Women’s Empowerment through Community-based Tourism and Cultural Exchanges

Women’s Empowerment through Community-based Tourism and Cultural Exchanges Ms Jessica Chapman and Prof. Shirley K Randell Kigali Institute of Education Centre for Gender, Culture and Development Occasional Research Paper 7, April 2011Centre for Gender, Culture and Development The Centre for Gender, Culture and Development (CGCD) was established by the Kigali Institute of Education in Rwanda in June 2009. The vision of CGCD is to become a centre of gender, culture and development studies that is an internationally known centre of excellence producing professionally qualified academicians, public servants, civil society and private sector leaders, in a high-quality research environment that engages in policy development, short term trainings, certificate programs, community outreach and multicultural exchange. CGCD’s mission is to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment, cultural exchange and development in Rwanda and the Great Lakes Region. CGCD will offer a Masters of Social Science (GCD) degree and a Certificate in Continuing Professional Development (GCD) from 2011. The Bachelors of Social Science (GCD) will be offered from 2012. The objectives of CGCD are: To develop practice and curriculum on gender, culture and development (GCD) issues that support Rwanda’s position as a world leader in participation in governance To align policy and practice To ensure that every teacher who graduates from KIE has undertaken an introduction to gender studies course To train high-calibre academicians, public servants, civil society and private sector leaders to meet local and Great Lakes Region needs To employ a human rights based approach to development To provide professional higher education in GCD studies to support the development of Rwanda and GLR To develop the potential of CGCD staff to provide a stimulating intellectual environment, carry out research, data collection and consultancies to meet Rwanda and GLR needs for research-informed GCD policy, practice and international scholarship To secure long-term viability, and increase visibility and influence of CGCD To contribute to the community within which CGCD is located and to increase the community’s awareness of GCD issues To increase the social integration of vulnerable groups in Rwandan society. A key feature of CGCD is to improve research into issues related to gender in Rwanda and the Great Lakes Region. This series of occasional papers is a contribution to making this research more widely available. Please address comments and/or queries for information to: Professor Shirley Randell, Director of the CGCD, shirley.randell@kie.ac.rw Contents Acronyms……………………………………………………………………………………………………………......4 Introduction 5  Acronyms CBTE Community-Based Tourism Enterprise CBT Community-Based Tourism COOPECS User-owned financial cooperative that offer savings, credit, and other financial services GOR Government of Rwanda GLR Great Lakes Region IFC International Finance Corporation TANAPA Tanzanian National Parks UCOTA Ugandan Trade Association WB World Bank Women’s Empowerment through Community-based Tourism and Cultural Exchanges This research report was first delivered as a paper at the International Conference held in November 2010 in Kigali: Women's Empowerment Through Community-based Tourism and Cultural Exchange: Chances and Challenges of grassroots development Projects The vast majority of the world’s poor are women. Two-thirds of the world’s illiterates are female and of the millions of school age children not in school, the majority are girls. Studies show that when women are supported and empowered, all of society benefits. Their families are healthier, more children go to school, agricultural productivity improves and income increases. In short, communities become more resilient. With tourism being one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world, it is essential that linkages between tourism business and the poor are made. Such linkages have the capacity to contribute to poverty reduction and enable poor people, particularly women, to participate effectively in productive development. This paper gives some examples of how women might contribute to the growth of tourism in the Great Lakes Region. The assistance of Dr Jill Peterson in editing this paper is gratefully acknowledged. Definitions Work in Africa can be divided into the formal and the informal sectors. While the definition of informal employment is in itself a contested issue (World Bank, 2007), for consistency this paper will refer to the World Bank’s broad definitions of informal and formal employment. Formal employment is regulated, formal wage employment also includes those working for an NGO, government department, or private firm with ten or more employees, ‘or that have a license or book account’ (2010; 59). Informal waged employment is not regulated and includes employees who work for private organisations of less than ten employees, without a license or book accounts, ‘it also includes employees for whom information is missing and who are paid only in kind or are doing casual work’ (2006; 60). Informal employees are also considered as such when they are not registered in any social security organisation. The ILO distinguishes between employment in the informal sector and informal employment, where the informal sector includes any enterprise which