Country gender assessment of agriculture and the rural sector in Maldives

Abstract

This Maldives Country Gender Assessment of Agriculture and the Rural Sector (CGA-ARS, or CGA) provides evidence of gender inequalities in the agriculture and rural sectors of Maldives, highlighting rural women’s needs, challenges and priorities. It also analyses country-level achievements, and shortfalls in closing existing gaps towards the pursuit of gender equality. The report provides information to the Government of Maldives on the current situation and guidance to decision makers on how rural development and investment initiatives may affect gender roles and relations, positively and/or negatively. It also provides data on facilitating women’s empowerment and their access to resources and opportunities. The Maldivian population is young, with about 53 percent of people being below the age of 20 years. The sex ratio currently stands at 969 females per 1 000 males. Besides Malé, only six out of a total of 1 192 islands have a population of 3 000 or more. Almost 71 percent of all inhabited islands have populations of fewer than 1 000 people (NBS, 2014b). Substantial population movement from the atolls to the Malé capital area took place during the period between 2003 and 2010. Due to uneven economic development in the rural and urban sectors, migration trends from the atolls to the capital deplete the human capital of the atolls (World Bank, 2016). The geographic and physical structure of the country exacerbates gender inequalities and prevents women from pursuing education and careers, as caring for children and elderly people living on rural islands takes precedence over prospects for education and employment opportunities elsewhere. The significant socio-economic and gender inequalities faced by women are the result of sociocultural norms and structural constraints, exacerbated by various current trends affecting the rural sector and society more broadly. This CGA identifies a number of interrelated reasons for these inequalities. Outmigration from rural areas, due to a lack of quality services and opportunities for employment, is negatively impacting the development of the rural agriculture sector and food security. In addition, when men migrate, women are left with additional responsibilities and work burdens and may not be able to participate fully in agriculture or other livelihood activities. Migration patterns also increase the dependency of women on remittances and contribute to high rates of family breakups as partners live separately for long time periods, resulting in a trend of increasing female-headed households (FHHs). The absence of necessary public services in education especially for higher education and vocational certification, in the rural areas means that women lack the skills to own and operate businesses and make lucrative earnings. Therefore, women are confined to a narrow range of sectors for their livelihoods, such as casual agricultural labour, fish processing, food preparation and small-scale home-based work. Although data from the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture (MoFA) reveals that women take part in short training programmes carried out on the islands, they lack the additional support of extension services. MoFA does not have a comprehensive agriculture extension service; therefore, famers, both women and men, tend to lack adequate knowledge to sustain agricultural activities in the face of multiple agronomic challenges, including pest and disease management. Importantly, the emerging effects of climate change are impacting natural resource-based livelihood activities. The available data and field visits highlight that ownership of land and assets by women is inadequate, both at the household level and in relation to agricultural activities. Women depend on their partners to obtain land and assets, although savings of both partners are often used to build homes and establish farms. There is no regulatory system to ensure that women have access to land and other productive assets after a divorce or separation. Data indicates that while women have access to credit facilities through small and medium enterprise development programmes, the management of such credit facilities tends to be the responsibility of men. Mismanagement of funds by the men has often resulted in women getting into trouble with the authorities. To improve the lives of women and families, there is a need to establish a better system to monitor the use and management of loans and other financial transactions, guaranteeing not only women’s access to, but also management of, credit.