Gendered mobilities and immobilities

and women’s and men’s capacities for

agricultural innovation

Insights from Kenya and Nigeria

Johanna Bergman Lodin, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

December 6, 2017

How gendered mobilities and immobilities affect women’s and men’s capacities

for agricultural innovation in Kenya and Nigeria

Johanna BERGMAN LODIN1, Amare TEGBARU2, Renee BULLOCK3, Ann

DEGRANDE4, Lilian Wopong NKENGLA5 and Hyeladi Ibrahim GAYA6

1 Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU),

Uppsala, Sweden, 2 IITA Eastern Africa Regional Hub, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, 3 IITA-Kalombo,

Bukavu, DR Congo, 4World Agroforestry Centre ICRAF-West and Central Africa Regional

Programme, Yaoundé, Cameroon, 5IITA Cameroon, Messa, Cameroon, and 6 IITA Western Africa

Regional Hub, Ibadan, Nigeria

Accepted with minor revisions – Gender, Place and Culture

4 GENNOVATE case studies

2 case studies in SW Nigeria

2 case studies in W Kenya

28 focus group discussions

32 individual interviews

225 rural and peri-urban

women, men and youthhttp://mapsopensource.com

Sites overview

Western Kenya Southwestern Nigeria

County / State Busia County Vihiga County Oyo State Osun State

Village location Rural Peri-urban Rural Peri-urban

Average acreage (max) 2 (5) 0.25 (2.5) 5 (20) 15 (30)

Population 1200 2000 600 3000

Major ethnic groups Luyhas (75%) Luyhas /

Maragolis

(75%)

Yoruba (80%) Yoruba 67%

Dominant religion Christianity Christianity Christ./Islam Christ./Islam

Female-headed households 10% N/A 10% 10%

Economic dynamism Low High Low High

MOBILITYGENDER

AGRIC.

INNOVATION

Research

focus

how gender norms

shape mobility

patterns of

women and men

in ways

that influence

their capacity to

innovate in

agriculture

How do gender norms frame the movements of

women and men, both spatially and temporally?

How do gendered immobilities affect women’s capacity to engage with

agricultural innovation processes inside and outside their communities?

MOVEMENT ABILITYACCESS

MOBILITY

“The extent to which women and men are able to move around inside and outside their communities to

access various resources and services.”

Gender norms and mobility

Women’s and men’s identities structure their spatial flows, not least through norms

related to expectations of what is a good spouse and household responsibility.

Good husband Good wife

Head of HH / major provider / breadwinner

Moves freely to fulfil provider role

Leaves early and returns home in evening

Does not go to bars

Does not depend on wife

Migrates if need be

(Knows wife’s movements)

Homemaker

Mainly sits at home

Goes to market and farm / other work

Moves to help / support husband fulfil his role

Moves with purpose / does not loiter around

Not stay out late

Never forsakes domestic chores for work

Gets permission from husband before moving

Gender norms and mobility

Women’s and men’s identities structure their spatial flows, not least through norms

related to expectations of what is a good spouse and household responsibility.

Good husband Good wife

Head of HH / major provider / breadwinner

Moves freely to fulfil provider role

Leaves early and returns home in evening

Does not go to bars

Does not depend on wife

Migrates if need be

(Knows wife’s movements)

Homemaker

Mainly sits at home

Goes to market and farm / other work

Moves to help / support husband fulfil his role

Moves with purpose / does not loiter around

Not stay out late

Never forsakes domestic chores for work

Gets permission from husband before moving

Women’s everyday movements, market participation

and information access

• Moving inside and outside the community provides chances to learn about

opportunities for agricultural innovation.

• But women are less mobile than men because norms stipulate and men condition

where they can go and often the purposes, length of time and time of day of their

travels. Women may also put checks on themselves…

• Women should:

have a clear destination when moving

seek permission from husbands before

e.g. going to the market;

not stay out late in the evenings/ night;

never forsake domestic chores for work

Otherwise stigmatized as ’lose or wayward’

Even if formality this deprives them of their

agency / ability to choose and decide

Worse access to distant markets

Worse access to opportunities linked to

evenings/nights• This way, spatial and temporal travel boundaries influence what information, resources and

services women access, and therefore also their capacity to innovate.

Gendered (im)mobilities and social networks

• A person’s mobility enables her/him to build and maintain formal and informal social

networks, and to collaborate and coordinate with others, including through farmer

groups, to access, share and process agricultural information and knowledge.

• Women rely on informal groups for learning to greater extent than men, but such

information might not be acted on to same extent as information from formal channels.

• Nigerian men and Kenyan women have better access to formal farmer groups than

their gendered counterparts due to their stronger innovator identities. This enhances

their capacities to innovate but also adds to their time burdens.

• Despite empirical differences in access, Kenyan and Nigerian women have in

common that they are not able to freely decide about their own movements and

participation.

Mobility and the capacity to innovate

• But due to gender norms and practices women

often move less than men and to fewer places.

• Norms that proscribe women’s mobility also

undermines their capacity to innovate.

• There are great similarities across diverse

contexts!

• Mobility matters in relation to agricultural innovations!

3 recommendations

• Women and men may access agricultural information and services through different

channels due to their different mobilities. Therefore, projects need to consider the

cultural context and the embeddedness of gendered mobilities and immobilities in

relation to agricultural innovation processes.

• Women’s and men’s movements do not always reflect agency and empowerment

since they are not always able to freely choose where, when and how to be mobile –

AND immobile. Therefore, projects should avoid inducing undesirable mobility

pressures on already time constrained gendered subjects through their activities.

• Group participation needs not alter mobility norms and enhance agency and

autonomy. Therefore, transformative approaches to achieve changes in the normative

landscape are needed. Interventions may otherwise change participation rates in

services but not women’s and men’s agency and capacity to innovate in agriculture.