is not publicly incorporated, that is enterprises that are not legally constituted as separate to the owners, and that hold no official accounts to allow a financial separation. Informal employment as well as including that already discussed, is seen to also include those self-employed in the informal sector and family members in informal or formal sector. Informal employment is more precarious and presents more risk to the wellbeing of the employee for lack of security in pay, conditions in the workplace and Occupational Health and Safety issues, however is also recognised as a necessary approach to employment. Introduction I n a number of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa women are almost twice as likely as men to work in the informal sector and two times less likely to have a public or private formal job. There is a 17 percent difference between labor force participation for men (78.3 percent) and women (61 percent) (Nonor, 2010). Tourism has been an important sector in the Great Lakes Region as it has created employment for both men and women. The number of women in the informal tourism sector, however, is much higher than the number in the formal sector. In Kenya, for example, “there are 360,000 people employed in the informal sector, many of whom are women selling handicrafts such as weaving and wooden carvings” (Ikiana, 2001). in the formal sector, tourism employs 45,000 women. Although women entrepreneurs have been able to profit from the informal sector by selling crafts, weavings, and clothing to tourists, they are significantly less visible in larger and more profitable businesses (IFC, 2006 p.17). As tourism is one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world, and the real strength of presence of women in the informal work sector is largely invisible, it is essential that linkages between the tourism industry and the informal sector are made. Such linkages have the capacity to contribute to poverty reduction and enable poor people to participate in productive development. The first section of this paper looks at linking tourism to poverty reduction for women. It begins by discussing women’s development contributions and Pro-Poor tourism and then goes on to discuss the questions of how productive entrepreneurship can be fostered and how poor people can gain the agency needed to participate in the design and implementation of tourism for growth. The second section focuses on tourism in the Great Lakes Region. In line with world trends, tourism related business is growing rapidly in Africa and in the Great Lakes Region. When looking at tourism through the region’s countries we find that many women hold top managerial positions in the industry, while at the same time many poor and/or non-educated women only experience tourism though the informal sector. A case study of an informal home-stay experience based in Kigali, looks at the sustainability and agency women gain from partaking in the informal sector. The paper ends by offering recommendations for how linkages between the tourism industry and the informal sector can be made. Many women in Kenya reported feeling that as though business associations are weak, ineffective and overly political. This makes it difficult for women to gain the agency they need to create sustainable business ventures. The recommendations offered put poor people at the centre of development through the empowering approach, as outlined by the World Bank, and views them as the most important resource.. The recommended approach also encourages the establishment of effective, responsive, inclusive and accountable institutions. Ultimately, it is through these institutions that poor people, the majority of whom are women, can develop their own capacities, increase their assets, and gain the agency they need to move out of poverty. With these structural changes, women will have the opportunity to gain the empowerment necessary to benefit equally from the growth of the tourism sector. Linking Tourism to Poverty Reduction for Women Experiencing poverty includes experiencing the denial of choices and opportunities for a better life (Duncan and Pollard, 103). Within the discussion of gender equality the debate is not who is poorer, women or men. Rather, it is to understand the severity and hardships women face when trying to lift themselves out of poverty. Although women are not a homogeneous group, broadly speaking, women and men experience poverty differently. Women have fewer educational and employment opportunities and more domestic and family responsibilities than men. As the majority of the poor are women, their inclusion in developing industries should be a priority. Tourism is the fastest growing economic sector in many nations, if it is to benefit poor people and be used as a tool for development, it must generate economic benefits that reach a broad spectrum of the population and are inclusive of civil society. Ensuring gender-equality and understanding the impact empowered women can have on the health and productivity of whole families and communities through the tourism industry is therefore essential. This is particularly relevant in Rwanda where most families are headed by women or female children. Women have been found to invest a larger proportion of their income to the family, through healthcare, food and nutrition, and education for their children, which not only improves opportunities for