Senegal

Understanding Women's Needs for Weather and Climate Information in Agrarian Settings: The Case of Ngetou Maleck, Senegal

Citation:

Carr, Edward R., Grant Fleming, and Tshibangu Kalala. 2016. “Understanding Women's Needs for Weather and Climate Information in Agrarian Settings: The Case of Ngetou Maleck, Senegal.” Weather, Climate, and Society 8 (3): 247–64.

Authors: Edward R. Carr, Grant Fleming, Tshibangu Kalala

Abstract:

While climate services have the potential to reduce precipitation- and temperature-related risks to agrarian livelihoods, such outcomes are possible only when they deliver information that is salient, legitimate, and credible to end users. This is particularly true of climate services intended to address the needs of women in agrarian contexts. The design of such gender-sensitive services is hampered by oversimplified framings of women as a group in both the adaptation and climate services literatures. This paper demonstrates that even at the village level, women have different climate and weather information needs, and differing abilities to act on that information. Therefore, starting with preconceived connections between identities and vulnerability is likely to result in overgeneralizations that hinder the ability to address the climate-related development and adaptation needs of the most vulnerable. Instead, as is demonstrated in this paper, the design and implementation of effective gender-sensitive climate services must start with the relevant social differences that shape people’s livelihoods decisions and outcomes, including but not limited to gender.

Keywords: geographic location/entity, Africa, forecasting, seasonal forecasting, variability, climate variability, applications, agriculture, local effects, societal impacts

Topics: Agriculture, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Women, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Senegal

Year: 2016

A Stronger Voice for Women in Local Land Governance: Effective Approaches in Tanzania, Ghana and Senegal

Citation:

Sutz, Philippine, Amaelle Seigneret, Mary Richard, Patricia Blankson Akapko, Fati Alhassan, and Mamadou Fall. 2019. A Stronger Voice for Women in Local Land Governance: Effective Approaches in Tanzania, Ghana and Senegal. London: International Institute for Environment and Development. 

Authors: Philippine Sutz, Amaelle Seigneret, Mary Richard, Patricia Blankson Akapko, Fati Alhassan, Mamadou Fall

Abstract:

Pressures on land have been on the rise over the past two decades across subSaharan Africa, notably due to increasing commercial interests fuelled by global demand for agricultural commodities. In Tanzania, Ghana and Senegal, such pressures have exacerbated tenure insecurity for rural populations and resulted in numerous cases of dispossession and displacement.

In many cases, rural livelihoods are being undermined: increased competition and reduced access to land impact communities’ economic development, sometimes threatening food security, and bear significant impacts on wellbeing and sociocultural identities. Communities with fragile and exclusionary governance structures are more likely to lose out. Although important progress has been made in terms of legal empowerment – including women’s empowerment –, local land governance systems across the three countries studied remain weak and gender-discriminatory.

Vulnerable members – in particular women – often hold little to no control over land and are significantly under-represented in decision-making processes, although situations can vary across areas. As a result, they tend to be more severely affected by the impacts of commercial pressures on land.

This highlights a need to address exclusion and gender-discrimination in local level governance structures. The rationale underlining this idea is that increasing social cohesion and making decision-making arrangements more participative and gender-equitable will strengthen a community’s capacity to collectively discuss and deliberate on land-related matters.

This report focuses on initiatives that have been taking place in Tanzania, Ghana and Senegal since 2016, and that aim to reinforce governance structures to make them inclusive and gender-inclusive in response to the challenges aforementioned. The approaches they developed aim to support women in entering the political space and participate meaningfully in land governance. In Tanzania, where village authorities play a key role in local land governance, the Tanzania Women Lawyers Association (TAWLA) has been working with village councils across several districts to support the adoption of gender-sensitive village bylaws promoting more inclusive and participative land governance.

In Ghana, the Network for Women’s Rights (NETRIGHT) and the Grassroots Sisterhood Foundation (GSF) have overseen the establishment of local, gender sensitive governance committees in nine communities. These advise traditional authorities in land-related decision-making processes, reflecting a local context where customs play a key role in land management.

