Empowering WOMEN Through Rural Infrastructure

Mainstreaming Gender in Transport Xiaohong Yang Lead Transport Specialist 9 February 2012
The views expressed in this paper are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), or its Board of Governors, or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use. The countries listed in this paper do not imply any view on ADB's part as to sovereignty or independent status or necessarily conform to ADB's terminology

Background
% of PRC average Income-Earning Opportunities Apart from agriculture, very few other income earning opportunities exist in the rural areas. Many men migrate to the cities in search of work, although they are not able to send much money back to the household. Women cannot easily work outside their community due to their other responsibilities for taking care of the children, livestock, agricultural land and the household. They are therefore very restricted in the type of work they can access.

GDP/capita

Rural household consumption

Road Conditions in Yunnan

Over 86% of the road network is rural roads, out of which 85% is unpaved (eastern, gravel, and stone-paved surfaces). The lack of routine maintenance has resulted in poor rural road conditions. Roads are located in mountainous terrain, and subjected to high rainfall. During rainy season, landslides commonly block the roads and are only cleared after the rainy season, leaving communities without access for months at a time. Rural communities face considerable transport difficulties and high costs to access goods and services, including for the purchase of agricultural inputs and the sale of their produce.

Leverage ADB unique advantages for results

Works in partnership with local people: womens federation and local engineers. Local people and local engineers are being guided towards achieving results Local people are making steps for themselves. They are making their own plan and replicate it in the whole Dehong prefecture in the next year to come!

GDCF funded the Pilot and has been a strong encouragement throughout

Linkages of GDCF financial resources, ADB experts in gender and social development, our lending and learning opportunities

Impact and Outputs of

GDCF 6143

Experience shows supporting women is the best way to support the entire community
Women Status has improved Village and township leaders have expressed new understanding of womens capacities (men would have given up, but women continue and finish) Earnings have increased decision-making in household (e.g. less quarrels about use of money) Men have taken over some tasks (e.g. cooking)

Maintenance costs
Average costs came to CNY 5,250/km, ranging from CNY 3,300/km to CNY 7,800/km 84% salary costs creating incomes and employment for rural communities Activities go beyond routine maintenance (emergency and improvement) Tools and safety equipment and insurance purchased by the project Management burden considered high by CBs (2 staff members x 2 days each month) Introduction of performance-based contracts under the subsequent SSTA project.

Maintenance costs by activity

42% of costs for landslides 36% road surface and shoulder repairs

Training and Capacity Building

Road conditions
fotos
Before After

Rural Infrastructure project can empower women

Examples of gender mainstreaming to showcase promising approaches

Road conditions
Before After

Women provided great contribution to rural Infrastructure project

Seeing is believing.

Road conditions

Better to see once than to hear 100 times

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Other repairs carried out

Spot improvements

Stone paved repairs carried out

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Assessment of Capacity
From This manual sounds pretty simple, but I wonder if she is up to it! Dont worry, we know these roads better than you do. I have lived here all my life! Do you want to ask interns to help you working on the monthly checkups before and during rainy season?

TO...

No, I better go to ask women maintenance group, they are far much better!

In many projects, especially for routine maintenance, women contractors have been more effective and produced a better quality of work than male led contractors.
Source: DFID Research Scheme Number R6476 Community Participation in Road Maintenance
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Empowering Women through rural transport infrastructure

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KPS: Guide, Manual and Brochure

Xiaohong, Perhaps, you can produce something like this for Yunnan project, Sonomi

WITH SPECIAL THANKS

GCOP: Shireen Lateef, Bart W. Edes, Sonomi Tanaka, Sri Wening Handayani, Samantha Hung, Aldrin Roco and other peer reviewers. EARD: Klaus Gerhaeusser, Edgar A. Cua, David Sobel, Scott Ferguson, Malu Panlilio, Chenglong Chu, Lei Kan. TCOP: Tyrrell Duncan, David Salter, Hideaki Iwasaki, Gloria Gerilla-Teknomo, Jea Macrohon, Pamela Manalo-Nacpil DER: Anna Juico, Cynthia Hidalgo Rodel Bautista, Celeste Landicho, Priscila P. Del Rosario OAS: Wyn Lauzon, Judy Yniguez

Two publications have been tested and validated under the project. 1000 copies of publications have reached targeted beneficiaries.

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Spotlights: More
Advantages according to women
It is a good project, and we are being guided towards achieving results. It fosters team spirit. It makes our lives easier. We have stable income as we have flexible work hours We also obtained maintenance skillincreased access to employment. It is empowering Helped us to finance education of our children, some spent on buildings, refrigerator, etc. Had changes in our perception. We gained confidence. It showcased how it can help turnaround our livelihood skills and our communities.

Transport sector can provide opportunities for employment and skills, also EGM projects

What is more

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Conclusion
Maintenance system successful
Good practice example of gender mainstreaming: Promising approaches Road nearly always open compared to rainy season closures under old system Road surface conditions improved Women with few employment opportunities provided with income and other employment opportunities in construction and maintenance programs. Raise living standards of household members. Increase productivity through transport project. WOMEN HAPPY, ROAD USERS HAPPY, AUTHORITIES HAPPY THE SYSTEM IS REPLICABLE Maintenance Funding provided by Dehong prefecture has been increased from CNY 2.8 million in 2010 to CNY 7.8 million in 2011. Management system has been improved performance-based contracting through SSTA Women's maintenance groups created have been contracted out to perform routine maintenance of rural roads in Dehong prefecture Yunnan Integrated Road Network Improvement Project - Rural road component to scale up
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Maintenance Song

THANK YOU also to many women community champions, and local engineers. They work so hard to improve their transport and life of their communities!

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Key Project Capacity Building Experience:

HEAR AND FORGET SEE AND REMEMBER DO AND UNDERSTAND

Confusius

Lets work hand in hand with GCoP team to continue on more GEM projects!

Information website: http://beta.adb.org/publications/empowering-women-through-rural-infrastructure