Gender Action Learning Systems (GALS) Training
The GALS training on the Friday 7th April 2017 in Kampala is a part of the TEENS Uganda gender strategic training aimed at empowering young people with knowledge and skills of using different models to main stream gender issues in programming and projects. The training interested sixty (60) participants from two organizations with a focus on inclusive youth participation. As such, the GALS methodology training introduced models such as the; Trees, Circle mapping, and the Road journey. GALS (Gender Action Learning System) is a community-led empowerment methodology using specific participatory processes and diagram tools which aims to give women as well as men more control over their lives as the basis for individual, household, community and organisational development. GALS is not only a ‘methodology for women’, but a mainstreaming methodology for women and men to address gender issues important to the effectiveness of any development, including agricultural production.
Gender inequalities are now generally accepted not only as key causes of female and household poverty and constraints on women moving up the chain, but also poor coffee quality, low production and inefficiencies throughout the coffee value chain for all stakeholders. Gender inequalities are also in contravention of the UN’s Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) signed since 1979 by most national governments, the gender mandates of most development institutions and the spirit of Corporate Social Responsibility and Fair Trade. But addressing gender inequalities continues to be seen as both conflictual at farmer level, and costly to implement. Gender strategies have therefore been seen as something that required significant ongoing funding, rather than part of longer term commercial investment in business expansion. GALS – if implemented in an empowering way – provides a proven methodology that can be adapted to most business, cultural and organisational contexts to address gender issues in a way that benefits not only women, but also men and other stakeholders and can be fully self-sustaining as part of longer term investment in a socially responsible business model.
Empowerment and Gender balance for farmer and trader households:
• GALS promotes participatory and analytical skills at all levels as a means of visioning, planning and implementing change as individuals, households, communities and organisations.
• GALS strengthens individual life and livelihood planning skills for women and men as a basis for mutual empowerment, joint decision-making and joint land agreements. GALS helps reduce gender conflicts, and enable increased incomes and efficiency of division of labour and reduced unproductive expenditure. Using the approach makes men as well as women become happier, and inspires youth and children to aim for a better future.
• GALS helps form the basis for setting up of self- or locally-funded aide groups where they did not exist.