecycle
of individuals.
Gender is, thus, not about
women but about the relationship between women and men.’ As the world strives
to overcome poverty, especially in rural areas, it’s observed that women tend
to be disenfranchised most due to gender biases noted above. Women in particular
fail to access financial services which in most cases has affected many
households and children.
Women tend to be
entrepreneurial and their inability to have access to financial services affects
their self being, children and entire household. In developing countries, where
poverty is prevalent, women face a lot of gender biases which affect their
participation in the financial system.
In a nutshell, gender
biases do affect financial inclusion if we do not pay particular attention.
It’s no doubt that, many interventions have been designed to enable access to
financial services by disadvantaged communities. Microfinance in particular was
at one point referred as a magic bullet for poverty.
Conversely, many
developing countries report on average 30-40 per cent of their populations
being financially excluded. A huge chunk of the noted figures isin rural areas
and gender plays a huge factor to their exclusion. Financial inclusion and
rural finance has been majorly looked at in perspective of individuals, leaving
out the households, which may be stifling development in long run.
Taking a closer look at
households, enables us to analyse gender and see how it impacts financial inclusion.
Using Gender Action Learning System, which is a household methodology being usedin
many developing countries especially Uganda, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Sierra Leone
and Rwanda, communities use the GALS tools like the Financial Vision Journey, Financial Inclusion and Social Empowerment
Maps, and Financial Inclusion Challenge Trees to analyse gender in
financial inclusion.
Using cases from Bauchi
state in Nigeria, we discovered that, though the Central Bank of Nigeria had
defined financial inclusion, communities using the savings and loans,
microfinance institutions and some state officials did not know about this
strategy, and neither was their understanding same as that of the Central
Bank of Nigeria. A divergence of
individual dreams, household aspirations and non-alignment with Financial
Service Providers, complicates serving of clients and also fitting with
national vision. Using the Financial Vision Journey provides a clear message
and analysis of whether institutions’ actions are translated into reality (Social
Performance Management). Through the Financial Inclusion Trees, the dimensions
and key performance indicators of Financial Inclusion are tested, solutions are
generated and SMART actions can be sought. Analysis of factors affecting
dimensions from an individual, institutional and national point of view; enables
practitioners and policy makers to understand challenges in financial
inclusion. Financial inclusion and social empowerment mapping helps providing a
clear analysis using gender to analyse power dynamics and relations with
institutions, friends and others who can help towards achieving dreams and
aspirations. The ultimate goal for everyone is to be empowered.
Gender is important in financial
inclusion debate, our understanding and use of gender could go along way in
solving poverty in communities.Using GALS tools provides a platform for
creating awareness of gender, financial inclusion and how both gender and
financial inclusion are intertwined. Most important is the ability to create
dialogue and get a win-win position to empower and create an inclusive
environment for all.
Fred Luganda is the Micro-finance and
Gender Expert, Technical Coordination of Learning Routes for PROCASUR Africa. Viviana
Sacco is the Regional Coordinator West and Central Africa for
PROCASUR Africa. Valentina Sauve is
the Regional Coordinator East and Southern Africa for Procasur Africa.