Contextualizing Gender
Within Human
Development:
By: Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh, HD Consultant
Gender Mainstreaming Training
UNDP Belarus
October 10-11th, 2005
Shahrbanou.tadjbakhsh@sciences-po.fr
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What do you know?
What do you understand?
What do you agree with ?
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But as a professional:
How can you analyze?
What can you convince?
What can you defend?
A Revolution in Two steps:
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First we stormed the palace…
…Then we realized we ourselves were not “one
people”, so we had to adjust…
Mahbub Ul Haq’s Revolution:
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The obvious is often the most difficult to see: The
true wealth of a Nation is its People
Economic growth is only a means of enlarging
people ’s choices.
Human well-being is the purpose, the end, of
development.
HD Puts people back at the center stage: Both as
means and ends of development.
Human Development is the process of widening
people’s choices and the level of well being
Agency and Evaluative
Sen’s Evolution: Ethics and
Values
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Development is the increasing of human freedom:
About expanding individual freedoms, such as
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Freedoms to do what you want to do;
 To be what you want to be.
Freedom is at the same time the main goal and the main means
to achieve development.
Expanding CAPABILITIES: to
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Read and write
Lead long and healthy lives
Earn a decent living
Participate in decision makings that affect their lives
Without these, many choices are simply not available, and many
opportunities in life remain inaccessible.
HD is not the same as:
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Economic growth
Social development
Human resource development
Basic needs approach
HD # Economic Growth
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which is understood as the increase in a country’s per capita
income and is measured by the GDP/GNP
The theory of growth has 3 assumptions: a) development is the
growth of income and b) basis of income growth is capital
accumulation, and c) Conventional micro economic model is
based on the assumption of rational individuals who maximize
their utility
Growth Advocates:
HD Advocates:
 Expanding income is
 income is a means;
an end in itself
enhancing people’s
capabilities the end
 Growth does trickle
down
 Simultaneous expansion
of choices in other
dimensions – social,
cultural, political - and
economic
 not accept trickle down
as automatic
But:
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No automatic link
Some choices do not depend on income
Income’s contribution to satisfaction of needs
decreases as income increases (marginal
utility)
Per capital income does not take into account
distribution between rich and poor, unevenly
distributed
depends on national priorities for spending –
guns or butter, elitist or egalitarian model
Economic growth without human
agency is:
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Jobless growth: where the overall economy grows but does not
expand the opportunities for employment, nor targets
employment choices for both men and women.
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Ruthless growth: where the fruits of economic growth mostly
benefit the rich, leaving the majority of the people struggling
in ever deepening poverty.
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Voiceless growth: where growth in the economy has not been
accompanied by an extension of empowerment and
participation. Voiceless growth is also growth that gives
women a minor role to play in the management and direction
of the economy.
HD encompasses simultaneously:
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Efficiency: Efficient use of resources and increase of their
availability. HD is pro-growth and productivity.
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Equity: Distributive justice, especially for choices and
opportunities
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Freedom and Empowerment, Possibility of choosing.
Sen: Freedom has a constitutive value (value by itself) and
an instrumental value ( as a means to efficiency and to
equity)
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Sustainability not just for present generation but next ones
too
Human Development is a Rupture
(storming the palace)
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a) An ethical rupture, keeping in mind the ends, the
“what for”, the way in which each proposal contributes or not - to enlarge people´s choices.
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b) A theoretical rupture because HD proposes an
alternative explanation of how development is achieved,
of how it is produced by human beings rather than by
impersonal or object-like variables.
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c) A methodological rupture because the paradigm
proposes a different way to achieve development in its
various dimensions.
Always ask: Where are the people?
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It is about checking quality growth over
quantity growth
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Not obvious: Take income generation projects:
If we don’t know the situation exactly, how
can we be sure that the impact is increasing the
choice?
Then we realized we were not one
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It is fine and dandy to talk of the “people”,
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But people are not one
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So we had to putting women back into people,
and people back into development
We had made presumptions
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Don’t presume equal participation in economic life, but understand
the differences between men and women’s needs, access to resources,
and the diverse impact of economic growth on them.
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Development aid is gender neutral, it is gender blind. It assumes that
men and women have the same needs so a project that is developed
for increasing their overall choices automatically will lead to an
increase in their overall choices.
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Development aid and planning being gender neutral, means that it is
really designed to target the majority or the visible, which often
means men.
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BUT THAT IS NOT THE CASE, because men and women are
different.
