Booklet

Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) Babar Road, P.O. Box 506, Gilgit, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan.

Research Lead: Linda Jones, Coady International Institute Brief prepared by: Yasmin Karim, AKRSP Editor: Aziz Ali Dad Photography: Danial Shah Design & Layout: Visual Works Inc. Acknowledgment The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) acknowledges the support of Government of Canada, Global Affairs Canada, and Aga Khan Foundation Canada (AKFC). Š copyright AKRSP 2016

1. Introduction »» Purpose and Objectives of the Review »» Contributions to Women’s Empowerment for Gender Equality »» The Need for a Review of Approaches and Intervention Strategies »» Specific Inclusions and Exclusions Regarding Economic Programming 2. Research Methodology and Framework »» Research Components »» Research Framework 3. Background to AKRSP’s Approaches »» Evolution in Context and Approach 4. Situational Factors Affecting Women’s Economic Empowerment 5. Analysis of Key Internvention Strategies »» Agricultural Specialist Support Commercial Agricultural Development »» Women’s Organizations offer Skill Development Services »» Women’s Markets Model Catalyzes Women’s Enterprenurship »» Value Chain Development enables Market Mainstreaming 6. Conclusion and Recommendations »» Overarching Strategic Recommendations »» Programme Recommendations

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents Acronyms Definitions Executive Summary

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ACRONYMS AKF AKFC AKRSP CED CSO DFATD ED EELY GAD GB GBC HACCP GAC ICRW IDPR IG LMA LSO MD MEDA SEPW ToR VCA VCD VO WB WID WMAC WO

Aga Khan Foundation Aga Khan Foundation Canada Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (Pakistan) Community Economic Development Civil Society Organization Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Development Enterprise Development Enhancing Employability and Leadership for Youth Gender and Development Gilgit-Baltistan Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral Hazard analysis and critical control points Global Affairs Canada International Centre for Research on Women Institutional Development for Poverty Reduction (CIDA program) Income Generation Labour Market Assessment Local Support Organization Market Development Mennonite Economic Development Associates Self-Employment Project for Women Terms of Reference Value Chain Analysis Value Chain Development Village Organization World Bank Women in Development Women’s Multi-Purpose Activity Centre Women’s Organization

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DEFINITIONS The following terms have been selected for definition as they are especially relevant to this review and/or may not be widely familiar to AKRSP staff.

Direct Delivery An approach to development programming whereby an agency becomes an active player in a market system such as by providing inputs to producers or acting as a market intermediary.

Market Development A systems approach to development that examines and supports the ranges of actors, functions, supports and transactions that are needed to ensure the development of a sustainable market system.

EELY Enhancing Employability and Leadership for Youth is a Global Affairs Canada and AKF funded program that is being implemented by AKRSP in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral.

Staff meetings The formal and informal meetings that were held by the research team with AKRSP staff including members of both the gender and market development departments.

Facilitation An approach to development programming that replaced direct delivery; an agency supports the development of sustainable market systems without becoming active in the system.

Value Chain Development A market systems methodology that assesses and develops an economic chain from inputs through final markets, while taking into consideration enabling environment and support services that affect and support the chain.

Gender Gender is a social construct and is based on social characteristics.

Gender refers to socially-assigned and ascribed roles and responsibilities and relations between men and women. It’s also a means of identifying different roles, responsibilities, constraints and expectations from both women and men in societies and cultures, which affect their ability and incentive to participate in development, and leads to a different impact on women and men.

Gender Balance It is about the degree to which men and women hold the full range of positions in a society or organization (more accurately, “sex ratio”). The long-term objective, as defined by the UN General Assembly, is to achieve a 50/50 gender balance.

Gender Equality Gender Equality is equal treatment of women and men.

For example, equal pay for equal work, equal numbers of men and women beneficiaries, equal representation of men and women in staffing, equal allocation of budget and other resources for men and for women’s activities in project and programmes.

Local Support Organizations Registered citizen organizations at the district level, mobilized by AKRSP and starting in 2007 that bring together leaders from Women’s Organizations, Village Organizations and other local Community Support Organizations for collective decision-making and advocacy.

Women’s Agricultural Groups Groups of women mobilized by AKRSP to receive agricultural training, inputs and other support.

Women’s Enterprises Women-owned and operated businesses, both formal and informal.

Women’s Markets Women-only marketplaces collectively run by women entrepreneurs.

Women’s Organizations Women-led grassroots organizations at the village level mobilized by AKRSP starting in 1980, the intent of which is to integrate women into the development process, through access to savings/capital and local decision-making.

Young Women Under EELY, AKRSP’s definition of young women is females between the ages of 15 – 35. The same definition was used in this review and in selecting participants in the focus group discussions and interviews.

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Executive Summary Aga Khan Foundation Canada commissioned a study to undertake Gender Review to identify and document Aga Khan Rural Support Program’s (AKRSP) Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) programming and approaches, examine the impact of approaches and develop an evidence base to inform future WEE programming including how to better target and implement effective programming with specifically young women under EELY (Enhancing Employability and Leadership of Youth) a Government of Canada, Global Affairs funded project in GilgitBaltistan and Chitral. The study was carried out during the months of July to December in 2012.

The study outlines AKRSP’s contribution for Women s Economic Empowerment (WEE) in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral from 1983 to 2012; the opportunities and challenges faced by women and potential for young women’s empowerment programmes. The study further contributes to understanding of how women’s current socioeconomic status will enable them to be mainstreamed into Market Development Programmes.

The overall objectives of the study were; 1) Historical analysis of AKRSP’s women’s economic empowerment programming including an analysis of the shifts in

approaches over time and key drivers of change. To document AKRSP’s key approaches to promoting women’s economic empowerment such as Women in Development, Gender and Development, and Mainstreaming Market Development. It also aimed to establish an evidence-base on successes and failures in AKRSP’s women’s economic empowerment programming in the broader Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral area and highlight recommendations based on lessons learned; including how to better implement programming targeting young women (for both enterprise and market development) in future. Identify further research/programming that could be used to inform current and future approaches. Work with AKRSP Gender and Development team to produce gender integration management tools such as management, budgeting and monitoring check-lists and frameworks and revised terms of reference as relevant and link research to baseline information and tools currently being developed.

