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Malawi Pathways 2015 Annual Report
(Dec 2014 – Nov, 2015)
Pathways Malawi Contact Persons
Salome Mhango: Project Manager ([email protected])
Lemekeza Mokiwa: Program Director – Food and Nutrition Security ([email protected])
Submitted to
Dr. Maureen Miruka – Chief of Party ( Pathways Program)
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1. Impact Results
Table 1: Pathways Impact Indicators
Pathways Goal: To increase poor women farmers’ productivity and empowerment in
more equitable agriculture systems at scale.
Performance Indicators
Baseline Endline
evaluation
draft
report,
2015
Mean household dietary diversity scores 5.4 6
Mean women’s intra-household food access 5.2 5.7
Coping strategies index 2.1 5.6
% households using adaptation strategies to reduce the
impact of future shocks 83.9
89.1
Per capita monthly household income in USD (farm and
non-farm combined) 11.6
17.38
Per capita monthly household expenditures 19.55 27.02
% households with savings 97 94.2
% women with savings 96.7 93.3
Mean asset index 200.1 399.8
% of women achieving empowerment 20.9 28.8
Source: Baseline, ARS 2013/14, endline evaluation draft report, 2015
Progress and Results by Objective: Describe the progress of the project, including where the project is
progressing as expected, where it is not, whether the project is still on track to complete expected
results, and if not, what proposed modifications are contemplated.
2. Objective 1: To increase the productive engagement of 52,000 poor women in sustainable
agriculture, and contribute to their empowerment
A. Project Dashboard In this section, we would like to compile information on key project
numbers to keep track of who we are working with and the project reach (cumulative). You
can separate these by either different geographies e.g. districts or by different impact groups
if you are working with more than one impact group. Adjust the table columns accordingly.
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Table 2: Malawi Dashboard November, 2015
Impact and target groups, members and outreach Malawi
Number of villages 235
Number of groups by type 1,528
VSLA 1,020
Producer groups 508
Self Help Groups 0
Solidarity groups 0
Co-operatives /Networks 0
Active FFBS sites 95
Total number of poor women smallholder farmers (Impact Population) in
collectives (Gates Foundation)
10,814
Total number of Impact Population (other donors) 13,882
% of women in leadership position in comparison to baseline 72.3
Total number of other target group
Men and Boys e. g. spouses, other 3468
Elites including traditional leaders 294
Other 0 Source: Field reports, end-line evaluation draft report, 2015 report
B. Results by change lever
Please outline results by change lever as per guidance under each change lever.
Go through lessons learned during the past one year that will help you to achieve
your intended results during the supplemental grant period/phase 2. To what
extent have these lessons led to modification of the results identified in the
results framework?
B. 1. Change Lever 1 - Capacity: Improved knowledge, skills, relationships, self-confidence, and
conviction of women smallholder farmers.
(Include: Total no of CBTs and smallholders trained, what they have been trained in, mode of
training - FFBS or otherwise. Outline progression in training, knowledge status at baseline, last
year and now, use available data)
B. 1.1. Results
Women in leadership positions has been increasing over the years from 53.1 to 72.3 percent
at end line
, Women’s self confidence in speaking publicly about gender and other community issues
increased from baseline by 23.5% among women from female-headed households, and by
14.1% for women from male headed households respectively.
The program interventions around women economic empowerment is facilitating women
financial independency
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Benefits of double row planting in soya bean outweighed the challenge of labour intensiveness of the
practice. 18.63% of 5,146 farmers who grew soya bean adopted this practice and reported more than
75 percent increase in harvests per unit square area ( field reports, 2015)
Table 3: Capacity Change Lever Results
PERFOMANCE INDICATORS Baseline
(2012) Target
End-line
(2015)
% women participating in formal and informal groups 98.7 100 100
% women holding leadership positions in formal and
informal groups 53.1 63.83 72.3
% respondents confident speaking about gender and
other community issues at the local level
Female headed 53.7 69.8 77.2
Male Headed 73.3 80.6 87.4 Source: Baseline, ARS 2013/14, end-line evaluation draft report, 2015
1.1.1. Women participation in Groups
As seen from the dash board in table 2 above, a total of 13,882 women continued to participate in
Pathways collectives. Women comprised 90% of the total membership in collectives. At baseline, 98.7 %
of the women interviewed belonged to collectives and three years down the line, all had joined the
collectives. Out of the 13,882, 5,571 are participating in Pathways value chains. Through participating in
VSLA and producer group collectives, women have been engaged in various trainings aimed at building
their capacity to enhance improved knowledge and skills.
Among women who participate in groups, the number of women who state they hold leadership
positions has increased from 53% at baseline to 72.3% (end-line evaluation draft report, 2015). These
women occupy both core leadership (e.g. chairperson, treasurer and secretary) and committee
membership positions which including school and marketing committees’ members. .
1.1.2. Improved Knowledge and Skills
The women acquired and utilized knowledge and skills in crop production, financial literacy, preparation
and utilization of nutritious food, marketing and enhancing negotiation and better communication skills
which is greatly impacting their daily lives. Table 4 below outlines activities and trainings that enhanced
knowledge and skills in the reporting period.
Table 4: Capacity Building Activities
Activity Participants
F M Total
STAFF TRAININGS
Develop and add FFBS tools in the FFBS manual (Staff) 3 7 10
Conducted 16 Project meetings (Staff) 3 7 10
Designing a common gender indicator framework (Staff) 2 3 5
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Activity Participants
F M Total
Field tour to Kaluluma/Mtunthama on CA (Staff) 2 8 10
CBTs TRAININGS 56 34 90
Community Buyer – Seller forums with Apex 24 8 32
Training new VAs in VS&L methodology 23 20 43
Financial literacy and linkage to mobile financial institutions training for VAs 69 36 105
Training of FFTs in seed multiplication and seed bank management(training
conducted by ICRISAT.
4 4 8
Refresher training in crop estimate methodology (FFTS) 56 34 090
FARMER TRAININGS
4 Food processing and utilization sessions 894 124 1,018
Train farmers in gross margin analysis and Marketing mix 3,546 887 4,433
PG Members learning from FFBS plot 4,684 754 5,438
Farmers provided with technical support on farm e.g. correct planting
spacing, use of certified seed, proper and timely weeding, constructing box
ridges to reduce aflatoxin incidences.
2,513 1709 4,222
Mandela cork refresher community training 1,280 488 1768
Facilitated gender training in communities 4,775 1,059 5,833
Farmers who stacked soy beans 1,245 981 2,226 Source: Pathways Field Reports 2015
The above capacity building activities were conducted using the FFBS approach. Following the seasonal
calendar developed with the communities, sustainable-agriculture demonstration plots, nutrition food
displays, gender dialogues and marketing activities were implemented. The capacity building activities
outlined in Table 4 above enhanced poor women’s self- confidence, financial literacy, nutrition
wellbeing, negotiation skills, equitable relationships in married couples and improved yields as a result
of their adoption. Spillover of farming skills and knowledge is also apparent among women who are not
members of the collectives, essentially benefiting whole communities. For instance endline qualitative
interviews with non-members suggest that benefits of the Pathways project related to information
access are not limited to members only. Most non-member FGDs spoke about spillover from the project
and related that they too, have more access to information about agriculture than they did three years
ago due to the increased presence of community extension workers. When community members were
asked to rank project activities in order of positive impact at the household and community level,
improved agricultural skills ranked second among all activities (end-line evaluation draft report, 2015).
More details are explained in various sections of the report that follows.
1.1.3. Women’s Self Confidence
With reference to capacity performance results in
Table 3 above, women’s self confidence in speaking
publicly about gender and other community issues
increased from baseline by 23.5% among women from
female-headed households, and by 14.1% for women
Pic 1: Women are also confident to engage with buyers
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from male headed households respectively. This data suggests that women from female headed
households have benefitted greatly in terms of self-confidence and autonomy, and gender monitoring
results support this finding. For example, one of the gender monitoring indicators is that “widowed
/divorced women freely choose not to remarry (to maintain financial independence and decisions).” In
monitoring, women stated that change in this indicator was observed to be very high (Gender
Monitoring Report, 2015).
