Gender & value chain VEDCO Weman IFAD WEMAN Project Description

Women Empowerment Mainstreaming and Networking (WEMAN) programme that uses Gender Action Learning and System (GALS) as a methodology was piloted in Northern and Western Uganda by more than3000 women and men in communities with 5 civil society organisations (CSOs), and the methodology has reached around 18,000 people in communities in Uganda, and around 75,000 globally.

GALS is a community-led methodology for livelihoods improvement and gender justice, which has been adapted for pro-poor VCD. Ituses visual diagramming tools enabling people at different levels in the chain to develop visions where they want to go, reflect ontheir situation, map markets and relationships, identify challenges and take action to address these. It aims to:
 Improve livelihoods in ways which give most benefit to women and men currently most vulnerable in the chain
 Establish multi-stakeholder consensuson the moral and business imperatives of  promoting gender justice and prioritising the needs and interests of the weakest and mostvulnerable parts of the chain
 Develop a win-win multi-stakeholder collective vision with immediate and long-term strategies  and plan for change
 Develop  sustainable skills and structures for ongoing livelihoods and change planning, communication and collaboration between stakeholders
 Establish sustainable participatory processes  for gender mainstreaming linked to economic decision-making, political change and policy advocacy

These they will do through:
 Strengthening skills and negotiating power of the most vulnerable
 Quality upgrading and increasing productivity if this increases incomes of the poorest
 Working with private sector actors to change attitudes and behaviours, integrating GALS into strategic planning processes and supply chain management
 Multi-stakeholder negotiation and value chain planning
 Linkages with service providers: financial services, capacity building, business development services and human rights/legal aid.

In Uganda, civil society organisations VEDCO, CEFORD, CREAM , ESAFF and PELUM have been actively involved in rural development initiatives in Northern Uganda. They have participated in a capacity building trajectory on GALS (including the capacity building event as part of the small IFAD grant), and some are already using the basic GALS. These CSOs will form a partnership for implementation of the community-led gender action learning system in the priority value chains. They willstrengthen the capacity of their staff and the vulnerable stakeholders in the value chain to improve livelihoods in a gender equitable way, and to sustainably engage the more powerful (private sector) stakeholders for win-win value chain development. The CSOs work directly with Village Savings and Lending Associations (VSLA), producer organisations, marketing groups and other forms of association in the community. In order advocate for pro-poor and gender sensitive policies, the CSOs will play a role in facilitating the dialogue between the farmers and vulnerable stakeholder groups with the authorities, private sector including financial service providers.

Through CSOs (ON partner organisations and other stakeholders) the project will focus on poor and vulnerable women and men in Northern Uganda by prioritising the following crops for VCD; oilseeds chains (sesame, groundnuts and shea nuts) and grains chains (maize, rice and sorghum). Key private sector, government institutions will also be involved.

The project will develop a range of models/practical guides of how to best integrate GALS for value chain development in a variety of interventions, organisational set-ups, value chains or contexts in Uganda. Depending on the needs and possibilities identified, these will include models of integration in:
 Business Development Services and community managed microfinance (Village Savings and Lending Associations, VSLA). Poor people in West Nile in Uganda have improved their access to financial services through community-managed microfinance. However without improving the linkages in the value chains it is difficult especially for women to use the microfinance for investments and growth inbusiness.
 Agricultural extension services, which would respond to challenges identified for example in NAADS in Uganda. There areoften issues of (self) exclusion of the poorest and most vulnerable in these services, and gender blind service delivery which doesnot increase or even decreases womens participation in the economy. Integration of GALS in the Farmer Field School approach would be one dimension.
 Producer organisations / cooperatives of farmers.
 Traders associations/unions. One way to make the community-led action research and win-win negotiation more sustainable is to integrate GALS into the private sector. Trader associations can either be part of the vulnerable stakeholders, or the more powerful stakeholders.
 Supply chain management by bulk buyers/millers, for example in the oilseeds for the production of vegetable oil, or in grains for the production of porridge or flour. Private sector interests in reliable and sufficient supply of good quality are the key entry points.

The project will link with a number of IFAD supported projects such as the Vegetable Oil Development Project (VODP), the National Agricultural Advisory Services Programme (NAADS) and District Livelihoods Development Programme. In VODP there will be a direct link in the project area, where the CSOs will work on the sesame and groundnuts value chains. Involvement of staff from IFAD projects in capacity building and exchange will be the basis for future integration of GALS into other value chains, extension methods (such as the Farmer Field School approach) and the Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation (PPME) approach.

What the project is expected to achieve

1. Platforms established by at least 3 CSOs for multi-stakeholder win-win communication and collaboration, which include the use of road journeys and strategies by vulnerable stakeholder groups.
2. 10,000 women and 5000 men in the target group of the CSO partners use the community-led methodology forimproving livelihoods and VCD.
3.  28,000 indirect beneficiaries that are not involved in the programmes of the CSOs and/or are notinvolved in the focus chains have the capacity and platforms to use community-led methodology for improving livelihoods.
4. Equitable multi-stakeholder win-win strategies identified, negotiated and planned with vulnerable and more powerful actors in the selected value chains in at least 3 value chains
5. 4 CSOs have integrated the community-led value chain methodology in their interventions and M&E systems, providing more effective and gender sensitive services in VCD.
6. Use of the methodology has produced at least 5 documented examples of possible win-win strategies for combining pro poor value chain upgrading with gender justice in each value chain
7. Training material and various models of integrating the methodology developed for at least 3 different chains, organizations andinterventions.
8. Engagement and initial capacity developed in staff of a tertiary research /education institutes to involve marginal women and men farmers in planning and implementation of research and outreach projects.
9. Opportunities for wider up scaling of the participatory methodology (including gender dimensions) identified in IFAD and Oxfam supported projects, initial steps for integration in at least 1 IFAD supported project in Uganda.