From 27-29 June 2016 more than 60 people from all over the world gathered in Rome to share their passion: Gender Action learning System (GALS) or another household methodology, which brings about amazing changes in rural people’s lives in many parts of the world: manyfold increases in production, shared land titledeeds, joint planning and decision making, shared labour for productive and reproductive activities, and many more. The aim of the meeting was “how to scale up from thousands to millions”? All participants pletched 5 actions they would do without cost to achieve this.
The first and second day gave an overview from Linda Mayoux on the methodologyand presentations from the organizers, IFAD, Oxfam Novib and Hivos, sharing of experiences on GALS in value chain development and rural finance, as well as rural livelihoods and extension..
The second day many presentations were made on implementation by various organisations and in different countries in Africa and Asia:
- Enhancing the capacities of local development organisations in the Red Sea State Port Sudan Association for Small Entperise Development – Sudan
- Community led action learning for Gender Justice in Value Chain development (GENVAD) DUHAMIC-ADRI, Rwanda
- Empowering female leaders with GALS tools, Laos
- Research project on Household methodologies, Malawi CIMMYT-CCAFS with NASFAM
- Community led value chain development for gender justice and pro-poor wealth creation , BAIR, Rwanda
- Accelerating Gender Equity in the Coffee Value Chain – The Coffee Quality Institute Partnership for Gender Equity
- Nut in Shell Project National Smallholder Farmers Association, Malawi (NASFAM) with TWIN
- Gender Dialoque project, Fair Labour Association in association with Nestlé, Cote d ‘Ivoire
- Achievements of using GALS in Laos
- GALS in Sierra Leone
- Farmers Association of Community Self-Help Investment Groups (FACHIG) Trust, Zimbabwe
- Coffee as a family farming business – Hivos
From the second day onwards, participants brainstormed how to take household methodologies and GALS to scale, moving from the present thousands to millions. The third day the participants brainstormed futher what going to scale would mean and require, and worked out proposals for collaboration, and made 5 commitments for action.
In her second presentation on how upscaling, Linda Mayoux drew how a dynamic change movement would look like:
All participants went home all fired up, and knowing they have many friends all over the world sharing the same passion: making gender relations more equal, and empowering both women ánd men!
Do you also want to become part of this movement? Let me explain to you how GALS works and how you can get involved. Get in touch!
Contact Catherine van der Wees at info@gendersmartsolutions.nl