Economic empowerment and community engagement in gender dialogues has contributed to increased
self-confidence of the women from both male and femaleheaded households. However, more
pronounced improvements have been observed among female headed households from baseline due to
the enabling environment created by the program; This can be attributed to the baseline conditions for
unmarried or widowed women: typically, cultural barriers are stronger on unmarried women to speak in
public than married women, as married women are more respected than unmarried women. Joining and
participating in collectives activities enabled the women to acquire knowledge and skills that improved
their financial status and self-independence. As more women become leaders in collectives, their self-
confidence and articulation of issues also improved and this has catalyzed their assumption of more
public roles and speaking on issues that concerns them.
Table X: Women and Men self Confidence and Autonomy
Gender behavioral Indicator
Frequency of Observance
by community members
Low
Medium High
Women dress nicely and look good (have bathed, combed hair, put lotion,
clean clothes) 0 70.8 29.2
Widowed /divorced women freely choose not to remarry (to maintain
financial independence and make their own decisions) 4.2 20.8 75
Women negotiate for better marketing terms for agriculture crops 8.3 62.5 29.2
Women stop doing prolonged casual labour 12.5 62.5 25
Women publically speak out against GBV 25 54.2 20.8
Table XX: Men self-confidence, Leadership and Autonomy
Gender Behavioral Indicator
Frequency of Observance
by community members
Low Medium High
Men accompany wives to hospital or other public places 20.8 37.5 41.7
Men encourage wives to join collectives, attend FFBS and collective meetings,
do business 0.0 8.3 91.7
Men inform their wives about their movements/ where they are going 45.8 33.3 20.8
Men reduce violence against women (e.g. insults, beatings) 12.5 58.3 29.2
Men support wives to move freely 0.0 50.0 50.0
Men drink alcohol responsibly (consider the welfare of the family, limit
amount spent on beer, don’t use violence) 16.7 66.7 4.2 Source: Gender Monitoring Report, 2015
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1.2. Capacity Lever Challenges
Despite their growing leadership confidence, uptake of skills that required numeric competency
or scientific explanation (for example knowledge on vitamins and body functions of each six
food groups, keeping records and measuring a field size) was a challenge to the women farmers.
The participants feel such kind of information is too deep for their understanding. Linking
participants to adult literacy or incorporating the activity to the program can help the women to
improve in this area
1.3. Capacity Lever Lessons Learnt and Way Forward
1. Farmers demanded FFBS demonstration trials that included maize (a staple crop). The project
embarked on free choice demonstration lessons and worked with ministry of agriculture and
FFTs to design the protocols. Continued support in monitoring the demonstrations was
enhanced. Free choice demonstration protocols around pathways value chains and maize will be
continued during the bridging phase to enhance bottom up approaches that ensures
sustainability of project activities. As a way forward, pathways will continue to promote self-
organized demonstration field protocols to enhance ownership and learning. These protocols
will also include maize as per the demand of the farmers.
2. Some food recipes trained to farmers during food processing and utilization were not easily
accepted by the society due to unpalatable appearances and tastes. Therefore the program
emphasized on nutritious recipes that were easily accepted (e.g. avoiding mixing too many
ingredients)
3. Even though some food groups require money to buy, there is still failure to recognize that more
than 90 percent of different food groups can be found locally. The program will enhance
perception change through nutrition dialogues
4. Benefits of double row planting in soya bean outweighed the challenge of labour intensiveness
of the practice. Out of the 5,146 farmers who grew soya, 18.63%farmers that adopted the
practice reported more than 75 percent increase in harvests per unit square area (PPT, 2014,
field reports, 2015). The program seeks to include protocols of double row planting in the self-
selected demonstration trials to enhance more learning and adoption of this practice. The
program has to continue engage farmers in direct demonstrations to show the benefits and then
also through Farmer field demonstrations to other peer farmers.
5. Failure to use hybrid seeds due to the mentality that the cost is too high compared to how the
farmers sell grain. For instance farmers cited that during the period improved soya variety cost
MK500 (USD 1.11) per kilogram while when they harvest they sell around MK200 (USD 0.44) per
kilogram. The team tried to explain to them that seed is expensive because it is multiplied once
you grow. For instance one kilogram of Tikolore yielded more than 40 kilogram grains which
could be sold more than MK7,000 (USD 12.67). There is need for implementing dialogues that
challenge thinking capacity of farmers to enhance more adoption of improved practices that
enhances productivity (cost benefit analysis).
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B.2. Change Lever 2 - Access: Increased access to productive resources, assets, markets, and
appropriate and reliable services and inputs for poor women farmers.
(Includes: Access to agricultural inputs (which inputs, amounts, show progression from baseline
till now); output markets, financial services and credit (include VSLA and SHGs if applicable,
amounts, increment through time); land (Acreage for individual or groups, incremental from last
year to this year; access to technology and innovation (e.g. post-harvest); access to extension
services)
B. 2.1. Results
Percentage of women accessing agricultural inputs (seeds) has been increasing over the years
with 7.9% increase from the baseline. The programs initiative in linking farmers with research
institution and agro-dealers in addition to trainings on importance of using improved seeds
contributed to the results
Group input sourcing increase fom 2.5% at baseline to 18 % at endline.
Percentage of women accessing output markets to sell agricultural production from baseline
increased by over 23 percent. The program encouraged collective selling and a positive trend of
group selling was observed from baseline. Cumulatively, the program’s participants made USD
1,302,696 since baseline
Increase to women’s access to extension services was not limited to program participants only.
While program participants recorded 55.6 increases from the baseline, non-program
participants through focus groups suggested that benefits of the Pathways project related to
information and extension access are not limited to members only. Most non-member FGDs
spoke about spillover from the project and related that they too, have more access to
information about agriculture than they did three years ago due to the increased presence of
community extension workers (preliminary end-line evaluation report, 2015)
There is increased number of women reporting have decision-making control over land assets:
over 78% state they can make decisions over the sale or purchase of land compared to only 67%
at baseline (end-line evaluation draft report,2015)
Table 5: Access Change Lever Performance Results
Performance Indicators Baseline
(2013) Target
End-line
(2015)
% women accessing agricultural inputs (seeds) over the last 12
months 78.1 92.5 86
% women accessing output markets to sell agricultural
production over the last 12 months 39.9 59.9 63
Collective Sales Revenues(MK)
128,601,938
(233,821.7)
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% women with access to agricultural extension services in last 12
months 26.4 65 82
% women accessing agricultural financial services (loans, savings)
in last 12 months 96.9 98.8 96.4
Savings Accumulation(MK)
599,668,452
($1,332,596
)) Source: Baseline, ARS 2013/14/15, MIS, endline evaluation draft report, 2015 reports
2.1.1. Access to Agricultural Inputs
2.1.1.1. Access to Land
The project team engaged local leaders, men and spouses of women beneficiaries in dialogues to discuss
on issues around release of good land for soya and groundnut cultivation to women. There is a shift in
gender behavior on the cultivation of crops promoted by Pathways. Under the reporting period, gender
behavioral change monitoring has found out that more men and women are now cultivating together in
all field (66.7%). For these households, all crops are being prioritized for fertile land, [whereas
previously, women had to wait until their husband’s crops were planted to plant their own, and felt they
received a less fertile plot]. . For demonstration purposes, 8.5 hectares was put under demonstration
plots; 90 percent of this land was released freely by community leaders while the other 10 percent was
rented using FFBS financing funds
Of key importance to the Pathways program is the increased number of women reporting they have
decision-making control over land assets: over 78% state they can make decisions over the sale or
purchase of land compared to only 67% at baseline (End-line evaluation draft report, 2015).
2.1.1.2. Access to Fertilizer and Seeds
Access to agriculture inputs which include fertilizer and seeds increased by 7.9% from the baseline. Due
to poor relationships among seed breeder and distributors, availability of high yielding varieties has
been scanty over the years. One way that Pathways has enhanced more access to seed has been
collective seed sourcing. At baseline, only 2.5% of the farmers used group seed sourcing while at end-
line, about 18% used this channel in addition to several other channels which include Government
program, agro dealer and local supplier). The main sources of inputs cited at end-line are more diverse.
