Standard 7: Gender
Our Commitment:
We are committed to transforming
communities through restored
relationships between men, women,
boys and girls and ensuring
equitable value, participation and
decision-making by all.
Aung Hlaing Gone Village, Myanmar:
Survivors of Cyclone Nargis are asked to share their
experiences, yet the women remain silent
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Standard 7: Gender
The issues
Gender refers to the roles and responsibilities of men and women that are
determined by the society in which we live; it reflects the expectations,
opportunities and behaviours expected by society of men, women, girls and boys.
Roles and expectations differ according to social status. They change over time
within a society and they differ from one society to another. Gender is different
therefore to sex, which is the biological difference between male and female.
Gender is not only concerned with the role and responsibilities of women alone,
although in many cultures women suffer from considerable inequality, but also
the responsibility and roles of men. Women and children form up to 85% of all
those displaced by conflict and disasters. In our emergency response
programmes we must remember that in emergency situations men and women
have different needs, interests, vulnerabilities, capacities and coping strategies.
Widespread armed and ethnic conflict also has a gender dimension - women and
girls are vulnerable to sexual violence, intimidation and abuse. Large-scale
population displacement can lead to a break down in family and social structures,
moral norms and a lack of traditional protection systems. Commercial sex work
and coercive sex (giving sex in order to receive assistance) will often increase.
To guide us in our project design it is helpful to recognise that in different
societies men and women have different needs; practical and strategic. Practical
needs are to do with what people need to carry out their current roles more
easily and strategic needs are concerned with the changing of position and status
in society – for example to be involved in community decision making and having
legal rights.
Biblical foundations
Tearfund believes that the Bible teaches that men and women are equal before
God and the relationship between them is to be one of partnership. God’s
original intentions for partnership have been distorted by power, abuse and
selfishness. Injustice and oppression have many forms in different cultures, but
gender injustice can be seen in the way women lack access to power,
opportunities, wealth and resources.
Good Practice commitments
Tearfund is committed to the vision of the restoration of God’s original intention
of relationship between men and women. Jesus treated both men and women as
individuals, worthy of his full attention. He encouraged and affirmed women
throughout his teaching, at a time when society gave women little value.
Tearfund will work towards this vision of restored relationships by ensuring that
our own policies, practices, and the programmes we support are sensitive to
issues of gender. This commitment includes supporting positive models of
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Standard 7: Gender
masculinity. In keeping with this commitment we are aware of our own need to
reflect this in our own corporate life as an organisation.
Some emergency projects are designed to meet the practical needs of both men
and women without necessarily changing their relative position in society. If a
gender commitment is absent from project design altogether, the project may
actually heighten inequity or make women even more vulnerable to abuse. Our
commitment is to design our projects in a way that addresses both practical and
strategic needs in an appropriate and sensitive way and therefore to see restored
relationships in project communities, where the equitable value of men and
women is recognised and participation and decision-making is enjoyed by all.
Where appropriate, we are committed to challenging cultural norms that increase
women’s vulnerability and can lead to abuse.
Close links with other Standards
Our commitment on gender has close links with:
 Values, as the fundamental worth and equality of men and women is core
to our values and as part of our commitment to address gender based
violence and all forms of unacceptable conduct;
 Impartiality, as our commitment is to the most vulnerable – whether men,
women, girls or boys;
 Accountability, as participation means the full participation of both men
and women and our feedback from communities needs to include feedback
on any exploitation issues;
 Disaster Risk, as we need to consider the different underlying
vulnerabilities faced by women and men and their different capacities;
 Technical Quality, as we need to ensure that technical design is
appropriate for the needs of boys and girls, women and men;
 Children, with our commitment to the development of boys and girls;
 HIV, recognising the close connection between HIV and gender; and
 Conflict, recognising the vulnerability of women and girls in conflict
situations.
