Call for papers for the 3rd GEWAMED Regional Workshop: "Mainstreaming Gender Dimensions in water management for rural development"

The next GEWAMED regional workshop will be held in Tunisia, from 19 to 22 May 2008. The workshop will focus on “Mainstreaming Gender Dimensions in Water Management for Rural Development”. The workshop is open to the project partners and to all potential interested participants.

The topic is ample enough to provide a large umbrella for any contribution. However, the papers should go into at least one or more of the following subtopics:
• Law and Practice related to Women’s Inheritance Land and Water Rights in the MENA Region (Middle East and North Africa): The issue might be covered from law (property, family and succession law, agrarian and natural resource law) and practical (socio-cultural customs, tradition …) perspectives that demonstrate women’s rights to access and manage land, water and other natural resources. The issue might focus on whether these rights, whatever their nature and content, are differentiated on the basis of gender.
• Gender and institutions for rural development (extension services): The theme covers issues related to policy and institutional setting for rural development and measures taken to improve women’s involvement for rural development.

The papers need to look at government extension services to reach women farmers and the cultural bias which has, in many countries, prevented women from actively participating in group training, extension meetings and, most importantly, accessing to inputs such as credits, fertilisers…etc.

The paper might look at the role of institutions for promoting women’s and men’s involvement in rural development; whether or not the extension services are the sole responsibility of government. What are the new trends for mainstreaming gender institutionalisation in rural development? What are the roles of farmers in both experimental work and extension? It is important also to look at women’s presence in institutions and their participation to
decision making.

• Gender and national policies for rural development: This topic should look at the national policies and machinery to promote the role of rural women in development. It might focus on:
o Mechanisms to promote the advancement of women.
o Sharing of power and decision-making.
o Women's rights.
o Access to agricultural resources and services.
o Access to employment.

• Gender and capacity building/development for rural development: The gender and capacity building theme should focus on the knowledge and skills developed and provided to stakeholders working in rural areas. What are the programmes and activities that have been developed to mainstream gender in rural development in terms of training material and implementation of training workshops? What are the constraints to reinforce the capacity of rural women and men?

Papers should take into consideration gender analysis tools, gender disaggregated data, identification of gender sensitive indicators and actions to increase awareness on gender.

Papers should be submitted before the 30th of March 2008 to the following contacts:
Juan Antonio Sagardoy, GEWAMED Project Manager: sagardoy@iamb.it
Khadouja Mellouli, CAWTAR, National project coordinator: khadouja.mellouli@cawtar.org