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It does not trickle down
Gender Equality (HDR 1995)
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HD if not engendered is endangered.
Gaps between women's expanding capabilities and limited
opportunities.
Analysis of under-valuation and non-recognition of women in
work
Inequality is not only a problem of access to the means but a
problem of freedom denied or curtailed.
HD recognizes gender discrimination is present not only in
income or wealth but in:
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Freedom to enter contractual relations and decide on properly
Freedom to participate in public life and have political leadership
Freedom to receive training, enter and to compete in the labor market
Freedom to live. Premature girl death
Measuring our revolutions
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HDI --------------------> GDP
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GDI --------------------> HDI
Gender Development Index (1995)
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Measures achievement in the same basic capabilities
as HDI, but takes note of inequality in achievement
between women and men. GDI is simply the HDI
discounted, or adjusted downwards, for gender
inequality.
Methodology imposes a penalty for inequality
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The greater the gender disparity in basic capabilities,
the lower a country’s GDI compared with its HDI.
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The GDI reflects gender imbalances in basic health,
education and income.
Gender Empowerment Index
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Examines whether W and M are able to actively participate
in economic and political life.
3 dimensions:
 Economic participation and decision making is
measured by the % of female administrators and
managers, professional and technical workers.
 Political participation and decision making are
measured by % of seats in parliament held by women.
 Power over economic resources is measured by
women's estimated earned income (PPP US$).
Trends (2004)
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Data from 2004 GEM shows discrimination against
women persists despite high national ranking on HDI .
Many poor countries outperform far richer countries. In
terms of participation and inclusion, women fare better in
Botswana, Costa Rica and Namibia than they do in Greece,
Italy and Japan
Countries with worse disparities between their GDI and HDI
values are Saudi Arabia, Oman, Pakistan, Yemen and India
Countries that have the closest correspondence between HDI
and GDI are Sweden,Denmark, Australia, Latvia and Bulgaria
GDI for Belarus is 53
GDI & GEM: Top and Bottom 5
(2004 HDR)
Top 5 (GDI)
Bottom 5 (GDI)
Norway
Sweden
Australia
Canada
Netherlands
Top 5 (GEM)
Norway
Sweden
Denmark
Finland
Niger
Burkina Faso
Mali
Guinea-Bissau
Burundi
Bottom 5 (GEM)
Yemen
Saudi Arabia
Bangladesh
Egypt
Sri Lanka
Netherlands
Definition of Gender
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Into English language in 1972 as a result of the need to
refer to the social relationship between men and women.
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Came out of a need to address the unequal differences
between men and women, specifically, beyond the words
used to differentiate between people (class, status, race,
etc.)
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Before purely a grammatical meaning: Gender was he, she
or it (masculine, feminine, neuter). Now, gender refers to
the social difference between men and women, where sex
refers to the biological one.
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A working definition: Social meaning given to the
biological differences between men and women and the
socially constructed relations between men and women.
Recognizing Gender is
an “art”
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- Analytical tool for understanding
social processes and social norms
- is a social stratifier, as class, race
and ethnicity
- is at the basis of the most
fundamental division of labor in society
productive and reproductive activities.
From WID to GAD: We learned!
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1947-1970: Maternal and Child
Health
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1970s: Women in Development
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Criticism of WID
1980s: Gender and Development
Gender Aware Planning …
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… is based on the premise that traditional planning
methods do not take into consideration the different
needs and interests of women and men arising from
their different socially ascribed roles and
responsibilities in society.
Challenges that all members of the household have
same interest, reflecting equal power between men
and women in household decision making.
Central to this is concepts of practical and strategic
gender needs, and recognition of women’s and men’s
multiple roles, reproductive and productive activities.
Examples of Actions that Address
Women’s Practical Needs
Examples of Actions that Address
Women’s Strategic Needs*
Reducing workload, providing
grinding mills, hand-pumps,
Improving health, primary health
centers; child spacing/ family
planning advice, clean water supply.
Improving services, for example
primary schools, transport facilities,
housing.
Increasing income, skills training,
credit groups, access to markets
Improving education opportunities, i.e
adult literacy classes;
Improving access to productive assets,
legal status on land ownership, rights
to use common property, bank
accounts. Allowing women to take
part in decision making, local
committee membership, support to
women’s groups, participation in
elections. Allowing equal
opportunities for employment, for
example access to jobs traditionally
done by men, equal pay for
comparative jobs even if there is a
gender division of labor.
