Transforming Gender Relations in Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa

The text outlines a strategy for gender transformation in Sub-Saharan African agriculture by moving away from "power over" dynamics toward "power with," "power to," and "power within." It introduces a conceptual framework based on three interconnected dimensions: agency (the ability to make and act on choices), structure (the visible laws and invisible cultural norms), and relations (the networks and partnerships individuals form). The author argues that targeted projects for women often fail if they do not simultaneously address access to productive assets and the broader social structures that restrict women's decision-making power. The framework emphasizes that sustainable change requires engaging men as allies and coordinating actions across individual, household, community, and institutional levels.

• Targeted empowerment projects for women, such as the World Bank-sponsored Women in Development (WID) project in the Gambia during the 1990s, demonstrate that increasing women's capacity does not automatically translate into greater overall decision-making power, personal freedom, or asset ownership.
• Agricultural training for women lacks long-term productivity impact unless it is paired with efforts to improve their access to productive assets, their voice in household decisions, and their participation in community decision-making bodies.
• Gender inequality in agriculture is reinforced by a disparity in asset control: women typically control low-value assets like kitchen equipment and small livestock, while men control high-value productive assets such as land, farming technologies (ploughs and sprayers), and the ability to pay for labour.
• The document defines a three-dimensional empowerment framework consisting of agency (self-determination and choice), structure (political, cultural, and social formations including both visible laws and invisible norms), and relations (the ability to participate in networks and value chain partnerships).
• Gender norms that restrict men to the role of sole breadwinner can lead to negative outcomes for men, including loss of self-esteem, increased self-harm, and the abuse of women, particularly as economic structures shift toward higher female participation.
• Sustainable gender transformation requires moving from a "power over" approach—where men's gains are seen as women's losses—to a model of "power with," enlisting men as change agents who recognize that gender equality benefits the entire community.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (n.d.). Transforming Gender Relations in Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SIANI-Gender-Africa-book/SIANI-2013-Transforming-Gender-Relations-Chapter2.pdf

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Transforming Gender Relations in Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. n.d. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SIANI-Gender-Africa-book/SIANI-2013-Transforming-Gender-Relations-Chapter2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Transforming Gender Relations in Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SIANI-Gender-Africa-book/SIANI-2013-Transforming-Gender-Relations-Chapter2.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitutendtransforming, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Transforming Gender Relations in Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SIANI-Gender-Africa-book/SIANI-2013-Transforming-Gender-Relations-Chapter2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }