Gender mainstreaming in Agriculture Project

Gender promotion is a cross-cutting issue in JEN’s agriculture support project for returnees in Bara, Khyber Agency, FATA. In order to have gender sensitive project, JEN tried to mainstream it in all phases of the project cycle management including design, implementation and monitoring. To achieve this, JEN followed gender inclusive criteria for the selection of beneficiaries. Priority was given to most vulnerable communities members like widows, elderly headed household, child headed HHs, disable peoples, and chronically ill persons.

During assessment ten villages were explored and 1,250 beneficiaries’ households were enlisted in the targeted villages by doing door to door assessment jointly with community organization members and other notables of the respective hamlets. Project implemented following main steps to ensure gender mainstreaming.

- Proper orientation of the stakeholders, community and community organizations
- Enlisting of all households was carried out by project areas community
- Project specifically collected information related to women vulnerabilities and included households where women were facing problems
- At houses where no men were head of households project facilitated women households either directly through community organizations or by relatives of the respective households
- Project facilitated 1,250 women in getting trainings, seeds and toolkits in all villages.

All information were collected and segregated at gender level. Women and girls were taken as key vulnerable target groups and most of the households were selected based on the gender vulnerability only. Out of the 1,250 total project caseload; 956 men headed HHs and 294 women headed HHs were selected as project beneficiaries. 162 HHs were selected based on persons with disabilities. 90 HHs were selected based on persons with chronic diseases. Actual gender market of the project was 2a as significant attention was given to gender in this project including women, men, elderly; people with disability, people with chronic illness and children headed HHs.

The two activities through which gender mainstreaming was considered were,
1- Following the vulnerability criteria for selection of beneficiaries and
2- Kitchen gardening activities where 1,250 women beneficiaries were provided with vegetable seeds, tools and trainings.

Out of 10 target villages, project staff was not allowed in only 1 village to access female beneficiaries for kitchen gardening. JEN respected the local culture and norms and did not push community elders to go against their norms. JEN finally trained the female beneficiaries.

[Distribution to Elderly People]



[Distribution to persons with disability]



[Training of female beneficiaries by JEN-SDO staff on kitchen gardening]



[Training of male beneficiaries by agriculture department staff on agriculture technology]..

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