Government programs remain the top source (43%), and one-third of women produce their own inputs,
and 29% reported accessing inputs from an agro-dealer within 5 kilometers. However, a notable
proportion of women are also accessing inputs from more distant suppliers (27%) or, producer groups
(18%). At end-line, only 5% of women stated that they did not access inputs from any source compared
to 11% at baseline (End-line evaluation draftreport, 2015)
Collective input purchasing
During the reporting period, the program organized producer groups to purchase seed collectively and
4,242 (3817F, 425M) farmers accessed and used certified seed. This represents a 90 percent increase
from the last crop season. Overall 60.2% of the producers purchased improved seeds while 33 percent
used seeds stored from a previous harvest (Field monitoring and Endline evaluation draft reports). Table
6 below outlines collective input sourcing over the years of the program.
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Table6: Collective Farm Inputs Sourcing over the Years
Input YEAR
2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 Sources
Soya Seed 14,494 9,236 9,533 Seed co. Pannar seed,
Farmers Union of Malawi
(FUM)
Chitedze Research, IITA ,
Limbe leaf, alliance one,
agro dealer, Clinton
Foundation
Value (Mk) 5,058,565
($14,052)
2,743,200
($6,096)
2,762,850 ($
4,605)
Inoculant (sachets) 7,465 7,065 2,036
Value (MK) 746,500
($2,074)
1,413,000
($3,072) 1,934,200
($3,224)
No. of farmers 1,674 1,600 2,111
Ground
nuts
Seed 10,901 14,647 12,730 NASFAM, seed co. Chitedze ,
Pannar seed and FUM
FISP , ICRISAT , and various
agro dealers
Value (MK) 6,540,600
($18,168)
8,788,200
($19,104)
8,274,500
($13,790)
No. of farmers 1798 2,233 2,131
Year Input No of
Farmers
Quantity
purchased
(Kg)
Value(MK) Sources
2012-13 Soya 1674 14,494 5,058,565 Seed co. Pannar seed, Farmers Union of Malawi
(FUM)
Inoculant
sachets
7,465 746,500 Chitedze Research
Groundnut 1798 10,901 6,540,600 NASFAM, seed co. Chitedze , Pannar seed and FUM
2013-14 Soya 1600 9,236 2,743,200 Seed co. Pannar seed, FUM
Inoculant
sachets
7,065 1,413,000 Chitedze Research
Ground nut 2233 14,647 8,788,200 NASFAM, seed co. Chitedze , Pannar seed and FUM
2014-15 Soya seed 2111 9,533 2,762,850 IITA , Limbe leaf, alliance one, agro dealer, Clinton
Foundation
Inoculant 2,036 1,934,200 Chitedze Research , AISLL
Groundnut 2131 12,730 8,274,500 NASFAM , FISP , ICRISAT , and various agro dealers
Source: Agribusiness Field Report, 2015
Low in availability and a huge increase in prices from MK200 to MK950 of inoculant sachet contributed
to the low quantity of inoculant purchased in 2014/15.
Established Seed Multiplication and Seed Bank System
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As part of enhancing seed access, the Pathways program also piloted community seed bank and
multiplication system establishment. Eight (4 Female, 4 Male) Community Based Trainers were selected
and trained in community seed bank management by Pathways’ research partner, ICRISAT. These FFTs
were trained in site selection, isolation distance, field management, pest and disease scouting and
management, seed quality assessment, harvesting procedure, harvest and postharvest management
and seed certification. These FFTs later trained 400 farmers (312F, 88M) as seed multipliers. These
farmers were given 4,000 kilograms of Nsinjiro groundnuts basic seed (10Kg each) to multiply on pass-
on scheme by ICRISAT. Soon after harvesting it is expected that the seed multipliers will give back 8000
kilogram of seed which will benefit 800 new multipliers for pass on. By the end of three years, 12,400
farmers will benefit from the seed bank system and a new basic seed will be introduced in the second
year of the pass-on program to allow continuation of access to improved seeds.
Piloted Agro-dealership Model
20(8 F, 12M) farmers having basic entrepreneurship skills and capacity to own a kiosk were identified to
become community based agro-dealers. These community agro-dealers will be purchasing multiplied
certified seed and inoculant and resell to the communities.
2.1.2. Access to Output Markets
There is more than 20 percent increase in access to output markets. At baseline only 42% of women
surveyed had accessed an output market (outside of the local market) to sell their agricultural
production while at end-line, it rose to 63%
surpassing the project’s cumulative target of 60%.
The program facilitated marketing sensitization
campaigns, interface meetings and contract farming
with ICRISAT to enhance market access. Through
Producer Marketing Groups (PMGs) interface
meetings with buyers within their towns e.g.
NASFAM, Export Trading, Takondwa and Chitsosa
trading were initiated.
As a result of these meetings, 164,663 kilograms of
soya worth MK32, 932,600 (USD 59,877) and 36,714
kilograms of Groundnuts worth MK17, 622, 720 (USD
32,041) were sold collectively such that groundnuts
recorded a price increase of 20.8% and Soya 10%
comparing to local market prices. . In overview collective selling for Soya has been steadily increasing
while groundnuts have been fluctuating mainly due to the late arrival of ground-nuts buyers, which has
forced farmers to sell individually. Refer to Table 7 below for details.
Table 7: Overview of Sales
Crop Agriculture Volume Value of Value of Collective sales
Pic 2: Kaomba PMG Engaging Export Trading in
Discussions
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610,740
941,921
1,332,596
0
500,000
1,000,000
1,500,000
2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 Shar
ed
Am
ou
nt
(USD
)
Savings Period
VSL Share Out
season sold (Kg) sales ( Mk) sales ( USD) (%)
Soya 2012/13 500,054 63,865,570 177,404 25
2013/14 267,470 36,128,433 100,357 47
2014/15 323,035 60,967,373 138,562 51
Ground nuts 2012/13 88,771 21,667,020 49,243 7
2013/14 181,469 62,302,638 113,278 49
2014/15 163,112 67,634,565 122,972 22
Source: Agribusiness report, 2015
2.1.3. Access to Extension Services
At baseline only 29% of female respondents
indicated accessed extension services. At end-line;
this has increased to 82%, exceeding the project’s
cumulative target by 17%. The number of frequent
visits and contact with extension service providers
doubled from 2.7 times at baseline to 5.3 visits at
end-line). Similar to baseline results, among
women who had met with an extension worker,
the vast majority of respondents (94%) were
satisfied with the services provided (end-line,
2015).
During the reporting period 90 Farmer Field Trainers (54F, 36M) with technical backstopping of the
government, ICRISAT and program staff offered extension messages to farmers. In addition, FFBS
demonstration plots also offered a platform for extension services where 5,438 (4,684F, 754M)
farmers participated in on farm agriculture trainings. This represents 46.4 percent increase from last
year’s participation in on farm FFBS demonstration activities. More than 3,600 non program
participants participated in the on farm trainings.
All FGDs with female VSLA members stated that agricultural information is more readily available to
women compared to three years ago, due to community extension officers, NGOs (CARE and Total
Land Care), NASFAM and the private sector whose link to the women is through a VSLA. Only one
FGD members mentioned that although access to information has increased, it is still not sufficient.
This group claimed that the extension workers had too many groups to manage (25), thus timely
information on crop issues was difficult to
obtain.
2.1.4. Access to Financial Services and Credit
2.1.4.1. Village Savings and Loans
Pic 3: FFBS sites offers hands on experience extension service: Farmers at
Mwase constructing Mandera Cork
13
VSL continue to be the greatest source of savings and loan services for the beneficiaries. About
96.4% of the participants continued to participate in Village Savings and Loan (VSL) activities. This is
slightly below the baseline.
End-line survey established that there is increase in the number of households where women have
access to and control over loans used for income-generating activities (IGA).
