Idea Transcript
GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT THEORY, POLICY AND
PRACTICE THROUGH A FEMINIST POSTMûDERN LENS: A CASE STUDY OF CIDA'S POLICIES
ON WOMEN 1995-2000
ELIZABETH ASIEDUA ASANTE
A thesis submitted to the Department of Sociology in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts
Queen's University
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
August, 2000
copyright (c) Elizabeth A. Asante, 2000
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ABSTRACT
This
thesis
infums
the
debate
about
the
potential
contributions of postmodern feminist thought to gender and development theory, policy and practice .
Through critical
examination of how the Canadian International Development Agency
has incorporated strategies and criticisms of the
Gender and Development approach in its policies on women, the study illuminates the contributions of postmodern feminisrn as
an oppositional discourse.
DEDICATION
EBENEZER
Thus f a r has the Lord brought us.
iii
wish to acknowledge with thanks the help 1 have received from many people who, in diverse ways, made it possible for me to write this thesis. My first sincere gratitude is to Professor Roberta Hamilton for her careful and patient supernision of this study. Without her kind support, generosity and constant encouragement throughout my time at this Department, I would not have completed this programme or t h i s thesis. My special thanks also to Professor Ena Dua for her constant support, kindness and for the benefit of her authoritative insights. I wish also to express my deepest gratitude to June Pilfold for her thoughtful kindness and help which 1 cannot ever repay. 1 am also grateful to Professor Bruce Berman, Political Science Department, for suggesting important reading material. My special thanks to t h e department faculty, especially to each of the professors in whose class 1 sat with my baby. 1 would also like to thank my fellow graduate students in the Department of Sociology, QueenfsUniversity f o r their sympathy and constant support. To the CIDA staff who took time to partake in interviews, 1 am deeply grateful. My deepest gratitude is to my farnily, co my husband and friend, Prince Yaw Donyina, for always putting my needs above his, and to my mother and sister for their help and prayers. Finally, 1 am grateful t o each of the authors listed in the bibliography. Their work was a j o y of learning. 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
DEDICATION
......................................... v PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 CHAPTER ONE: History of Dsvelopment Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 CHAPTER TWO: Integrating Women i n t o Development . . . . . . . . . 4 9 CHAPTER THREE:C1DAts Policies on Women and Gender . . . . . . . 79 TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER FOUR: Analyais of CIDArs Policies on Women and Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 4
. A Critique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..............................
CHAPTER FIVE: CIDAfs P o l i c i e s
112
CgAPTER SIX
147
:
Conclusions
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 APPEM)IX A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 APPENDIX B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 =NOTES
APPENDIX C VITA
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203
.....................................................
204
PREFACE
My interest in pursuing this subject stems from my
previouç work experience in development assistance and rny fascination with the possibilities that postmodern feminism offers development theory, poiicy and praccice. Tnis nes sis is mainly to contribute to the debate on the relevance of postmodern feminist thought to gender development theorizing. 1 attempt to make this contribution through an empirical
analysis of the Canadian International Development Agencyts policy documents and data from interviews with CIDA staff. In analyzing this data, 1 focus on how recent development
priorities are reflected in C I D A t s recent adoption of gender and empowerment approaches. Analyzing transformatory development strategies from the postmodern perspectives of the politics of participation and context, reveals inherent differentiation and power relations that are continually played out in the development arena and in North-South relations.
My analysis revealed that power
relations that discriminate against women and people in the South are not necessarily only included in the dynamics of gender relations of a country as CIDAts policy indicates. Decisions about the development path the South is to pursue continues to be the prerogative of the North in spite of the adoption of empowerment and participatory approaches to development.
1 Say this because of two main failings in
C I D A t s policies and strategies on women in the South.
The first is that participation continues to be an
elusive concept for CIDA.
Policy is still dictated from the
North in spite of policy rhetoric on participation. second
is
that
C I D A 1 s policies do not
The
challenge global
c q i t a l i s t h i e r a r r k i c a l s t x x t r i r e c cf p m o r i n which the South
is
located.
In
its policy
dialogues
therefore, CIDA
continually fails to successfully address gender equality in structural adjustrnent. My analysis shows that feminist postmodern approaches o f f e r possibilities for the theoretical reconceptualization of
development.
Feminist postmodern approaches to gender and
development reveal the political nature of development. Development is revealed to be another major category of social life which is contested and politicised and which has also become a privileged and contested site for questioning and negotiating control of the Southfsdevelopment and North-South relations.
vii
INTRODUCTION In recent years, transformatory paradigms have been adopted by the international development enterprise in which development as an empowerment concept shifts decision-making to the people of the South and development discourses towards North-South partnership. Development
assistance agencies
targeting women in the South have sought to employ these progressive transformative strategies on women. has
turned
from
integrating women
The emphasis
into development
to
identifying and addressing gender-based constraints in key sectors of the economy. Many development assistance agencies have expanded their policy not just to include women but to infuse gender into al1 their programme operations. processes
of
aim
mainstreaming
to
transform
Such
existing
development agendas with a gender perspective in which women and men not only become a part of the mainstream, but also actively participate to re-orient the nature of development (Jahan, 1995, 1997; Staudt, 1997, 1998). These gender approaches to womenls development aim to transcend the limitations of previous integrationist policies of Women in Development (WID) programmes where women were added onto programmes without any fundamental change in the general policy
or direction of development assistance.
Several development assistance agencies have adopted different strategic frameworks to reduce gender inequalities and poverty and bring about transformation. 1
In the 1960s development meant an acceleration of
economic growth measured by gross domestic product (GDP) or GDP
per
capita, while
the
approaches used
emphasized
acceleration of industrialization and import-substitution of rnanufactured goods and capital equipment (United Nations, i999!
.
The development enterprise at thls
tirrie
saw
the
economic role of women only in reproduction, as home-makers, bearers
and
rearers
of
children
and
as
housewives.
Development policy and strategy targeted men only.
It was
expected that whatever resulting benefits would trickle down to wornen. In the 1970s pioneering research on womenls role in economic development gave birth to the Women in Development (WID) regime which, translating the findings of these research
into development practice, sought to integrate women into the development Stream:
In the 1980s it became clear that
development, which had been conceptualized as a Western project to modernize post-colonial nations, was not achieving the promised improvements in the lives on the people in the South. Rather the development process was contributing to the growth
of
poverty,
increasing
structural
and
gender
inequalities, environment degradation and further intensifying the hardship faced by poor people especially women.-
From the mid 1980s to the early 1990s, there has been a shift in positions and political priorities in the development business.
One reason for this change results from shifting
relations between the South and the North due to continued
deterioration in global environment, crisis in economic development and deepening structural dislocation of Southern economies.
Another
is
emerging
challenges
in
the
relationships between Northern and Southern actors in the development enterprise that prioritize humanitarian
and
pcïerty rzdÿctizn cznceyrs, x i !h r c a d e r ç c c i a l z î v o m o n t c f c r
social justice issues such as human rights, gender and environment. The growing recognition of gender inequality has focused development debate on recognizing womenlsvoices as a means of integrating social aspects into sustainable development. This focus has brought empowerment, participation and gender with the needs of the poorest of the poor (women and children) to
the forefront of the development debate.
The Fourth World
Congress on Women, the Beijing Conference in Decepber 1995, (as well as other United-Nations affiliated conferences), have
advocated these new approaches to development.
Prior to this
conference, at the World Sumrnit for Social Development in Copenhagen in March 1995, world leaders and international development institutions, committing to eradicating poverty through decisive actions, identified strategies to increase incomes, opportunities and the influence of the poor. the
components
identified
for
successful
Among
integrated
development strategies were, the specific targeting of the poorest group, including women; the equitable gender access to basic education and health services; reco~itionof specific
needs of the South; and participatory poverty reduction strategies.
The pro-poor focus in development also shifted
attention to gender. This results from a growing recognition of the importance of contextualizing development.
Gender
relations in the South differ from those of tne North.