the youth of the country, but is also considered to alter the perception of male children brought up in female headed households. The idea of Pro-Poor tourism and Pro-Poor growth come from an aim to reduce poverty through strategic and targeted economic and civil society activities. Pro-Poor tourism, for example, aims to upgrade local skills, create local jobs, embrace local culture, improve local infrastructure, use local resources as much as possible, work with the long-term in mind, and create partnerships for the purpose of improving livelihoods (World Bank, 2006). The challenge, however, is to find ways in which productive entrepreneurship is fostered and poor people are given the agency to participate in the design and implementation of tourism for growth. Women are faced with even greater challenges within these processes because they have fewer opportunities than men as a result of unequal education, limited paid employment and little ownership of assets. In Rwanda, unemployment and poverty are high and the population is expected to grow from 9.7 million people in 2004 to 16 million by 2020 (Vertugo, 2006). In this context the Government of Rwanda’s (GOR) main economic challenge is to stimulate new sources of Pro-Poor growth. The tourism sector in Rwanda, and the Great Lakes Region as a whole, provides an opportunity to foster productive entrepreneurship with both women and men that stimulates sustainable growth. Historically, however, men have realized greater economic benefits from the tourism industry. Local economic benefits from tourism include informal sector activities in transportation, guiding, handcrafts and, increasingly, in cultural dancing, community tours, home-stays, and meals (Vertugo, 2006). Very few women, if any, however, participate in the higher income-generating activities such as guiding and transportation. Martha Alter Chen (2001, pp. 71-82) in “Women in the informal sector: A global picture, the global movement” addresses the question of how being a woman working in the informal sector and being poor are linked. She explains that workers in the informal sector typically lack social protection, such as workers benefits and health insurance, and generally work under irregular and casual contracts (Ashley, et al. 2006). Decent education, training, health care, access to infrastructure and market information for all are what is needed in order to achieve broad-based economic growth. However, the challenges to attaining broad-based economic growth are significant in many developing countries, because of macroeconomic instability, low human resources, inadequate infrastructure, asset inequality, and gender inequality and insecurity (Narayan, 2002). Gender equality is not only a human right—it is directly linked to sustainable development. By taking a gender approach and thus integrating gender issues into the analysis, planning, and organization of development policies, programs, and projects in the tourism sector, countries in the Great Lakes Region will only then be able to maximize their growth potential. Tourism in the Great Lakes Region Between 1980 and 1990, the number of international arrivals in Africa more than doubled, rising from 7.3 million in 1980 to 15 million in 1990. Between 1990 and 2000, the average annual growth rate of tourism in Africa was 6.4 percent, compared to 4.2 percent around the world. . In addition, between 1990 and 2004, the total number of visitors to Africa as a share of worldwide visits rose from 3.4 percent to 4.4 percent. In Sub-Saharan Africa in 2008, this tourism generated $USD14.5 billion and in North Africa $USD7 billion (Zimmerman, 2008). Between 2007-08, the number of tourists visiting Kenya, grew by 4.8 percent. During 2008 the number of tourists increased by 19.8 percent to 217, 000 visitors (Osere: 2009). In 2009 there was a 25.7 percent increase from 2007-08 numbers in Uganda, increasing to 181, 000 tourists. And in 2008, Tanzania received 950,000 tourists compared to previous years where the country had received closer to 890,000 (Osere, 2009). Throughout the GLR, women have taken different roles within the tourism sector, including many managerial positions. In 2008, Tanzania had a record high in the number of appointments of women to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism. Within the tourism division, women were promoted to positions such as the Director of Tourism and Assistant Director in the Wildlife Department (Hoffman, 2001, p. 22). Within the Tanzanian National Parks sector (TANAPA) there has been a growing number of National Park Chief Wardens who are women and who manage tourism services,-13 out of 50 are women (Hoffman, 2001, p. 22).. Further, many Tanzanian-owned tour companies have women presidents and some women are managing directors. Challenges, however, remain in local communities having the skills and opportunities for managerial positions like those mentioned above. In addition, women in local communities may lack the capacity to generate sustainable profits and the agency to work with the government to develop policies that are in their favour. Local communities are often not well informed of tourism plans, nor involved in their development (Verdugo, 2006, p. 4). Because women are given fewer opportunities as a result of unequal education, restricted access and opportunity for paid employment and limited ownership of assets, they are less empowered to make