In Senegal where customary land tenure has been abolished and land management has been devolved to the municipal level, Innovation Environnement Développement en Afrique (IED Afrique) has piloted the reform of a local government body responsible for land management. The aim is to promote the inclusion and participation of women and the adoption of a local land charter.

The report presents each initiative and associated outcomes and lessons, and then reflects on their broader implications for the future of work on gender and land rights.

Topics: Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, Land Grabbing, Rights, Land Rights, Security, Food Security Regions: Africa, East Africa, West Africa Countries: Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania

Year: 2019

Gender Audits: An Approach to Engendering Energy Policy in Nepal, Kenya and Senegal

Citation:

Clancy, Joy S., and Nthabiseng Mohlakoana. 2020. “Gender Audits: An Approach to Engendering Energy Policy in Nepal, Kenya and Senegal.” Energy Research & Social Science 62 (April): 101378.

Authors: Joy S. Clancy, Nthabiseng Mohlakoana

Abstract:

Gender audits are an approach for putting gender on the policy agenda and are an alternative to gender budgets being less dependant on experts in government finance.

This paper explores the effectiveness of gender audits as an approach to mainstreaming in the energy sector which has lagged other sectors in mainstreaming gender. The assessment takes the experiences of an international network on gender and sustainable energy that aims to get gender onto the energy policy agenda. Since there is no standard audit methodology, the network developed its own.

The paper uses an analysis of qualitative data, reviews of audit reports and key informant interviews to answer two questions. As a result of gender audits, have gender issues or attending to women's particular interests been incorporated in energy policy? Did participation in an audit build the capacity of national actors to contribute to gender mainstreaming in the energy sector? Detailed data comes from network countries conducting audits: Kenya, Senegal and Nepal, with supporting evidence from 8 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

The gender audit methodology used is partially effective in integrating gender issues into government energy policy. Pragmatic, conceptual and political barriers to gender mainstreaming continue to operate. Adopting gender-aware policies occurs rapidly in organisations that participated in the audits. Male employees more readily accept gender policies when they see that policies also benefits men. In the audit countries, a group of national gender and energy experts has been established able to contribute to mainstreaming gender in the energy sector.

Keywords: gender mainstreaming, gender audits, energy policy, engendering policy, knowledge networks, gender capacity, mainstreaming effectiveness

Topics: Gender, Gender Analysis, Gender Budgeting, Gender Mainstreaming, Governance, Infrastructure, Energy Regions: Africa, East Africa, West Africa, Asia, South Asia Countries: Kenya, Nepal, Senegal

Year: 2020

Women Smuggling and the Men who Help Them: Gender, Corruption and Illicit Networks in Senegal

Citation:

Howson, Cynthia. 2012. “Women Smuggling and the Men who Help Them: Gender, Corruption and Illicit Networks in Senegal.” Journal of Modern African Studies 50 (3): 421-45.

Author: Cynthia Howson

Abstract:

This paper investigates gendered patterns of corruption and access to illicit networks among female cross-border traders near the Senegambian border. Despite a discourse of generosity and solidarity, access to corrupt networks is mediated by class and gender, furthering social differentiation, especially insofar as it depends on geographic and socio-economic affinity with customs officers, state representatives and well-connected transporters. Issues of organisational culture, occupational identity and interpersonal negotiations of power represent important sources of corruption that require an understanding of the actual dynamics of public administration. While smuggling depends on contesting legal and social boundaries, the most successful traders (and transporters) strive to fulfil ideal gender roles as closely as possible. Ironically, trading on poverty and feminine vulnerability only works for relatively affluent women.

Topics: Corruption, Economies, Informal Economies, Poverty, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Femininity/ies, Trafficking, Human Trafficking Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Senegal

Year: 2012

The Gendered Nature of Subsistence and Its Effect on Customary Land Tenure

Citation:

Grigsby, William J. 2004. "The Gendered Nature of Subsistence and Its Effect on Customary Land Tenure." Society & Natural Resources 17 (3): 207-22.

