People working together around the world to generate ideas and action for social change
5611 - 5625 of 5987 items
Living Up to the Empowerment Claim? The Potential of PRA
Abstract
By questioning the conceptualization of gender which is used to guide PRA-based processes, this article examines the extent to which PRA has been used to address issues of gender inequality, as opposed to simply describing the differences between the lives of women and men. It also suggests that despite the importance of empowerment as a guiding concept, its current usage in the context of much PRA work is inconsistent and ill-defined.
Assessing PRA for Implementing Gender and Development
Abstract
This chapter starts by outlining the core principles of the GAD (gender and development) theory. It then reviews the characteristics needed of a methodology to implement GAD in order to make development empowering for both men and women. PRA is suggested as a methodology with an empowering agenda similar to GAD theory. An examination of two cases where PRA was applied to address gender issues in the field provides the basis for an initial assessment of its potential to serve as a GAD methodology.
Gender, Participation and the Politics of Difference
Abstract
The author argues that much of the time in development, "gender" is taken to mean "women", and women are treated as an identifiable single category, thought of in a narrow range of stereotypical ways, and that "gender analysis" does not extend to analysing men's positions, views and reactions as men. For "gender-aware PRA" to be genuinely aware of gender and to be really participatory, it is crucial that facilitators reflect on their own preconceived ideas and prejudices.
Giving Space to Conflict in Training
Abstract
This chapter shares some reflections on the role of conflict in training for participatory development. In particular, the workshop setting can be viewed as an "outer role model" in which participants can build their skills for subsequent fieldwork. This means dealing with conflicts, including those resulting from gender and racial differences, as an integral part of workshops.
Problematics and Pointers about Participatory Research and Gender
Abstract
This chapter aims to raise some problematics in procedure, product and inherently interventionist role of facilitators. It seeks to examine certain key gender-related issues in sub-Saharan Africa for which participatory research (and decentralized policy articulation and operation) is potentially important.
Learning about Participation from Gender Relations of Female Infanticide
Abstract
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.
Entering Women's World through Men's Eyes: Using PRAP to Sensitize Men towards Women's Issues
Abstract
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.
Brides Have a Price: Gender Dimensions of Objective-Oriented Project Planning in Zimbabwe
Abstract
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.
For a Pencil: Sex and Adolescence in Peri-Urban Lusaka
Abstract
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.
Community Forest Management: Whose Participation ... ?
Abstract
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.
Gendered Perceptions of Well-being and Social Change in Darko, Ghana
Abstract
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