decisions and participate in receiving the economic benefits tourism has to offer. As of June 2010, 482,950 international tourists arrived in Kenya, a 17 percent growth compared to the same period the previous year (Maina, 2010). Kenya’s tourist industry, in particular, has faced particular challenges to do with natural resources and the protection of the livelihoods of peoples such as the Maasai. In response, the tourism sector in Kenya has seen a boom in Pro-Poor growth tourist companies. In both Tanzania and Kenya, prominent higher education institutions for tourism have been established. In Kenya, the Strathmore School of Tourism and Hospitality enrols 50 percent women and in Tanzania, the National School of Tourism has a similar female enrolment. Such examples show that a certain amount of gender equality has been established in some nations in the region. There is still concern, however, about the lack of equality and empowerment for those who do not have access to education, mainly, those living in poverty. Although the tourism sector in Rwanda has recovered since 1994, Rwanda’s tourism remains highly focused upon short visits to the Mountain Gorillas. Mountain Gorillas in the Parc National des Volcanoes serves as the main product of tourism in Rwanda. Two growing tourist attractions include the Parc National de Nyungwe and Parc National de l’Akagera (Verdugo, 2006, p. 4). Rwanda has taken a three-pronged Pro-Poor Tourism approach which aims firstly, to attract more tourists and therefore build the industry; secondly, to encourage more spending per tourist; and thirdly, to have more of that spending reach the poor, through their involvement in the industry. The informal sector is growing rapidly and is responsible for 93 percent of new jobs in Africa compared with 83 percent of new jobs in Latin America and the Caribbean (Narayan, 2002, p. 52). Many of the benefits women receive from tourism are through the informal sector. In order to find ways in which productive entrepreneurship is fostered and women are given the agency to participate inclusively in the design and implementation of tourism for growth, the initial constraints they face must first be understood. The following case study exemplifies the importance of empowerment in terms of citizen inclusion and participation at the local level as well as the importance of inclusive government policies at the national level. Case Study: Prospects for Women’s Contributions to the Growth of Tourism in Lakes Region The case study below, from the informal sector presents observations on the power structures, variables, and sustainability of an informal home-stay experience based in Remera, Rwanda. The home-stay used in this study is based in the Remera province of Kigali, Rwanda. The facility attracts many guests (mainly from the United States) for both short and long term visits. The home-stay is made up of a main house with a guest house on the side. The guest house has three bedrooms, a living room, and a western-style bathroom. Guests vary in their profession, many are students, and most have come to know of this home-stay through the American brother-in-law of the one of the women who lives in the main house. The compound is beautifully designed with luscious green bushes, banana trees, grass and flowers, ferns and smaller trees throughout. Many of the walkways are laid with large stones, and large clay flower pots are situated around the compound and filled with different greenery. The price of the guest house varies depending on the size of the room from $10 USD to $15 USD. The price includes internet and breakfast. For lunch and dinner, guests have the option of paying an additional $6 USD. All meals are served and eaten with the family (one women and her younger brother) in the main house. There are two staff at the compound who live in the main house. Both are young women in their twenties (one 26 and the other 19) and both come from Kibongo, a suburb of Kigali. Neither of the young women received any education prior to working at the compound. They work six days a week and are allowed to leave the compound together on Sundays. On all other days, if one person leaves, the other must stay in the house. They have both been working for the last five years and appear happy, satisfied, and ‘very thankful to God’ for having the job, although they are occasionally criticized for not working hard enough. Observations drawn from time spent living at the compound are of power structures, variables (connection with westerners), and sustainability of the home-stay. These conversations and observations are those of the co-author drawn from her stay in the guest house in Remera from 11 January 2010 to 23 February 2011. The power structure within the main house appears to be centralized around the one man in the house, a young 20-year-old who has just finished his senior six exams. He is the younger brother of one of the women who lives in the main house (he has his own room detached from the main house). If guests have a problem or need anything, for example, hot water for the shower, laundry basket, etc., they go to the young man. In addition, if the two staff need anything, including money for daily items such as buying bread (bought fresh every day) they must go to him for the money. He is also responsible for collecting money for rent and food from guests (guests may also prearrange to pay the American man who