Above: Local implementing partner, Agency For Community Empowerment (AFCE), hosting Oxfam and other partners. All farmer groups under the poultry activities have been trained GALS Phase 1. Twelfth Class Leland Fellow Chika Kondo, third from left.
As the iconic 70 Series white Land Cruiser navigates the difficult roads in Northern Uganda, Oxfam and its partners are warmly welcomed by the farmer group members lined up cheerfully dancing and singing. This is the typical start to most of our monitoring visits and engagements with local community. This infectious energy extends to Oxfam’s Gender Action Learning System (GALS) trainings, where the positivity and singing never fail to uplift each other, despite addressing heavy topics such as gender inequality and challenging traditional gender norms.
GALS is a participatory approach that involves men and women within households collaborating to plan their livelihoods and address their needs. It uses simple visual tools to initiate conversations across genders and drive immediate change. Surprisingly, these tools don’t require fancy supplies; even a stick and a dirt ground will do. One of my favorite tools from GALS is the Vision Road Journey (see the framework below). There’s even a catchy song that explains the process, which I often sing and dance with my colleagues in the office for some much needed post lunch energizers.
Vision Road Journey Framework
Step 1: “Man and Woman” – Establishing the Vision
The Vision Road Journey begins with Step 1: “Man and Woman.” Here, individuals or families use symbols to represent their personal and household visions. It can be applied on multiple scales: personal, family, and community level visions. By setting the vision, it makes it easier to address gender related challenges and barriers that might be otherwise difficult to discuss. Personally, I find visioning to always be a motivating force as GALS participants are eager to change their situation to build a better future together with members of their household and community.
Step 2: “Current Situation” — The reality of Food Insecurity and Gender Inequality in Uganda
This step involves drawing visuals that represent their current conditions. In many developing countries, including Uganda, women produce up to 80 percent of the food. However, they often face limited access to land, information, capital, and credit. This disparity leads to a “triple burden” of work: farmwork, domestic responsibilities, and childcare – often falling on women’s shoulders. I frequently hear stories of how both men and women work in the fields, and when the workday ends, women’s second shift begins at home, involving food preparation, cleaning, laundry, and childcare. Meanwhile, men may socialize with friends or rest. Addressing gender inequality requires challenging harmful gender norms at both the individual and household levels. Without changing the narrative on gender roles within the household, any livelihood intervention runs the risk of further exacerbating gender gaps and limiting women’s decision-making power and control/access to resources.
GALS Phase 2 Training of Trainers with partners: AFCE, Youth Social Advocacy Team (YSAT), and International Foundation for Recovery and Development (IFRAD). Leland Fellow Chika Kondo, second from left.
Step 3: “I Can’t Remember” – The Starting Point
Step 3 is drawn on the bottom left corner to allow GALS participants to reflect on where they came from. It provides an opportunity to ponder about traditional gender norms and how they might negatively impact men and women in how they work together. Milly, a GALS Champion from our partner organization YSAT, remarked, “All refugees should be trained on GALS. Previously, women in Sudan believed that only men could earn money. But now, they are cultivating land, running small businesses, and growing vegetables to improve their diet. There are no more conflicts in our household.”
Step 4: “Good and Bad” – GALS as a beacon of change
In this step, participants identify the constraints and opportunities in their environment that are relevant to their vision. This allows participants to conduct their own needs assessment and identify ways to bring about immediate change. Every tool within the GALS methodology relies on visual methods rather than written language. The use of drawings and illustrations are simple yet powerful, as they represent the goals, challenges, solutions, and opportunities. This approach is particularly advantageous in Uganda, where stigma attached to illiteracy, especially among men, may hinder participation. By employing these visual techniques, men and women can come together, plan, and communicate effectively to work towards a shared vision. Below you can find Leo’s family vision road journey which is drawn on reused polythene sacks and is hung prominently inside his family’s home. He proudly brings all of his GALS tools with him when facilitates GALS trainings in other communities.
GALS champion Leo’s family vision road journey
Step 5: Milestones – The power of training and collaboration
Step 5 “Milestones” helps community members break down their vision into actionable stages and allows for better accountability. The resulting vision road journey becomes an accountability tool as households work together to achieve their milestones and support a shift in gender dynamics. For instance, when a man sells agrifood products grown and processed by everyone in the household, he may think twice about how to spend the money earned. Instead of indulging in drinks with friends, he is aware that he is actively involved in a greater shared goal and is held accountable to the collective vision. These tools facilitate a platform for people to share their visions and unveil their goals, which serves as the foundation for how household members will work collectively. They proudly display their vision road journeys in their homes, as it helps maintain accountability. Even children become involved, and people are more thoughtful about how they spend the money they have earned from the market knowing it is contributing to the vision they built with their families. During our recent monitoring visit, Specioza from IFRAD shared, “The impact of GALS was apparent as everyone enthusiastically raised their hands to share their tools. It is evident that they have grasped the concepts.”
Step 6: A-A-A-Activities – Empowered to enact change
Finally, Step 6: “A-A-A-A-Activities” details the specific steps required to reach each milestone. The GALS trainings are lively and full of energy, featuring songs and visual aids that make complex concepts accessible to everyone. I’ve seen firsthand how these sessions, filled with positivity and singing, uplift participants and encourage them to speak about their experiences and address challenges head on. During the training of trainers that I attended, we learned the GALS Phase 2 tools and engaged in lively debates about gender roles and the real-life application of gender justice. Our discussions focused on the disparities in how women and men are acknowledged and recognized in specific spaces and nodes along value chains. We also explored the differing priorities between men and women in terms of what they consider to be most important. The debates were hot and intense, highlighting the crucial role of the GALS champion facilitator in managing the tensions that arose. Energizers and songs were used to break up the flow and refocus the group on the training’s original goals. This was no easy task! I commend all of the partners who will carry forward with future trainings to the hundreds of farmer groups we work with across Uganda.
Scaling GALS methodology
Investing time and resources in the GALS methodology is undoubtedly worthwhile. It promotes harmonious households where men and women collaborate, resulting in a myriad of benefits that positively impact the progress of farmer groups towards sustainable livelihoods. Farmer groups with a stronger gender balance in leadership are better equipped to develop their value chains and ensure that both men and women work together to foster peace within their households and sustain their livelihoods.
Christopher, a GALS champion from the organization AFCE shared, “When both the husband and wife work together – cleaning the rooms, taking care of water, and looking after themselves – we were able to foster unity in our household through GALS and poultry intervention.”
Uganda is at the forefront of implementing the GALS methodology, as local government officials recognize its transformative impact. Almost every project proposal I write includes GALS training in the budget to ensure that we can expand its reach to all farmer groups that Oxfam works with and ensure that farmer groups can go through all 4 phases of the curriculum. After completing a weeklong training on GALS Phase II with our partners, I am filled with excitement and ready to support our GALS champions as we roll out these trainings nationwide. Even within our small GALS Phase 2 training, it was encouraging to see that our champions spoke a total of 15 different languages, which will enable them to effectively deliver the training to diverse communities. Language accessibility is crucial in Uganda, where there are over 50 languages spoken.
The Vision Road Journey is more than just a tool; it’s a pathway to sustainable livelihoods and gender equality. By investing time and resources in the GALS methodology, we’re fostering households where men and women collaborate, ultimately leading to stronger, more resilient communities.
Coffee farmer groups coordinated by AFCE. Discussion on how GALS has supported the reduction of gender-based-violence and men and women working together on specialty coffee value chain at the microstation. Leland Fellow Chika Kondo, fourth from left.
Additional Resource:
A Step by Step Guide to GALS Integration in Development Programmes | Oxfam in Uganda