Among female VSLA members who took out loans of 1000 MWK ($2.18 USD1) or greater, and those
who wanted to borrow but were unable to, 69% of women from female-headed households
managed to access loan. This is 12 percent increase from the baseline. On the other hand women in
male-headed households did not experience any gain. Similar to baseline results, less than one-
fourth (23%) of female VSLA members who reside in male-headed households report similar loan
access, control, and use (End-line evaluation draft report, 2015).
Apart from access to loan, the participant’s share-out over the years increased. Figure 2 above
shows the trend on the share out over the years.
2.1.4.2. Linkages with Formal Banks
In collaboration with ANCP2 initiative, a CARE financial literacy project funded by Australia Aid,
5771(5169F and 576M) participants in the program received trainings in business management,
1674 (1373F and 254M) trained in use of ICT (mobile phones) to access financial and marketing
services.ANCP initiative is building on two Care projects namely Pathways and We-rise in building
capacity of VSLA collectives in financial literacy. 272 VS L groups were linked to Airtel and OIBM
bank, resulting in 29 groups opening Airtel mobile money accounts and 243 VSL groups opening
bank accounts. MK17,253,368.00 saved in OBM and MK3,228,445.00 saved in mobile money
accounts. In addition, 2,069(1,810F and 269M) individual farmers opened accounts as a result of this
intervention (1,185 with OIBM and 884 with the mobile money operator) while 1185 and 884
accounts with OIBM and airtel money has been opened by VSL groups
2.1.4.3. FFBS Financing Initiative
The FFBS financing was introduced to empower the producer groups economically thereby ensuring
that the basic services such as expanding access, efficiency, and quality are achieved by the groups.
52 Farm Field and Business Schools contributed FFBS funds amounting to MK 1,141,760 ($2,947)
before the marketing season and after using the funds for communication with buyers,
transportation, buying and selling of produce, storage and buying of group uniform.
The groups have made a profit of MK88, 250 ($183.9) plus some maize produce in store worth
(MK314, 000 ($683) ready to be sold at a higher price in the month of December and January when
the demand is at its peak.
1 Based on August 2015 exchange rate of 1 MWK = 0.00218USD. 2 Australian NGO Cooperative Program (ANCP) aims at building economic empowerment of the members by focusing on
business management, financial literacy, use of ICT to access financial and marketing services and formal linkages through Australian Aid. This is an add on Care project working with Pathways and We-Rise Projects
Figure 2: VSL share out
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2.2. Access Lever Challenges
1. Access to inputs is still a challenge. Price and distance to a supplier are the primary obstacles,
particularly for access to inoculants. Previously Chitedze research station was a supplier of the
commodity but now it outsourced Agro Inputs Suppliers Limited (AISL) to be selling inoculants. The
new company sold inoculants at MK950 (USD2.11) while Chitedze used to sell at MK200 (USD 0.44)
per sachet. In addition, there was low supply and most farmers failed to access the product. For
those who participate in the government subsidy program, rampant corruption is a problem (end
line evaluation draft report, 2015 report, 2015). There also problems with some agro dealers who
reportedly sometimes cheat the clients, by adding foreign matter to fertilizer or selling poor quality
seeds and tools that are not durable
2. Sometimes buyers lack trust to transact business with famers only if there is no one they are familiar
with e.g. program staff. The program empowered producer marketing committees to initiate talks
with buyers during the marketing season. After a careful price analysis, it was found out that it was
better for farmers to sell to buyers within their vicinity and they did so. For example soya bean was
selling at MK 215 in Lilongwe while in towns and trading centers close to the impact area was
MK200 to MK210. Calculating the transaction cost of selling to Lilongwe markets gave MK 2 profit
differences which was not worth taking considering the other unforeseen risks e.g. breakdowns and
overstaying of marketing committee members in town before offloading which could attract some
more cost
3. Late coming of ground nut buyers encouraged farmers who lack patience to bulk the produce
collectively or in desperation of cash to meet household needs to sell individually.
4. Business failure has doubled since baseline, affecting more than half of all households. Qualitative
evidence suggests that many of these failed businesses are the small businesses women have
started with VSLA loans but have not been able to maintained due to insufficient knowledge on
market demand and saturation, and skills to enhance profitability of small business (End-line report,
2015).Pathways will seek to include business management trainings to project participants. Mostly
engaging in similar type of business facilitated most business failures due to oversupply of
commodities. Common businesses engaged in included vegetable, dry fish, flirters and beer
brewing.
2.3. Lessons Learnt and Way Forward
It is interesting to note that the number of female farmers who report they rely on inputs which
they produce themselves has increased from 20% to 33%. This is in-line with the seed system that
Pathways has established (end line evaluation draft report, 2015, 2015)
Early buyer identification and marketing procedures resulted in more farmers selling collectively in
soya marketing. Marketing interface meetings which will be carried out in bridging gap period will
emphasis discussing on reinforcing early buyer identification.
Collective actions at PG and FFBS level such as savings, identifying sources of inputs and markets
enhanced trust and confidence of farmers and also increased knowledge on what the market offers
in input and output markets.
15
While some farmers celebrate that collective selling enables them get a huge chunk of money at
once to invest in big assets, some complained that all the money is used at once and the household
struggles to meet other costs later. The program is administering a cash flow tree budgeting
dialogue tool that will help farmers to understand household budgeting and planning their budget
more efficiently.
Initial results of Agro-dealership model which the program piloted shows that the model is scalable
and a trust source of clean seed for the farmers. Due to the fact that the agro-dealer targets his/her
on community, incidences of cheating farmers are reduced. As a way forward, the program seeks to
further link the farmer agro-dealers to input manufacturing companies who may use the agro-
dealers as agents for several other agriculture commodities.
B.3. Change Lever 3 - Productivity: Improvements in yield and income through adoption of sustainable
and intensified agriculture and value addition.
(Yields and income from farm activities, income from wage labor, nutrition outputs). Be as clear as
possible and clearly mention the data source, if yield is from individual woman, household plots or
Pathways demo plot, clearly show increase from baseline, last year, to this reporting period. Sameapplies
to income. If declined, support the findings with data and additional information e.g. market fluctuation.
Use graphics and tables to show yield and income; data. Report any nutrition outcomes as well in this
section.
B.3.1. ResultsIncrease in use of sustainable agricultural practices by 23 percent from the
baseline
Since 2012, the percentage of households with a woman earning farm income has increased
by 20 percentage points, from 74% at baseline to 94% at end-line. This is true for both female-
and male-headed households.
Women’s annual net income from agricultural production has substantially increased over the
past three years from 163 USD to 252 USD (end-line evaluation draft report, 2015).
End-line preliminary results show positive change in dietary diversity score from 5.4 at
baseline to 6 food groups. Most of this change has occurred for male-headed households, who
are now accessing one more food group on average than at baseline (5.4 vs. 6.3).
There has been a substantial increase in access and consumption of high protein foods, many
of which are animal products. Notable increases include dairy products (11% of households
accessing at baseline compared to 23% end-line preliminary results); pulses (47 % baseline
compared to 63% at end-line); eggs (9% baseline compared to 19% end-line), and fish (29%
baseline compared to 38% end-line). Household access to meat, fruits, and vegetables has also
moderately increased since baseline (end-line evaluation draft report, 2015
Table 8: Productivity Performance indicators
16
PERFOMANCE INDICATORS Baseline
(2013)
Target End-line
(2015)
Increase in Agricultural yield in crops supported by
Pathways (kg per hectare)
Groundnuts 801.9 1046 794.5
Soya 711.8 993.75 762.8
% women adopting at least three improved agricultural
practices 46.8 49.72 69.8
% women farmers adopting improved storage practices 26 27 25
% women farmers practicing at least two or more post-
harvest practices 61.3 68.97 73.6
Net income of women from agricultural production
and/or related processing activities (USD) 163 179 252
Source: Baseline, ARS 2013/14/15, MIS, end-line evaluation draft report, 2015
3.1.1. Yield per Hectare
Yield per hectare has been steadily increasing over the years with an exception of 2015 which has been
faced with prolonged droughts. Interviews with Ministry of Agriculture officers indicated that
groundnuts, a rain-fed crop, suffered severe declines in production during the reporting period (end-line
evaluation draft report, 2015). While targeted groundnut yield per hectare levels has never been
achieved during the three years, targets for soya was surpassed in 2013/14 season with 2 percent.