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Standard 7: Gender
Where to look for further information:
 Tearfund Policy on Gender in relief and development
 UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security
 UNDP Eight Point Agenda: Practical positive outcomes for girls and women
in crisis
 UNDP Gender approaches in Conflict and Post Conflict Environments
 IASC Guidelines for Gender Based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian
Settings
 ISDR: Gender Perspective: Working together for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Good Practices and Lessons Learnt 2007
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Standard 7: Gender
Practical Steps for carrying out our Gender commitment
Identification
Step 1: Understand the
existing roles and
perspectives of men and
women
Step 2: Ensure assessments
gather the perspectives of
women, men, girls and boys
Design
Step 3: Design project
activities appropriate for
the target group
Step 4: Encourage and
facilitate participation of
women and children as well
as men
Implementation
Step 5: Ensure projects
enhance safety for women
and children
Step 7: Model positive
gender relationships within
the team
Step 6: Address underlying
attitudes and help to shape
positive values
Step 8: Measure and
monitor the impact of the
project on men and women
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Standard 7: Gender
Step 1: Understand the
existing roles and
perspectives of men and
women
In order to understand the existing roles and perspectives of men and women,
you need to know the following:
 the traditional roles and responsibilities of men and women
 traditional authority structures
 traditional barriers to participation
 whether these have changed in the crisis
 possible forms of violence against women
 division of labour and workload
 access to/control over resources
How you gather this information can be by asking the following quick
questions:
1. Who does what?
- Activities
2. How? With what?
- Access to resources
3. Who owns what?
- Ownership of assets
4. Who is responsible for what?
- Obligations
5. Who is entitled to what?
- Claim/Rights
6. Who controls what?
- Income/Spending
7. Who decides what?
- Power
8. Who gets what?
- Distribution
9. Who gains and who loses?
- Redistribution
10. Why? What is the basis of this situation?
- Rules/customs/norms
A quick and easy way to understand traditional roles and responsibilities is to
review the activities of both men and women in a typical 24-hour period. This
will bring to light the different roles and responsibilities, the daily schedules
and workloads. It will often highlight an unequal workload between men and
women.
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Standard 7: Gender
Step 2: Ensure assessments
gather the perspectives of
women, men, girls and boys
Women can be relatively more invisible in times of crisis and may be more
confined to their homes than normal. A determined effort may be needed to
seek out their views and opinions separately from men.
It is important to carry out separate discussions with groups of men, women,
boys and girls in order that they can speak freely about their needs, capacities
and vulnerabilities. In some cultures it will be inappropriate for men to
interview female community members. Female staff members should
participate in focus group discussions with women and translators for these
groups should also be female, so that the discussions can be open. You need to
consider the time and place of the assessments to ensure that women are able
to attend in safety and security.
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Standard 7: Gender
Step 3: Design project
activities appropriate for
the target group
Project activities place demands on men and women which they have to
manage alongside their regular routines and responsibilities: domestic duties,
child care, livelihoods etc. One of the reasons why the traditional method of
therapeutic feeding has been replaced by a community based therapeutic care
model was because of the additional burden it placed on mothers.
So it is important to design the activities in a way that is appropriate for the
group in question that considers daily routines, time limitations and multiple
roles:
 Project activities, meetings and training events will be most convenient
at certain times of the day. For example, food for work and cash for
work schemes should be scheduled at times that are convenient for the
participants. This may vary according to the time of year, depending on
the agricultural seasons or other livelihood commitments.
 Meetings and training events may be more appropriate in single sex
groups or in mixed groups
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Standard 7: Gender
Step 4: Encourage and
facilitate participation of
women and children as well
as men
Our commitment is to address both practical and
strategic needs, which includes participation and
decision-making being enjoyed by men and women
alike:
 Find culturally appropriate ways to challenge traditional gender inequity,
which often include women not being able to participate in decision-making.
Begin to challenge some of the unhelpful cultural aspects that restrict or
restrain either women or men from fully participating in the project or in the
community.