The description of the research has been so that qualitative methods were used and there were three main tools in qualitative methods; a) secondary research (review of documents); b) key informant interviews with staff and community women members; c) Focus Group Discussions (FGD).

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Analysis was done through sorting out the answers from qualitative information and consolidated to create a nuanced understanding of Women s Economic Empowerment.

Selected indicators from International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) framework had been used to assess movement towards WEE. The research tools included six FGD guides with four interventions of AKRSP,which targeted the following groups;1). Women only Markets; 2) Women’s Organizations (WOs); 3) WO-supported Businesses; 4) Elderly Women members of WOs; 5) Young Women in WOs and; 6) Excluded Women from WOs. Recommended outputs of the study havebeen; highlights of the recommendations from systematically gathered and assessed databased on lessons learnedfrom six different groups during a total of 32meetings with 285 women members as respondents; and identified areas for further research that could be used for future approaches especially working with young women for WEE under EELY Programme. The study also established an evidence-base on WEE in GBC and developed a toolkit for better gender integration in EELY Programme.

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Introduction The report presents a qualitativereview of the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme’s (AKRSP-Pakistan) work in Women’s Economic Empowerment over the past 30 years. The review was conducted under assignment of the Aga Khan Foundation Canada, and focused on direct research with women program participants in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral.

The review is especially critical for AKRSP’s new programEnhancing Employability and Leadership for Youth (EELY)co-funded by AKFC and Global Affairs Canadathen the Department of Foreign Affairs Trade and Development (DFATD) that supports the next generation of leaders in northern Pakistan with a focus on young women.

The qualitative review complements and offers insights above and beyond a quantitative LabourMarket Assessment (LMA) that was carried out in parallel under the EELY program. Four LMA surveys target heads of households, business owners, training service providers and young people, all of whom are predominantly male youth respondents.

This study therefore provides an opportunity to triangulate the quantitative findings and ensure that women’s viewpoints, experiences, interests and perceived opportunities are captured and documented.

The general scope of the review is to explore AKRSP’s Women’s Economic Empowerment programming in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral.

AKRSP interventions include a wide array of programming to address multiple aspects of gender equality and women’s empowerment – including but not limited to work in social mobilization, access to basic services, developing women political leaders, working on gender equality with male community and political leaders, and so on. However, one key aspect of AKRSP’s contribution to gender equality and women’s empowerment in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral over the years has been through its facilitation of economic empowerment programming.

Although no more important than AKRSP’s significant results around social and political empowerment, understanding economic empowerment successes and challenges are particularly relevant to current programming.

Four AKRSP intervention strategies for women’s economic empowerment have been covered by this review: the role of agricultural specialists, skills building by women’s organizations, women’s markets and value chain development. The qualitative field research explored each of these areas directly with women participants in AKRSP programs, seeking to understand their experiences and perspectives. Other relevant

interventions strategies that are not included in this qualitative review are program activities that relate to areas of policy, leadership and access to capital. A comprehensive examination of these areas would necessitate a more extensive research methodology – beyond our focus on women participants in AKRSP programs – and further resources.

However, we view these as critical elements of women’s economic empowerment that require further investigation and make this recommendation in the conclusions chapter of this document.

There are six main numbered sections in this report. Following the executive summary, chapters cover: introductory information which is background, purpose and objectives and then research methodology and framework, overarching approaches to women’s development, situational factors, analysis of key intervention strategies and conclusions/ recommendations.

Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme

Purpose and Objectives of the Review1 After supporting gender-focused programs in northern region of Pakistan through AKRSP for three decades, AKF believes it is critical to formally examine the issue of women’s economic empowerment, and to document the overall lessons learned and results achieved. In particular, AKF aims to utilize the findings of this review to inform future programming around young women’s economic empowerment. The review includes recommendations to AKFC and AKRSP regarding AKRSP’s new programEnhancing Employability and Leadership for Youth (EELY) co-funded by AKFC and Global Affairs Canada that supports the next generation of leaders in northern Pakistan with a focus on young women.

In summary, the purpose of this qualitative review is to deepen understanding of the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme’s (AKRSP) women’s economic empowerment approaches and intervention strategies, their successes and challenges, and the evidence-base that can inform future programming including how to better target and implement effective programming for young women.

The objectives of the review are to: • Provide a historical analysis of AKRSP’s women’s economic empowerment programming including an analysis of the shifts in approaches2 over time and key drivers of change; • Document AKRSP’s key intervention strategies that promote women’s economic empowerment; • Provide a framework for systematically gathering and assessing qualitative data on women’s economic empowerment in GB with a focus on young women (that complements secondary sources and the recent LMA); • Establish an evidence-base on successes and failures in AKRSP’s women’s economic empowerment programming in the Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral area; • Make recommendations moving forward based on lessons learned including how to better implement programming targeting young women; and Identify further research/programming that could be used to inform current and future approaches.

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Contributions to Women’s Empowerment for Gender Equality Women’s empowerment as recently defined in the World Bank World Development Report 2012 describes individuals and groups as empowered when they possess the capacity to make effective choices and translate these choices into desired actions and outcomes such as control over resources, decisionmaking authority, freedom of movement, protection from the risk of violence and influence in collective decision-making processes3.

AKRSP interventions include a wide array of programming to address these multiple aspects of gender equality and women’s empowerment – including but not limited to work in social mobilization, access to basic services, developing women political leaders, working on gender equality with male community and political leaders, and so on.

Key internal and external gender audits and assessments over time point to significant increases in gender equality and women’s empowerment in the AKRSP program area.