oversees the guest house in the United States). Further, the young man is responsible for paying the staff as well as a guard and a gardener who take care of the compound. The American connection is an important variable for understanding the workings of the home-stay. It is through this connection that guests know of the guest house. The American man is also responsible for paying for the staff to learn English and for one of them to take driving lessons. This relationship brings up the question of sustainability. The home-stay has been up and running for five years and has proven to be sustainable across time. What needs to be highlighted, however, is that the education of the two young women is dependent on the American and in many ways too is the success of the guest house and the in-flow of visitors. Analysis The informal sector in Rwanda, including informal tourism, provides many women with income, especially poor women. What this case study highlights is the lack of sustainability and agency that women can have when participating in this sector. Take for example, the two young women who are the staff of the home-stay. Their education is dependent on their connection with the American man who supports their studies. Conversations with these women and observations for the study suggested that they are very happy with their situation and the chance to learn English. Giving them this chance to learn English shows compassion and generosity on the part of the American and provides them with more opportunities, especially now that GOR has placed such emphasis on the English language as critical to Rwanda’s economic development. However, the difficulties for the young women to advance themselves appear great. Due to their low wages and the fact that they turn over most of their earnings to their families means that they are not able to build up savings. One must wonder what would happen to them and their studies were the American man to stop supporting the guest house. The difficulty for these women and others in their position is overcoming the structural challenges they are faced with. These challenges are even greater when viewed alongside gender relations within Rwandan society more broadly, which is still strongly patriarchal. It is evident that the two young women must go to the young man (younger than both of them) daily to go out and buy bread. Although the women are responsible for bargaining, and purchasing the food and cooking the meals at the house they are not given a budget to work with themselves. One guest observed that on many occasions the young women are held back from going to their English classes by the young man if there are things which need to done around the house (personal communication, 10 November, 2010). Another observation was that although the American man had stipulated that the two young women should have two hours every afternoon to study, this is often difficult for them because during this time they are frequently called upon to run errands and complete small tasks around the house (Personal communication, 12 November 2010). Conclusion A result of working as staff at the home-stay for the past five years is that the two young women have built a strong skill set. They have become very good at taking care of guests, have come to learn the many needs western guests may have, and have become sensitive and aware of cultural differences. They have built up professional skills in cooking, cleaning, and communication. Further, they have been given the opportunity to study English, driving and, through their interactions with guests, have become proficient in the English language. Their agency, however, does not appear to have developed at the same rate as their experience. One guest would often joke with the young women after tasting the prepared dinner saying things similar to ‘You should open a restaurant’, or as one of the women uses her continuously advancing and well-spoken English, ‘Don’t you think she could be the next BBC correspondent?’ When questioned in casual conversation about their ambitions for the future, the women had no confident or considered responses. Suggestions were made and the young women liked the ideas but thought of them as jokes. Recommendations Economic opportunity is not in itself a solution for poverty reduction, but is a context in which individuals have the opportunity to create their own solutions. It is a combination of factors which enable poor people to manage their assets in ways that generate income and opportunity (Ashley, et al. 2006, p. 4). As statistics above show, there has been great growth in tourism in Kenya in recent years. In Kenya, women’s businesses account for roughly half, 48 percent of all micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and contribute around 20 per cent of Kenya’s GDP. Of the 462,000 jobs created annually since 2000 in the country, 445,000 jobs are a part of the informal sector and this is where 85 per cent of women-run businesses are found (IFC, 2006, p. 19). In order to link the growth of the tourism business to the informal sector and allow women to equally benefit, efforts must be made to support women’s entrepreneurship ventures, allowing them to develop and grow. In order to do this the challenges to attaining broad based economic growth must be addressed. This can be done by putting women and poor people at the centre of development and viewing them as the