In the
Third World both men and womeri suffer from the effects of
economic crisis, though perhaps women more than men. Another seeming shift in discourse is the recognition of subjugated knowledges. The Summit came to the conclusion that much of the inability of programmes to alleviate poverty hinged on the differences in the meanings attached to key concepts
such
as
ttpovertyfl, "poverty
alleviation",
tldeveloprnenttl and "participation" (United Nations, 1999: 5-6). While
these
terms meant
one
thing
to
governments and
development agencies, it meant another to the poor and to the development experts and professionals representing the poor in the local community. The Summit recognized that poverty was
multifaceted
and
the
purely
economic
definitions
of
development in the 1980s were limiting. The means therefore to "understanding the multifaceted nature of poverty is . . . . to listen to the poor themselves [and to give theml an opportunity to express their experience of povertyU ( i b i d : 6) . When indigenous knowledges are incorporated through active participation of aid recipients, the concepts that emerges is clearer and starker than the one espoused by development professionals (who are necessarily at the least one removed
from the condition of the people they are assisting)If ( i b i d ) . Among
the
ingredients
advocated
for
successful
participation in development at the World sumrnit and Beijing conferences was the total participation by the poorest in al1 the key phases of development planning, implementation and
reflect the priorities and needs of the poor in their own terms
(United Nations, 1999). The World Summit l s special
emphasis on development was, to address the needs of the poorest of the poor and to include them not only among the priority beneficiaries of development programmes, but also as full participants in the twin process of socioeconomic development design and delivery and political decision-making, with the potential of makinq a maj or contribution to the development process (~nitedNations, 1 9 9 9 : 3) . These new approaches are the result of incorporation of criticisms of scholars and experts mainly from the South (and also from the North) whose findings on the sex-gender systems, socio-economic and
historical
experiences of
the
South
indicate that it is important to be systematically aware of the complexity of such issues in development planning. These criticisms,
increasingly,
have
come
from
postmodern
perspectives on development which are seen as the next step forward in development theorizing. Debates on the relevance of postmodern feminist thought
to gender and development issues, however, continue to dominate academic discussions as the possibilities, strengths
and limitations of postmodern feminist approaches are explored by scholars in the humanities and the social sciences. This
study
explores
the
possibilities
and
problematics
of
postmodern feminist approach to development by examining how the Canadian International Development Agency
(CIDA) has
incorporated these new development paradigms into its policies on women. Before 1 present an outline of thiç study, however, it is expedient that 1 elaborate on the feminist postmodern perspectives on development.
POSTMODERNISM AND DEVELOPMENT
Since the end of the cold war, new needs for development assistance in the North, as well as the escalation of development problems in the South, has forced a radical rethinking and reformulation of f o m ç of knowledge and social
identities anchored in and authored by capitalism and western domination. ideas
This has led to calls for new approaches and
for developrnent assistance.
Feminist postmodern
approaches to development which arose out of these calls c l a h to provide comprehensive tools in analyzing development . Feminists who are sympathetic to postmodern thinking called for a strategic engagement between feminisrn and postmodern thought in a m e r that transcended both perspectives rather than a mere alliance of the two (Marchand and Parpart, 1995) .
Af ter all, though feminism has mainly f ocused on political
questions and postmodernism on philosophical criticisms, both
perspectives have sought to develop new paradigms of social criticism that do not rely on traditional philosophical underpinnings i d . ) .
The encounter between the two is
deemed to provide an arena where difference can be celebrated without sacrificing the search for
a
broader, richer and
more compirx and muitilayerad fêniinlst solidâritÿ
....
i~liiuh
is essential for overcoming the oppression of women in its
'endless variety and monotonous similarityf" (Fraser and Nicholson,
1 9 9 0 :35) .
Postmodemism stems from the longstanding interest in questioning the philosophical implications of the discourses of modernity and sociological implications of theorising in society.
It is currently a conglomerate of purposively
ambiguous and f l u i d ideas which encompasses various approaches including discourse analysis, genealogy, deconstructionism and textuality
(Marchand and Parpart, 1995) .
Postmodernism
originated in the criticisms of modern art and architecture, and
in
the
philosophical
attack
on
assumptions
of
Enlightenment thinking' and modernity in the 1970s by post structuralists such
as Michel
Foucault, Gilles Delueze,
Jacques Derrida, Baudrillard, as well as the economic theories of post-industrial society developed by sociologists such as Daniel Bell and Alain Touraine ( i b i d . ) .
These diverse ideas,
brought together under the t e m fpostmodernismr by JeanFrancois Lyotard (1984) in his book The Postmodern Condition,
questions
basic
assumptions
about
universal
knowledge.
Postmodernism challenges Enlightenment thinkinghodernity and therefore the belief that rational thought and technological innovation can lead to progress and enlightenment of society. Consequently it questions the ability of Western thinkers to understand the world or to arescribe solutions for it.
Postmodernism
maintains
Il
an
incredulity
towards
metanarrativesM or universal theories to understand reality (Lyotard, 1984: xxiii-iv, 5) . Foucault was one of the pioneers of the postmodern strategy of employing counter-hegemonic discourses that offer alternative explanations of reality, to challenge the power of hegemonic knowledge.
In his
work
on power, Foucault
questioned the adequacies of metanarratives. Foucault linked power and knowledge production and advocated the importance of examining the specificitieç of power and its relation to knowledge and language which he called discourse.' Claims to formulate scientific truths is no more than the production of
power knowledge regimes which operate at both micro and macro levels.
According to Foucault, what was problematic about
discourses of Western societies was that the centres of truth and the centres of power were identical. Western institutions and the discourses they produced have claimed the 'truthl
about development
and hence have wielded the power to
fundamentally reshape reality globally
in the
economic
interests of the North (Foucault, 1980; Braidotti et al,
1994).
Images of modernity and Western values have permeated
al1 corners of the globe with the help of Western media, but continuing environmental and economic crises made it clear that this development pattern was neither possible nor desirable for everyone. Foucault proposed the recognition of multiple centres of truth as opposed to the belief in its central and unique location as a necessary premise to the political process of resisting the hegemony of western knowledge (ibid.).
Foucault
conçequently defined truth as no more than a
"partial,
localized version of reality trançformed into a fixed form in the long process of historym (Marchand and P a r p a r t , 1995:3} . Derrida's writings also emphasised the important role of textuality in understanding social reality.
He saw social
life as a tissue of text (Derrida, 1976). Derrida argued that Western philosophy depended a great deal on binary thinking, in the construction of binary opposites "such as truth/false, unity/ diversity, man/woman whereby the first term dependç on the definition of its opposite ( o t h e r ) and whereby the first term was also superior to the second1' (Marchand and Parpart, 1995:3).
This contributes to the construction of the 'othert
in opposition to one's own perceived strengths. recommended
the deconstruction of
text.
Derrida
Postmodernisrn
challenges the epistemological and ontological discourses of modernity in general including the hegemonic dualisms such as the centrality of western binarism. 9
Using Foucaultls concept of power, Escobar illustrated how the West has in many ways been able to control and even create
the
Third
World
politically,
economically,
sociologically and cuïturaily by placing develop~ent into discourse
(Escobar, 1984) .
Development
discourse
was
conceived in the aftermath of the Second World War with the aim
of
providing
an
alternative to
communism for
the
decolonizing countries of the South (Braidotti et al, 1994). The tripartite post-war order was based on the construction of "the First World, the modern, l developedl l self l , that is the capitalist West, in opposition to the lotherl,...ll (ibid:20). The Second World was the socialist East which was subsecpently
left out of the developrnent discourse altogether
as the
'underdevelopedtSouth, the residual category with its large variety, was subsumed under the unitary category
Third
Worldf. The line of differentiation fox the Third World then became the political alliance to either the capitalist West or socialist East as development models. This categorization is argued to be a political move which set up ideological opposition between capitalism and çocialism as two different roads to progress (ibid). By positing development as a linear
progress, development practice became the instrument to organize
the
post-colonial
Ibackward
societies.
This
discourse, in essence, devalued non-Western systems of knowledge, cultures and social arrangements.
Third World
capitalist elites, educated and trained in Western patterns of political and economic thinking, become prime movers of Western-style economic development which they perceived as necessary for progress in their own countries (ibid.). While feminist postmodern theorists do not posit these theories as a universal panacea, they draw on them to put together a conceptual reformulation of development theorizing. The postmodern approach rej ects claims to knowledge or particular forms of rationality that invalidates al1 other forms of knowledge. Language or discourse analysis from the perspectives of subjugated vernacular knowledges of local people
is employed as part
of political resistance to
hegemonic knowledges and practices. For postmodern feminist theorists, discourse becornes
the site where meaning i s
created, contested and power relations determined; "the ability to control knowledge and meaning, not only through writing
but
institutions
also and
through disciplinary and professional in
social
relations, is
the
key
to
understanding and exercising power in societyu (ibid.:3).This has proved useful in redefining development discourses and policy priorities but as m y analysis later shows, i t does not guarantee the end of hegernonic p r a c t i c e s . Related to the interrogation of knowledge production is the postmodern distruçt of the subject especially modernist subjectivity. Foucault refused to take for granted the idea of an autonomous and sovereign
l
subject '
.
