AnB Agro Trainers Creating Livelihood via Agriculture

“I AM ABLE”

COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT REPORT

Assessment implemented and report developed by ©ANB AGRO TRAINERS March 2015 Foto credit: ANB AGRO TRAINERS

Plot 4 | Jalan Limau Kumboi | Kampung

Sungai Limau | 09600 | Lunas | Kedah |

Malaysia

Phone:

+60164620821

E-mail:

agrotrainers@gmail.com

anbagrotrainers@gmail.com

Web-site:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Creating-Livelihood-via-Agriculture/794322970642697

“I AM ABLE” COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT – THE PROCESS According to the 2010 Housing and Population Census implemented by the Department of Statistics of Malaysia and the 2012 and 2014 data made available by the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, 49% of the country’s population is female, out of which only 52% take part in the official work force. On a national level, 16% of the households are led by women, who earn on average between RM 2387 in rural areas, respectively RM 6010 in urban areas. Even so, the unemployment level between the women participating officially in the labour force, 3.4% are unemployed, while 2.6% of all women live under the poverty line, being considered poor and hard-core poor.1 Based in Lunas, Kedah, ANB Agro Trainers focuses on the creation of sustainable livelihood for the community in general and single mothers and their children in particular, by providing a safe personal and professional development environment in agriculture, related capacity building, cottage industry development, and agriculture funded housing and counseling services. Out of the desire to contribute in an evidence-based and demand-driven manner to the individual and economic empowerment of women living in Lunas and its neighboring town, Kulim, ANB Agro Trainers has developed and implemented a Community Needs Assessment Process during March 2015, with the aim of creating

1 For more statistical information, please visit the info-graphs featured in the Annexes part of the Community Needs Assessment Report.

an interaction and a safe discussion place between representatives of the organization and the representatives of its target groups so to gain a better understanding and insight into the needs and challenges of the target group and their wider communities. The Community Needs Assessment Process2 took the form of a facilitated discussion forum, where the participating women were guided in their sharing process by a group of women facilitators. Each group was asked a set of questions to assess the daily hardships of the participants, their strives to alleviate these hardships, their view on their personal and professional future, their knowledge and skills needs to achieve the desired future. The women were also asked for their personal recommendations to ANB Agro Trainers and its future empowerment programmes. The event gathered 17 women ranging from ages between 24 and 68. These women are single, abandoned by husbands or widows, with an average of three children, with little or no employment opportunities, the majority being the head and main bread winner of the household. The next section of the report contains the main findings of the assessment process, along with some personal stories of the participating women.

2 For more information on the structure and content of the assessment process, please visit the Annexes f the Community Needs Assessment Report.

“I AM ABLE” COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT – THE FINDINGS In the format of small working groups, the process facilitators have asked the participating women to share information on the following questions: What are your hardships? What have you tried so far to alleviating

these hardships? What would help you in alleviating these

hardships? How do you see your personal and

professional future? How do you see the future of your

children? How can you help the future become

reality? What would you need to know

(knowledge, skills)? What would you recommend us to do in

order to contribute? Assessing the hardships shared by the women, we find two major categories that disempower women: personal/ human challenges and economic/ livelihood ones. The personal stories shared show the viciousness of the circle these women find themselves in on daily bases. On the one hand the little or lack of economic welfare possibilities and decent livelihood options demoralize the individual, and contribute to the development and deepening of health and family issues. On the other hand, the deepening health and family crises diminish the personal capacity to do work outside the home in many of the examined cases, while in others it puts additional pressure on the women in what child and family member care, children’s education, financial sustainability, and balanced family and personal time is concerned.