One key aspect of AKRSP’s contribution to

This section draws from and expands on the AKFC ToR for this research study (see Annex Two) The term ‘approaches’ is used to refer to overarching approaches to women’s economic empowerment – e.g., WID and GAD – and may be development approaches more generally as enterprise or market development. ‘Intervention strategies’ is utilized with regard to specific programming approaches or interventions such as women’s markets and skills building.

3 World Bank (2011) World Development Report 2012: Gender equality and development DC: World Bank.

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10 Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme gender equality and women’s empowerment in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral over the years has been through its facilitation of economic empowerment programming. Although no more important than AKRSP’s significant results around social and political empowerment, understanding economic empowerment successes and challenges are particularly relevant to current programming (especially EELY).

The Need for a Review of Approaches and Intervention Strategies Women’s economic empowerment has been less rigorously studied by external reviewers than other types of AKRSP gender equality programs. Therefore, the current study fills a gap, differing from existing economic program studies that have: 1) utilized mainly informal research methodologies and therefore have not formally documented AKRSP’s work and contribution and 2) assessed results of specific projects over relatively short time frames rather than examining the overall approaches and methods used by AKRSP over time across projects.

The study is timely as AKRSP together with AKFC and GAC previously called DFATD recently developed a new initiative that recognizes the importance of young women and men’s role in determining the future of northern Pakistan. The Enhancing Employability and Leadership for Youth (EELY) youth development program addresses two key challenges for youth in the region: employability and civic leadership. The employability component works specifically to promote employment through market development including strategically examining and addressing women’s economic empowerment, particularly for young women. The review is timed to reexamine the current economic situation of young women and AKRSP’s relevant programming approaches and interventions with pragmatic recommendations that can be built into program design and planning.

Specific Inclusions and Exclusions regarding Economic Programming Intervention strategies were selected for review based on 1) the potential for direct involvement of women program participants as respondents in our qualitative field research through interviews, focus group discussion and observation, 2) the relevance of strategies to current economic programming, and especially to the economic components of the EELY program and 3) available resources to complete the review.

Interventions strategies of AKRSP programming around women’s economic empowerment that were not included in this qualitative review are those that relate to the areas of policy, leadership and access to capital. As noted above, the scope of this study was to speak directly to women in the field, and a comprehensive examination of these areas would necessitate a more extensive research methodology and further resources for research.

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Research Methodology The research methodology for this review comprised three main components: 1. Secondary sources including previous AKRSP internal documents and external reviews 2. Early findings from the parallel LMA (Labor Market Analysis) survey.

3. Qualitative field research completed by the authors of this review Secondary Research Numerous archival and contemporary documents were studied in order to understand the evolving program approach/strategies of AKRSP and their contribution, as well as the changing context for women in GilgitBaltistan. These documents are mainly AKRSP reports and case studies including sections of annual reviews and donor reports as well as standalone documents on women’s economic development.

Early findings from the parallel LMA survey was also studied and incorporated into the report where relevant. Qualitative field research was complimented by secondary source of information along with the LMA initial findings.it was comprised of in-depth interviews, group interviews, FGDs and key informant interviews.

Research tools were prepared.

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Research Framework We begin with the ICRW definition of women’s economic empowerment: A woman is economically empowered when she has both the ability to succeed and advance economically and the power to make and act on economic decisions. To succeed and advance economically, women need the skills and resources to compete in markets, as well as fair and equal access to economic institutions. To have the power and agency to benefit from economic activities, women need to have the ability to make and act on decisions and control resources and profits.

Their definition is repeated in the box.

The ICRW Definition of Women’s Economic Empowerment4 A woman is economically empowered when she has both the ability to succeed and advance economically and the power to make and act on economic decisions. To succeed and advance economically, women need the skills and resources to compete in markets, as well as fair and equal access to economic institutions. To have the power and agency to benefit from economic activities, women need to have the ability to make and act on decisions and control resources and profits.

A preliminary set of indicators were developed for assessing the AKRSP intervention strategies and refined these as we conducted our various forms of research and analysis. The final set of indicators used in the review is as follows:

Women’s Economic Empowerment Indicators Used to Inform Research and Analysis Economic Engagement Level of income Opportunities to develop business and work skills Access to markets (as buyers and sellers) Access to jobs Access to credit for business start-up or expansion Power and Agency Ownership of productive assets (land, animals, machinery) Control over how to spend income or savings Involvement in major household decisions, such as large purchases Support for household workload Level of mobility Negative consequences or backlash resulting from economic gains Women’s participation in business networks; other forms of social capital Ibid.

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Background to AKRSP’s Approaches AKRSP has always shown a depth of insight regarding the imperative to advance women’s economic empowerment, not only as a right of women, but also as a prerequisite for the development of communities as a whole. And, although programming has been challenging at times, AKRSP has been innovative and persistent in its approach. Therefore, all observations and recommendations in the report must be understood in this light.

AKRSP’s women’s programming has been affected by three main program evolutions: i) from Women in Development (WID) to Gender and Development (GAD) and Gender Mainstreaming; ii) a shifting emphasis from Income Generation to Enterprise Development, and more recently to Market Development; andlargely in response to donors, iii) a focus on Agricultural Sectors, then Non-Agricultural Sectors and now Mixed Sectors. Today, AKRSP applies gender mainstreaming within a market development framework that involves mixed sectors.

Part and parcel with a move to market development, AKRSP has been shifting from a direct service delivery to a facilitation model. This is in keeping with industry best practice that identifies facilitation (rather than direct delivery) as a core principle of the market development approach.

The shift to facilitation means AKRSP no longer inserts itself into the market, taking on roles that will need to be sustained after the project is completed. Rather, AKRSP works with stakeholders – e.g., businesses, community groups, and government offices – that will be long-term players in a dynamic and sustainable market system as service providers.