most important resource. A simple transfer of income from better-off citizens to the poor is not the ultimate goal of pro-poor tourism The challenge is to find ways that productive entrepreneurship can be fostered and poor people can participate inclusively in the design and implementation of tourism for growth. The recommendations made in this section reflect those of the “World Development Report: Attacking Poverty” (World Bank Report, 2000/1). The report underscores the importance of increasing poor people’s access to opportunity, security, and empowerment. Empowerment is looked at in particular, as it highlights the many ways women’s inclusion in the tourism sector can and should be capitalized on. Empowering Approach Adopting an empowering approach to development is the first recommendation that shows us how poor people can be placed at the centre of development. This approach builds on poor people’s strengths, their knowledge, skills, values, initiatives, and motivation to solve problems, manage resources, and rise out of poverty (Narayan, 2002). There are four elements of the empowerment approach: access to information, inclusion and participation, accountability, and local organizational capacity. The first element, access to information, means ensuring responsiveness to poor people from the government. For this to be successful the government must find ways of instituting the collection of information about poor people’s priorities and their preferences. The information must flow both ways: from the government to citizens and citizens to the government. The second element, inclusion and participation, means addressing the who and the how. This can be done by viewing poor people as co-producers with authority and control over decisions and resources -particularly financial resources (Narayan, 2002, p. 20). Accountability has three forms; political, administrative, and public. It is often used synonymously with responsibility, answerability, and other terms associated with the expectation of account-giving. In leadership roles, accountability is the acknowledgment and assumption of responsibility for actions, and includes the obligation to report, explain and be answerable for resulting consequences. Local organizational capacity, is the ability of people to work together, organize themselves, and mobilize resources to solve problems of common interest. This is often seen outside of formal systems as poor people turn to each other for support and strength to solve everyday issues. Through the four elements of empowerment, more effective, responsive, inclusive and accountable institutions can be created. It is through such institutions that poor people will then be able to develop their own capacities, increase their assets, and move out of poverty. Hotels and other tourism companies have the capacity to link small-scale tourist product and service providers in the informal sector with their guests. Hotels and tourism companies also have the ability to create linkages by establishing long-term relationships with producers, allowing them to use local products such as food, and decorations, for events and services. The case study of home-based tourism is an example of good practice that has the capacity for improvement. Linking these small endeavours with hotels and other tourism companies could lead to benefits for both. Community-Based Tourism Like the empowering approach, Community-Based Tourism (CBT), offers a framework that allows for the use of insights from women and poor people as a development tool. CBT is a socially sustainable tourism approach which is initiated and almost always operated exclusively by local and indigenous people. http://www.sustainabletourism.travel/communitybasedtourism.html Such tourism offers the opportunity for women to partake equally to men in the benefits of the tourism sector. Women in Kenya indicated that they would benefit from a well-coordinated association that could effectively address their needs (IFC, 2006, p. 19). The Ugandan Trade Association (UCOTA) provides an excellent example of the benefits a well-coordinated association of this kind can bring. The Ugandan Trade Association was established to encourage and ensure quality, community-based tourism through community tourism enterprises, benefitting communities through sustainable development. The association aims to address the challenges rural communities and poor people face when trying to participate in the tourism sector. These challenges include: Isolation and lack of communication. Tourists are often unaware of the location of rural enterprises. Poor infrastructure. Enterprises are often located away from main roads and access to tourist sites can be difficult. In addition, many communities and tourist sites don’t have access to running water, phone services, or electricity. Lack of Understanding. Communities often do not understand or relate to the idea of tourism. This can make it difficult for communities to adapt to tourists and their needs. Limited opportunities for training and funding. Opportunities at the local level are often extremely limited for those in remote areas looking for training and funding that will allow them to participate in the tourism industry. Lack of participation by the community. Development activities are often undertaken by others without the participation of the local community. When the projects are developed, the community often