The path towards implementation of gender equality and social inclusion faces many barriers,” says Namira Asra. “There are many false assumptions, including that gender equality means women taking over men's roles. But it is about equal access to opportunity, participation, control and benefits.
Arsa works at the Sulawesi Community Foundation (SCF) in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. She is a gender specialist at SCF, principal author of its gender action plan, and currently responsible for overseeing the mainstreaming of gender in SCF programmes across 30 sitesin Sulawesi.
In 2021, she was an administrative officer with a background in animal sciences. She was deeply interested in understanding the gender dynamics at play in the forestry sector and participated in the Waves training offered by RECOFTC that year. Upon its completion, Asra enrolled herself in a master’s programme on gender and development at the University of Hasanuddin. She applied to RECOFTC for a research scholarship and was supported by us along that journey.
As part of her postgraduate research, she spent a month in Kahayya, the largest coffee-producing village in Bulukumba district. She looked at gendered roles and access, and the related challenges along the coffee value chain. Asra found that men are typically responsible for tasks involving equipment, land preparation and crop management decisions, while women lead the processing and post-harvest work such as sorting, drying and grading coffee beans. “These roles seemed to be divided by social norms more than anything else,” she says.
“Women are often excluded from key decisions on planting and risk management, and men tend to dominate community meetings and discussions about production,” Asra continues. “This is despite the fact that women play a strong role in marketing, sales and managing finances related to coffee.”