In his work on
historical transformation, he viewed the subject as the product of discursive and power relations (McHoul and Grace, 1993). Drawing on this idea, postmodern theorists primarily maintain that since no individuals can comprehend Itrutht, there is the need to search for previously silenced voices. This analysis of subject groduction is also emoloyed to
encouraged the recognition of the contingent nature of the subject in the construction of social meaning.
Postmodern
theorists argue that the tselftis not a merely a reflection
of experience. Rather it is constituted in complex social and historical
circumstance which
understand what deemed
more
need
'realityl is.
fniitful
to
be
analyzed
This conceptualization
because
the
individual
to iç
subjects
experience and understand their own social reality within a discursive and material context, and indeed "no subject is its own point of departurev (Butler, 1992:9). A distrust of the subjectts ability to know does not deny agency, rather this more
nuanced
approach to
I1interrogating its
the
constructions
f oundationalist premisetf(ibid.)
These
concepts
subject
have
also
as
is
a
a method
of
pre-given
or
. generated
the postmodern
interest in the importance of 'differencetin the construction of social identity and in the contextualization of analysis in order to understand the social reality of people.
Postmodern
feminists offer new ways of conceptualizing these categories which order social life.
These theorists argue that social
categorieç such as Iwoman' and 'Third Worldl are neither homogeneous nor undifferentiated concepts. They are also not biological givens. These categories are completely socially constructed theorists
(Nicholson and therefore
Seidman
conceptualizes
1998) .
these
Postmodern of
categories
analysis as historically emergent rather than naturally given, as multivalent rather than unified, and as the result of struggles for power and the present instrument in the struggle of power ( i b i d . ) Postmodern
. feminists
maintain
that
essentializing
categories is polematic and therefore problematic.
The
tendency to naturalize or universalize these social categories leads to the failure to see important differences within each. Thus essentializing the category Iwoman1, for example, makes it difficult to analyze and plan for the multiple reality of women in development programmes. Grouping people and ideas in essentializing ways, marginalizes non-identical concerns.' Deconstruction, by locating them in history, institutions and social processes is the method employed by the postmodern
approach to adequately analyze key social categories without naturalizing or essentializing them.
This is an important
tool which transcends the standpoint limitation because, primarily, it enables the analysis of differences within and among categories of woman or Third World.
Secondly, it is
able to account for contextual difference as well as the
effect of change and social processes
on human action
(Nicholson and Seidman, 1998). Women have multiple aspects to their lives including nationality, ethnicity, gender, family, social class, caste, marital status and levels of education (Chhachhi and Pittin, 1996)). Historically, al1 these areas have been sites for the construction and reconstruction of
subordination, conflicts, activisrn and political struggles (Johnson et al., 1997). Women have historically, selectively activated
these
multiple
in
identities
the
fight
for
recognition. The salience of contextualization is that social reality of women or people in developing countries Vary with situational and political factors.
Conceptualizing social
categories as multiple, fluid and interlocking enables policy planners to understand and plan for the complex articulation that surround the social category which they are dealing with. These theorists maintain that because specific socioeconomic, historic and political situations influence and define
the
social
realities of
people, in development
theorizing, therefore, it is also limiting to extrapolate concepts from
one
culture to
the
other without
recognizing the limitations of its applicability.
first
This is
evident in the feminist postmodern writings and criticisms of development theory, policy and practice.
By such conceptual
and theoretical refomlation of social categories, postmodern
theorists hope to continually expose sites of conflict and alliance difference, inequalities, oppression, and social
injustice (Nicholson and Seidman 1998). While feminists of differing persuasions have been seduced by postmodern concepts, they have generated in others severe criticisms.' The apparent obsession with Idifference', the recognition of alternative and previously silenced v o i c e s and acceptance of the partial nature of al1 knowledoe claims has led to concerns about the ability to maintain a unified
feminist political project.
Critics of postmodern ideas have
called into question the very idea of postmodern politics. They argue that a theoretical perspective that rejects a concept of the 'self' as unified or as a coherent identity, surrenders any basis for political mobilization (Nicholson and Seidman, 1998).
But, as I will argue later in this thesis,
difference could actually constitute the fulcrum for a more effective coalitionally based activism that is a broader,
varied, complex and multilayered reflection of what a global feminist solidarity should in reality be.
In s p i t e of the efforts by Western development assistance
-
agencies,'the South continues to experience an escalation of Postmodern feminist theorists blame the lack of
poverty. success
in
the development
enterprise
to
modernization
discourses embedded in development theories, policies and practices.
They believe that liberal and Marxist development
frameworks fail because of their embeddedness in modernization or Enlightenment thought.
The development theory, whether
drawing on liberal or Marxist perspectives is mainly embedded
in Enlightenment
thought
(Marchand and
Parpart, 1995) .
Development is perceived as a unilinear path where people in the South adopted the Western political and economic systems.
Even Marxists, while pointing out the unequal development of capitalism, rarely challenged the notion that development was westernization 1995).'
and
rnodernization
(Marchand
and
Parpart;
Postmodern feminist writings on development challenge
this assumption. Postmodern
feminist
theorists
do
recognize
the
contributions made by liberal and Marxist perspectives in the different
development
regimes.
Their
criticisms
notwithstanding, postmodern theorists claim to want to build on these contributions by transcending their limitations. Their
dialoguing
and
contesting of
language
(knowledge
production), is meant to create discursive spaces for the production of knowledge for development theories, policy and practice. Such production of knowledge because it exposes the limitations inherent in their assumptions is a means to resist hegemonic assumptions of universal ideals and dualisms of rnodernization and Enlightenment thinking. It calls attention to the power of representation and the agency of people both in the South and North in the development process. Feminiçt postmodern theorists therefore d a i m to have
much to offer that transcends the impasse in development
theory and development crisis in the South.
The attack on
Western hegemonic discourses, the acceptance of subjugated
knowledge, the attention to the relationship between language and power provide deeper insight about the terrain which is being contested. These insights may help find alternative and appropriate strategic policies that speak to the interests and needs of the people to whom these policies are directed. Postmodern feminist
theorists also
explore
as
challenge the possibility that a critical and
well
as
flexible
adoption of postrnodern concepts could provide the baçis of a more sensitive and transfomative approach to gender and development and provide tools to dismantle patriarchal gender ideologies in the South and in the North. As a result, they not only employ postmodern concepts in their analysis, they also take issue with these concepts.
Postmodern theorizing
is, therefore, able to re-examine established orthodoxies and
keep an open mind towards new ideas that continually foster debate and dialogue. This thesis aims to contribute to this debate in an empirically
informed
marner,
by
examining
how
these
progressive ideas are being incorporated into development practice.
There are two main reasons for this examination.
One reason is to see whether these attempts result in transformation and changes in development or whether they leave existing practices unchanged.
The other reaçon is to
address the major concern about feminist postmodern theorizing on gender and development. Critics of postmodern ideas have called into question the very idea of feminist postmodern
politics, arguing that a theoretical perspective that is obsessed with Idifference' and rejects a concept of the 'selff as unified or as a coherent identity, surrenders any basis for political mobilization (Marchand and Parpart, 1995; Nicholson and Seidman, 1998).
This thesis will employ the conclusions
from its analysis to address this question. These conclusions will be based upon an analysis of policy documents and practices of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and will confine itself to its current 1995 and 1999 development policies and strategies targeting women in the South.
CIDA is Canada's federal
development agency through which Canada seeks to alleviate poverty in the South.
CIDA has been at the forefront among
donors in initiating major programmes on women and gender. CIDA was among the few bilateral donors to adopt detailed
Women in Development ( W I D ) and then Gender and Development (GAD) approaches and policies.
Given its participatory and
gender orientation, CIDA is an excellent choice to illuminate the possibilities and problems associated with such discourses and practices . I
propose an evaluation of development theory and
policies on women by:
a. reviewing developrnent
theories and
regimes,
and
by
analyzing the 1995 CIDA1s Policy on Women in Development and
Gender E q u i t y , m a l i ty,
and the 1999 CIDA1s Policy on G e n d e r and
b. applying postmodern concepts or perspectives to examine how CIDA has incorporated recent criticism in these two policies.
c. and using these assessments to evaluate the epistemological and ontological limitations and strengths of a postmodern
feminism and its usefulness to gender and development. Certain
hypotheses
are
also
explored
to
question
assumptions and designs of the dominant development paradigm targeting women in the South.
I will argue in this thesis
that changes in woments (and the South's) experience of marginalization
and
oppression
is
located
in
specific
relationships generated by global economic and political institutions operating in project countries and that these specific fonns
of power relations and contexts are not
adequately addressed.