prove unable to manage such activities on their own. Limited availability of technical assistance. Organizations wishing to participate in the tourism industry may have difficulties in finding qualified persons to oversee community development. Lack of information. Communities may find they lack access to information and advice. UCOTA has worked to address these challenges by advising enterprises on how to fund products and how to develop and design business and investment plans. It has organised training on tour guiding, tourism awareness, introduction to tourism and community-based tourism enterprise (CBTE), business skills (eg. financial management), handcraft skills, music and dance, drama, resource management, and sustainable technology. UCOTA also works to lobby the government, is a liaison with private operators, and works at the institutional level with tourism organizations and steering committees and projects. Its aim is to further develop and strengthen the tourism industry and improve effectiveness in reaching the goal of pro poor tourism activities. The lessons to be learned from UCOTA’s work include: Generate sustainable financing through membership fees and commercial services such as handcrafts, sales and reservations. Establish a regional structure for tasks in order to address the geographical distribution of CBTEs. Monitor and establish indicators at the project and policy level to evaluate effectiveness. Research market sectors and consumer statistics. Implement workable reservation and communication systems to allow for advanced bookings (Williams, 2001, p. 4). Linking tourism growth to the informal sector is a long process which requires finding ways to engage with women and poor people in order to find out what their needs and concerns are. In the process, structural and institutional challenges will likely need to be confronted. UCOTA experience and work at both the micro level with CBTE’s and macro level with governments and tourism organizations addresses the many areas in which links can to be made between the informal sector and tourism business. Conclusion Many women are constrained by social structures which make it difficult for them to lift themselves out of poverty. The tourism sector is rapidly growing across Africa and GLR. For women to equally benefit from the growth of the sector, it is vital to understand the constraints women currently face in participating in an empowered and sustainable way. It is through the informal sector that many poor people, particularly women, take part in the tourism industry. This paper has addressed some of the barriers the informal sector can present for poor people, mainly, the lack of agency and sustainability it offers. The tourism sector offers women the opportunity to participate in a variety of different ways. Handcrafts, cultural dances, local-tours and home-stays, for example, are becoming increasingly popular within the industry. The empowerment approach highlighted here creates the linkages needed for enabling poor people and women to contribute to poverty reduction and participate in productive development of the tourism sector. It offers the opportunity to build on poor people’s strengths, their knowledge, skills, values, initiatives and motivation to solve problems, manage resources, and rise out of poverty. Further local tourism products and services can and should be pursued using this approach throughout the GLR.  References Ashley, Caroline, Peter De Brine, Amy Lehr and Hannah Wild (2006) The Role of the Tourism Sector in Expanding Economic Growth, The Fellows of Harvard College: 4. Chen, Martha Alter (2001). Women in the informal sector: A global picture, the global movement. SAIS Review 21(1), 1-82. Financial Cooperatives in Rwanda-Historical Background and Regulation ( ) www.un.org/esa/socdev/egms/docs/2009/.../Kantengwa.pdf Hoffman, Karen (2001) As tourism in Tanzania booms, so does the number of women in the industry, Africa Tourism Magazine: 22. www.africa-ata.org/tz_women.html Ikiana, M (2001) Vision and Long Term Strategy for Kenya’s Tourism Industry. The Kenya Institute for Public Policy and Analysis. Nairobi: KIPPA International Finance Corporation (IFC) and World Bank (WB) (2006). Voices of Women Entrepreneurs in Kenya. 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Jessica’s work at the Centre included conducting research for and co-authoring a paper with Prof. Shirley Randell for the International Conference held in November in Kigali: Women's Empowerment Through Community-based Tourism and Cultural Exchange: Chances and Challenges of grassroots development Projects. Professor Shirley Kaye Randell AO, PhD, FACE, FAIM, FAICD is Director of the Centre for Gender, Culture and Development at the Kigali Institute of Education. Following a distinguished career in education and in commonwealth, state and local governments in Australia, she has provided advisory services in education, governance for empowerment, gender mainstreaming and public sector reform for governments in the Pacific, Asia and Africa since 1997. Professor Randell recently completed a three-year term as World Vice President of the International Federation of University Women and was Founder and first Secretary General of the Rwandan Association of University Women, where she is now Convener for International Relations. shirley.randell@kie.ac.rw PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 2