Situational Factors The situation for women in GB is complex and dynamic, demanding nimble programming that can take into account the rapidly changing context, along with the barriers and opportunities that women face.

The situation for women is complex because there are numerous influences – at the community, household and individual level – that promote or inhibit successful outcomes of women’s economic development program strategies. The situation for women is dynamic because there have been rapid changes in the lives of women over the past 30 years, where from one generation to the next, societal norms have often completely reversed. This means that the understanding of contextual influences needs to be updated as AKRSP designs and plans its women’s economic interventions, particularly for the next generation of women.

Variables Lower Income

High Income Urban More Education

Rural

Remote

Less Education

Illiterate

14 Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme The ten key situational factors that are analyzed in the main report are: 1. Family Support 2. Community Influence 3. Family Status Including Economic Level 4. Effect of Age and Marital Status on Mobility and other Social Factors 5. Urban, Rural, Geographically isolated There are other factors in addition to above that affect women s successful participation in economic development programmes.

The variables in the table have been considered key for achieving a balanced viewpoint from a cross section of women.

6. Education of Women and their Households/Husbands and fathers 7. Outmigration of Male Family Members 8. Literacy and Leadership 9. Individual Psychology 10. Finance: Access And Management

Conservative Community

Progressive Community

Older Generation

Younger Generation

Successful program

Unsuccessful program

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AKRSP’s Intervention Strategies The opportunities and challenges of four intervention strategies were examined and analyze each against the main women’s economic empowerment indicators noted above. These four intervention strategies are: AKRSP WEE Program Area Commercial Agricultural Development Business and Vocational Skills Development Women’s Entrepreneurship Development Mainstream Market Integration

Agricultural specialists (including livestock specialists) have been a key intervention strategy for commercial agricultural development in GBC. There are over 7000 trained female agricultural specialists across GBC who provide technical support to women across the region.

Women’s Organizations (WOs) have fulfilled many roles over the years – savings services, a conduit for AKRSP programs and grants, selection of trainees and agricultural specialists, and a place for women to collectively discuss and solve problems. Here

AKRSP WEE INTERVENTION STRATEGY • Agricultural specialists offering technical and marketing support to women in focus sectors including horticulture and livestock • Skills development offered by women’s organizations for employment and enterprise • Women’s markets as a vehicle to develop women’s entrepreneurship and catalyze other economic opportunities • Value chain development for economic integration and advancement of women and men in a range of sectors we look at the role of WOs in the area of skills development, both business and vocational/ technical. This is especially relevant as supplementary qualitative information to the learnings of the LMA. Women’s markets are marketplaces that are set aside from the main market – often behind a wall with a gate, on a side street not in the town Centre, or in a single building that admits only women. The markets represent a primary entrepreneurship development strategy for AKRSP, and a ‘laboratory’ for the development of businesswomen in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Value chain development is an intervention strategy of a market systems approach. Value chain development encompasses vertical analysis of a ‘chain’ from input through production, processing, marketing and final consumers, as well services that support each level of the chain. It is a relatively newer intervention strategy of AKRSP, and one of particular relevance to the EELY program.

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ANALYSIS OF KEY INTERVENTION STRATEGIES Intervention Strategy 1 Agricultural Specialists Support Commercial Agricultural Development Agricultural specialists (including horticulture and livestock specialists) have been a key intervention strategy for commercial agricultural development in GB. There are over 7000 trained female agricultural specialists across GBC who provide technical support to women across the region.

There are emerging market opportunities for women in agriculture, in which the agricultural specialists may or may not have a role to play: • Emergence of larger agricultural enterprises such as Mountain Dried Fruits and its satellite in Ghizer.

• The shift to a market development approach under EELY (see section on Market Development below) offers potential for women to make gains and benefit from the next wave of agricultural development.

Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme

Assessment of Contribution to Women’s Empowerment The following table assesses the effectiveness of the development of commercial agriculture through the agricultural specialist intervention strategy on women’s economic empowerment. The indicators are those that were outlined in the chapter on research methodology and were used to inform our research questions.

Economic Empowerment Indicator Level of income

Strategy Contribution to Achieving Economic Empowerment Increased income in horticulture from improved production, but marketing presents problems for women therefore negatively impacting further development.

Opportunities to develop business and Specialists support development of production and processing skills; Many of the agriculturalists work skills and even agricultural specialists are illiterate, and therefore business skills are weak; Specialists are not able to support business skills and marketing in particular is an issue.

Access to markets (as buyers and sellers) This is highly problematic for female agricultural producers, and even group enterprises usually sell through middlemen or receive support from male family members.

Access to jobs Limited employment in agriculture for women – women work on the homestead and often as unpaid family labour.

Access to credit for business start-up or WO savings are the usual source of credit, although women may access credit from MFIs and expansion banks – agricultural specialists do not contribute to this, but indirectly create the opportunity.

Power and Agency (not really relevant to specialist per se but to commercial agriculture) Ownership of productive assets (land, The program has not addressed ownership of asset issues directly; women have fairly low tech animals, machinery) tools but have been helped by AKRSP labour-saving technologies.

Control over how to spend some cash or Women generally have control over income earned from horticulture and livestock as these are savings considered women’s domains.

Involvement in major household decisions, Agricultural income is typically low and does not promote women’s role in large financial such as large purchases decisions.

Support for household workload Women do not typically receive help with domestic duties as agricultural work is on the homestead; however, they often benefit from extended family structures and supports.

Level of mobility Mobility has not been greatly increased around this strategy since the work is largely conducted close to home.

Negative consequences or backlash Sometimes the woman in the program seemed quite overworked and as a result of marketing resulting from economic gains issues could not always benefit from increased income.

Women’s participation in business Women agriculturalists are often involved in farmers groups or collective enterprises, which is networks and other social capital beneficial in terms of sharing work, learning, bulking and building social capital.