Author: William J. Grigsby

Abstract:

In agrarian societies living in marginally productive environments, the primacy of subsistence production can shape customary rights to land and resources. In the Senegalese villages that participated in this field research, the subsistence imperative means land not being cultivated should be made available to those who would clear and farm it, regardless of who claims the land. Men consider women's contributions to the subsistence enterprise as secondary to their own responsibilities for organizing communal grain production. Women can use land, but not control it or manage its resources, and are subject to eviction and/or relegated to less fertile areas. Further, women's access to important commons resources may be more a function of prevailing land use than any structure of tenure rights.

Keywords: bush fallow, gender, land tenure, land use, Senegal, subsistence, West Africa, women, Property Rights

Topics: Agriculture, Gender, Land Tenure, Rights, Land Rights Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Senegal

Year: 2004

Globalization, Gender, and Poverty in the Senegal River Valley

Citation:

Koopman, Jeanne E. 2009. “Globalization, Gender, and Poverty in the Senegal River Valley.” Feminist Economics 15 (3): 253–85. 

Author: Jeanne E. Koopman

Abstract:

In an impressive attempt to guarantee food security, well over two billion dollars have been invested in the modernization of the agrarian economy in the Senegal River Valley. But, even though two huge dams and thousands of village-based irrigation schemes have been constructed since the late 1970s, food security is still as illusive as ever. This study attempts to explain why. In doing so it focuses on the impact of donor-dominated macro-structural change on gender and class relations. This analytical perspective has two benefits: First, it reveals the risks posed by foreign domination of development programs for different segments of the rural population. Second, it points to a critical element in a new approach to improving farm productivity and food security - improving women's access to land and technology.

Keywords: food security, foreign aid, inequality, structural adjustment, women's land rights

Topics: Class, Development, Economies, Poverty, Food Security, Gender, Women, Infrastructure Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Senegal

Year: 2009

Negotiating Development in Muslim Societies: Gendered Spaces and Translocal Connections

Citation:

Lachenmann, Gudrun, and Petra Dannecker. 2008. Negotiating Development in Muslim Societies: Gendered Spaces and Translocal Connections. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Authors: Gudrun Lachenmann, Petra Dannecker

Abstract:

Negotiating Development in Muslim Societies explores the negotiation processes of global development concepts such as poverty alleviation, human rights, and gender equality. It focuses on three countries that are undergoing different Islamisation processes: Senegal, Sudan, and Malaysia. While much has been written about the hegemonic production and discursive struggle of development concepts globally, this book analyzes the negotiation of these development concepts locally and translocally. Lachenmann and Dannecker present empirically grounded research to show that, although women are instrumentalized in different ways for the formation of an Islamic identity of a nation or group, they are at the same time important actors and agents in the processes of negotiating the meaning of development, restructuring of the public sphere, and transforming the societal gender order.

(Lexington Books)

Topics: Armed Conflict, Development, Economies, Economic Inequality, Poverty, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Livelihoods, Post-Conflict, Religion, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa, West Africa, Asia, South Asia Countries: Malaysia, Senegal, Sudan

Year: 2008

Picturing Islamic Authority: Gender Metaphors and Sufi Leadership in Senegal

Citation:

Hill, Joseph. 2014. “Picturing Islamic Authority: Gender Metaphors and Sufi Leadership in Senegal.” Islamic Africa 5 (2): 275-315. 

Author: Joseph Hill

Abstract:

Gendered metaphors of begetting, birth, milk nursing, maternal nurturing, virility, filial piety, patrilineage, and marital relationships have been central to Sufi imaginations of religious knowledge and authority for over a millennium. Contemporary adherents of the Fayḍa Tijāniyya Sufi movement in Senegal continue to use these metaphors, picturing changing relations of religious authority in terms of familiar social realities. Although the most widely used metaphors are perhaps those of fatherhood for male leaders and motherhood for female leaders, a range of masculine and feminine metaphors can describe either men or women. The Fayḍa Tijāniyya's founder, Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse, is best known to disciples as “Baay” (“Father”). The paternal metaphor is largely reserved for Shaykh Ibrahim's unique place in the movement. Yet women leaders overwhelmingly describe themselves in terms of maternal metaphors, presenting religious leadership as growing naturally out of their maternal qualities. At the same time, these women deconstruct gender distinctions using mystical discourses, sometimes presenting all Sufis as “men” and sometimes insisting that gender has no reality. Although some scholars have argued that Sufi gender metaphors value men and masculinity while devaluing women and femininity, this article shows that the effects of a metaphor must be sought in the performative context in which it is invoked. Ancient gender metaphors now serve to imagine new configurations of religious authority, including the growing number and influence of women Sufi leaders.