 Consider how the community structure overseeing the project can be inclusive
(development committee, water committee etc.) and how best to explain this
expectation to the community. Some projects have made female
representation a condition for the committee, but careful explanation and
sensitisation is needed if their participation is to be meaningful.
 Consider what work can be done to strengthen the partnership of men with
women in their shared responsibilities in the home, workplace, church or
place of worship and community.
 Recognise that some jobs can be undertaken by both men and women, even
when this goes against tradition.
 Consider the differing needs of women and men in participating. In some
countries women have low literacy levels so adapt participation techniques
accordingly.
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Standard 7: Gender
Step 5: Ensure projects
enhance safety for women
and children
Consult with women to understand the
physical environment and encourage them
to decide the location of project services
(e.g. wells, latrines, meeting places, etc.),
and daily routines (day, evening, night
activities), in order to offer protection from gender based violence and abuse.
Monitor community attitudes in case there are any unforeseen outcomes of the
project (heightened tensions, jealousies, etc.).
Step 6: Address underlying
attitudes and help to shape
positive values
There
are
often
underlying
attitudes in a culture which highlight gender disparities. Where there are local
churches in a community these churches can be key in shaping values. As a shaper
of values, the church can play a very significant role in addressing underlying
negative attitudes. The same applies in settings where there are other local faith
based organisations (FBOs) shaping values. What is critical is that discussion on
the local culture and underlying attitudes and values is led by people from within
that culture, rather than outsiders. Project staff can model positive, healthy
relationships and can work with these leaders to begin to tackle unhelpful
traditional attitudes, discrimination and stigma, built on a relationship of trust
and respect.
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Standard 7: Gender
Step 7: Model positive
gender relationships within
the team
We have an important role to play on our
project teams in the way we model
positive gender relationships. Never
condone or participate in behaviour that
increases gender inequity, humiliates, shames or degrades either women or men.
We must strive to have a good overall balance of men and women on the team,
even when local educational levels are a constraint. Having a balanced project
team of men and women can also reduce the potential for sexual exploitation and
abuse to be carried out.
We also need to ensure that the gender of the staff member is appropriate to the
activities he or she is carrying out, recognising that some roles are only
appropriate for men and some only for women, e.g. teaching mothers about
breastfeeding and weaning practices can only be carried out appropriately by
women.
Step 8: Measure and
monitor the impact of the
project on men and women
Ensure that beneficiary statistics and project data
records the numbers of men, women and boys and
girls separately. Design project indicators that can
monitor and measure the impact of the project on
men and on women separately (this is called ‘disaggregated’ data).
Based on this monitoring of impact, change the project approach where needed
to make improvements.
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Standard 7: Gender
Project Examples:
After a health promotion project was completed in Kashmir, Pakistan, an
external evaluation was carried out and the evaluator was told by the women
participants that the single most important impact of the project was that
women in the community could meet together because of the health groups
they formed.
In Liberia, as part of a hand dug well project, the team successfully trained
female as well as male pump mechanics selected from the village. Despite
this going against tradition, it was accepted by the community and
contributed to more effective and sustainable pump maintenance.
A partner working in Sri Lanka had weekly community meetings which were
open to the public, as part of monitoring their project and getting feedback.
Recognising that in the local religious context women were not speaking out,
they organised an additional meeting each week specifically for women in
order for them to be able share their concerns freely.
A post-tsunami housing project was planned for the home owners to oversee
all areas of construction themselves, but this meant that the funds would
have to be advanced to each home-owner. It was proposed by an
experienced community worker on the partner staff that the funds should go
through a bank account opened in the name of the woman of the home. The
senior engineer was sure that this would not work, but allowed the process to
begin. 116 people built their own homes using grants paid through the bank
accounts of women with no-one misusing this money. The men themselves
said, “if you had put the money into bank accounts in our names, we would
have used it for other things, but our wives, they really wanted the houses
and would not allow us to use their money for anything else.”
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