1 will also argue that the nature of
econornic remedies and intrusion in the lives of women by international aid agencies and NGOs is often political and relates to the historical -political antecedences of NorthSouth relations. Chapter One begins with a historical analysis of the role of social theory in development regimes. The chapter is also intended to bring out the development 'contexttwithin which the South is situated.
Chapter Two gives a history of how
women have been integrated into development theory, policy and practice.
Chapter Three introduces CIDA and its engagement
with women. This chapter also presents the two policies which are the focus of =alysis.
Chapter Four and Chapter Five both
analyze CIDA'S recent policies and strategies (1995 and 1999) on women.
Chapter Four examines how recent approaches to
development have been incorporated into these two policies, while Chapter Five empirically interprets the findings of the analysis of the previous chapter through a postmodern l e n s . Chapter S i x presents conclusions.
Here, the main criticism
against feminist postmodern theorizing on development, that is, its ability to o f f e r political unity, will be addressed. This atternpt to contribute to the f l u i d dialogue on postmodern feminist theorizing is not making any claims of a comprehensive nature. Indeed it would require more intensive research than the space and time an M.A. thesis a l l o w s .
In
many ways development policies and strategies have become the
context in international political economy within which Third
World n a t i o n s re-negotiate their identities and regain access to social, economic and political resources of a global society in which they are marginalized.
1 hope that by
illuminating issues central to the lives of women of the South, this thesis would help clarify perspectives and enable
policy plamers, and activists to see more clearly what issues to re-address.
CHAPTER ONE HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT THEORY
Borrowing from the postmodern tradition of gynealogizing, 1 will, in the next two chapters, review and analyze in
chronological order, the debates so far in development theories and regimes in an effort to reveal why postmodern theorists c l a h they have substantive contributions to make. 1 will especially consider debates from the 1970's to date.'
Role of Social Theories in Development Practice
Social theory has had a definite role in generating, preventing or sustaining underdevelopment, by claiming to provide adequate explanation of the character of poverty and
in proposing remedies for eliminating or containing the problem. Development theory itself was originally just theory about the best way for colonial and then ex-colonial States to accelerate national economic growth in an international capitalist system. Indeed, according to Leys (1996), the term development theoryt emerged in the 1950s to deal with the specific problem of how the economies of the colonies of Britain, France, Portugal and other European powers Ynight be transformed and made approached, in t e
more
productive as
context of
condition of Latin Arnerica . . . I l
the
still
decolonization semi-colonial
(ibid:5). Leys argues that the
post-war theorists and theories of development were influenced
and contaminated by three main important considerations: by the fact that the new nations, for whom these theories were being generated, were also considered prime stakes in the Cold War; by the very preacticalaim to incorporate the economies of these post-colonial states into the international capitalist system and finally by the intrusion of nation states who saw fit to arrange the conditions attached to capital flowing
outside its borders in such a way as to benefit and secure the interests of domestic economies and interests. That is not to suggest that academic theorists drawn to the field may not have
had
sincere
commitment
to
intervention.
These
contaminations, however, militated against any attempt to be truly
sincere .
It
is
noteworthy
also
that
'sincere
commitmentt itself often militates against philosophical dispassion and reflective self-criticism. Not
surprisingly therefore, up
until
recently
the
dominant theories of development have been produced by people of the North such as Truman, Rostow and Perroux who generally
did not locate these theories in the historically orientated and ethical tradition of general development theory founded by
early theorists of rising capitalism such as Hegel and Marx
(Leys, 1996) . Since the 1970s, many development regimes have arisen in response to the predominant theories of development in the social sciences.
Development theory generated from within
international institutions such as the UNDP, World Bank, the IMF and the like, which are generally creations of Western
countries, borrowed from these early traditions and mainly tended to be ahistorical, unself-critical and politically partisan in nature (Rist, 1997). The neo-liberal policies of the World Bank/IMF, blueprints of orthodox theories of the sociology of developrnent and development economics, (including modernization, diffusion/evolution and neo-classical theories) al1 saw the future of developing countries as the present West (Roxborough 1979 ; Sparr , 1993 ; Marchand and Parpart, 19%
;
Preston, 1996; Leys, 1996; Cooper and Packard, 1997) . The policies of the IMF/World Bank in particular have been embedded
in the dominant development discourse of
modernization.
Modernization theories of development are
themselves extensions and derivatives of the market discourse on markets because they are based on the same premise of f reedom and individualism of market discourses, and on the
goal to turn Third World economies into capitalist market economies (Crush,
1995;
Chowdhry, 1995 ; Pieterse, 1991).
Modernization theories of development were based on the much criticised distinction between modern and traditional. Neoevolutionary and diffuçio~ist theories shared common ideas with modernization thecries. They saw the world as evolving Erorn traditional societies into modern societies.
These
theories, which have their origins in Parsonian functionalism, Spencer, Eisenstad and ~evy" and in orthodox development
economics, generally proposed that the Third World could, with a little diffusion of capital, aid, values and technology,
develop along similar lines as the West. Their claims of not adopting a unilinear dogma of nineteenth century evolutionism can
be
safely
ignored as
they
strongly advocated
the
capitalist path to development through plural democracy as the best and most efficient strategy. These theories are rooted
in social darwinism and as an ideology, therefore, considers wealth as de facto evidence of evolutionary superiority and poverty as proof of evolutionary inferiority. The
limitations of these theories are almost .. innumerable.' But among the most basic weaknesses are, primarily, the fallacious assumption that societies in the South have the same social structures and go through the same development cycle as the West. tended to be ahistorical.
Secondly, these theories
There was the tendency to see
underdevelopment as taking place in a vacuum. They were quite blind to the exploitative role of pre-colonial contact (and for some countries the disruptions of 400 years of slavery), mercantile colonialism and colonization in eçtablishing the present structures of disarticulation in these countries.
In
sum, orthodox and neo-orthodox theories are based on false premises
and
irrelevance
this
for
predicates
explaining
and
ab
initio
proposing
their
social
solutions
to
underdevelopment in the South. The exacerbation of crisis in Third World economies
especially in the 1980s were unmistakable evidence of the failure of these theories to provide realistic explanation and solutions to development problems of the South. The I ~ F / ~ o r l d Bank neo-liberal policies were the main development strategies
operating in Third World nations at this tirne.--
7
Until the
crisis in the 1980s, the main programmes of the IMF/World Bank had
included
anti-poverty
campaigns,
growth-oriented
programmes especially infrastructure development and balance of payment stabilization programmes.
With the deepening of the crisis, and to silence calls for cancelling of debts strangling Third World nations, the two institutions joined roles and developed the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) also known as the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP). This programme required intervention in the economic development of debt-ridden nations through injection of aid by the Bank and maintenance of financial discipline of
borrowing countries by the Fund.
The programme, ostensibly to
enable debt-ridden Third World economies to overcome their interna1 and external disequilibrium, effectively ensured that transnational capital, working through the IMF/World Bank, was able to secure repayment of Third World debts. The policies
theoretical and
assumptions
underlying
strategies enable an
neo-liberal
appreciation of
the
rationale for adopting these reforms or conditionalities. The economic principles and theories from which the IMF and World Bank based their policies are a combination of classical,
Keynesian, neo-classical and monetary economic theories.
In
sociological t e m s they were neo-liberal, diffusionist and evolutionist theories. These two institutions saw the problem facing countries of the South as internai.
Third World
nations needed an infusion of foreign capital to develop. Indeed when th IMF and the Bank had their raison d l e t r e , the
insufficient supply of foreign capital was identified as the main reason for the chronic deficit in Third World economies.
The World Bank was consequently established to promote foreign investment by means of guarantees or participation in loanç and other investments made by private investors; and when private capital was not available on reasonable terms, to supplement private
investment by
providing
finance
for
production purposes out of its own capital fundç raised by it and other resources. The Bank was, therefore, to commence a period of immense improvement of investment capital throughout the world .
1t
was to become a lender of last resort and its investments would be to expand the sphere of private capital. To achieve this aim, preconditions for structural adjustment loans were developed to bridge the gap between potential borrowers and investors. controlling
These trade
restrictions.
preconditions balances
and
included
devaluation,
liberalising
exchange
This was the special duty of the IMF - to
ensure that transnational corporations could easily export directly into and out of recipient countries without facing
restrictive import licences and profit repatriation laws. Thus, for example, where a country had closed its economy, either to diversify or to protect its indigenous manufacturing or external trading, the IMF facilitates its re-absorption into the circuit of financial capital by demanding the removal of restrictive barriers, while the Bank acts as a safe pilot
to guarantee f oreign capital.'' The IM~/WorldBank analysis of the development crisis was based on the belief that Third World nations were simply living beyond consumption
their means.
and
expenditure
In other words, domestic was
higher
than
domestic
production. The solution, therefore, was to increase domestic income and revenue mainly through increased export and reduce
domestic consumption through cutting government spending. The policy would also release the needed resources to enable the affected nations to meet their debt obligation. The SAP measures and their effects are well documented. Only a brief discussion here is needed to bring out the point
of this analysis. These packages of essential reforms were to realign the debt-ridden stagnating economies.
