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| Date Added to Site: 15th June 2001 | ||
| Short Summary | Long Summary | ||
| Title | Mainstreaming: Gender Manual: a Practical Guide for Development Policymakers and Practitioners | |
| Author | Derbyshire, H. | |
| Publication Date | June 2002 | |
| Publisher | Department for International Development, UK (DFID) | |
| Donor | Department for International Development, UK (DFID) | |
| Long Summary | Upon signing up to the Beijing Platform for Action
(PfA) in 1995, governments committed themselves to mainstreaming gender
perspectives throughout their policy and planning processes as a means
to achieving gender equality in interventions. This strategy, which
has also been adopted by the various other players in the development
field, aims to ensure that gender sensitive practice becomes routine
in all aspects of an organisation's work, rather than confined to
the work of particular staff or specific project interventions. In
practice, however, there have been significant obstacles to gender
mainstreaming, in terms of organisational capacity and also resistance.
As a result policy commitments often evaporate in programme/project
formulation and implementation. This has prompted recognition that
the process of developing effective gender mainstreaming strategies
is far more complex than was initially thought, and will require a
long-term process of organisational change with both technical and
political dimensions. Such critical issues are explored in this paper,
which also provides recommendations for best practice. Common to most definitions of and approaches to gender mainstreaming are the following elements. A move from a Women in Development (WID) to a Gender in Development (GAD) approach, shifting focus from women as a target group to gender analysis of roles and relations as part of the planning process, and to gender equality as a development goal. Proactively bringing women into decision making positions at all levels in order to reoreint mainstream development priorities, policies and programmes. Emphasising that all staff bear the responsibility for ensuring a gender equality perspective. Focusing on the organisation as well as on its work so that attention to gender equality is integrated within the structure, culture and staffing of development organisations. Working with men as well as women, and introducing complementary targeted initiatives. Key findings are as follows: - Attention to gender equality is not systematised in policy-making, planning, implementation and evaluation - reliable systems and procedures are lacking - and the issue becomes increasingly invisible from policy level downwards. - Gender equality tends not to be included in the Terms of Reference of staff and consultants. - Mainstreaming gender equality is often reduced to a women's component in projects that has a very small claim on resources. - There is often lack of support for staff who are responsible for spearheading attention to gender equality in project implementation, leading to a loss of momentum, a sense of isolation and low morale. - General gender awareness amongst implementation staff is not necessarily easily translated into project/ programme activities and initiatives. - In partner governments, there is: a tendency to view women as a sector and not address gender equality in standard sectoral processes; a lack of understanding about what mainstreaming entails, slow dissemination of government commitments through ministries, and limited skills and experience to undertake gender analysis. - The national machinery for women's affairs often has limited influence and limited resources. - Concern for gender equality may be seen as imposed by donor agencies, leading to lip service from partner agencies, and minimal support for staff responsible for promoting attention to gender issues in implementation.
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| Complete Document |
 http://www.siyanda.org/docs_gem/index_implementation/genderman.htm
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