However 2014/15 production yields for the pathways farmers are better off when compared to the
average yield per district. For instance, yield per hectare for soya and groundnuts were 736.2 and 783.7
respectively for the whole Kasungu agriculture division in 2015.
3.1.2. Adoption of Improved Agricultural Practices
Due to consistent experience of adverse weather in agriculture production, adoption of good
agricultural practices is increasingly on demand.
3.1.2.1. Improved Farming Practices
Adoption of at least three improved farming practices improved by 23% from baseline. The most
adopted practices include improved Harvest practices and improved Soil and Water Management
practices. This is true for both the Groundnut and Soy value chains. In addition, the Groundnut value
chain has high levels of adoption of the Use of Inputs recommended practices. The Soy value chain has
high levels of adoption of Post-harvest practices (PPT, 2014)double row planting is one such practice
that is visibily improving yield per hectare by 75%. The practice ensuring that farmers can grow more
plant population on the same piece of land and harvest more.
17
Source: PPT report, 2014
3.1.2.2. Improved Storage Practices
The program’s commitment sought to promote communal seed banking where the communities would
pool their seed for storage which was not implemented. Instead, the program promoted use of sacks at
individual level for storage that is why thre are no changes in on this indicator.
3.1.3. Net income from Agriculture
Since 2012, the percentage of households with a woman earning farm income has increased by 20
percentage points, from 74% at baseline to 94% at end-line. This is true for both female- and male-
headed households.
Women’s annual net income from agricultural production has substantially increased over the past
three years from 163 USD to 252 USD (end-line evaluation draft report, 2015).
While income has more than doubled for women farmers in female-headed households, and has
nearly doubled for women in male-headed households, the former group is still earning
considerably less than the latter (152 USD versus 296 USD) (end-line evaluation draft report, 2015).
Low production levels due to labour
constraint for female headed
household could be a contribution
factor to lower income compared to
women from male-headed household.
If a female head does not have older
children to help in farming, she does
the farming and all other productive
and reproductive activities alone,
hence her production is limited. In
some cases, financially stable women
18
employ laborers to help in field activities.
During the reporting period, incomes for Soya and groundnuts have increased with 68.8% and 8.6%
respectively. This is because the prices
of soya and groundnuts increased
with 32.2% and 41.2% respectively.
Figure 3 above shows the price trend for both Soya and groundnuts at the local market.
3.1.2. Nutrition and Food Security
The program continued to engage project
participants in various nutritional activities in order
to deal with challenges of poor feeding,
malnutrition and other nutritional deficiencies. Key
activities conducted in the period included;
cookery demonstrations and dialogues,
establishment of home gardens and training in six
food groups.
End-line preliminary results show positive change
in dietary diversity score from 5.4 at baseline to 6
food groups. Most of this change has occurred for male-headed households, who are now accessing
one more food group on average than at baseline (5.4 vs. 6.3). Similar to baseline, female-headed
households at end-line access fewer food groups daily compared to male-headed households (5.4
versus 6.3) but food access for these households has also increased since baseline, from 5.0 to 5.4
food groups.
There has been a substantial increase in access and consumption of high protein foods, many of
which are animal products. Notable increases include dairy products (11% of households accessing
at baseline compared to 23% end-line preliminary results); pulses (47 % baseline compared to 63%
at end-line); eggs (9% baseline compared to 19% end-line), and fish (29% baseline compared to 38%
end-line). Household access to meat, fruits, and vegetables has also moderately increased since
baseline (end-line draft report, 2015).
3.2. Productivity Lever Challenges
1. Increased women’s time burden. Qualitative end-line preliminary results suggest that while women
are enthused about managing their own crops, the amount of time she must spend in her husband’s
maize and tobacco fields has not declined, nor have her domestic obligations. Generally, qualitative
evidence indicated that women are working longer and harder than they did before (end-line
evaluation draft report, 2015). However, there are positive trends being observed in men starting
doing gender roles which is helping women reduce the burden. For instance gender monitoring
survey found that most communities moderately (79.2%) observe men doing gendered roles.
2. There is no evidence to suggest that improved practices have contributed to increased yields (kg per
hectare) for soya and groundnuts since baseline due to unstable climatic conditions. Notably, the
amount of land devoted to soya and groundnuts has increased slightly. For example under the
reporting period, erratic rains and prolonged dry spell reduced agriculture productivity (yield per
hectare) by 2 % in groundnuts and 28% in soya per hectare as compared to last year. Even though
Figure 5: Analysis of Soya and groundnuts Price Trends
Pic 4: Participants Learn on New recipes during Cookery
Demonstration at Kamwana, TA Dzoole
19
this is so, pathways yield [per hectare is more than the ministry of agriculture published yield per
hectare in the same area. Pathways yields positively deviated from the average by 14 and 26
kilogram in soya and groundnuts respectively
3.3. Lessons Learnt and Way forward
There is strong evidence that the Pathways program has contributed to the significant increase in
the number of households that have a woman earning farm income. The increase is generally as
high for female-headed households as it is for male-headed households, suggesting that integration
into agricultural value chains is benefiting all households (end-line evaluation draft report, 2015)
Overreliance on rain-fed agriculture downsized the years of positive impacts on productivity and as
a way forward the program will work more around resilience building agriculture
FFBS financing has increased collective action evidenced by more people participating in collective
marketing which was financed by FFBS funds
Village savings and loans shares increase more in areas where members also participate in organized
marketing activities. Participating in collective marketing results in getting a lump sum amount of
money encourage farmers to save more.
In areas where established marketing points have been set up, farmers opt to sell collectively to an
identified buyer than selling through local vendors.
To achieve nutritional improvements at large scale it is important that most of community members
should be involved in the program like Pathways. In some areas the nutritional impact on children
could not be seen because most of those with children were not part of the program.
B.4. Change Lever 4 - Household Influence: Increased poor women farmers’ contributions to and
influence over household income and decision making.
(Use data sources e.g. monitoring of gender indicators (progress markers) identified during the MTR in
this section to clearly show improvements in household influence being careful to show the difference
with baseline, last year to this reporting period. Also report any negative consequences e.g. women’s
workload/backlash/GBV. Include any power stories and case studies in the annexure)
B.4.1. Results
Control over household and agricultural assets has increased by more than 16 percentage points from
baseline
More women (78%) reported have decision-making control over land assets compared to 67% at
baseline for instance, women reported they can make decisions over the sale or purchase of land.
Table 9: Household Influence Performance Indicators
20
PERFOMANCE INDICATORS Baseline
(2013)
Target End-line
(2015)
% women with sole or joint control over agricultural
income and expenditures 55.5 70 57.2
% women with sole or joint decision-making and
control of household assets 53 75 72.9
% women with sole or joint decision-making and
control over agricultural assets 67 70 76.2
Source: Baseline, ARS 2013/14/15, MIS, endline evaluation draft report, 2015 report
4.1.1. Decision making over agriculture income
and expenditure
Referring to table 9 above, joint decision
making over income and expenditure has
been fluctuating. Gender monitoring results
shows that the root cause of low joint
decision making over income is not
disclosing how much money a man and
woman has made.
The communities ranked men disclosing
their income as low to moderate. One of
the reasons why men do not disclose their
income includes avoiding wives from asking
husbands to account for every penny. The
exercise also revealed that men have tendencies of using the money on beer or other nice food
behind their wives.
Women were highly (83.3%) observed in their communities purchasing small household items (soap,
food, clothes), and pay maize milling services without asking or waiting for husbands (gender
monitoring report, 2015). With moderate to high, women also invested in productive assets and
inputs (livestock, seeds and fertilizer) and pay for school fees from their own income.
