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GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN IPM A participatory approach in institutionalizing and integrating gender equality in IPM networks and project policies in Ind

Indonesian farmers, especially women, in the last four decades, have been discriminated by the Indonesian government policies on agricultural development. Since the Green Revolution era, as well as the post green revolution era of Free Trade agriculture liberalization policies, they have been subordinated, marginalized, and displaced from the paddy field by those policies. Although The UN convention on Elimination all forms of discriminations against women has been ratified by the Indonesian government in the 80s and many other UN conventions on women related issues have been adopted, unfortunately they are not automatically prevent the discrimination against women to take place. The recent emergence of the awareness of women equal rights as one of the impact of The Beijing Women Conference 1995, however, does not stop the violation
against women rights.

But recently, we are witnessing a phenomenon of emerging of new consciousness to eliminate all forms of discriminations by the farmers themselves in the IPM community networks. The idea of elimination of all forms of discrimination against women in the farmer’s community actually has nothing to do with those UN women conventions. The idea of protecting women among the farmers community, actually has been part of old tradition and belief of the farmers, that women dignity traditionally must be protected. However the new awareness of eliminating all forms of discriminations against women was part of a farmers’ movement of institutionalising gender in the IPM network, which has a mission that women farmers should be prevented from all forms of social, political, economic as well as cultural dehumanisation. In this paper, I try to explore and describe the experience and experiment of IPM farmers’ networks on how they conducted “Gender mainstreaming” or how they have established institutionalisation of gender equality, and strategize and sustained by farmers themselves. This paper basically is developed base on the experiment of farmers in doing participatory gender mainstreaming in the Indonesian IPM farmers networks.

Gender in the Farmers community
All forms of gender based discriminations that take place in the farmers community, actually is a phenomenon that is not easily recognized by farmers themselves. Gender base discrimination is a form of discrimination that structurally and culturally operates in agriculture development programs as well as in the community, which are not easily to be recognized because they have been accepted by farmers men and women and therefore is believed as natural. However, gender discrimination that takes place in the farmers community, took place due to unequal gender relation between male farmers and female farmers basically is socially constructed. In other words, Gender based discrimination is very difficult to understand, because it has already socialized for long time. Gender relations among farmers basically are socially determined relations that differentiate male and female farmers situations. Although Farmers (male and female) are born biologically female or male, but have acquired gender identity. Gender relation between male and female and gender dimension of the social relations are structuring and influencing the relation between male and female in agriculture, such as gender division of labour and division of access to and control over agriculture sources including agriculture
development programs between male and female.

Unintentionally, many development programs have been impacted to male farmers then to female farmers. Therefore, many agriculture programs have been in favour of male farmers as a gender, and against women farmers as a gender in the farmer’s community including within the IPM farmers network. For example during the Green Revolution programs in Indonesia, millions of women were displaced from the paddy field and agriculture systematically by the program that leads to marginalization of millions of women farmers. Learning from the past agriculture development policies as well as the IPM programs, especially on how the IPM program have contributed to the marginalization and displacement of women farmers from agriculture and other negative impact to women, IPM program staff have expressed their concern that the progr mneeds a special program of integrating gender into IPM. Based on the concern, the IPM
Indonesia program management initiated a special program of integrating gender in the IPM.

This program actually is not a new program in the IPM. From the very beginning of FFS, the IPM program actually have tried to integrate gender perspective by conducted several workshops on gender, especially for the national program staffs and experts. The result and the follow up implementation of those workshops, however, could not be implemented in to the IPM network. Unfortunately, after several approaches introduced in the program to integrate gender in the IPM have not resulted effective change. The mid term evaluation conducted by the evaluator reveals that IPM needs professional help to integrate gender in the IPM.

Based on the suggestion, finally IPM took an initiative to develop an alternative model of integrating gender in the IPM program, namely by adopting a participatory model of gender mainstreaming. This is an approach that place farmers, women and men at the center of the process of integrating gender into the program. It is a model where farmers themselves become the main actors in the process of transforming the IPM into a gender equal organization. It is a process of transforming IPM community becomes a just and fair society. This approach is taken to respond the marginalization of women in agricultural policy that has taken places for years. Even in development terminology, ‘farmer’ means man. Those who are involved in and invited to any training activities have been men. This is true that in the IPM program for 15 years, the majority of the participants and facilitators were men.

The main aim of gender mainstreaming in the IPM
The aim of gender mainstreaming in the IPM networks and policy, basically is a process to ensure that women and men benefit equally and that inequality and all forms discrimination such as marginalization, subordination, burden and violence against women farmers are not perpetuated and stopped within the IPM networks in Indonesia. These aims are achieved by establishing Gender strategy activities in the IPM farmers’ networks. The objectives of the activities include:
1. Conducting a recruitment of the core team facilitators for Institutionalisation of
gender in the IPM network;
2. Creating Special Gender Training for farmers, covering several topics, i.e.
Establishing a Gender training curriculum for farmers; gender injustice in rural
areas, social and political factors that influencing the situation, development tools
to assess gender problems in rural areas, and follow up plan of action;
3. Establishing participatory Gender Assessment Tools concerning gender problems
in rural areas carried out by IPM farmers. The participatory Assessment Tools
that were conducted through participatory Research and FGD, and simultaneous
problem solving;
4. Doing Gender Workshops to establish a training curriculum including gender
issues; raising gender critical consciousness in rural areas, especially within the
IPM farmers network.
5. Workshop evaluation, i.e. a discussion activity to identify weaknesses and
strengths of action results in the rural areas. At the end of the workshop, some
further discussions regarding the development of gender strategy in IPPHTI
organization in the future were held in the field.

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