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18 Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme There is enormous potential to mainstream young women into agricultural value chains, particularly through the EELY program. The role of the agricultural specialist could be leveraged, particularly for some of the older women with fewer restrictions. Further, the emergence of larger agricultural enterprises such as Mountain Dried Fruits and its satellite in Ghizer (described in previous Chapter) provide opportunities for mainstreaming and incorporation into commercial value chains.

The following are recommendations with regard to women in agriculture and the role of agricultural specialists: 1. Business Models and Market Linkages: Be innovative in market linkages and business models, listen to women’s suggestions, pilot new ideas, and work with women and men on integration into markets. Specifically: • Revisit the ‘specialist’ model for agricultural learning and services – should this role be developed based on a commercial or fee-for-service model?

Conduct business modeling around the viability of such a model (see AKF MD resources on business modeling).

If commercial models make sense, do agricultural specialists have the interest and capacity to be a fee-for-service provider?

• Consider expanded roles for existing and new agricultural specialists as commercial input providers and market traders in addition to their current roles

in production and processing technical support. Conduct business modeling with specialists and potential customers to assess mutual benefits and incentives. Pilot a few in each area.

3. Business Skills for Women Farmers: Determine the best options for women farmers to gain the necessary business skills to run a profitable farm business.

1. Update Information: Update information on the extent of women’s roles in agriculture, their potential roles, and the market opportunities open to them – be sub-sector/value chain specific.

• Do not rely on received wisdom but investigate next generation solutions in the changing context. Hold FGDs with agricultural specialists to understand the barriers that they and other women face, and to have them brainstorm solutions.

• Design market integration programs around the new information, with a strong emphasis on upgrading capacities and roles, and mainstreaming of women into agricultural value chains. Select leverage points for ‘big wins’. The suggestions we heard during our fieldwork were interesting ideas that could be piloted. Pilot a few in each area.

Women’s Organisations Offered Skills Development Women’s Organizations (WOs) have fulfilled many roles over the years – savings services, a conduit for AKRSP programs and grants, selection of trainees and agricultural specialists, and a place for women to collectively discuss and solve problems. Here we look at the role of WOs in the area of skills development, both business and vocational/ technical. This is especially relevant as supplementary qualitative information to the learning of the LMA.

2. Pilot New Technologies: If specialists continue to play a role in agricultural development, train them on new technologies and let them demonstrate these to other women.

Intervention Strategy 2

Recommendations: AKRSP has contributed to significant advances for women in GBC over its three decades of programming – in particular, women’s productive capacity, entrepreneurship and other skills have been developed in areas of agriculture and women’s markets along with collective action and savings through WOs, and greater gender awareness in communities and households.

At the same time, changes in the enabling environment and telecommunications infrastructure have also provided new opportunities for and attitudes towards women. In order for AKRSP to take full

Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme

advantage of the shifting terrain, and to move women to the next level of economic mainstreaming, the full adoption of systemic approaches that include market integration will be undertaken during the EELY program.

Intervention Strategy 3 Women’s Markets Model Catalyzes Women’s Entrepreneurship Women’s markets are marketplaces that are set aside from the main market – often behind a wall with a gate, on a side street not in the town centre, or in a single building that admits women only. They are a primary entrepreneurship development strategy for AKRSP, and a ‘laboratory’ for the development of businesswomen in GB. Today, women’s markets are often referred to as Women’s Multi-Purpose Activity Centres (WMACs) as some are offering more services than retail, and since conservative religious leaders found the term ‘market’ inappropriate for women.5 Background: Women’s markets are a relatively new strategy for enterprise development in GB. The first market was formed in 2007, and that year 26 women’s markets were launched across Gilgit-Baltistan.

During the field research, 28 members of 10 women’s markets (7 with varying levels of success and 3 failed) were interviewed to see

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Personal communication Muzaffar Uddin, July 2012.

the successfulness of the Markets.

Analysis: Women’s markets have played a critical role in bringing women into public spaces in business. Even though these businesses are more or less segregated, bringing women into the public arena has been a huge step forward. Further, as families become used to this idea, women take on other freedoms such as travelling to purchase stock or conducting their own banking. So, even though the markets have impacted only 100s of women (as opposed to the 1000s or 10,000s of agriculture), there is a seeding effect in society that can be leverage for other economic initiatives.

With regard to women’s markets as a viable economic initiative for women’s economic empowerment, we examined the successes and challenges associated with the markets.

Despite many set-backs and challenges, women of both successful and failed markets spoke of the benefits of the women’s markets: • Increased income and savings of many shopkeepers • Greater control over money through savings, bank accounts, decision making regarding the shop, spending at home • Respect from families for successful business operation and household contribution • A better shopping experience for

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customers than individual home-based shops that cannot cover a broad range of inventory • A place for women to meet, be out in public together, and to support one another– this is true for both customers and other shopkeepers • Availability of services (beauty parlour, photography, canteen)

20 Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme Assessment of Contribution to Women’s Empowerment: The following table assesses the contribution of women’s markets to the achievement of key indicators for women’s economic empowerment as outlined in the research methodology chapter.

Economic advancement Level of income Opportunities to develop business and work skills Access to markets (as buyers and sellers) Access to jobs Access to credit for business start-up or expansion Power and Agency Ownership of productive assets (land, animals, machinery) Control over how to spend some cash or savings Involvement in major household decisions, such as large purchases Support for household workload Level of mobility Negative consequences or backlash resulting from economic gains Women’s participation in business networks and social capital

Strategy Contribution When successful, excellent for individuals involved. Women in general seem very happy with their earnings.

Start-up support for women shopkeepers from AKRSP – training and rent; Learned to run businesses, manage inventory and savings, deal with wider range of customers Brings women into public space, but still segregated; variable access to input markets for inventory purchasing.

Women shopkeepers may hire shop clerks or tailors, but this is limited; this is mainly an enterprise opportunity.

Many women shopkeepers are able to access credit from AKRSP, community funds, banks, MFIs; others did not have needed funds.