4.1.2. Sole or joint decision-making and control of household assets
Control over household and agricultural assets has increased by more than 16 percentage points
from baseline. For women residing in male-headed households, the gain has been even greater—
68% now enjoy decision making control of household assets compared to 50% at baseline. For
agricultural assets, 73% of women residing in male-headed households now enjoy decision making
control compared to 53% at baseline (End-line draft report, 2015)
At baseline the fear of domestic violence prevented women from making their own decisions on
several subjects, primarily the use of household assets but this is not the case now. Both end line
Pic 5: Women counting Votes during Access and Control Dialogue at Chipolozama, Kasungu
21
and gender monitoring under the reporting period supports that, women are now more able than in
the past to participate in investment decisions for household assets.
4.1.3. Sole or joint decision-making and control over agricultural assets
Referring to table 9 above, More women (78%) reported have decision-making control over land assets
compared to 67% at baseline (refer to table 9 above). Women reported they can make decisions over
the sale or purchase of land.
4.2. Household Influence Lever Challenges
Low participation of male spouses in gender dialogue sessions. It was observed that men who
participate in dialogues showed positive trends than those who do not. Women were encouraged to
use decision making strategies like politeness and understanding the right time to ask husbands to
come to the FFBS dialogues
Some men fear women will control them if they open up and make decisions jointly with them.
Through Gender dialogue sessions, both men and women have learnt strategies that can be used to
help understand each other better to influence household decision making mostly done by men.
4.3. Household Influence Lessons Learnt and Way forward
Increased net income of the women farmers is facilitating more changes in access and control of
productive resources. Some women are independently deciding on what to plant or invest in and
more widowed /divorced women freely choose not to remarry (to maintain financial independence
and make their own decisions)-75%.
Women have more access and control on small productive resources like hoes, cell phone, bicycles
but less on land and big livestock e.g. cattle. Men have more control on land because they own land
by inheritance from parents while women own land through their husbands or buying. While
ownership of land was seen to be difficult to change, women reported having increased influence on
land especially on what should be planted due to increased contribution to household income and
decision making.
B.5 Change lever 5 - Enabling Environment: More positive and enabling attitudes, behaviors, social
norms, policies, and institutions.
(Include results obtained through engaging men and boys, local institutional structures -traditional
chiefs, religious leaders, women’s meaningful participation in collectives; any policy and advocacy uptake
arising from our work that creates an enabling environment. Support this with data. Include case studies
in the annexure.)
B.5.1. Results
A total of 8.5 hectares of land has been released by local leaders for demonstration purposes.
Government contributes 8,000 polythene tubes for tree seedling propagation to the program in
support of the pathways program
22
Non engaged men attracted to pathways activities after seeing the multifaceted benefits of
engaging in soya and groundnuts value chains which includes nutrition, low cost of production and
the monetary gains
Table 10: Enabling Environment Performance Indicators
PERFOMANCE INDICATORS Baseline
Target
End-line
(2015) % of respondents expressing attitudes that support
gender-equitable roles in family life
Female Respondents 48.4 50.82 47
Male Respondents 46.2 48.5 45
% of respondents expressing attitudes that reject
household gender-based violence
Female Respondents 79.4 83.4 80.3
Male Respondents 83.4 87.6 81.5
Source: Baseline, ARS 2013/14/15, MIS, end-line evaluation draft report, 2015
5.1.1. Creating Enabling Environment through Institutions and Collaborations
5.1.1.1. Engaged Men, Boys and Local Institutions
During the reporting period, the program engaged 2,090 spouses and boys through nutrition and gender
dialogues. In addition 294 Local leaders have also been
engaged directly in dialogues and were instrumental in
creating enabling environment for women
empowerment through encouraging them to join
collectives, giving them public space to speak,
condoning gender based violence, offering land for
demonstration plots and spreading meeting messages
to community members. Under the reporting period, a
total of 8.5 hectares of land has been released by local
leaders for demonstration purposes.
5.1.1.2. Collaboration with Government and Agriculture stakeholders
Government agriculture and extension staff and research institutions have been key in collaborating
activities These collaborating partners have been instrumental in providing technical backstop to
pathways community based trainers. The partners have been engaged in various platforms
including; District Agriculture Committees and Area Development committees and at extension
regulatory level.
Pic 6: Engaged man, Johnwell farm togethwer with wife in
groundnut field
23
As a result of this collaboration, ministry of agriculture through land resource donated 8,000
polythene tubes for tree propagation for Pathways climate resilient programs and ICRISAT has been
providing seed for demonstration and contract farming to pathways farmers. Atnational level,
Pathways is a member of Malawi Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (MAAFS). MAAFS is the
Malawi chapter of the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS) which is the
umbrella organization for Agricultural Extension and Advisory Service (AEAS) in Africa. Its objective is
to create efficient, effective and synergistic linkages and partnerships between AEAS of member
countries to improve the delivery of these services to farmers. Pathways has been invited to several
meetings (5) and been presenting papers on farmer field business schools as an extension approach
two times.
5.1.1.3. Engaging Key Business Support Service providers
Meetings with business support service providers like input suppliers, buyers, and financial
institutions with the targeted farmers were coordinated to create an agribusiness enabling
environment for the farmers. Key service providers engaged during this reporting period were Airtel
(mobile money), OIBM bank, ICRISAT, IITA (input supplier), Export Trading Limited, NASFAM, Apatsa
traders, Bongani traders and several other commercial traders.
As a result of this engagement, farmers have benefited from contract farming offered by ICRISAT
and farm gate competitive prices offered by other buyers. Farmers were able to negotiate with
engaged buyers and it has been observed that the buyers cherish this relationship as evidenced
through flexibility in ‘terms of engagement’ and pricing with pathways farmers compared to other
farmers. As a result of this engagement, collective marketing has been increasing for soya over the
three years (refer to access performance Table 5 above). Furthermore engagement with ICRISAT
also enabled farmers to access newly improved ground nuts varieties, known to have high
productivity.
5.1.2. Changing Community Attitudes about Gender Equality in Family Life
There are disparities between the findings of quantitative and qualitative findings on change in
attitudes about gender equality in family life. Focus group discussion indicates there are more
positive attitudes while quantitative research shows no change. Scientifically, data obtained from
qualitative research is more reliable. Gender monitoring results 2015 which also employed
qualitative approaches support the positive changes.
24
For example, at baseline, qualitative findings
indicated that gender-based violence was
prevalent in all the communities visited,
mostly occurring in the form of physical
domestic violence. However, Midterm review
2014, gender monitoring surveys 2015 and
end-line evaluation draft report, 2015
reveals that physical violence has reduced
drastically due to gender dialogue and
presence of human rights organizations in
some Pathways implementation areas.
Women are now able to report abuse to
Victim Support Units, village committees, community police, or other agencies, than was observed
three years ago. More evidence to validate that there is progression in gender behaviours that
support equitable relationships and roles is shown in Figure 6 left. The figure compares number of
progress markers categorized as ‘expect to see’, ‘like to see’ and ‘love to see’ which denotes the
degree of difficulty in terms of being observed in the communities. The highly observed behaviors
are in category ‘expect to see’ moderate ‘like to see’ and rarely observed are in ‘love to see’. The
figure indicates that there is positive progression evidenced by shifts of progress markers from less
observed positive behaviours to ‘expect to see’ category ( refer to gender monitoring report, 2015
for specific behavioral changes observed)
In some cases, emotional violence is known to persist where men divorce or marry another wife
without proper reasons or shun household responsibilities (MTR, 2014; gender monitoring, 2015)
5.2. Enabling Environment Challenges
1. Non participation of the community members at large hindering gender greater transformational
changes. It was reported during gender monitoring that mostly those who participate in gender
dialogues belong to collectives but there are a lot more who do not participate in the project’s
activities and are left out. Often these are the ones who laugh or back bite more engaged men. It
was suggested that gender dialogues should target the whole community to facilitate high changes.
2. Cultural barriers; patriarchal attitudes about family life which are not held only by men, but also
ingrained in a woman’s opinion of their own role in family life. These deep rooted perceptions and
thinking need time to change and the gender dialogues has not been implemented long enough.