It is recognizing and addressing the
strategic needs of a society
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Addressing practical gender needs facilitate existing gender roles by:
* enabling women to do existing work better
* reducing work burdens within their multiple roles
* overcoming practical problems in all roles (health, food, tools,
income etc)
Addressing strategic gender needs change existing gender role by:
* achieving greater equality for women and men
* raising women’s status, power and choice
* closing access gap ( e.g. equal wages, legal rights, asset ownership,
non-traditional jobs, control of fertility, income, life style)
* harder to achieve due to different time scale and planning needed.
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MESSAGE: Both practical and strategic
gender needs must be addressed for
programmes to be gender sensitive. Specific
activities may focus on needs or strategies,
both overall programmes require some degree
of both. Strategic gender needs are easy to
ignore, they are more abstract and difficult to
monitor. Needs must be mentioned in program
goals.
Yet…
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Development programmes should focus on both categories, but
often do not take them together. Much attention is paid to the
practical needs of women mostly, without considering long term
affects on strategic needs.
Credit programmes for example should also work with banking
institutions in order to have long term effects. Micro credits
schemes, if they are not planned thoroughly with sustainability as
a goal (i.e., to involve institutions such as banks, NGOs, etc)
cannot answer the strategic needs of women.
One important point of discussion is who decides on the strategic
needs of women?: Is it the UN, the society or the women
themselves? Can we apply the same standards of an international
setting to a rural village?
It is also necessary to conduct surveys and studies to find out
what are the practical and strategic needs of a community in order
to design programmes that would address them adequately. The
participants discussed the importance of carrying out
methodological research and gathering objective information.
PRODUCTIVE
REPRODUCTIVE
PAID
Construction worker
Baker, Hairdresser
Miner, Dentist,Actor
Education Childcare
Health Policeman,
security
UNPAID
Garage work
Home education for
Son helping in family own kids Looking
after sick children at
business
home Looking after
the elderly Voluntary
Community work
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The word ECONOMICS can be written across both categories.
It is not possible to do productive work in society without
reproductive work. They are interlinked. Yet, GNP does not
take into account the unpaid reproductive work, where women
feature, and to which women often move when there are
structural changes resulting in 1) unemployment (Movement
from PP to RU) 2) Sectorial shrinkage (where the state sector
(PR) shrinks, there is movement into UR).
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When women lost their jobs, they usually move to the unpaid
reproductive sector, back at home. When men loose their jobs,
they try to find another productive paid work, or productive
unpaid work, or move out of the labor market altogether. Men
move to the unpaid productive sphere so as not to lose their
skills. Many, both men and women, go to the informal sector.
It is mostly the state sector that provides paid reproductive
work, when the state shrinks, workers usually move to
reproductive unpaid work.
Message:
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Invisibility of bulk of women’s work
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Economically profound
Structural adjustments must take into account effects on
reproductive work
The Unpaid Reproductive sector of the economy, which
is not rewarded, usually absorbs from other sectors
during restructuring.
The principles: Added Value
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The 4 principles apply, as do others
 Justice and Equality
 Efficiency and Sustainability (the “macro”
dimension)
 Credibility and Accountability
 Quality of Life (the “micro” dimension)
 Alliances
 Chain Reaction.
Equity, Justice
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From the Human Rights point of view, the eradication of all forms of
discrimination, be they economic, social, political and cultural, is a
indispensable for the protection of human rights, a commitment that all
governments have endorsed.
It is a matter of Justice, “FAIRNESS”, equal representation
When the efficiency argument is hard to prove, given that it is difficult to prove
the role of women within national income, there is renewed emphasis on equity,
because it is harder to ignore the inequality of women’s positions.
Conventions: Most states party to a variety of normative documents (CEDAW, Beijing,
Cairo, etc) Basic principles in own constitutions Not enough to convince for resources,
but useful to provide reference to specific mandates and international commitments.
Remind governments of shared values
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Reiterated by Human Development’s focus on “enlarging people’s choices”
and “on their access to resources” and “personal self respect” as vital
components of development.
HD means enlarging what people can actually do, their capabilities, become the
purpose of economic growth.
Gender inequities clearly reduce women’s capabilities.
Efficiency argument: externalities
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Equal inclusion of men and women in all aspects of
development and society pays off for the country as a whole.
Nations cannot afford to ignore the contributions and
economic and social capacities of both men and women in all
spheres. The development of any country that does will
ultimately suffer in the medium and long term. This is an
argument that addresses “macro” aspects of development – i.e.
the welfare and prosperity of a nation as a whole.
