Effect of Group and Leader Attributes on Men and Women Farmers’ Participation in Group Activities in Zambia

Since development agencies often implement interventions through collective-action groups such as farmer cooperatives and self-help groups, there is a need to understand how participation is affected by group-level and leader attributes. This study collected gender-disaggregated, quantitative and qualitative data on sixty-eight self-help groups in Zambia to understand the participation of men and women farmers in different crop-production activities. Results show that participation rates of men and women are the same across all maize production activities except harvesting. The gender composition of members influenced men’s and women’s participation in group activities: when men were fewer in a group, they (men) participated more, while when more women were in a group (above 53 percent), the women participated less. Leader’s education level, knowledge of group agenda, and frequency of meetings also affected participation rates. To design collective action groups that promote gender equity outcomes, gender composition of groups should be considered.HIGHLIGHTS Agricultural collective-action groups assembled by development organizations attempt to bolster women’s participation and leadership within the group and the community.These empowerment groups may inadvertently reproduce traditional gender labor roles, particularly when membership increases women’s workload.Attention to group dynamics demonstrates that minority group members – who are usually men – work harder and overperform due to their increased visibility within the group. Thus, increasing women’s numbers in groups has not aided the goal of increasing their participation.Policymakers should consider the gender composition of the group, labor roles, time commitment of participation, and leader attributes when forming collective-action groups in order to achieve gender-equity outcomes.