The SAP
conditionalities included abolishing al1 state-imposed price controls to regulate inflation and devaluing the currency of the recipient country. The rationale for devaluation was to make
the
country's
international markets.
exports
more
cornpetitive
on
the
And since devaluation discouraged
imports (because of higher import prices), resources would be
1
saved. The combined anticipated effect was that the country
would be able to resolve its balance of payment problems by meeting its debt burden.
In reality, the results of
devaluation were that exports were underpriced while the ability
to
import needed machinery
for production
(in
economies which relied heavily on machinery for production from abroad) was severely diminished. Now this was disastrous for Southern economies who had now been made, by the same IMF/World Bank, to rely on production and export of cash crops.'' Government expenditure reduction was also applied indiscriminately in al1 economies. This came with removal of state subsidies, job redundancies
and privatisation of public enterprises to remove the onerous burden from the over-inflated state apparatus. The wage caps
and resulting lower wages and higher profits from the lower cost of labour were meant to increase the investment potential of the economy. It was clear soon enough that it was not the
people
or
the
state
who
benefitted
but
the
foreign
transnational corporations who bought these public enterprises and who inherited such cheap labour.i' The reduced government expenditure especially in social spending and the elimination of fuel, food and other consumption subsidy brought untold suf fering
to
women,
children
and
f amilies
raising
international uproar against the effects of these inhuman conditionalities. This uproar led to the
of Action
to Mitigate the Social Cost of Adjustment
which was
no more than an attempt by the IMF/World Bank to do some damage control. The exact successes of this programme remains ambiguous (Havnevik, 1989) . In Africa alone, at least 36 countries experienced the effects of the SAP of the IMF/World in the 1980s. These neoliberal policies, ostensibly to enable debt-ridden Third World economies overcorne their interna1 and external disequilibrium, have only escalated poverty among these nations, further - .
disernpowering them in the international political economy . -' The
IMF/World Bank continue to be the main development
agencies in the South.
Even though orthodox and neo-liberal
theories have few academic supporters today, their blueprint
of theories and solutions continue to dominate development regimes and economies of developing countries. Marxist approaches to development mainly replaced neoliberal theories providing the discipline with some concepts
and tenets to explain underdevelopment. Marxist theoristst rejection of orthodox and neo-liberal policies and theories was
based
on
the
hypothesis
that
development
and
underdevelopment are partial interdependent structures of one global system (Foster-Carter, 1974).
International capital
was benefitting from underdevelopment of the South and actually perpetrating it. They also pointed out that the West and Third World follow different development paths and any
serious analysis should take into account the historical context in which they operate.
Arnong the major criticisms levelled, in turn, at the ~arxistschool is the fact that the empirical evidence offered in support of these hypotheses and theories have been scanty, obscure and causal (de Kadt
&
Williams, 1974; Mouzelis, 1988) .
Early Marxists failed to carry through a historically oriented comparative investigation of development trajectories.
The
result was that they were unable to explain the diversity of development traj ectories that are classified as Third World and resorted to finding general overarching fonnulae that provided a universal explanation of how capitalism developed in the Third World as a whole (Mouzelis, 1988).
maintains
that
early
attempts
to
spell
out
Mouzelis different
mechanisms creating underdevelopment or dependent development such as unequal exchange, technology transfers, unfavourable terms of trade, the nature of multinational investment , the mode and insertion into global economy or the nature of the state, indigenous capital and classes to mention a few, could perhaps
have
explained
the differences in Third
World
trajectories and the application of those generalizations . Some neo-Marxists such as Franz Fanon, Samil Amin and Gunder
Frank have attempted to do this, presenting a detailed historical analysis of underdevelopment. The tendency still, however, was to generalize their analysis to al1 Third World countries, thus, limiting the ability to explain why some countriest engagement with capitalism led to development while othersf catapulted them further into poverty.
Neo-Marxist theorists do present powerful historical analysis of development, but this tendency to apply their explanations to
al1
contexts
is
limiting.
Postmodern
theorists applaud their historical analysis, but advocate the need to contextualize these analysis.
1 will here employ
these neo-Marxist historical explanations by locatina them in specific contexts to illustrate briefly how an explanation of the diverse trajectories may be attempted.
The focus here
will not be to explain al1 development trajectories, but to explain why Africa in particular, lags behind other regions of the South even though they al1 had impediments to their
development in the form of imperialism. The history, timing and mode of insertion of Third World countries into the global capitalist system largely explains the diversity of development that exists today.
For sub-
Saharan Af rican countries, the central role of slavery , colonialism and the subordinate role in the new international division of labour are important historical accounts that need to be analyzed in any such attempt to comprehend their Up to the seventeenth century under
development pattern.
mercantile imperialism, Africa was not generally inferior to the rest of the world
(Wight et al, 1929; Amin, 1981) .
Transitional conjunctures produced by the Euro-American slave trade, colonialism and post colonialism intensified and transformed periodic
' innate crisis
l
and laid the basic
structural foundation for the systematic underdevelopment of
the continent (Rodney, 1972). This 'innate or inherent crisisf in the economies of
African
state
were
a
feature
of
most
parts
international capitalist system (Davidson 1974) .
of
the
The scenario
for Africa before the nineteenth century was generally applicable to most ore-caoitalist societies. Prooress through growth rather than development was more typical of the slow development of productive forces under pre-capitalist social formations .
Latent institutional breakdowns or
'innate
crisis' corresponded to periods of transition from one mode of production or one social formation to another as, for example, from feudal to petty-cornmodity mode of production in Europe.
In ocher words, as the economy moved from one mode of production to the other, there was a slow-down of growth for
a brief period as the economy adjusted to these dynamics of change.
The breaking of growth, through its institutional
constraints, was the change in the superstructure concomitant with the transition from one mode of production to another (as from feudalism to petty-comodity in the latter part of the
pre - capitalist epoch) .
In varying degrees ,
history reveals, these dif ferent phases or
as economic
innate crisis '
could be identified in the history of al1 industrialised
countries (Knight et al, 1929).
Societies have transcended
this 'inherent crisis1 over time through their own interna1 dynamics, but
on
an
important
condition
-
transition was not blocked by external forces.
that
their
For example,
for the West, after such debacles as autocratie monarchies, interstate warfare, revolutions, American civil war and the Tokugawa restoration in Japan, to mention a few, these regions liquidated
underdevelopment
and
experienced
uninhibited
growth.
Third World countries however continued to remain
trapped
in these
'crisis' periods because
of
external
inhibitions to their growth. The
fundamental
experiences
between
non-unilinearity industrialised
and
of
historical
underdeveloped
countries, between the North and South lies in the crucial role of imperialism and the consequent present subordinate The effects of these
role in the global capitalist system. are well documented (de Kadtç
&
Williams, 1974; Leys, 1996;
Rists, 1997). For Africa, the situation was confounded by the role of slavery.
The effects of this annihilation of
productive capacitieç through intergenerational destruction of human and material productive forces and the destabilizing effects of slave raids on these societies al1 worked to stultify
technological
development,
intensifying
the
contradictions of the 'initial crisis' (Durand 1967). Slave trade, on the other hand, provided an important part of primitive capitalist accumulation for North America and
Europe
for the
launching of
their industrial
and
agricultural revolutions from the mid-eighteenth century, supplying in essence, the material preconditions of the accumulation and concentration of money capital for the
transition from feudal and petty-commodity producing social
For
formations to industrial capitalism (Williams 1972).
example, Alexander and David Barclay used their slave profits ta establish a financial conglomerate including the now transnational Barclays Bank Investment Group, while the Great Western Railway in Britain, was built with slave profits from Bristol Slave Merchants. Bridges, roads, rail and other such important infrastructure were built mainly with slave labour.