Topics: Clan, Gender, Women, Men, Masculinity/ies, Gender Roles, Femininity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Governance, Religion Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Senegal

Year: 2014

Land and Water Access for Women of the Locality of Velingara – Senegal

Citation:

Gaye, Docteur Awa, Papa Gallo Sow, Ousseynow KA, Abdoul Aziz Ndiaye, Martial Coly Bop, Fatou Omar Sy Ndiaye, Alioune Badara Tall, et al. 2014. “Land and Water Access for Women of the Locality of Velingara – Senegal.” Science Journal of Sociology and Anthropology 2014: 1-8.

Authors: Docteur Awa Gaye, Papa Gallo Sow, Ousseynow KA, Abdoul Aziz Ndiaye, Martial Coly Bop, Fatou Omar Sy Ndiaye, Alioune Badara Tall

Abstract:

Objective: To assess women's access to land and water in Kounkané and Diobé ‑ Kabendou municipalities in Vélingara city/ Senegal.

Methods: After a literature review of policies and guidelines for women's access to land and water, quantitative and qualitative research from questionnaire, interview and focus group was made. Depending on the type of research, software Epi- info and SPSS were used to capture, control, validation, and data analysis.

Results: 448 women within an outside the women's promotion group or not, leaders or not, with an age ranging from 18 to 92 years.

- First ethnic: Pular with 69%;

- 85.5% of married women;

- 40.60% uneducated;

- 48, 80% holders of farmland;

- Running water was available at 98.40%. 62.3 % of wells are at home and not covered. Public taps accounted for 0.9 %.

Conclusion: Access to economic rights for women’s Diaobé ‑Kabendou and Kounkané  remains a major challenge. The development of operational action plans could ensure sustainable access is an imperative for the basic needs of the most vulnerable group. This effort would be undertaken for humanitarian reasons, and because it directly affects the fundamental fight against poverty: health, equity and economic growth. 

Keywords: water access, land access, economic growth, women's poverty

Topics: Economies, Environment, Gender, Women, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation, Rights, Land Rights, Property Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Senegal

Year: 2014

Women, Non-Governmental Organizations, and Deforestation: a Cross-National Study

Citation:

Shandra, John M., Carrie L. Shandra, and Bruce London. 2008. “Women, Non-Governmental Organizations, and Deforestation: A Cross-National Study.” Population and Environment 30 (1-2): 48–72.

Authors: John M. Shandra, Carrie L. Shandra, Bruce London

Abstract:

There have been several cross-national studies published in the world polity theoretical tradition that find a strong correlation between nations with high levels of environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and low levels of various forms of environmental degradation. However, these studies neglect the role that women’s NGOs potentially play in this process. We seek to address this gap by conducting a cross-national study of the association between women’s NGOs and deforestation. We examine this relationship because deforestation often translates into increased household labor, loss of income, and impaired health for women and, as a result, women’s non-governmental organizations have become increasingly involved in dealing with these problems often by protecting forests. We use data from a sample of 61 nations for the period of 1990–2005. We find substantial support for world polity theory that both high levels of women’s and environmental NGOs per capita are associated with lower rates of deforestation. We also find that high levels of debt service and structural adjustment are correlated with higher rates of forest loss. We conclude with a discussion of findings, policy implications, and possible future research directions.

Keywords: deforestation, women, non-governmental organizations, cross-national

Topics: Economies, Environment, Extractive Industries, Gender, Women, NGOs Regions: Africa, MENA, Central Africa, East Africa, North Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa, Americas, Caribbean countries, Central America, North America, South America, Asia, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, Baltic states, Balkans, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Oceania Countries: Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Hungary, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad & Tobago, Uganda, Uruguay, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Year: 2008

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