Usually women own the inventory and rent the space; they also often have bank accounts and accumulated savings; they develop assets in this initiative.

Typically women have a fair bit of control over earnings and savings; this is not always the case and it may not be complete control, variable.

Women have involvement but for big decisions men are still usually in control. Some women decide about schooling for boys and girls. Appears to be a level of joint decision-making for many.

In some cases family helps a women shopkeeper, or she may have a schoolgirl; some women reported being overloaded.

Women have increased but there are still mobility restrictions; some women take public transit and a few will go down country to buy goods alone.

Occasionally a husband or other family member takes money; some women are overworked; male community members or religious leaders have sometimes created problems for women shopkeepers.

Social capital built as women work together in markets; Business networks beginning with two identified in the research.

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We can conclude from this assessment that women’s markets, although not reaching hundreds of women, provide an important group of role models in GB. Women shopkeepers are earning the respect of their families, but also of their communities as they run their businesses, contribute to household expenditures, educate their children, and develop in confidence. This results in greater mobility, control over assets, and involvement in business networks. Further, society is getting more used to the idea of women being in business outside the home, and to making financial decisions for herself and her family based on her income contribution. This has a ripple effect as more families want to prosper and more men feel relief that the burden of supporting a household is shared between husband and wife, yet the implementation model for programming for the women’s markets needs to be updated.

Opportunities, Recommendations and Next Steps: The women’s market intervention strategy, while a success story in many ways, can be improved to prevent failed markets and entrepreneurs, and to promote more businesswomen. In particular, there is an interesting opportunity to take a systemic perspective on women’s markets and develop the retail sector as included in the recommendations below. In order to be more consistently successful in women’s markets, AKRSP might consider the following recommendations:

1. When selecting women for the shops, ensure that they have the capacity to build a sustainable enterprise. Lowering or eliminating the rent subsidy would have the effect of creating self-selection of people who can afford the rent. Although this could promote elite capture, women who are not literate or who are very poor may not be good candidates to start and grow a shop business.

Criteria need to be established to deal with these issues and potentially start from another entry point with women who do not yet have the needed skills to succeed. Such an entry point could be an assessment of women’s capacities and a phased process.6 2. When a building with group rent is the only option, the recommendation above becomes even more critical since one woman’s failure can impact the other women’s success.

3. In choosing the location of the shop, learn from these experiences and aim for an area that is central, close to a school, or other location that will attract customers. If necessary, the market development team could conduct a customer survey to determine which location is best and then use the findings to facilitate a workshop to check the findings with local women and potentially find interested and capable women within the workshops.

4. Think of retail as a sector and implement clear market development strategies to

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improve the sector overall – not just at the enterprise level - and identify context specific barriers through market research then develop informed solutions which could include exposure visits, business and/or basic training and collective action or business networks/ associations. This is happening to some extent with Zumlukh business association in Skardu. Women could form unions which would enable them to: bulk order from wholesalers and expand merchandise; jointly promote their market including special events such as ‘sidewalk’ and ‘end of season’ sales; learn more about successful merchandising and provide a positive retail experience for customers; diversify their goods from shop to shop so there is more cooperation and less competition (grow the market for all); negotiate for better rents, improved security and around other relevant issues.

5. Consider ways for the women’s markets to be expanded and for women to obtain better purchasing prices. AKRSP could explore women sales agent models for the markets where women have less mobility and help to identify the sales agents.

6. Certain markets need further security for women to feel safe and know that men will not enter the markets. AKRSP could support women at the markets to brainstorm ways to enhance this security in a cost-effective and sustainable manner. AKRSP could also help to enhance the marketing of the women’s market

The objective of the SEPW was poverty reduction and therefore, most of the women who were encouraged to participate in the program were poor and destitute. Thus the results were mixed in terms of growth but increased participation of women in this program was an important factor that needed to be investigated and acknowledged. Personal communication, Muzaffar Uddin, 2012.

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22 Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme as safe spaces ‘just for women.’ This would allow for the expansion of the client base to women who otherwise would not have visited, while also ensuring the safety of the women selling at the market.

Intervention Strategy 4 Value Chain Development Enables Market Mainstreaming Value chain development is an intervention strategy of a market systems approach. Value chain development encompasses vertical analysis of a ‘chain’ from input through production, processing, marketing and final consumers, as well services that support each level of the chain. It is a relatively newer intervention strategy of AKRSP, and much of the information in this section relates to opportunities with less on what has already been achieved and learned.

Background: Value chain analysis can be used to assess opportunities for both employment and enterprise development, and both agricultural and non-agricultural sectors include small-scale producers as well as larger enterprises with job opportunities higher in the chain.

Although less information comes from our qualitative review in this section, the labor market assessment provides information on the labor market in GBC on both the supply and demand sides across sectors. Building on this, AKRSP will be able to select sectors and then conductvalue chain analysis to focus intervention efforts on upgrading and

expanding targeted value chains with high potential for job creation for young women and men.

The labor market assessment identified the top ten industries in GBC where people are currently employed. These include: 1) Agriculture, 2) Agricultural Goods Processing, 3) Government, 4) Other, 5) Education, 6) Construction, 7) Healthcare and social work, 8) Trade (wholesale, retail, border), 9) Transport and storage, and 10) Electricity.

Note that overall and gender trends are almost identical between adults and youth of the same sex with one exception - for younger men, government was the most common industry of employment while for men overall, agriculture was the mainstay.

Analysis: In the area of enterprise development, AKRSP has been working to develop value chains in various sectors, with a strong focus on agricultural production (including inputs) and more recent attention turning to services and market linkages.

Further, AKRSP is now in the process of making its value chain analyses gender sensitive – a complex step that requires more than gender disaggregation or add-on analyses vis a vis women; it necessitates gendered analysis from the start of research, design and planning.