In these different ways, while slavery accelerated any inherent crisis of disintegration in African economies at that crucial time in history, by destroying traditional technology through forced export of its practitioners, it also greatly retarded primitive capital accumulation by destroying al1 f o m s of capital, inhibiting any attempts at additional accumulation over four centuries of human exploitation. The significance therefore of this dominant external constraint on Africa
was
that
it
forestalled and delayed the global
diffusion of the industrial revolution to the continent. Comparing economies thus affected to industrialised countries reveal that the latter were free from the effects of such external constraints at that crucial era. For example, the USA, a former British colony gained independence in 1798 before
the
crucial
mid-nineteenth
century
industrialisation began to spread around the world."
when Japan,
far from being colonised, exploited colonies in parts of China,
Korea
and
the
pacific
islands
for
her
early
industrialisation. China, partly colonised by Japan, needed
a
socialist
revolution
underdevelopment.
to
texminate
South-East
Asia
the
abuses
( India,
of
Pakistan,
Bangladesh) and Africa were under colonial rule up until the mid-twentieth century while post-colonial Latin America, from the 1830s was virtually a USA neo-colony. During this crucial phase of industrialization colonies were kept under primary production and technology was severely restricted to the extraction of basic raw material from the mining industries and for the production of cash crops for export.
Basic
infrastructure such as roads, rail, were limited to links between harbours and ports of export and areas of mining, timber, coffee and cocoa plantations mainly serving the needs
of the colonial settlers and home countries. What
about
the
present
day
divergent
development
trajectories then? How do we explain the development that is taking place in East Asia and not in Sub-Saharan Africa in spite of external constraints?
East Asian, sub-Saharan
Africa, South Asia and Latin American countries have al1 been subject to some f o m of external constraint.
obvious
that
the
South
developmental profiles.
is
dif ferentiated
Yet it is by
diverse
While some have moved to the semi-
periphery, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have mainly experienced stagnation. East Asia has out-distanced the rest of the T h i r d World in terms of gross domestic product per capita, export content and industrial sophistry of exports .
Latin America ranks next, with South Asia and Africa far below.
Social indicators of development also match the
economic development pattern. Sub-Saharan African countries, followed by South Asia, have the highest fertility, infant mortality, adult illiteracy and lowest life expectancies in the world (Gereffi and Fonda, 1991).
Deconstruction by locating these differences in specific socio-economic,political, historic and geographical contexts and processes produces some explanations. very b r i e f l y here.
1 will illustrate
Differences in the timing and manner in
which international capital articulates with specific sociopolitical structures and groups within the Third World reveals the importance of the role of the post-colonial state and local
structures
in
aiding
or
hindering
development .
Dif ferences in development traj ectories rnay also be attributed
to the effects of multinational investment in different regions, the effects of global recession and the type of relationship
the state establishes with
international capital (Mouzelis, 1988). ability
of
the post-colonial state
indigenous and
The character and
in negotiating and
intervening to transform and ensure a more egalitarian distribution of resources or in retaining existing structures and intensifying thereby the colonial type of domination and exploitation, becomes an important factor for analysis. Having said that it is important to bear in mind that no capitalist development outside of the sphere or orbit of the
global capitalist system has emerged to date
(in modern
times), while capitalist development in both the South and North
has
always
been
characterized
by
inequalities,
dependencies and disarticulations. In other words, no single underdeveloped country operating under bourgeois social theory has achieved successful transformation.''
The recent crisis
in South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia, demonstrates that the tiger economies of East Asia are no exception. East Asia and Latin America have seen the influx of Western transnational corporations from the middle of the twentieth century following the failure of substitution industrialisation.
the
import-
Multinational investment,
however, was accompanied by balance of trade problems and growing socio-economic inequalities." differences.
Even here there are
Whereas East Asia countries, with the notable
exception of the Philippines, appeared to pay back their debts witbout visible trauma, Latin American countries have seen harrowing social declension in their attempts to do this (George, 1988). Some countries notably South Korea appeared to have managed multinational and indigenous investments in such a manner as to have achieved a more balanced development trajectory. South Korea has experienced a more rapid growth in favour of the masses and a lesser degree of marginalization than is found in Latin America. When countries in East and South Asia and Latin America
began
import-substitution industrialization,
sub-Saharan
Africa was still actively involved in the export of cash crops to the industrialising countries (Szereszewski, 1965). Even during the inter-war period Africa was still unable to ir.dustrialize
because
her
economy
was
under
colonial
extractive domination. Compulsory cash crop production led to a systematic neglect of domestic food production. Minerals were being extracted for export to meet the production requirement of the colonial empires. Manufacturing activities were eliminated as the raw materials were shipped off to Europe and replaced with imported manufactured goods.
Thus
the backward and fomard linkages that agriculture and primary
production should have established with the secondas. sector were entirely destroyed. Latin Amarica
and
substitution to
Between the 1950s and 1960s while
East Asia
were moving
from
import-
foreign-led industrialization or multi-
national investments, African countries were fighting to be rid of colonial rule. The development criçis in Africa is a composite of underdevelopment and cyclical fluctuation. It is a result of the perpetration of inherited structural disarticulation from
before colonial times, and the effects of external factors such as worsening terms of trade and recession of the global capitalist system.
As argued above, unlike the West, sub-
Saharan and most of Africa was not given the opportunity to modernize agriculture, a strategy that would have created the basic and necessary linkage for the development of the
secondary sector and thereby increased its capacity to absorb excess labour released from agriculture.
With population
growth reçu1t ing f rom prevent ive health care, the burden on inadequate productive resources was enormous.
Given the
structural nature of dislocation, any genuine attempt by domestic and international asencies to assist development in Africa (and most of the South for that matter) should have sought
the
transformation
of
the
basic
structures
of
disarticulation. However, policies of domestic, bilateral and rnultilateral institutions have perpetrated the same basic relationship of domination and exploitative production in the post-colonial state, accentuating structural distortions, external
dependence,
low
productivity,
backwardness and mass irnpovorishrnent.
technological
This trend makes it
important to look at the nature of the post-colonial state and the r o l e of interna1 actors in any attempt to understand the present crisis. At independence, the nationalist coalitions comprised a petty-bourgeois
class
of
politicians,
intellectuals,
professionals and traders and the masses comprising of workers and peasants (Wallerstein, 1976; Ninsin, 1989; Cohen 1981; Davidson
1976) .'"
The
export
economy
&
Daniel,
was
well
established and certain classes had interest in maintaining and expanding it. The state at that early stage was not the classic class construct but a situation of society divided into c l a s s e s , symbolizing the unity of social formations and
providing the ideological cement for the continuance of a capitalist system.
As
a result freedom from colonial
exploitation did not resolve class contradictions and class struggles that were
muted under the unified fight for
independence. After independence, these interests developed rapidly. In most post-colonial ca~italistAfrican countries, various factions forged alliances to control the state.
In
most cases, these alliances developed into one-party States, which were coalitions of the tpetty-bourgeois'consisting of civilians, nilitary and some members of the working class, to suppress class opposition. These local power alliances then formed external alliances with different rival world powerç as was seen in the case of Nigeria and Kenya. Shifting alliances with the West constituted the crisis in hegemony which the West termed [Political Instability in Africa' (Ninsin et al., 1989) .
As 1 have argued elsewhere, international development
agencies such as the IMF/World Bank have been found to be directly associated with the rise and fa11 of governments in Af rica..''
In transitional socialist formations such as Tanzania, the petty-bourgeoisie constituted the Vanguard party linking
up with the working class and peasants to share power, and build socialism. This IAfrican Socialisml and power sharing were, in most cases, mere rhetoric. Socialism in Tanzania was not an attempt to break away from capitalism.
Nationalism
served as a vehicle to solidify class alliance and the
collectivization helped
to
concentrate
state power
decision-making in the hands of the ruling class.
and
1 find the
Mozambican experience of 'scientific socialisml under FRELIMO,
a
stronger
commitment
to
economic
transformation
and
equalitarian distribution of resources (Mozambique did make efforts at agrarian reforms). I would root the f a i l u r e of the socialist path to development attempted in these two African countries to the global capitalist context within which they were situated, as well as pressures from global capitalist system seen in the destabilizing war waged by South African supported and equipped RENAMO.
This does not eliminate policy
mistakes of the regimes themselves.
In the transitional capitalist formations, factions of this petty-bourgeois class with the support of the military, some sections of academics and professional, promoted orthodox economic policies mainly to entrench themselves and for economic gain.
These policy actions failed to generate
appropriate policies to transform the structural dislocation of the economy because they were basically exploitative. Many African leaders adopting liberal policies, failed to modernise agriculture .