However, there are promising results that given time, more society norms that do not promote
equitable relationships can be reduced.
4.3. Lessons Learnt and Way forward
Male champions are laughed and discouraged by the community when they do gendered roles or
constantly walk with wife publically saying they have been given love portions (MTR, 2014; gender
monitoring 2015). During gender monitoring exercise, visited communities suggested community
Figure 6: Overall Progress of Equitable Gender
Behaviour Display
25
based gender dialogues that do not use collectives as entry point but the community leaders to be
effective in disseminating messages that affect everyone like gender.
Improved productivity through use of high yielding varieties and viable market attracted non-
engaged men to participate in agricultural activities and later attend dialogue sessions which are
effecting positive change in the communities.
3. Objective 2: To enhance the scale of high quality women responsive agriculture programming and
Objective 3: To contribute to the global discourse that surrounds women and agriculture by
influencing debates and policy dialog on women and agriculture at local, national and global
levels.
(In this section, include information on how Pathways is influencing other programs within CARE and
outside CARE. Provide the list of programs/projects Pathways has influenced and the extent of its
influence. A table for responses is included below.)
26
Table 11: Pathways Influence over other Programs
Name of Projects/
Programs
Year
(from – till)
External
/Internal
Project value (in
USD)
# of
individuals
(approx.)
# of HHs
(approx.)
# of communities
(approx.)
Adoption Level
(Full/Partial)
If partial, mention the adopted
element/s
Margret Cargill
pathways Project
2014-2015 Internal 753 320 19,600 3,500 75 full NA
Jeff Piers (Women
in Agriculture
2013-2014 Internal 100,000 24,640 4,400 80 full NA
USAID DFAP 2015-2019 Internal 11,000,000 262,0
00
52,000 132 GVH Partial Capacity building of Community based trainers
Women empowerment Index
Gender indicator and monitoring
Framework
Gender dialogue tools
Capacity building of Community
based trainers
Pathways Push and Pull
strategy
WE-RISE 2011-2016 Internal 1,700,000 75,00
0
15,000 80 Partial Gender dialogue tools
Umodzi 2016
-2017
Internal 563,000 13
SCHOOLS
13 TEEN
CLUBS
Partial Capacity building of Community based trainers
Capacity building of Community based trainers
27
4. Challenges and Risks: Are you aware of any significant risks or concerns that have not previously
been identified, and that may affect your ability to achieve the agreed-on results? If so, indicate how
you are addressing those risks and challenges? Note: This is the opportunity to raise awareness of
any internal or external threats that have emerged recently (which was not reported before and has
happened in the last 12 months) to your ability to execute the project. This could include anything
from political turmoil to bad weather.
4.1. Non participation of the community at large fueled gender backlashes especially to engaged
men who helped in household chores
4.2. Failure of the program to yield tangible results on improving yield per hectare due to
persistent unfavorable climatic conditions. Nevertheless the program intensified promotion
of climate smart agriculture technologies such as use of organic fertilizers, agroforestry trees
planting and soil and water improvement structures. Through Magret Cargil foundation, the
program is learning on incorporating climate resilient activities in the program.
4.3. Lack of ministry of agriculture regulation on tested and result based agricultural technologies.
It was observed that in some communities where pathways is being implemented, some
other organizations also are promoting their own technologies very different from what the
program is advocating and sometimes opposite. For example, some organizations promote 5
soya seed per planting station at 30CM. This confuse communities on which technology to
adopt
4.4. Risk of potential takeover of men with the trend that more couples are now cultivating
together all crops including pathways value chains (gender monitoring, 2015). If gender
dialogues are not intensified, cases of men controlling and dominating market activities in
the two value chains may occur.
5. Partnerships: Describe all internal and external partnerships and linkages you have established over
the past 12 months.
Table 12: Partnerships
Partner Names of institutions, overall purpose of partnership, key lessons and
challenges. Reflect upon these as well.
Strategic partners-
Govt/private extension
Name: Ministry of Agriculture
Purpose: to provide technical backstopping to community based trainers.
Key lessons and challenges
Government is a key partner in establishing linkages, access to information
and ensuring sustainability of program activities. However, the ministry is
not proactive in coordinating extension messages to farmers as different
NGO promote their technologies
Academic & research,
other technical
backstopping
Name of institution: ICRISAT
Purpose of Partnership: To provide technical backstopping on growing of
soya and groundnuts through organizing demonstration plots and
28
Partner Names of institutions, overall purpose of partnership, key lessons and
challenges. Reflect upon these as well.
conducting field researches. Train farmers on new improved agriculture
technologies that enhances productivity and enhance access of improved
varieties of seeds
Key lessons and Challenges
Late distribution of seed for contract farming coupled with
unfavourable rainfalls resulted in low production.
Others Names: IITA, Chitedze Research Station, Alinafe traders, SAJU agro
dealer
Purpose: To link farmers to inputs such as seed, inoculant, pesticides
and other inputs for other crops.
Key lessons and Challenges
75% of the identified input suppliers did not have outlets close to
Kasungu and Dowa where women farmers can access inputs easily
6. Pathways Collective Learning Agenda:
Pathway’s learning questions related to collectives
Pathways has identified collectives as central to achieving both short- and long-term changes
necessary to facilitate women’s influence and empowerment in agriculture. Hence, CARE has
prioritized learning around collectives as focus of Pathways learning agenda. The intent behind the
focus on collectives is to generate a more robust understanding on what strategies create more
effective results. A table for responses is included below. Take time to discuss each question and
reflect as a team (include the implementing partner NGOs and other stakeholders in this discussion)
before answering these questions.
Table 13: Pathways Collective Learning agendas
Question Reflection - describe giving as much detail as possible.
Draw data from BASELINE, ARS, PPT, MTR for supporting
your claim
Inclusiveness: Which types of
collectives and which types of
interventions are best suited
to enable impact group (IG)
members to actively
participate and achieve the
program objectives?
• FFBS centers are seen to be more inclusive to enable the
impact groups achieve program results. However VS&Ls
are reported to be the most preferred collective (end-line
draft report, 2015)
• The FFBS center enable both women from producer
groups, VSLAs to learn good agricultural practices, better
nutrition, sell produce to better markets and participate in
sustainable community seed multiplication systems while
enhancing good working relationships with spouses
through gender dialogues. VSLAs act as a platform for men
29
Question Reflection - describe giving as much detail as possible.
Draw data from BASELINE, ARS, PPT, MTR for supporting
your claim
and women mostly to engage in financial transactions such
savings and loan activities, mobile money technology and
bank linkages
• FFBS centers offer more chances to non-member
participate in Pathways activities through field days and
demonstrations which is indirectly also influencing positive
household changes at a larger scale
Inter Group Synergies and
Dynamics: How do relations
between and within different
types of groups work to create
greater coordination and
effectiveness? What are the
factors that lead to success
and how can we avoid
traditional failures?
• There is more group collaboration in mixed groups (men
and women) because the members think differently on
their approach to issues. Women have the strength of
settling dispute amicably while men show leadership
qualities. Often men only groups do not survive for a
longtime because each one feels to be on top of everyone
• When men and women work together, women often
express inferior complex and often chose men to lead
them even though they are very few in that group.
• Women groups are more cohesive than men’s while mixed
groups turn to achieve greater results due to sharing of
ideas between men and women
• It has been observed that mixed groups easily access
agricultural services e.g. extension messages, markets due
to building on the strength on different genders in the
group in negotiation and society acceptance. However
women only groups are seen to easily access loans due to
the trustworthiness they show in loan reimbursement
• Women only groups sometimes lack creativity and fail to
address gender issues in their households. Due to
socialization of females, males are highly regarded as
superiors and mostly women look down on themselves.
• Mixed groups are more cohesive than women only groups
because men work harder to prove that they are superior
in the process the group is able to achieve the intended
objective
Things that contribute towards group cohesiveness are;
group constitution and respecting it, financial
contributions which acts as collateral; transparency and
accountability among members. To cement that groups;
record keeping must be strengthened, Leaders must be
accommodative, groups must convene meetings regularly,
30
Question Reflection - describe giving as much detail as possible.
