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Advancing Gender Equity Justice through CARE Inclusive Farmer’s Field and Business Schools (FFBS)

Historically, while the current FFBS curriculum addresses gender roles and labor division in agriculture, it has not specifically targeted women’s unpaid Care Work. This project seeks to address this gap by scaling CARE’s FFBS model to include new Care Work Modules. These modules will focus on the intersection of care work with household earnings, expenditure, decision-making, and gender and social norms.

CARE, in partnership with Laterite, is currently implementing a three-year research project titled “Advancing Gender Equity and Justice Through Care-Inclusive Farmer Field and Business Schools (FFBS)” in the Iringa district of Tanzania. This initiative is integrated within CARE’s broader Scale-Up FFBS program, which is designed to empower smallholder farmers with the knowledge and skills needed to improve agricultural production, strengthen income generating activities, provide nutrition education, and increase market access. In addition to these goals, the program aims to influence government and academic institutions to incorporate the FFBS model into National Agriculture Extension Guidelines and Curricula.

Goal of the project:

The core objective of the research is to validate whether integrating these Care Work Modules into the FFBS curriculum can achieve more substantial and sustainable gender equality outcomes compared to the standard FFBS approach. We hypothesize that these new modules will enhance sectoral outcomes in women’s livelihoods and overall household economic well-being, thereby encouraging collective investment in care work. This hypothesis builds on the success of CARE’s prior FFBS implementations.

Specific objectives of the project:

  • Shifting Gender Norms and Decision-Making: To assess and quantify the added value of a care-focused participatory extension approach within the FFBS curriculum. This objective seeks to understand how modifying the curriculum to emphasize care work can facilitate the transformation of gender norms.
  • Reducing and Redistributing Unpaid Care Work: By influencing decision-making processes, the project aims to achieve are distribution of unpaid care work and facilitate investments that alleviate the care work burden on women and girls
  • Pathways to Scale the Model: To generate knowledge and insights regarding the pathways for scaling a model that addresses care work within the context of an existing evidence-based approach (FFBS). This objective recognizes that the FFBS approach isalready undergoing scaling, and the project aims to leverage this momentum to incorporate care work considerations effectively.
  • Policy Influence: To advocate for policy recognition of the critical importance of care work in the agricultural sector. The project aims to use its research findings to influence policymakers, leading to budget allocations and policy adjustments that prioritize gender equality and labor equity within the agricultural domain

Desired Outcomes

  • Transformation of Gender and Social Norms, with men and communities becoming more supportive of equitable care work distribution. This shift in attitudes and behaviors can foster a more inclusive and gender-sensitive agricultural sector.
  • Reduction and Redistribution of Unpaid CareWorks: By redistributing care work responsibilities within the households and increasing investment in labor-saving devices or outsourcing of care work enhancing access to care resources, women can enjoy increased opportunities for economic participation and empowerment.
  • Increased Income: The project envisions increased agricultural productivity because of women having improved access to care. Reduced time spent on care tasks will free up women’s capacity to engage more actively in agricultural activities, leading to higher yields.