An Analysis of Gender Mainstreaming in National Agricultural Policies and Programs in Ghana

Abstract

Aim: The study examined the extent of gender integration in agricultural policies at the regional and national levels in Northern Ghana.
 Methods: Three Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) were purposively sampled from the 16 MMDAs in the region. The interview method was used to obtain information from 24 purposively selected key informants of MoFA and gender focal persons in Accra, Tamale, Savelugu, Zabzugu. Ten selected agricultural policy documents that addressed gender integration in agricultural policies were reviewed and descriptive and content analysis of the documents were conducted. The study applied a framework developed by Gumuchio and Rueda (2015) to analyze the extent of gender mainstreaming in agricultural policies and programmes.
 Results: The study found that most national-level agricultural policies and programmes on gender recognize the need for gender equality by specifying issues of concern, but fall short of highlighting the means of addressing the issues.  It was also observed that most agricultural policies are moving from gender-blind policies to integrating gender in the objective or cross-cutting issues category, emphasizing an increasingly positive response in the extent of integrating gender in agricultural policies and programmes but with little or no budget provision to operationalize gender integration.   
 Conclusion: The study concludes that recent agricultural policies (2015 to 2023) are progressively shifting from gender-blind policies to integrating gender at different levels of policies and programmes. The predominance of women’s issues in gender policy documents coupled with a lack of clear gender indicators to little or no budget provision to operationalize gender integration in programs and projects.
 Recommendation: The study recommends that gender mainstreaming should move beyond women to include men to ensure gender equity.  Also, policies and programmes on gender-specific issues of concern should highlight the means of addressing such issues and also ensure that gender-specific policies are accompanied by resource allocations.