This chapter looks at participatory methodologies for examining gender relations which have the potential to transform the the oppressive subordinate position of women in society. It draws on lessons from a workshop with local midwives involved in female infanticide in northern India which was aimed at understanding gender inequalities leading to this practice and at identifying possible solutions.
Since the late 1980s, AKRSP (Aga Khan Rural Support Programme - India) began to address some of women's concerns through programme activities specifically reserved for them, and in the process it met with resistance at different levels, partly due to village men's attitudes towards women. This chapter describes one way in which AKRSP staff tried to deal with this resistance. It outlines how men's understanding of the drudgery and hardship of women's tasks increased by asking them to describe a woman's day.
The process and results of a planning workshop with farmers in Mutoko District, Zimbabwe, suggest that women were able to set their priorities and influenced the problem ranking and project planning in the presence of their male counterparts. This chapter discusses the methodology and gender-related results of the workshop.
This chapter discusses selected findings and the approach of a participatory study conducted with adolescents in a peri-urban compound of Lusaka, Zambia. The study focused on adolescent sexual and reproductive health with the aim of initiating a community-generated response to the needs of adolescents.
In spite of its great promise as a participatory form of forest-related development in India, Joint Forest Management (JFM) still focuses mainly on forest protection to regenerate timber. This has led to a differential impact of JFM between men and women. This chapter highlights the need for and difficulties of participatory approaches in the context of JFM that allow for the concerns of different groups to be understood, respected and addressed.
This chapter looks at the scope of using PRA methods, in a research context, to understand gender differences related to these issues: the perceptions of well-being and poverty, the differential impact that poverty may have on men and women, and the implications for economic and social change
This chapter descibes the author's work in rural Bali, Indonesia, which focused on questioning commonly held gender myths. The experience shows that the adaptation and application of PRA methods within a framework of Gender and Development (GAD) is not enough to support empowering and equitable change. Instead, development practitioners must re-examine their ways of working with gender differences and power and reassess their understanding of and interaction with a "community" and the institutional framework within which their efforts are located.
This chapter reflects on a gender-sensitive use of video for participatory development. Following a definition of "participatory video", some of the more gender-neutral attributes of the medium are described, followed by the discussion of a Jamaican pilot project on communication which has used participatory video for soil-nutrient technology development with rural women. Other experiences from Peru, India and St. Lucia suggest an initial set of considerations for those using or contemplating the use of video for participatory development.
Discusses a research methodology which mixed recent innovations in feminist ethnography and participatory mapping with formal surveys over a four-month period, and which helped formulate comprehensive versions of the local changes brought about by a forestry project.
This chapter describes a study on gender issues in irrigation in Cambodia, which challenged the assumption that female headship of household is an economic (or poverty) indicator. It argues that to understand the relationship between gender and the socio-economic situation of a household, local perceptions of both gender and well-being are crucial, while using an externally derived, gender-analysis framework and categorization, such as female-headed households, may obscure more significant local socio-economic differences.
This chapter describes the process of institutionalising a gender-oriented participatory extension approach in Siavonga District, Zambia.
This chapter examines three NGOs operating in Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal to analyse the different approaches to incorporating women and refugees into organisational structural hierarchies, and the impact this has had on programme activities and women. In doing so, it probes the multi-faceted relationships between the structure of development organisations, women's participation, and empowerment.
This chapter discusses how Redd Barna Uganda (RBU) evolved its particular appraoch to participatory planning that involves five social groups: younger and older men and women, and children. It describes the steps that RBU takes to ensure the participation, in particular, of women and children in community-based planning.
This chapter describes the efforts of and problems encountered by an NGO, Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), India, in its attempts to integrate the concerns of men and women, while supporting local village institutions in managing their natural resources.