Targeting Women in a Community-Driven Development Project : Uncovering Gender Roles in the FADAMA Agriculture Project in Nigeria

Abstract

How does local context affect the targeting and selection of women in community-driven development (CDD) projects? This note explores how local social and economic structures shape the inclusion of female farmers in a CDD agricultural project in Nigeria known as the Fadama project. This story is specific to the cultural context of the southwest of Nigeria. However, it also considers the effects of embedding targeting and selection mechanisms in any local structure, as it illustrates how gender relations and socio-economic stratification affect a project's outreach to different categories of women. This note is based on broader research exploring the performance and empowerment of female farmers in of the South West of Nigeria under the World-Bank supported Fadama project. The Fadama project aims to reduce rural poverty and increase food security. Beneficiaries are organized in Fadama Farmer User Groups (FUGs), and the project facilitates their access to financial and technical resources through matching grant arrangments. In 2013 additional financing to extend the Fadama project has provided an opportunity to incorporate in the project design new interventions to improve the targeting of female farmers. These interventions include the development and testing of information and communications strategies targeting poor or more excluded female farmers as well as a series of discreet pilots (e.g. financial literacy, peer learning, and mentoring programs) aimed at supporting the access of female farmers to the Fadama project. Impact evaluations attached to these pilots will generate knowledge on the most effective ways to open opportunities for equitable access to agriculture services for all female farmers.