The present study explores the intrahousehold impact of transfer of modern agricultural technology from a gender perspective. The data suggest that in comparison with the individual approach, group based programs targeted towards women have a great potential to address gender relations within the household and society. It is evident that in male-dominated societies where women have extremely limited access to internal or external support networks targeting programs to women as individuals without providing an alternative source of support is bound to fail in its gender goals. Further, the study shows that irrespective of the programs, the income gains of women from implementation of the new technologies are not substantial. It is common among women who retain control over their income to use it primarily on children. The intrahousehold distribution of micronutrient rich food may go in favour of poor women when that food is not preferred by men
A short article about the stepping stones approach to sexual health.
This edition looks at interconnections between education and power. Articles cover: accountability of schools to communities, primary education for working children in India, theatre for development, participatory planning using Planning For Real, REFLECT, disability, gender, and more.
This introductory chapter argues that many participatory development intiatives do not deal well with the complexity of community differences, including age, economic, religious, caste, ethnic and, in particular, gender. The fields of participatory development and gender have remained far apart, both in theory and practice, despite their shared goals of social inclusion and societal transformation. The chapter discusses how participatory development has come to pay so little attention to community differences, focusing on the problem of simplistic notions of community, participation and empowerment. It then describes how development organisations are slowly waking up to the importance of these issues. Finally, it summarises the collective insights from the contributors to the book "The Myth of Community".
Concern with poverty within the World Bank has ebbed and flowed over time. What is different about current thinking is that awareness of "women in development" and "gender and development" is far more pervasive. The gender and poverty relationship, which has been readily taken up by development agencies such as the World Bank, is far from straightforward, and there are concerns that objectives about unequal gender relations will become subordinatied to an agenda about increasing welfare. This is the context within which this paper addresses gender in the World Bank's Poverty Assessments. By analysing six assessments from four countries the paper outlines ways in which gender concerns actually do, or do not, appear. It seeks to explain why gender appears in the forms it does and when it does. A number of points emerge not simply about the approach to gender within the World Bank, but also about the approach to poverty, to methodological issues and to policy.
CDE was recently commissioned by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) to analyse the gender sensitivity of its agricultural operation. It's analysis showed that few programmes were adequately designed to address gender issues appropriately and even fewer included strategies for the monitoring of the most basic issues in gender-balanced development. This document outlines some basic concepts in gender-balanced development, sustainable land management and participatory methodologies and goes on to look at six key issues: local stakeholders and decision making processes; access to and control over land; division of labour and responsibilities; conflicts of interest over land use; knowledge and skills and external influences and support. Finally some implications for field activities are considered. The document is intended as a tool to initiate debate and to lead to the development of more precise and operational tools and guidelines.
The book criticises common concepts strategies and methodologies of participatory development. It looks at the Panchayats in India and argues that the newly elected Panchayats are likely to contribute more to the empowerment of the poorest and their participation in the development process than NGOs driven by middle class values.
A participatory review of a large refugee support programme in an unstable situation with many conflicting interests represented.
This newsletter for project personnel was developed with World Neighbors' program partners in Nepal. It focuses on participatory tools and exercises which are designed to enable participants to identify the causes and consequences of specific reproductive health problems, and then analyse them in terms of context (medical vs. social) and relative impact on men and women.
This article assesses the impact of NGO intervention on the lives of women, through a participatory tool such as Venn/chapati diagramming. Used by the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India), it has motivated women in forty-five villages to form mahila vikas mandals. These mandals serve as platforms for women to come together to share their problems and try to address them. The article details the exercises carried out and the author concludes that women's groups are an empowering mechanism for women, giving them access to financial services and thereby greater control over decision making.
This article is based on a multi-tiered study of the past, present and potential effects of the Forest Enterprise Project on the land and people of Zambrana-Chaucey in the Dominican Republic. Through the combination of research methods, life histories, lanscape mapping, surveys and evaluation, the research teams and particpating residents explored the possible futures of women and men within the gendered landscapes and livelihoods in the region.
This booklet describes a participatory monitoring and evaluation system for grassroots livelihoods and micro-finance programs. It contrasts the traditional techniques used to monitor and evaluate credit programmes with those of the group-oriented internal learning system (ILS). It gives details of how ILS works, a five step process involving collecting information, assessing the direction of change, analysing the information, planning based on learning and the documentation of results. Throughout it emphasises the participatory, flexible, simple, and decentralised method of the ILS.
This essay seeks to address three questions: (1) what gender related issues do primary school students identify as problems for themselves in the school context, (2) why do we need to ask the child for their viewpoint, (3) and how can we effectively hear the voice of the child? By describing the student as subject, object, and participant, the author seeks to listen to year 6 primary school students' views on gender as an issue that affects them in the school context. The methodological approach used draws on PRA techniques and maintains that the subject/participant is the best person to identify the problems they experience as well as recommend practical and effective solutions to the problems they identified.