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Date Added to
Site: 22nd December 2003 |
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Long Summary
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| Title |
Governing for Equity, Gender, Citizenship and
Governance |
| Author |
Mukhopadhyay, M. (ed.) |
| Publication
Date |
July 2003 |
| Publisher |
Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) |
| Donor |
Ford Foundation New York and New Delhi, Netherlands
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Royal Netherlands Embassy Bangladesh
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Long Summary |
This publication comes out of the 'Gender, Citizenship
and Governance' programme of the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), Netherlands.
The project aimed to develop good practice to promote gender equality,
enhance citizen participation and build accountability of public administration
systems. Action research projects were conducted with 16 women's organisations
and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in eight countries in Southern
Africa and South Asia (South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Pakistan,
India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh). The research projects showed how
women's citizenship responsibilities are often unpaid and therefore
hidden from economic management systems. In this process, it is extremely
difficult to hold governments accountable for the needs of women.
Potential avenues such as laws or institutionalisation of citizen
participation do not necessarily translate into protection or inclusion
of women. The action research projects therefore cover four areas:
promoting women in political office; engendering institutions; claiming
citizenship; and governing peace. Projects involved training and capacity
building for development practitioners, drawing together of good practice
and networking/sharing of information.
The publication begins with a section on global debates, providing
a background to the ways in which citizenship can be used in promoting
gender equality. It then goes on to the four case study sections as
outlined above. The section on claiming citizenship for example includes
studies from South Africa around reforming Customary Law, from West
Bengal on the rights of sex workers in Bangladesh (see case study
in section 5 of the Overview Report in this pack), lobbying and advocacy
activities in Zimbabwe and rights over guardianship of children in
Bangladesh (see article from In Brief bulletin in this pack).
The report then identifies several conclusions and recommendations
which include:
• Interventions must start from women's needs.
• 'Voice' is not enough. Institutional rules and norms and public
perceptions must also be influenced thorough contacts with key officials
and engaging civil society.
• Spaces must be made to talk in terms of citizenship entitlements.
Examples of such spaces could be processes such as law and constitutional
reforms or setting up regulation boards which involve both men and
women in assessing the impact of development interventions.
• Decisions must be pragmatic and must make sense in practice and
take into account the variations in feminist/women's demands.
• In the struggle for rights, it is important to work in conjunction
with states and institutions when campaigning for change.
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