Gender sensitive design for African small-scale irrigation

DFID (1997)
In: Water, issue 5, p. 3

A new two phase project to run from October 1997 to 1999 in Southern Africa will target women's needs by identifying problems in the current design of irrigation systems. In Africa, women are the major users of irrigation systems and provide 60 - 100% of the total labour requirements for production. Many of the heavier tasks associated with irrigation, particularly those involving the use of non-traditional tools, are extremely difficult for women and require them to hire male labour thus incurring additional cost and risk of delay. Delay in planting can result in low yield and the expense of using extra irrigation water. These problems contribute to the underperformance of irrigation systems, to stressful working conditions and to low returns on investment and labour. Designs that consider the role of women offer the potential for improving conditions for a large number of rural women and for increasing productivity and sustainability of small-scale irrigation systems. Phase one, carried out in Zimbabwe, will also include a workshop for irrigation practitioners from other Southern African countries to identify priority issues. In phase two, selected participatory methods will be applied to one or two of the identified priority issues at a variety of irrigation schemes in the region. The aim of the project is improved, gender-sensitive ergonomic design for smallholder irrigation developments that reflect the limitations of the end-user's actual capability.