From country to country and even regionally, the roles of women in agriculture vary, but most of their labor is in unpaid subsistence production and their contributions tend to be underestimated, according to the results of the [UN] Secretary-General's report. Depending on circumstances, they have complementary roles with men, sharing or dividing tasks in the production of crops, care of animals, and forestry management. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, women contribute 60-80% of labor in food production for both household consumption and sale, while in Malaysia the women account for only 35% of the agricultural labor force, and in Ireland the participation rate is only 10.4%. Although women make this important amount of labor contributions to agricultural production, "development policies tend to favor export crops to earn foreign exchange and the agricultural research tends to address the improvement of production and technologies for commercial production". This results in limited access for women to technical knowledge and innovations, including irrigation, machinery, farming techniques and extension services. This is strengthened by the fact that most of the extension services target farmers who own land and can obtain credit to invest in input and technology.
Matched MeSH terms: Organization and Administration
PIP:
Results are presented of research undertaken in the Republic of Korea and Malaysia to determine how far integration affects the performance of family planning and allied programs and to identify organizational determinants of clinic level interactive linkages. The report discusses the background of the research, provides overviews of the country programs, outlines research methodologies and procedures, and presents findings. 41 clinics with high, medium, and low performance ratings in Korea and 17 main health centers, 31 sub-health centers, and 49 midwife stations in Malaysia, (some of them intensive input demonstration areas) were assessed on performance, interaction measures, and organizational determinants. The overall finding was that integration affects program performance, but the direction of the impact depends on how the integrated programs are organized. In Malaysia, where the program is specifically organized to integrate family planning with maternal and child health, the integration appears to have increased service delivery and resulted in larger numbers of family planning acceptors. No spill-over was found from the inputs of the 2 components to each other. The overall positive impact and lack of service reduction due to integration appears to result from specific planning for a limited degree of integration. In Korea, a mild negative relationship was found between clinic level performance in the family planning and community development, or Saemaul Undong (SU) components. In the field SU was observed to be more favored and powerful, and was not fully integrated with family planning. The major conclusion of the study was that integration works best when family planning is linked to similar services, and does not work as well with services that are different in character or in degree of government support.
Matched MeSH terms: Organization and Administration