The purpose of this baseline study was to assess the conditions within the villages of Lizhi Township before and during the implementation of the training component of the WREN project. Near project completion, the villages were examined in a similar manner to determine short-term outcomes.

Typically, a baseline study includes data disaggregated by sex, socio-economic grouping and ethnicity but in Lizhi Township, the ethnic homogeneity of Yi people, one of 56 minority groups in China, requires that special attention be paid to the rich history of this population in the Liangshan area of Sichuan province.

Staff started with a limited review of the available historical and ethnographic literature on the Yi population in general and the Liangshan prefecture of Sichuan province in particular. The team also examined census data on gender, educational attainment and employment in Lizhi Township. This literature review was complemented by a variety of primary research activities:

• Discussions with local representatives of the ACWF, village leaders, and teachers in Lizhi Township.
• Walking tours, guided by a local female Yi interpreters. On these tours, women and men discussed the living conditions in their households and village cadres while teachers provided input on gender roles and living conditions. Discussions were guided by a set of questions pertaining to activities, benefits and incentives, resources and constraints
  (Appendix B).
• Conducting household surveys with 93 women in Lizhi township (Appendices C and D), conducting a household survey in the most remote of the 5 villages, and administering a Training Participant Survey to 34 women who attended a training session near the end of the project (see Appendices E and F).
• Development of an Activity Profile to differentiate between the roles of men and women, adults and children.
• Observation of a variety of agricultural activities in the five villages of Lizhi Township by members of CMTCC staff on several occasions over three years.

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