Experience of adoption and promotion of approaches to incorporate WID in development interventions through programs and projects, their advantages and disadvantages, are discussed below with focus on African countries .
A project is women-specific when it seeks to address women's practical needs through provision of basic services such as water, health, training, credit, relief, fuelwood and family planning.30 This approach has the following advantages and disadvantages:
These are often found in large-scale projects for a community or locality where cultural and religious traditions do not allow mixed group participation or where eligibility for `main' project inputs (e.g. heavy collateral requirements for credit) reduces women's full participation.
In principle these give equal access to both men and women. The mainstream programs approach have been particularly appropriate where:
A significant and rather wide-spread example of mainstreaming of WID is the establishment of `national machinery' for `the integration of women in development and/or advancement of women in development'. In Africa, national, sub-regional and regional structures have been established through the catalytic role of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and its Training and Research Centre for Women (ATRCW) now renamed African Centre for Women (ACW). These aim to oversee the mainstreaming of WID through policy support, in some cases, influencing legislative reforms. These national machineries range from Women's Bureaux, Units, Departments to Ministries for Women's Affairs.31 In some countries, mass organizations (national women's associations or unions) have existed as `political arms' of ruling parties.
Considerable documentation exists on the appraisal of experience in the area of `integration of women in development'. The most vocal and dominant critique has come from Third World development researchers and grassroots activists. The potential for women's empowerment through the structures put in place by governments have been instruments of `exploitation' and `subjugation' with the unsuspecting partnership of the vulnerable women themselves. It is maintained that the `integration of women in development' is a misnomer and that women are already integrated but under unfavourable terms that reinforce their subordination, subjugation and vulnerability.
The structure put in place by the governments for women's empowerment have been instruments of exploitation and subjugation with the unsuspecting partnership of the vulnerable women themselves. It is maintained that the `integration of women in development' is a misnomer and that women are already integrated, but under unfavourable terms that reinforce their subordination, subjugation and vulnerable. 32
It is now widely recognized that a great variety of approaches will be needed to ensure that gender concerns are incorporated in projects, programs, national policies and legislation. There is more advocacy for combining WID and GAD for areas that are of special concern to women through additional programs addressing the specific concerns, needs and situations of women. The current move towards mainstreaming has revealed a situation, in most agencies and programs, where there is a dire need for clarification of what is meant by mainstreaming and how to go about promoting it so that no one sector, segment program or individual has sole responsibility. The aim is to institutionalize gender-sensitive planning, execution, monitoring and reporting by all concerned with efficiency, equity and sustainability.
Such gender mainstreaming is being increasingly advocated by agencies and governments. For gender mainstreaming by projects, governments and agencies, keeping in mind that gender inequalities are embedded in the socio-cultural, political, economic, religious, legal, institutional and procedural aspects of human life, gender mainstreaming will require addressing these inequalities in a systematic way. Some of the key elements to be addressed by agencies and programs seeking to promote gender mainstreaming essentially revolve around gender policy and all that goes with its formulation, implementation and evaluation.
Social scientists as program planners, coordinators, managers and/or researchers are expected to be in the forefront in optimizing the opportunities in this area. It is important to keep in focus the rationale for seeking to incorporate gender concern in development, namely the differential benefit and impact of national policies on segments of the population and communities as a result of gender inequalities in the division of labour, rights, responsibilities and access to resources, and the impact of these on the development process and its outcome.
Some of the important elements of gender mainstreaming and the key ingredients of gender policy encompass the following:
Awareness of inequalities and differential impacts and commitment to addressing gender issues in the institution's activities. Awareness is not a sufficient condition in itself for incorporating gender considerations into operational procedures. Organizations making a conscious commitment to address gender issues, are increasing the likelihood that benefits accrue as equally as possible to men and women. Efforts should prove that constraints to women's access to resources and decision making have been resolved or alleviated in their daily business commitment.
Capacity to formulate gender-focused questions: Gender literate or `gender informed' development efforts illustrated by formulation of the right questions regarding the gender division of labour, rights, responsibilities and access to resources. Capacity to link gender-informed analytical questions and hypotheses to develop objectives. Such questioning ability allows practitioners to assess the usefulness and applicability of existing quantitative data, qualitative studies, indigenous knowledge and information routinely acquired on the job by field personnel. Capacity to ask the correct gender-informed questions at the onset of activity planning can reduce an organization's need for additional data collection later.
Capacity to carry out gender and social analysis: Sex disaggregated data analyzed and interpreted provides institutions with an informed set of alternatives for program implementation that ensure equitable participation by both sexes. Gender analysis can focus either on the macro or micro level. It can, for example, examine policy issues that affect any development effort such as differential legal status, political representation and power and laws affecting men's and women's access to economic opportunities. Gender analysis can also focus on gender-specific opportunities and constraints within particular sectors such as agriculture, natural resources management and enterprise development. It may be possible to get a picture of the gender gap from existing data (education, health, etc.,) and not spend too much time on gender analysis on the particular sector when time is a constraint. The analysis should be carried out as we go along. Analysis of the underlying reasons for the existing imbalances from the status quo or scenario demonstrating gaps and imbalances in some sectors for which data is available;
The use of specialists as project staff or short-term consultants; developing expertise within the organization through recruitment of female experts and continuous training of all agency personnel in gender analysis skills.
Capacity to apply the findings of gender and social analysis to the institution's portfolio. Realistic program design and implementation depends on capacity to apply the major findings from gender analysis. For a development agency to be truly `gender-informed', it should have this capacity in-house. i.e., it should undertake staff training as well as taking a specialist on board to interpret or `translate' findings from gender analysis into operational terms and see that these are reflected in program plans. Staff training to carry this gender-informed plan through and to monitor is essential. Not only acknowledging the specific gender resource constraints in program plans but also devising specific organizational strategies for coping with these constraints - reducing systemic gender biases by a quota system, gender-specific targets to reduce the gender gap, etc.
Capacity for systematic monitoring and evaluation of gender-specific program impact: Critical questions to ask about the work of an institution or organization are: `How does it change the lives of the actual or potential participants? To monitor changes, each activity should have some baseline data and a review system that provides periodic updates of progress towards people's well being. The organization ensures a sex-disaggregated information through Monitoring and Evaluation (M & E), for all phases of program documentation. Data showing positive or negative impacts will justify pursuing or changing policy directions. A means by which a specific activity contributes to reduction of gaps and inequalities is an M & E system designed with gender-awareness indicators of development.
Systematic reporting of gender-relevant lessons learned, and subsequent program adaptation: results of interventions must be disaggregated by sex, analyzed, synthesized and reported on for managing the activity, as well as for designing follow-up activities. Report should show differential effect, the lessons learned translated into operational principles for program adaptation, if needed, to allow adjustment of new initiatives to meet the needs of both sexes. This systematic reporting is key to the final step - "the gender institutionalization cycle", which is done at a more informed and realistic level, with broader experience and a systematic gender-sensitive approach.
It should be stressed here that resource allocation should reflect commitment to gender mainstreaming, and not be a token allocation for WID or GAD component. Nor can it be assumed that gender issues are taken care of by having a woman in the project team. Having female experts among the agency and project team members is only part of the equation. Not all women are aware of gender issues, nor are all committed to gender equity. On the other hand, a gender expert (female or male) in a team does not necessarily guarantee incorporation of gender concerns without inter-disciplinary team commitment and involvement. Marginalization and `window dressing' are dangers to watch for in this regard.
