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 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.
This chapter describes a diagnostic and operational framework for the institutionalisation of a gender perspective in development policy, planning and practice.
Recognising the role of active participation in transforming the lives of poor people, the 4th volume in the Training for Transformation series focusses on the environment; gender; racism; multi-cultural understanding; and building participatory governance.
Concepts and methods of ‘participation’ are used increasingly to shape policy and deliver services. Such approaches throw new light on complex interactions within and between society and state institutions at all levels. They lead to questions about how different kinds of knowledge and values shape policy choices. What are the societal and political processes through which power operates that inform whose voice is heard and whose is excluded? What is power? Is it about making people act against their best interests; or is it the glue that keeps society together? What are the connections between power and social change? These questions are at the core of research and teaching by the Participation, Power and Social Change Team at IDS, and this IDS Bulletin presents current work on the practice of power in development and the entry points for change. Contributions to this issue, and ways in which power is interrogated, are very varied – despite a shared commitment to exploring its meaning for social change. In categorising power in the way the team has, the intention has not been to offer a comprehensive or exclusive framework for analysis. Rather, a positive spiral between reflection and transformation is constructed, concluding that the role of the action researcher/teacher is to explore with others how power can be harnessed for change, and to work alongside them in tracing and learning from the myriad of micro-level efforts, successes and failures.
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Women the world over are being prevented from engaging in politics. Women’s political leadership of any sort is a rarity and a career in politics rarer still. We have, however, begun to understand what it takes to create an enabling environment for women’s political participation.
In this pioneering collection, writers from Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East are brought together for the first time to talk explicitly about women’s participation in the political scene across the global South. Answering such questions as how women can get political apprenticeship opportunities, how these opportunities translate into the pursuit of a political career, and how these pursuits then influence the kind of political platform women advocate once in power, Women in Politics is essential reading for anyone interested in what it means to engage politically.
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The economic and political empowerment of women continues to be a central focus for development agencies worldwide; access to medical care, education and employment, as well as women’s reproductive rights, remain key factors effecting women’s autonomy. This book explores what women are doing to change their own personal circumstances, and it provides an in-depth analysis of collective action and institutionalized mechanisms aimed at changing structural relations.
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This book is a collection of analytical narratives of what has happened to feminist voice, a key pathway to women’s empowerment. These narratives depart from the existing debate on women’s political engagement in formal institutions to examine feminist activism for building and sustaining constituencies through raising, negotiating and legitimizing women’s voice under different contexts.
Bringing together the reflections and experiences of feminist researchers and activists in South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, this unique volume explores how various global trends, such as the development of transnational linkages, the rise of conservative forces, the NGOization of feminist movements, and an increase in the power of donors, have created opportunities and challenges for feminist voice and activism.