These arguments are particularly effective because they
address the bottom line: money. They prove that investment in
gender equality will pay off for the country as a whole in the
future.
Given share of contribution to economy, not taking into
account impacts negative overall growth
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Lack of participation of women would mean that a major part of the skilled and
well educated human resources available would be wasted.
Inequality between the sexes can breath social discord and instability in the both in
the family and, inevitably, in society.
It is a fact that without the significant contribution of the reproductive labor, often
generated by women, the productive sphere cannot function.
The empowerment of women benefits children and families. Investment in female
empowerment and education increases women’s productivity while decreasing
fertility and infant mortality. “development multipliers.” “No other single factor
has so much impact on so many diverse outcomes”
Discrimination in labor market brings inefficiency
Segregation of labor and wage discrimination market brings quality and value of
the sector down
Falling birth rates are often caused or exasperated by failure of society to support
women’s capacity/choice to combine their reproductive and productive rights and
responsibilities.
How women deal with shocks (Coping mechanisms) are assets that have to be used
in planning social policies, poverty strategies etc.
Studies show that economic transition leads to decline in family income in general,
but structural adjustment programmes specifically reduce social support (i.e. the
level of resources available to women in their non-producer roles) without
redressing their disadvantages in their role as producers.
Overwork, which is a distortion of allocation of resources, limits response to
economic transition
Lack of women in decision making power means reduced development impact of
expenditures
Sustainability
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Closely linked to efficiency arguments are
sustainability arguments. Because gender
mainstreaming adopts a “human development”
perspective, which has the long-term objective of
creating a socially just and sustainable society, gender
mainstreaming is inextricably about ensuring
sustainability as well. Furthermore, because gender
mainstreaming demands a holistic approach to policy
making where coordination and cooperation (both
vertical and horizontal) are key, interventions are
more likely to be sustainable
The tricky trade-off
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Women’s issues: are they human rights issue or
efficiency issue? In other words, do you see women
as vulnerable, that have special rights to be
protected, or do you see them as opportunities, that
because of their strength on some issues, promoting
them would mean more overall growth in society.
(examples not only as mothers, but economic actors,
human rights activists etc., in disaggregated
occupations, in civil society, etc)
For the Government of Belarus, are women
vulnerable groups or opportunities?
Credibility and Accountability
Arguments
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Asks decision makers to “do the math”: because women and men each make up
half of the population, any data, policy or recommendation that does not recognize
and address both genders equally will be ultimately flawed, and will thus have no
credibility.
If large segments of the population are not adequately reflected in new laws and
institutions, and are not given the opportunity to participate in public life, the
legitimacy of the new political systems would be questioned. A true democracy
cannot allow for the silencing of at least 50 % of the population.
Accountability arguments in particular are useful for reminding governments of
their responsibility to ensure social justice and sustainable human development.
In democratic states, governments must be accountable to the population and must
further the interests of all its members – both men and women. A failure to address
social justice or gender equality issues is also a failure of governments to be
accountable to all citizens.
Furthermore, many gender-sensitive interventions are not just gender exercises for
their own sake – they are about holding governments accountable for their use of
public funds and for the fulfilment of their political promises.
Gender mainstreaming can offer concrete mechanisms for introducing a greater
degree of accountability into governance.
Quality of Life Arguments:
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Increased attention to gender equality issues will improve the lives of
individual men and women.
While it is commonly recognized that women stand to benefit from
increased attention to gender equality, quality of life arguments also point
out the benefits to be gained by men and families as well. They stress the
importance of social relationships and interdependence of social actors,
claiming, for example, that if women are empowered, those closest to them
stand to gain as well.
On the flip-side, inequality or hardship for one gender will negatively affect
other social actors as well. For example, the negative effects of depression
in men or poor employment opportunities for women affect families,
children and spouses as well.
Quality of life arguments are useful for promoting a gender dimension in
programmes aimed at curbing social “pathologies”. For example, issues
such as suicide, alcoholism, addictions and chronic stress are strongly
linked to changing gender roles and relations in society and the inability of
individuals to cope and adapt. The argument here therefore underlines how
a gender perspective can limit these pathologies and improve the quality of
life of members of society.
Alliance Arguments:
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Alliance arguments highlight gender equality as a prerequisite
for forging formal alliances or partnerships with other nations.