As we conducted our qualitative review, we became aware of the rapidly changing reality for women on the ground, and the

increased receptiveness of communities for women’s economic engagement. This means that AKRSP will have to continually update information regarding women’s changing mobility and other opportunities that can be leveraged to enable women to become active value chain actors. For example, during our field research, we saw examples of women who had broken with tradition and were starting to mainstream themselves (see for example, Cases 24, 26, 32). Although the path to full mainstreaming may be long and fraught, ongoing value chain analysis and participatory problem solving will reveal new and changing opportunities to integrate women into agricultural value chains.

With regard to employment, the LMA revealed industry-specific plans and projections for hiring over the next 12 months. Analysis indicates that some employers in every sector except government have plans to hire new staff within the next year. Of the top ten industries, it is important to note that only the education and construction sectors had more than 50% of employers indicating strong prospects for growth. However, the numbers they indicated for entry-level and experienced workers – particularly for men – are also the most promising of any sector. While there are generally more entry-level than seniorlevel positions open, note that there are far fewer positions available for women in either category.

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Assessment of Contribution to Women’s Empowerment: The following assessment is based more on what might be possible rather than what has been realized as no VCD program has been undertaken with women.

Economic advancement Level of income Opportunities to develop business and work skills Access to markets (as buyers and sellers) Access to jobs Access to credit for business startup or expansion Power and Agency Ownership of productive assets (land, animals, machinery) Control over how to spend some cash or savings Involvement in major household decisions, such as large purchases Support for household workload

Strategy Contribution When successful, value chain development is excellent for individuals involved – market linkages for women’s enterprises, and therefore income, are currently weak.

Value chain development can incorporate incapacity building with the benefit of reaching groups within the chain with a cost-effective and sustainable service.

Value chain development places a strong focus on market access, but this has yet to be fully developed in AKRSP programs for women.

There is high potential for job creation for women and men in selected sectors.

Potential to improve credit as actors in a viable value chain are viewed as better risks.

This depends on the value chain. VCD can analyze this as well as the enabling environment, leading to program design that addresses access issues.

Depending on the value chain women will have greater control over income (e.g., women keep control over income from horticulture); VCA can analyze shifts in control.

Greater economic development typically leads to greater involvement in household decisions for women; VCD has the potential to accelerate this.

VCD can promote support services from daycares to labour saving devices; traditional approaches to support household work are also available (extended family and schoolgirls).

Level of mobility As with other economic initiatives, as women’s income and contributions increase, there is often greater mobility.

Negative consequences or backIt seems likely that as with other initiatives that the husband or family may take money, and the woman lash resulting from economic gains may become overworked; risk mitigation strategy needed.

Women’s participation in business Value chain development offers excellent opportunities to create associations and marketing boards. networks The assessment shows that if women can be mainstreamed into value chains there is potential to integrate 1000s of women into market systems, whether they are agricultural, service or manufacturing sectors. Through creating systems change, and leveraging the recent advances in women’s education and socio-economic empowerment, EELY has the opportunity to bring women to a new level in society both contributing to and benefiting from a growing economy.

24 Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme Opportunities, Recommendations and Next Steps: Women’s roles and mobility are rapidly changing across GB. This means that there are more opportunities to engage in value chains as both entrepreneurs and employees, and to take on new roles. For example, if retail were taken as a sector with a vision for its growth and upgrading this could be a very interesting market development initiative.

1. Choose 1-2 subsectors that have high potential for women’s labour market participation and growth, based on the findings from the LMA. 2. Choose 1-2 subsectors that have high potential for women to engage as entrepreneurs at all levels in the chain.

3. Conduct gendered value chain analysis that investigates new options for women (enterprise and employment) in targeted sub-sectors – do not rely on past research or static notions of women. Rather, base solutions on data gathered for this qualitative review and the LMA. 4. Focus less on overarching barriers and seek innovation solutions. Analyze specific constraints vis a vis the selected solution and design interventions accordingly. Use the youth tool to select specific sectors and intervention strategies to help make this selection process more systematic and objective. This tool can be adopted to use for women as well. The indicators will simply need to be changed.

5. Seek opinions and solutions from women

about where they could take on new roles, and what supports they would need, and then design new intervention strategies accordingly.

6. Analyze leverage points – ‘big wins’ – that have the potential to integrate more women into value chains and change their roles.

7. Emphasize the specifics of market linkages – the largest barrier for women in many sectors. This could include expansion of women’s markets – more markets, more and varied shop – deployment of women sales agents, women-friendly wholesale markets, women’s groups represented by one of the members in markets, husband-wife sales teams, local markets, etc.

8. Consider linking a retail sector development strategy to a horticulture marketing strategy. For example, women’s markets could incorporate a vegetable, fruit and nuts shop. Or, as retail sectors are developed more generally, market intermediaries (see 6. Above) could connect women to the new shops.

9. Train staff, provide exposure visits for staff and women leaders, and upgrade capacities in value chain development.

10. Evaluate if there is a role for LSOs, and do not depend on them if they do not have the capacity or interest. If selected, monitor closely for performance with SMART indicators of achievement.

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CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS AKRSP has contributed to significant advances for women in GB over their three decades of programming – in particular, women’s productive capacity, entrepreneurship and other skills have been developed in areas of agriculture and women’s markets along with collective action and savings through WOs, and greater gender awareness in communities and households. At the same time, changes in the enabling environment and telecommunications infrastructure have also provided new opportunities for and attitudes towards women. In order for AKRSP to take full advantage of the shifting terrain, and to move women to the next level of economic mainstreaming, the full adoption of systemic approaches that include market integration will be undertaken during the EELY program.

Specific recommendations around existing program approaches and intervention strategies are included in the corresponding sections above. Below, overarching strategic and program recommendations are provided.

