Figure 1. Map of the study area
The cool sub-humid moist climate (bimodal rainfall of 1449 mm± 16%
variability) of Gudoberet supports higher agricultural potential with
66%, 25% and 6% of land used for cultivation, grazing and woodlot,
respectively. Low nutrient content (especially available phosphorus),
gully erosion in some places and rainfall variability greatly affect
productivity. Integrated soil and water conservation measures
(enclosures, terraces, soil bunds, stone bund trenches, percolation
pits, check-dams, gully rehabilitation have been implemented by 1164
households (580 male and 584 female) covering over 1700 ha in the
Gudoberet restoration area to reduce runoff and enhance infiltration. An
impressive effort was also made to rehabilitate gully erosion through
gabion terraces and re-shaping in the Adisghe Kebele.
Receiving bimodal rainfall of 1000-1400mm/annum, the sub-humid highland
(2280-2640 m.a.s.l) cool (12-20°C) climate of Doyogena supports diverse
livelihood strategies including cereal-livestock integration and
agroforestry. Despite the favourable climatic conditions, high
population pressure (highest in rural Africa of up to 600
inhabitants/km2), soil erosion and nutrient depletion affect
productivity. Restoration interventions being implemented include
physical structures (soil bunds and fanya juu terraces) integrated with
biological measures (desho grass). Agroforestry around homesteads is a
common land use and restoration practice in the Doyogena and surrounding
sites.
Data collection and
analysis
The household survey was conducted with paired samples of couples. The
pairing provided robust intrahousehold gender dynamics including the
preferences, roles, benefits and challenges for women (wives) and men
(husbands). We used stratified random sampling to pick 59 husbands and
59 wives. Before data collection, the household survey questions were
pre-tested by enumerators. We used Open Data Kit (ODK) to conduct
household surveys. The survey tool was framed based on gender design and
evaluation framework by Basnett et al. (2017) capturing the
degradation-restoration themes. We captured gender differentiated data
on drivers of land degradation, and perceived benefits and challenges
faced by women and men.
The focus group discussions (FGDs) were organised to complement the
household interviews and the open-ended questions enabled gathering of
more in-depth evaluations of the degradation and restoration impacts on
women and men. The FGD members selected to represent men and women
groups participating in community level restoration interventions. All
the FGD members also represent the three-landscape positions (the upper,
middle, and bottom), to capture households’ feedback on different
restoration interventions across the landscape position.
From the household survey, a
comparative analysis was done on gender-disaggregated ratings by paired
husbands and wives representing men and women voices, respectively. The
results are presented using radar diagrams and bar graphs and supported
by participant narratives from FDG. Further correlational and
concordance analyses were done. Spearmans’s rank correlation coefficient
was used to measure ordinal association between the pairs of sets of
ratings (see note on Table 2) of impact of restoration activities. Since
there were no experimental evaluations against which the raters would
rank the attributes, the ratings by men and women had no reference
criterion. Hence, the perceptions were founded on their respective lived
experiences and the rank correlation is the measure of agreement between
men and women.
We run Kendall’s concordance, Wt , analysis using
the irr package in R to measure the degree of agreement or
disagreements among m sets of men and/or women for n ranks
of restoration outcomes. It is an index that measures the ratio of
observed variance of the sum of the ranks to the maximum possible
variance of a sum of ranks and ranges from 0 to 1. The least rank score
shows that men and/or women have divergent experiences of degradation
impacts and restoration outcomes and hence use a different standard when
rating. On the other hand, a higher score shows that men’s and/or
women’s experiences are similar. Like the correlation,Wt is a measure of opinions and value judgements
useful to establish the gender dynamics in restoration activities.Wt is estimated as (Edwards, 1964; Martey et al.,
2014):
\begin{equation}
W_{t}=\ \frac{12\left[\sum{T^{2}-\left(\sum T\right)^{2}/n}\right]}{nm^{2}(n^{2}-1)}\nonumber \\
\end{equation}Where;
T = sum of ranks for each degradation cause or restoration outcome being
ranked.
m = number of rankings (husbands and/or wives) and
n = number of restoration outcomes being ranked
The following hypothesis was tested:
H0: K= 0; there is no agreement among experiences of men and/or women
regarding land restoration benefits.
H1: K≠0 There is agreement among experiences of men and/or women
regarding land restoration benefits.