In the context of Eastern and Central Europe, accession to the
European Union is a very salient example: EU countries are
mandated to implement various instruments for the promotion
of gender equality, including the adoption of gender
mainstreaming practices.
However, while this argument is currently very effective for
calling governments to task, it is ultimately unsustainable
unless coupled with concrete substantive reasons (such as
efficiency and quality of life) as to why issues of gender
equality need to be addressed. Without these solid substantive
arguments, alliance arguments can backfire.
Chain Reaction Arguments:
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Lastly, all of the above arguments are strengthened when the links between
them are highlighted. Gender equality can in fact produce a “chain
reaction” of benefits, just as the effects of gender inequality can be passed
on from individuals to families and communities. The “chain reaction”
argument highlights how sound the investment in gender equality actually
is: it will bring not only short-term, localized benefits, but medium and
long-term benefits that will ripple through society strengthening the nation
as a whole.
At the same time, mainstreaming should also remain aware of “chain
reactions” that might produce negative gender equality effects if not
anticipated and dealt with in an integrated manner. For example, a “top
down” mandate for family-friendly workplaces might bring backlash and
even greater exposure to harassment against women in their place of work.
Similarly, advancement of women may lead to greater depression and
pathological behaviour among men. These risks highlight the crucial need
to create complex strategies for gender mainstreaming, whereby a number
of initiatives are mutually reinforcing. Thus a negative chain reaction
argument can be used to convince decision-makers that mainstreaming
must proceed in a strategic and holistic manner.
Long term goals
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Gender is seen as society (men involved in debate)
Policies and programmes are designed directly with Gender,
not an added cause
Macro- Economic polices are not designed first, and then
social issues “added to them” but designed by incorporating
the interests of men and women into them, both as a subject
(agents of change) and an object (impact)
No need for special commissions, etc because of everyone
taking the cause
No need for these trainings because everyone realizes that
Women are People Too………..
Quiz 1: MDG Goals and Targets:
Where is the gender?
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
hunger
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary
education
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria
and other diseases
Goal 7: Ensure environmental
sustainability
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and
empower women
Goal 8: Develop a global
partnership for development
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
Quiz 2:
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What are your development issues and how are
they gendered?
Quiz 3: conducting a Gender
Analysis of Sectors
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1) Gender Roles: What are the Gender roles in this sector (socially
constructed), both within the household and at the community level?
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2) Gender Division of Labor: Analyzed by differentiating between
productive and reproductive tasks. Who does what? Value of labor? Are
there jobs done by people depending on age or sex? What are sources of
household income? How do women earn money? Who decides how the
money is to be spent? Who decides how land is to be used?
 - Consider that women’s involvement in both productive reproductive
makes them work longer hours per day than men, their considerable
workload is to be taken into account when designing and implementing
programmes.
 - Women’s work is often excluded from national employment and
income statistics, because labor is unpaid, or takes place in the informal
sector not covered by labor legislation. Results in serious underestimation of women’s contribution to development and society.
Identify the validity and reliability of existing statistical data and to
collect more precise information on women’s work.
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3) Differential Access: Who has access to and control over resources and
benefits? Who participates? How? Who benefits? Who has information?
Who makes decision? Who is a member of community or household
decision making? How much influence do women have over decisions that
affect them?
 - by law or by tradition, sometimes women not allowed to on capital
assets such as land, buildings and equipment, or not able to enter into
legally binding contracts (opening a bank account, starting a business,
obtaining credit) without permission of their husbands or another male
family member.
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4) Power Relations: inequalities emerging from division of labor and
unequal access, achieve power to “negotiate on equal terms”. Capacity of
changing decision making processes that establish and reinforce existing
socio political and economic systems norms.
 - Often have access to resources needed to work, but no control over
the income earned through their labor.
 Who controls resources in household.
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5) Gender needs arising from unequal power relations, different roles,
etc.Practical and Strategic needs. Ask women themselves.
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6) Constraints and Opportunities which exist within the larger
socio-economic environment and which may affect the
programme under consideration.
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Economic conditions, demographic conditions, prevalent norms and
values, political events, legislation and regulation, training and
educational levels, institutional arrangements.
Watch out for direct or indirect discrimination for either men or
women.
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7) What is the capacity of your organization and other partner
organizations to overcome gender gaps.
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- Type of organization, major areas of interventions, capacity to plan
and implement.
- Gender policies, activities and experiences
- Organization structure to deal with gender issues
- Perception of gender among staff.