Overarching Strategic Recommendation The World Bank has noted that the AKRSP vision for women’s empowerment needs to be articulated more clearly by senior management and the approaches implemented must match this vision.7

It would be helpful to program staff if AKRSP management could consolidate their understanding of gendered development, and map out a theory of change that can achieve equality for women and development for northern communities. This would allow for an elaboration of program strategies and activities that are the basis for achieving the vision, and further provide the foundation for a monitoring and evaluation system that tracks the change from activities through various levels of outputs.

Various theory of change frameworks are available. GAC has been a proponent of theories of change (their new logic model approach), trainings are available, and consultants can be brought in to facilitate a theory of change process with managers and staff.

Once a theory of change has been articulated, the institutional gaps and needs to implement the interventions and activities can be more easily identified. For example, let’s assume that the theory of change identifies mainstreaming of women into market systems utilizing a value chain approach, with specific activities as gendered value chain analysis and gendered value chain development design. This would require that more staff have the capacity to research, design, plan

World Bank (2002) The Next Ascent: an evaluation of the Aga Khan Rural Support Program, Pakistan. Washington, DC: World Bank (p.43).

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and implement such an intervention. With this understanding, appropriate capacity building and technical support can be accessed.

Program Recommendations The following are synopses of the top twelve general program recommendations for women’s economic empowerment that have emerged from the field research and review of secondary source information. Specific recommendations related to each intervention strategy are provided in the Interventions chapters.

1. Align vision, approach and intervention strategy: Ensure that the vision, the approach and the specific intervention strategy match. For a GAD approach, for example, a reliance on mainly targeted programs is not a good fit since this will not easily lead to market integration.

2. Emphasis in the EELY program: Under EELY, key areas of focus should be appropriate skills development for employment and enterprise, support for women (and men) in job placement, startup business support, and upgrading of value chain roles and incentives with a particular emphasis on access to markets and information.

3. Match program strategies to the needs/ situation and aspirations of program

Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme

participants and develop selection criteria to match: During our field research, we witnessed participants in programs for which they were not a good match – for example, educated girls learning to spin in Daghoni and illiterate/innumerate women running shops that were not very successful.

4. Selection of target sectors: Sectors need to be selected for both enterprise development (mainstreaming of women enterprises in the value chain) as well as to increase employment opportunities for women. a. Agriculture remains a key opportunity for rural women. b. Women’s markets offer an interesting entry point into service sectors, and could be expanded to development of retail as a sector. c. Upgrading of the skills training sector has the possibility of providing employment to women as trainers in various venues. d. Formal employment, particularly in education, is a rapidly expanding and socially acceptable opportunity for women.

5. Utilize life cycle approach: A life cycle approach to programming supports staff in analyzing the requirements and implementing the activities that change over the life of a program.

6. Conduct gendered market analysis for value chains, skills development and

other economic initiatives: New research is needed to understand women’s roles today (changed from the past) and the opportunities going forward.

7. Develop women’s economic leadership: Certain women are ready to take on leadership roles in sectors – and many already have done so. Identification of champions and ‘positive deviants’ or ‘social entrepreneurs’ can be starting points for new solutions.

8. Associations of all kinds can be beneficial: Whether market associations, joint agricultural marketing groups, women’s chambers of commerce, associations of all kinds provide women with greater power and influence: 9. LSOs are not the best vehicle for economic programs: The LSO structure is extremely useful and successful, however, their ability to run economic initiatives such as those that expand market access seems doubtful. LSOs are a strong vehicle for delivery of basic training, but less so for vocational training that requires technical expertise.

10. Assess staff capacity and seek necessary support: Staff of AKRSP and LSOs do not always have the needed capacity to run economic development programs. We witnessed social mobilizers who had become market development mobilizers but really did not understand economic development, market linkages, private sector and so on.

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11. Examine use of subsidies and appropriate support: Subsidies may lead to inappropriate program participation.

For example, some women participated in women’s markets that could not afford the rent once the subsidy ended. This resulted in market closure for all women, even those who could pay their own rent.

12. Make market linkages a priority across women’s programs: Women are concerned about market linkages and need new solutions to connect to markets.

• Discuss market linkage strategies and solutions with women and women’s groups • Seek innovative solutions and learn from other programs around the world • Identify women who can lead the way in terms of market linkages • Build on experience of AKRSP of positive change (e.g. Bala door to door sales, certain women going to main markets) and do not dwell on barriers

Aga Khan Rural Support Programme is a private, non-profit company, established by the Aga Khan Foundation to help improve the quality of life of the villagers of Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral (GBC). It was established in 1982 with the mandate to focus on economic and institutional development in collaboration with government departments, elected bodies, national and international development agencies and commercial institutions. Although AKRSP’s own emphasis on the productive sectors, it is also expected to assist other agencies in promoting social sector programmes. AKRSP was established to act as a catalyst for rural development, organizing local human and financial resources in order to enable the communities to bring about their own development in an equitable and sustainable manner.

AKRSP is a non-communal organization, working with all the people of its project area, and recruiting its staff from all over Pakistan.

Aga Khan Rural Support Programme Core Office Gilgit Babar Road, P.O. Box 506, Gilgit, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan Phone: (+92-5811) 452480 / 452910 / 452679 Fax: (+92-5811) 454175

Liaison Office Islamabad

Regional Programme Office Gilgit

Regional Programme Office Chitral

Regional Programme Office Baltistan

House No. 343, Street No. 32 Sector F-11/2, Islamabad, Pakistan Phone: (+92-51) 2100645 – 649 Email: info@akrsp.org.pk

Noor Colony, Opposite NADRA Office, Jutial, Gilgit, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan Phone: (+92-5811) 452910/455077/452177 Fax: (+92-5811) 452822

Shahi Qilla, Chitral, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan Phone: (+92-943) 412727 / 412720 /412736 Fax: (+92-943) 412516

P.O. Box 610, Satpara Road, Skardu, Baltistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan Phone: (+92-5831) 450320-2 Fax: (+92-5831) 450324

Aga Khan Rural Support Programme - AKRSP Pakistan

www.akrsp.org.pk