The
rush
industrialisation accentuated
towards the weak
import-substitution linkages
between
agriculture and industry, inhibiting the capacity of the secondary sector to absorb labour and overinflating the state bureaucracy and service sector. Those leaders w h o attempted any structural transformation such as Kwame Nkrumahrs attempt
to negotiate the terms of trade for cocoa and the socialist ~ozambicangovernment's agrarian reforms were hounded out of 7
-
power with the help of Western capitalist governments.-In sum, class interest, policy rnistakes in the form of imported modernisation theories, with their extortion of the values and virtues of the so called modern sector that encouraged
official
policy
towards
urbanisation
and
industrialisation, and the systematic neglect of the rural economy resulted in the recurrent agrarian crisis and the collapse of the economy. These have ensured the continuation of the subordinate role in which many African countries find
themselves in the global capitalist system. In the last two decades, development problems of the
continent are exacerbated by the burden of servicing external debt and the results of structural adjustment policies imposed by the agents of dominant multinational capital, the IMF and
the World Bank.
The adverse effects of SAP on economies of
Third World nations have been discussed above.
Repayment of
loans supplied to these economies eçpecially after SAP has intensified underdeveloprnent. Massive debt servicing has led
to the systematic transfer of huge amounts of economic surplus from Africa, decapitalising these poor countries, sustaining technological impoverishment.
backwardness
and
intensifying
mass
As a result of the power international
capital has over debtor countries, they are able to raise interest rates at will. The result is that African economies
spend over half of loans on debt servicing, retaining very
-
1
little to sustain any meaningful deve1opment.--
Defaulting is not an option because default means no more credit and in some cases the incipient recalcitrant ru1 ing government is o~erthrown.~'In many ways the paradox of the small
debtor applies
to
Africa.
Africa
owes
a
srna11
percentage of the total debt owed by the Third World and unlike Latin America for example, is unable to exercise the leverage that big debtors have in negotiations. For example,
in 1982, the debt crisis which hit Mexico had a devastating effect on the USA. Between 1981-82, the USA exports to Mexico fell by $10 billion (George, 1988).
Every billion dollars in
export sustained 24,000 jobs in the USA, thus the Mexican crisis alone cost the USA 240, 000 jobs in one year ( i b i d . ) .
The IMF/World Bank structural adjustment policies continue to insist on growing and exporting raw material at a time on the international market when such products have been largely replaced by synthetic and genetically engineered products. Thus low living conditions have been compounded by the effects of the austere SAP measure and sustaining mass impoverishment. Among those who have been worst hit are women and children.
The gross economic mismanagement, corruption and clientelistic nature of the post-colonial state have also played a crucial role . As stated previously, the above analysis is not rnaking claims of a comprehensive explanation. It is merely serving
to illustrate the postmodem argument about the power of analysis that contextualizes. history, social, political
and
By
locating in specific
economic
processes
and
contexts, an analysis of the development trajectories of the South and of individual countries could provide a more comorehensive understandino of reality,. somethino neo-Marxism failed to carry through in a systematic manner. The neo-Marxist tendency towards economic and class reductionism also encouraged limited attention to other factors that may have contributed to underdevelopment. The penrasive flaw in reducing development and underdevelopment to the relations of production and domination meant political action was de-emphasized. The result of this limitation was that neo-Mamists soon found themselves with no tools to study the varying relations between domination and production in a theoretically coherent
and
empirically
open-minded way.
Perhaps the most serious flaw with Marxist theories is that they
never
challenged
the
modernization
definition
of
development as Westernization. This particular criticism will be better elucidated in the next chapter. Criticisms levelled at neo-Marxism from the mid 1980s,
produced a sense of a crisis or impasse in the discipline of Sociology of Development and in development theories in general (Booth, 1985; Mouzelis, 1988; Sklair, 1988, 1992) . Acknowledging the limitations of classical and neo-Marxist theories, some scholars, such as Schuurman
(1993),
have
adopted a post-Mamist approach to development in an effort to transcend the impasse. These drew attention to the importance of human agencies, complexities of social transformation and the fluid contingent nature of capitalist development. These approaches, like the rest of the Marxist schools, did nothing to challenge the modernization epation between development, modernity and the West (Marchand and Parpart, 1995; Chowdhry, 1995) .
There is no consensus about the exact nature of the
crisis in development theory and how it should be overcome (Booth, 1985; Mouzelis, 1988; Sklair, 1988).
It is clear,
however, that previous development theories had not been able to provide adequate explanation and solutions for problems in the South. The main point of the above discussion is that the
nature of disarticulation peculiar to developing nations with respect to the structural distortion of their econornies, and the character of the post-colonial state, makes it impossible to explain underdevelopment within the closed economic mode1 of orthodox theories of development excluding international economic relations.
Neither do Marxist schools succeed in
providing a more comprehensive explanation of the lack of development in the South when they f a i l to contextualize the timing and mode of insertion of the different developing countries into the global capitalist system. The dynamics of the ongoing processes of global political and economic restructuring, continuing poverty in the Third
World, the fa11 of communism and the subsequent inclusion of countries
from the North
as
recipient countries, have
exacerbated the impasse within development calling for an urgent rethinking of development theory. In concluding this chapter 1 w i l l reiilerate that this
chronology of development theory and development reqirnes identifies
factors
such
as
interna1
structural
disarticulation, foreign interference and capitalist recession among others, as contributing to the development crisis the South faces. The chronology serves to illustrate two main issues. First it points to the power dynamics within which the very structure of Third World economies are situated.
As the
discussion on liberal theories illustrates, development came out of particular contexts and is implicated in relations of power. Development emerged from certain epochs in Europe and North America when these parts of the world h e l d considerable
power over other parts of the world. These power dynamics are woven into the ways of theorizing knowledge and the production of solutions for development. They have been imbricated in the historical-political antecedences of North-South relations and representations and will continue to pose a threat to the coalitions of North-South relations currently being promoted within the development enterprise, unless, of course, the essentially political nature of development assistance is recognized and effectively challenged.
Secondly it illuminates the importance of comprehending the context - political, social, economic, national, regional
and international - within which Southern economies operate. For much of the South, this context is defined by the mercantile,
colonial
capitalism and
the
and
post-colonial
dynamics
of
these
contemporary domestic
economic
credibility
postmodern
to
the
experience
with
experiences with
structures. emphasis
This on
lends
context .
Development problems in the South are s h o w to be rooted in particular histories and social structures. As shown above, the timing and mode of insertion into the capitalist system, as well as the nature of economic crisis in Africa, are closely related to the subjection of its economies to onesided determination by external factors and events. Thus in çub-Saharan
Africa,
for
example,
the
untransformed
disarticulated structures, because of its one-sided external orientation tends to work itself more closely into the international
capitalist
order, but
in
a
position
of
subordination (Sawyerr, 1990). The analysis of these contexts demonstrates that the development crises in the South are not wholly explicable by reference to factors interna1 to each country alone. Western governments and the international capitalist institutions share a responsibility. It reinforces the postmodern cal1 for a broader, systematic and holistic approach to context and the dynamics of such processes.
Deconstruction by locating in
social processes, institutions, and historical contexts is important in development theorizing because specific socioeconomic, historic and political situations influence and define the social realities of people in the South.
Failure
to understand context fully, at the very least, oversimplifies the reality of experiences of the poor.
It
will mean the
failure of policies and programmes to deal realistically with the problems of development.
The failure of ahistorical
explanations of development excluding the role of mercantile, imperial and global capital, as proposed by liberal theories,
has demonstrated the importance of macro-economic and social approaches to context.
CHAPTER TWO INTEGRATING WOMEN INTO DEVELOPMENT m O R Y
A brief overview of development assistance policies
targeted at women in the South indicates that these have also followod the predominant social theories and development
regimes of their time.
Up until the mid 1960s, women were
generally excluded from the developrnent process. 1970s,
when studies by Ester Boserup
(1970) and
In the otherç
revealed that the status of women was deteriorating as a result of practices of development programmes, international social
movements
emerged
which
advocated
changing
and
reformulating development policies and strategies to implement more gender-sensitive policies. (WID)
The Women-in-Development
regirne came into being, and the developrnent enterprise
followed a pattern of adapting their policies t o include women while not fundamentally changing their policies and practices. Criticisms against the WID regime led to the search for alternative paradigms.
In the late 1970s an alternative
strategy known as Women and Development (WAD) was meant to be
a conscious move f rom liberal and neo-classical theories . Continued poverty among men and wornen in the South in the 1980s made it clear, however, that the women-only projects of WAD
were not having the desired effect.
The resulting
dialogue was Gender and Development (GAD) which emphasized
gender rather than women particularly the social construction of gender roles and relations.
Ideas from this later
perspective
incorporated
are
gradually
being
into
the
international development agenda. This chapter will proceed to examine in greater detail the different themes of the above
development regimes in their efforts to assist women and their particular limitations.