Draw data from BASELINE, ARS, PPT, MTR for supporting
your claim
and group leaders must not be bias in making decisions.
Improved Productivity: Are
women that are engaged in
collectives more productive in
the agricultural sector than
women who are not? Are
those women better able to
access extension services,
improve farming practices and
gain more benefit from
agriculture? Why or why not?
Currently it is difficult to assess agriculture productivity
due to climate change challenges. However in project
areas where the rainfall pattern has been favorable, there
are evidence that women who participate in collectives are
more productive in the agriculture sector than women
who are not more especially because women in collectives
learn new agricultural technologies which includes
knowledge of new varieties, reducing ridge spacing, double
row planting and pest and disease management.
Holding climate conditions constant, reflection sessions
with community based trainers suggests that not all
women in collectives have increased their productivity. For
married women, improving productivity depends on how
supportive a husband is. Women need to influence
household decisions for adoption of the agricultural
practices that they usually learn from the pathways
collectives. Increase in productivity has been observed in
both male and female headed households to those
adopting the new technologies. Female headed
households are seen to increase their productivity easily
and faster because they make decisions alone. About
seventy percent of women from male headed household
have increased their productivity (FFT focus group
discussions in Kasungu)
Participating in collectives offers practical learning for
women. For example how to reduce ridge spacing,
implement the new technologies step by step. Other
communities learn but not as intensive as the members.
There has been cases where non-members have adopted
the practices but at a small scale. Endline evaluation draft
report, 2015 results show that there is a considerable spill-
over effect of pathways agricultural practices.
Farmers are able to verify and see more productive
varieties and make informed decisions to buy the
improved seeds. For instance, Jackleen Phiri from Mwase
TA took 0.1 kilogram of seed which was left over from a
demonstration plot. After planting the seeds she harvested
31
Question Reflection - describe giving as much detail as possible.
Draw data from BASELINE, ARS, PPT, MTR for supporting
your claim
6 kilogram of seeds. She realized that the variety is so
productive and bought 64 kilogram more and planted last
growing season. She managed to harvest 1,550 kilogram
from the crop. This new variety is three times more
productive than the local variety but she was first exposed
to the knowledge
Market and Other Linkages
with the Ecosystem: How do
groups serve as a platform for
establishing links with key
stakeholders, service
providers, private sector
market actors and other
institutions? What role can
collectives play in facilitating
member access to inputs and
markets more reliably and
gainfully? What works, what
doesn’t and why?
Role of Groups in marketing
Groups through marketing committees help members
to search for markets with better prices
Groups enhance learning and experience sharing
among the members
Groups have more opportunity to access trainings and
relevant services as organizations and service
providers find it more cost effective to work with a
group rather than individuals
Market linkages and relationship establishment with
buyers are easier and more meaningful with a group
than individuals
Groups enhance more bargaining power during
collective input sourcing and crop selling
Groups enhance easy access to better markets which
are normally far from the communities as they make
contributions and share cost of transportation e.g.
FFBS financing
What works
Member contribution to the group helps the groups to
meet transaction costs which normally farmers are
unwilling to meet individually e.g. transportation, air-
time when calling buyers
When groups are innovatively looking for more
markets and have a wider choice. This brings
satisfaction among members that they were not price
takers but chose the best price offer
When groups merge to mobilize more volume for
buyers they receive more respect from buyers and
eventually bargain for better prices
What does not work
Low individual production results in less attractive
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Question Reflection - describe giving as much detail as possible.
Draw data from BASELINE, ARS, PPT, MTR for supporting
your claim
volumes for buyers who buy at farm gate because they
usually look at economies of scale
Several collection centers during crop selling
demotivate buyers because it consumes a lot of time
and fuel to move around
Failure to manage individual member side selling at an
earlier stage jeopardize collective selling. For example
failure to sell collectively because of late coming of
buyers can be easily solved if the group initially had
rules and regulations in the first place
Improved Gender Roles and
Relations: How does women’s
participation in different
groups lead to change in
gender relations and
increased voice and power
within households,
communities and markets?
Are they able to better
influence and/or control
decisions related to
agriculture within their
households? Why or why not?
Women participation in producer groups and marketing committees gives a chance to sell their produce and make money which they contribute to their households. This relieves the spouse from financial burden and improves their relationship (Gender monitoring, 2015)
Pathways approach to gender through community dialogues deliberately engages men who naturally do not participate in collectives. Communities have reported that men who attend dialogue sessions show positive gender behavior changes than those who do not. So women collectives increase gender relations when both spouses are asked to attend
Basing on the new agricultural knowledge and skill acquired from pathways collectives, women easily influence production decisions. For example, the gender monitoring exercise revealed that most married couples are now cultivating together in all fields after the man observing that the crops are profitable
Women gain self-confidence through knowledge and skills gained from agronomic, marketing, gender and nutrition which influences the decisions within the household. The self-confidence also enhances their communication skills in asking for help in household chores and initiating discussions around children school.
Participation in dialogues has influenced joint decision making by spouses as some of the dialogues tools used tackle sexual issues which are taboo to talk about and strain relationships. But when they are tackled and addressed in these dialogues, there is harmony and love in the homes which contribute to general
33
Question Reflection - describe giving as much detail as possible.
Draw data from BASELINE, ARS, PPT, MTR for supporting
your claim
household development
Intervention Sequencing and
Timing: What is the best
sequence of interventions and
how does this vary by sub-IG?
How we develop and
strengthen the capacities of
the collectives as sustainable
community institutions,
before we exit?
Out of the four components of Pathways program,
Sustainable Agricultural Practices, Gender, Marketing and
Nutrition; agriculture component was decided to be the
first for implementation seconded by gender and for
target groups both male and female participants need to
be engaged first (Community review meetings).
To sustain the project activities the following were
suggestions from Farmer Field Trainers:
Facilitation of formation of producer co-operatives
Provision of intensive trainings on FFBS model and
provide materials for usage like FFBS manual books,
Uniform, IDs and certification with government to Farmer
Field Advisors
For FFBS to continue there is a need to even involve local
leaders of the importance of FFBS learning model.
However people feel that adding an HIV/AIDS, focusing
on drought resistant crops like Sweet Potatoes and
Cassava and small scale livestock production should be
included in replication models
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7. Program Management, Monitoring and Evaluation: What are the significant program
management, monitoring and evaluation activities that have occurred in the past 12
months? A suggested table format for responses is included below.
Table 14: Program Management, Monitoring and Evaluation:
Monitoring and Evaluation
Monitoring and evaluation
activities carried out in the last 12
months giving details
Describe activities, who were involved, results. These
could include data collection and dissemination of findings
(e.g. BASELINE, ARS, PPT, MTR), development of
monitoring tools (for example, gender indicators), etc.
M&E Activities Major Activities include;
Coordinating end-line surveys and externeal
assessment
Conduction of gender behavioral change
monitoring survey
Report writing
M&E lessons and challenges, and
modifications/way forward
Lessons and way forward
There is need to establish a robust data management
system from the producer committees rather than
relying much on farmer field trainer only. Individual
Volume produced and sold has been difficult data to
collect from farmers
No clear definition of indicators and clear
communication to external consultants results in
misinterpretation of data. For example failure to
communicate why close market was opted was
regarded as the program has not made efforts to look
for distant markets for the external assessment team
and failure to define what storage technologies the
program is promoting resulted in very huge
differences between annual review studies and end-
line draft report (refer to adoption of improved storage
practices under productivity performance table)
There is need for staff training on data management
and report writing.
Program Management
Describe any changes in staffing
in the last 12 months and impacts
on program, and efforts to bridge
these
No staff changes during this period
Other
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8. Appendices to be included in the report:
(i) Key activities planned for the Supplemental grant period (or till end of the project period);
(ii) Group Training Activity Tracker (see template attached);
(iii) Milestone tracker with key milestone status;
(iv) Case Studies or other reports to share.