It could be easy to say that, the main findings from my study are that, the participation in project planning is low and the female orientation is lacking.
However, there are great differences between the projects.
At Mbegani FDC I observed that very few women have been teachers and students during all the years the centre has existed. However, the last few years the proportion of women has increased because the total number of students has decreased. There has with one exception been a woman that acted as head of department and thus as a leader. Focus on gender questions seems also to be lacking in the curriculum and study plans.
Also at Mbegani FDC I observed that, since the women at the Mbegani FDC were not involved in leaderships’ position, they did not participate in planning and decision making, even though they had post graduate education like male colleagues.
For me it was interesting to see that the situation today compared with the situation in 1986 had hardly changed. There are today no women with development skills employed at the centre even if different consultants like Swantz, (1986) and Gerrard in 1988 suggested that more women should enter Mbegani both as staffs and
students. Swantz recommended that two women should be employed in the development department. One of them could have the responsibility towards the centre and the other one towards the external development work. It was argued that women’s important roles in the fishery sector should be recognised. More emphasis on women’s development could also lead to a more equal situation between women and men.
Looking at the neighbourhood villages of Mbegani I found that, women are participating in projects even today in the same way as they did in 1986 when women group were organised by means from NORAD and under the supervision of teachers at Mbegani among them Mwajuma Masaiganah. Today, however, there is one group consisting of only women and the other group is a mixed group of men and women.
In these groups both men and women participate in the implementation of the projects group work as “workers”. By working in their groups in this way they effectuate the idea of the project by learning and doing certain tasks. Today the groups’ activities have resulted in income generating activities.
In these villages it was the district fisheries office who took the initiative to start the groups. Some of the Mbegani teachers, among them women from the processing department assisted in the teaching and helped supplying with nets and processing materials. In these villages a civil servant was active.
The MIMP project at Mafia Island is very different. Here women have to a certain degree been integrated in the project from the level of planning to the implementation level. A female orientation was a part of the project statement. It was stated that a female project worker was employed especially to secure the objective to make projects that suit women. Civil servants were also engaged in the villages in order to mobilise and adapt the projects to women’s needs. In this way I will say that the Mafia project had a structure that tried to adapt to women’s need. It was even decided that the village committees should have a certain percentage of women present 25% to 30%. By observing the activities I also got the impression that women were more active and easier to mobilise in the projects compared with men, majority of the groups comprised women. Women’s engagement thus resulted in very interesting results:
1. The most "tangible" and direct benefit result from the action projects was in terms of the income generating activities accorded to the women beneficiaries. The women from Jibondo and Juani were able to undertake a number of fisheries
activities and contribute to their family income from the profits yielded out of their group activities.
2. The beneficiaries developed and thus acquired skills, particularly in the area of fish preservation/processing, buying and selling.
3. Additionally, women from these villages obtained through formal means (e.g. by way of the planning workshops and training programmes) and informal means (e.g. through interaction with the Mbegani FCD and MIMP project insights on processing, farming in the ocean, fishing techniques education and fund-raising activities.
4. The target women yielded some influence on the other women groups from other villages who directly benefited from the projects.
5. The participating groups of women, having gained a better socio-economic status, found it easier to share their own experiences and learning’s with the rest of the women and men. They thus motivated others to participate in the group activities particularly the men.
Based on these finding I will therefore say that there are some similarities and some differences between the projects dependent on the project. Some of the common traits, especially for the projects in the villages, were the emphasis on technology, material, training and supervision.
On the other hand findings confirm that, two of the projects are biased towards men. The involvement of women in planning, programming and leadership is very limited. Women are virtually non-existent in this respect. In relation to this, the study found that the situation of women is worse when compared to the contribution they play in the sector. Bagachwa etal, (1994), Gerrard, (1988), Swantz, (1986). The Mafia project was different. Here women were involved in the planning and had a place in the whole structure of the project. It seems to fulfil the ideas of my findings.
Moser, (1993: 2-3) argues that, development strategies require an entirely new way of thinking in which the stereotyping of women and men no longer limits their choices, but gives way to a new philosophy that regards all people as essential agents of change. Providing equal rights and equal access to resources and opportunities to women, gender equality becomes an essential aspect of human development.