In what the personal, human dimension is concern, we may distinguish two major aspects: the feeling of being burdensome for the family, and the lack of having a personal vision of the future. While the first aspect is predominant among the older participants, who face precarious health situations and total lack of income sources, the second aspect is noticeable across the board; the vision of the future is limited to offering better prospects to their children, and managing the payment of monthly expenses. Among the hardships enumerated are: 1) insufficient income to run the household and educate the children; 2) lack of possibility to be trained in work areas that are of interest; 3) lack of education that would allow the acquirement of a better paid job; 4) poor health leading to loss of job and/ or debt; 5) the sudden loss of state offered financial support; 6) abandonment of family by husband (the main breadwinner) who also left behind a huge debts; 7) several generations living under the same roof, which entails time allocation not only for the care take of the children but also the older and most often ill relatives; 8) lack of job security leading to an uncertain future and hence lack of planning; or 9) underemployment: working several jobs at a time which diminishes the time available to spend with children family or personal life. Surpassing these hardships constitutes a challenge within itself. While the few women who still benefit from a certain support from their families take on a second or third job, single mothers address

the state authorities for financial aid and engage in various entrepreneurship projects, mostly small, cottage industry type of activities, based on their basic skills: cooking, childcare, cleaning, farming activities. The most vulnerable group of women represented in the assessment process is the older generation of women with acute or chronic health problems. These women have the most difficulty in identifying sustainable solutions to their hardships. Most of them rely on their children for financial and moral support, while some take up part time jobs easy on their health wherever available. Under such conditions, the majority of the women identified three major possibilities that would help them reach a better livelihood, either jointly or each separately: direct financial support from the state authorities, easy access to vocational training programmes in thematic areas of interest, and availability of better paid job opportunities that can be taken up and implemented from the women’s home or its close vicinity, where they can involve other family members if possible. Constructing an image of their professional and personal desired future proved to be quite difficult and simple in the same time. For most of the interviewed women the concept of personal future and time allocation for personal development is quite new. Their focus is placed first and foremost on the future welfare of the children. Some of the women do have a short to mid-term vision of the future mostly involving living rent free, owning a house, having a better paid job, or opening a kindergarten. While the current cultural setting favoring a pluralistic way of life can be considered a deep, underlying reason

why these women find it difficult to

envision their future, the harshness of everyday life, the lack of clear perspectives for the future, the past and current disappointments, the lack of support from family, friends and/ or peers, and lack of information on viable possibilities for enhancing their own livelihood increases the disempowerment of these women, leaving them less inclined to follow personal satisfaction and professional passion. Two aspects stood out while assessing the women’s opinion about their knowledge and skills needed for a better livelihood: the need to obtain practical knowledge in different activity areas they desire to pursue, and the need to guidance and support. On the practical side, the knowledge areas mentioned were sewing, small scale agriculture, cottage industry start-up, management and implementation, childcare, and existing information sources on trainings related to these areas. But what stood out is the desire to benefit of the support of such women groups, where the participants are able to share their experiences, find understanding and moral support, while being judged. A place where perspective changes may happen, when learning about the struggles of other women, and where cooperation can be developed to help each other. And if these support groups can be accompanied by informed financial and personal empowerment guidance, the group’s transformation potential would be even higher. As per the recommendations of the women towards the assessment team and any future plan for women empowerment, the most important areas mentioned were direct financial support for the women, vocational training programmes, assistance

in receiving proper accreditation for activities such as cottage industry and childcare/ babysitting, creation of linkage with welfare authorities for gaining their support, direct job offers and repetition of similar discussion groups.

ANNEXES

Day Session Content of the Session

18

th o

f M

arch

20

15

Introduction Plenary session

Short introduction of the:

Programme and its aim: VIP Programme, Human Capital Development Center (HCDS)

Aim of the “I am able” assessment process Presentation of facilitators Asking permission to record the event

Presentation of participants:

Name, family , work so far Personal story Expectation from the assessment

Participatory code of conduct

Exploring needs and challenges

Working Groups session

Guiding questions are:

What are your hardships? What have you tried so far (other programmes, initiatives)? What would help you in alleviating these hardships? How do you see your personal and professional future? What is your “dream future”? How do you see the future of your children? How can you help the future become reality? What would you need to know (knowledge, skills)? What would you recommend us to do?

Bringing it all together

Plenary session

Plenary feedback on the results of the working groups. Guiding questions:

What where the similar problems/ stories? What are specific things you would like to highlight? How did it feel sharing with strangers? RECOMMENDATIONS FOR US.

Dinner