Tribute to Tarihing: A Deep Dive into Rural Women Empowerment in Malaysia and a Call for the Adoption of Theory of Change through Data Transparency
I was a freshman in university back in 2017. Like many self-seeking, wide-eyed young academics with their newfound independence, finding a purpose became my sole mission. Coinciding with the rising #MeToo Movement at the time, I naturally enrolled myself on one semester of Gender Studies class.?
There is no discounting the systemic struggles women still face despite how much we have accomplished over the years. In the three months of Gender Studies class, I learned that women-centric issues are ever-evolving and so complex that patriarchal structures still remain dominant after the hundred-year crusade. Like many, I was motivated. It was my duty as a woman to champion the cause.?
Except, where do I start?
Female empowerment was never a topic of discussion as someone who grew up with prominent female figures at home. It was second nature. I was strategically groomed and en route to taking on the path of least barriers, something I have come to realize as a tremendous privilege. The dissonance between my lived reality versus what I learned in class was only growing over time.?
In the same year, I met Tarihing at a state event. She was a pocket-sized grandma who seemed out of place in a room full of high-profile personalities. She spoke only local Malay and Bunduliwan, and was there as a recipient of the Bintang Setia Kinabalu award - a state award from His Excellency Governor of Sabah (Tuan Yang-di-Pertua Negeri) reserved for those who made substantial contributions to the state.?
That naturally piqued my interest. Probing her representative (who spoke English), I found out that this unlettered, innocuous grandma from the deepest jungles of Sonsogon Magandai, singlehandedly brought solar power to a hundred (and counting) households in her district.?
Suddenly, I saw the same, high-spirited fighter I saw in many powerful women, in her.??
My brush with Tarihing was the start of my own critical journey into feminism. In poverty-stricken rural Sabah, women's struggles are a world of difference to those in the bustling coastal towns a few hundred kilometres away. From inaccessibility to healthcare, clean water and education, to the misinformed notion of domestic violence, these are the kind of struggles I was comfortably oblivious to before meeting her, the ones you only hear about in class, but never encountered.
I started to wonder, beyond geographical differences, how is it possible for our differences to be so stark despite having the same aspiration on creating impact? How did decades' worth of women's empowerment seemingly manage to only uplift urban women, but left our village neighbours in the dark?
Gender Responsive Budget (GRB) in Malaysia
In Malaysia, the introduction of GRB came a decade after the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The pilot project started way back in 2006 under the purview of the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, which spanned four different ministries- one being the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development. It was a progressive move to mainstream gender into the national budget.?
Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) is a budgeting process that considers the needs of both men and women in order to ensure that public resources are allocated in an equitable and beneficial manner to all. GRB is based on the principle that public resources should be allocated in a way that considers men and women's different needs, and that any gender-based disparities in access to and control over resources should be addressed.
The country had seen tremendous progress since then. Earlier in February, Malaysian firms were discovered to have an average of more than 50% of women in revenue-producing roles, exceeding the global average of 41%, through the Gender Equality Index (GEI). This sounds like good news for urbanites like me, but what can this make of women like Tarihing who has never dared to dream of entering a corporate building, more so to take on revenue-producing roles??
Notably, there are a few challenges to drafting an effective GRB. One being, the inclusivity of intersectionality. While there are universal women struggles, i.e. childcare support and risk of violence, acknowledging our differences grants us the advantage of solving problems from a bird’s eye view. To illustrate, the version of female empowerment I learned in class, such as the glass ceiling, and the gender pay gap debate, are issues that will not impact Tarihing in the?slightest.?
Stratified, disaggregated data is the key to identifying the unique struggles Tarihing and her rural counterparts face. Fortunately in Malaysia, Article 14 of CEDAW, which focuses on Rural Women, parks under the supervision of the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development. Naturally, we can expect rural-centric data to be adopted and analysed.
Now that funds have been continuously channelled into the development of rural women's communities, where is the result???
Rural Women Development: A Checkpoint
In 2018, a report analysing the status of Malaysia’s implementation of CEDAW was published by the Women's Aid Organization (WAO). Under Article 14, they outlined several key struggles that are still observed within the rural women's community 24 years after CEDAW and GRB adoption:?
Excerpt from The Status of Women’s Human Rights: 24 of CEDAW in Malaysia, Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO), 2018
Government Report Card
A year later in 2019, the Rural Development Policy 2030 was launched. It aims to improve rural women's livelihoods in terms of economy, education, health, social, and leadership. The Ministry of Rural and Regional Development (MRRD) has also established several programs to help rural women gain skills and increase their competitiveness, including Skills and Career Training, Income Enhancement, and Basic Skills. MRRD provided loans, grants, training, and business premises to encourage rural women to participate in entrepreneurship and improve their well-being. Moreover, the Rural Development Policy 2030 also outlined strategies to increase rural women's participation in decision-making, such as establishing a 30% quota for rural women in the Village Development and Security Committee (VDSC) and Orang Asli Village Development and Security Committee. Under this, the MRRD organized leadership training and seminars for rural women to strengthen their capacity to participate in program planning, development, and implementation.
领英推荐
MRRD Programs?from 2016 - 2021
Poverty Eradication
Skills and Career Training Programs
Income Enhancement Programs
Basic Skills Program (baking, sewing, repairing computer and mobile phone, handicraft, basic entrepreneurial course)
Entrepreneurial Assistance Programs
Leadership Participation
30% quota for rural women in village leadership positions
Data from: Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Sixth periodic report submitted by Malaysia under article 18 of the Convention.
While the prompt government efforts are to be applauded, questions remain surrounding its implementation quality and outcome. So far, there is no open data on how participants were selected, the rate of attrition, the long-term impact on participants and the fate of participants who dropped out, the protraction and retention of skills, and more.?
A Suggestion Forward: Theory of Change in Assessing Rural Women Development?
An effective program is one where it achieves what it intended to achieve. Only then, can its impact be justified. To do that, requires analyzing a plethora of matrices and data.?
“A theory of change is a method that explains how a given intervention, or set of interventions, is expected to lead to specific development change, drawing on a causal analysis based on available evidence.”
Theory of Change, UNDAF Companion Guidance, United Nations (UN)
The Theory of Change (TOC) framework which focuses on both process and impact evaluation can provide us with a clear picture of how effective a program is. It is a direct, step-by-step approach adopted by many organizations and government sectors elsewhere in evaluating their program performances- one which provides clarity on whether the program is sustainable within an allocated budget. The United Nations, for instance, adopts TOC for its Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF).?
Right now, without any proper evaluation system in place, it is hard for us to judge the effectiveness of these government empowerment programs. While TOC is a good guide forward, we must first aim to have data transparency on a more comprehensive scale. To start, the MRRD could look into collaboration with government research arms like PEMANDU and the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) to put a more robust data collection and data analysis system in place.?
Conclusion
It is only through identifying what we lack, that we can start planning on how to improve. Tarihing’s story is one that continues to inspire because of how she prevailed under her circumstances. Unfortunately, the continuity of her legacy ended with her passing in 2022. Sustainable social change, especially one as complex as the empowerment of rural women, is a long process. As the fight for women's empowerment continues to expand on local soil, I envision equity for all women despite their places of origin.