Two-way learning: key gender lessons from participatory community workshops with smallholders in the Baiyer Valley and Kerevat areas of Papua New Guinea

The development literature suggests that women continue to face inequality in the agriculture sectors of most developing countries. In this paper, gender implications arising from four community workshops in two regions of PNG are presented and discussed. The workshops formed part of a baseline study to investigate ways to improve the business knowledge and practices of women food crop smallholders within a larger project. In the baseline study, a rapid participatory learning and action research approach was underpinned by asset-based community development and appreciative inquiry. The paper outlines the two-way learning methodology from community workshops that explored the gender dynamics within an agricultural context. Two specific activities from the workshops and the findings as they relate to gender differences and the gendered division of labour within the communities are described. The activities provided an opportunity for local community members and leaders to reconsider and re-evaluate existing social relations that had mostly been taken for granted. The community workshops have demonstrated that communities are willing to reorientate their thinking to seek more effective ways of family collaboration. 1 Australian Institute for Sustainable Communities, University of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia 2 Pacific Adventist University, Port Moresby, PNG * Corresponding author: [email protected] Introduction Women smallholders are keys to PNG family livelihoods—they produce essential subsistence crops and they market or exchange the surplus while undertaking valued social roles, such as family care. Yet, the benefits of their family and agricultural labour do not necessarily translate to improved family livelihood and family security. In this paper, a project aiming to provide locally relevant training to support improved business acumen for women is described. A two-way learning methodology is outlined in an attempt to reveal the gendered divisions of labour and resources. Knowledge is culture-dependent. Two-way inquiry learning encourages people from different cultures to identify their shared and differing knowledge levels and perspectives. Through such a process there is the potential for the generation of new understandings that can better inform action (Hooley 2002). Aslin and Brown (2004, p. 8) place such a process within the broader project of utilising ‘local knowledge, specialised knowledge, strategic knowledge and integrative knowledge for sustainable change’.