Women in Development (WID)
WID contained ground-breaking ideas for developrnent. WID advocates such as Boserup and Li1j encrantz, made important contributions to changing patriarchal views of development , producing
landmark
publications.
Until
this
point,
development was an exclusively male domain and the needs of women were subsumed under those of their menfolk. Lobbying by these liberal feminists led to the establishment of WID divisions in many multilateral, bilateral and non-governmental development assistance institutions and initiated the process of considering women the developrnent. However, the pattern of the WID regime involved adapting their policies to include women but not fundamentally changing their policies and practice.
With time it became clear that poverty and
subordination of women generally still remained (Krasner, 1983; Kardam, 1991; Marchand and Parpart, 1995).
Liberal feminisrn and the WID activists are considered to have at once succeeded and failed in the attempt to establish
WID
divisions within
international development
regimes.
Postrnodern critics of WID attribute its failure to the regimets embeddedness
in
the
liberal and
traditions of modernization theory.
neo-evolution
The WID regime failed
because its epistemological foundation and existence within these development agencies limited it from moving beyond the ethnocentric and androcentric assumptions of modernization (Chowdhry, 1995) .
Policies of international development
agencies such as the World Bank/IMF in particular, have largely generated theories of econornic modernization which are located in dualistic oppositional definitions, contrasting the Western with non-western societies, representing the nonwestern as the IOthert, and reinforcing negative conceptions of
the
IOthert who
is
still
in need
of
the mission
civilisatrice which colonization had set out to accomplish. In line with the binary and simplistic dichotomization of Enlightenment
thinking,
modernization
is
equated
with
Westernization, industrialization and superiority, while nonmodernity
is
equated
with
non-Western countries,
traditional and the inferior.
the
Such an episternological
episteme underwrites the Western experts Iclaim to knowt which denies, in effect, any ability to see modernization for what it has historically proved
to be
-
a subjugating and
*c
exploitative practice (Chowdhry, 1995 ) .-- The WID regime was not exempt from the production of knowledge that represented women of the South as the 'Othert. These representations were 51
particularly
prominent
in
WID
sponsorship
and
media 7
representation of the poor and also in its 1iterature.-' The WID
regime altered
development practice
and policy
to
incorporate women in the development process and improve equity between wornen and men without challenging Western gender stereotwes (Marchand and Parpart, 19%) . integrate women
into
development
policy
The idea to
mainly
treated
"women's development . . . as a logistical problem rather than [one] requiring a fundamental reassessment of gender relations and ideology" i d . : 3 ) liberal
feminism
.
This tendency was the result of
undifferentiated
concept
of
woman
and
patriarchy. The policies of WID, in particular, are criticized for being steeped in colonial/neo-colonial representation as well as the liberal discourses on markets, which tend to portray
al1 women of the South as passive traditional object victirns of the modernization project
The WID
(Chowdhry, 1995).
literature on women in the South typically have given the
9 e n a n a N representation of Third World women where women are portrayed
as
"veiled. . .
mindless
members
of
a
harem,
. . .cloistered within the confines of a patriarchal maledominated environment" and more preoccupied with
"petty
domestic rivalries than with the artistic and political affairs of their timesll (ibid:27; Enloe, 19891 . They are also monolithically represented as oblivious to the real world, unquestioningly
accepting of
their world
and
generally
inferior to Western women who are liberated, do not Wear veils, are sexually liberated and have nothing in common with this tradition bound image (Chowdhry, 1995). Western and Western-trained Southern women writers and activists in the development enterprise also tend to portray women as victims.
According to Chowdhry, these writers and
experts base their analysis and authority to intervene in the lives of women on their claims Ito knowl and on the shared experience of gendered oppression. These representations are
also
primarily
Enlightenment
situated
and
modern
in
the
thinking
dualistic which
nature
separates
of the
traditional from the modern, the private from the public, the liberated from the non-liberated, the East from the West. These
representations reify modernity and
reinforce the
North/South divi.de. Chowdhry points out that economic modernization theories also "utilize as their epistemological premise the superiority and desirability of Western-style modernization and growth before discussing the invisibilities, complementarities and eternalities
of
(ibid:29) .
development"
assumptions feed analysis that
These
typically blame
basic
interna1
structures of Third World economies for the failure of development policies and which consequently offer Western solutions. These discourses are criticised for being grounded in Enlightenment thinking which is, in itself, "imbued with a masculine
(and
modernist )
epistemology
and
ontology
characterised by self-other dualismlI (ibid:30). ontology with
its
emphasis
on
The masculine
competition rather
than
cooperation only reasserts masculiniçt identity and the desire to dominate others. The point here is that liberal discourses on development are inherently gender biased, and W I D t s embeddedriess ir? t h e l i b e r a l and m r k e t d i s c m r s e xakes It a
suspect policy for addressing the needs of women. In surn, the failure to challenge modernization theories of development led to the failure of the WID regime to relieve the poverty and subordination of women.
The monolithic and
singular representation of the Third World women as victims of development, of undifferentiated patriarchy and oppression, produced reductionistic understandings of realities.
their multiple
They denied Third World women agency, further
disempowering
them.
representations,
in
The sum,
modern created
discourses women
of
these
discursively,
separating them from the historical, social, economic and political lived material realities of their existence. I will briefly illustrate the importance of Chowdhryts
criticisms by examining the WID programmes of the World Bank. The World Bank is perhaps the major development agency with the longest engagement with the South. The liberal discourses on market have defined the World Bank in al1 i t s policy phases
and this had varying effects on its p o l i c i e s towards women. Basing its development policies in the l i b e r a l discourse on markets initially contributed to the invisibility of women in
the Bank's early ~olicies~'(Chowdhry, 1995; Sparr, 1993; Staudt, 1998) . developrnent.
Women were not deemed important agents in
The Bank maintained that economic development
" i n the public largely elite male sphere, would naturally t r i c k l e down to women in the private spherell (Chowdhry, 1995 :3 1 )
.
The crucial ef fects of t h e b i n a r y o p p o s i t e s of
public/private of Western thinking, in which the family was relegated to the domestic and private realm, served to separate men and women. This separation waç further supported by patriarchal notions and the zenana representation of women.
The combined result of dualistic thinking and neo-colonial representation was the exclusion of Third World women entirely f rom early development projects .
The WID projects initiated by the World Bank after the 1975 UN Decade for Women lobbying efforts were also embedded
in
colonial
and
liberal
discourses.
Chowdbry
( 1995 )
classifies these projects under the welfare, anti-poverty and efficiency approaches. Al1 three programmes, despite slight variations and emphasis, were based on the traditional notions of motherhood.
They mainly
identified women in their
reproductive and child rearing roles. The welfare programmes, for example, included family planning programmes, nutrition for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers, reflecting the zenana representation of Third World women. The anti-poverty approach which appeared in response to
Marxist and socialist feminist criticisms in the mid 1970s 55
focused on basic needs as it identified women as the poorest of the poor. Family health and income generation projects, to lift women out of poverty, emphasized t h e activities of rural women. Education became an important aspect of these projects because Third World women needed welfare of their families.
" [t]he influence of
knowledgel to ensure the
According to t h e World Bank,
t h e motherfs education on family health
and family size is great - greater than that of the fatherfs
education. Materna1 education may also have a greater effect on childrents learningI1 (World Bank, 1990:s; 1993).
This
approach utilized Western frameworks to analyze the material realities of Third World women, again representing them as "traditional, voiceless and a homogeneous (interchangeable) group, hapless victims of endless pregnancies, bowed down by poor health, illiteracy and poverty.It (Chowdhry 1995:33). This representation served to deny Third World women agency,
reinforcing myths and stereotypical images of a homogeneous group without skills, needing help and incapable of active participation in the development process
( ibid)
.
When the World Bank turned to neo-classical economics in the 1980s, the efficiency approach was adopted by its WID programme.
Structural
adjustments,
free
markets
and
privatization and other such characteristics of the neoclassical discourses translated into projects that ostensibly recognized womenfs productive role. In reality, it took for
granted womenfswork as homemakers and ignored the transfer of
wage labour to women's unpaid work (Chowdhry, 1995; Hirshman, 1995).
Chowdhry cites the example of Tamil Nadu in India
where even the programmes to mitigate the social cost of adjustment
relied
on
womenfs unpaid
labour
without
acknowledging the contributions these made to the success of the prooramme.'"
This pattern was not restricted to WID projects of the
World Bank.
The majority of bilateral and local NGO large-
scale development projects and their attendant technology rarely included policy regarding women in their initial planning stages.
This is no coincidence as NGOs
were
sponsored mainly by bilateral donors from the West who were steeped in liberal discourses.
The World Bank also works
through partnership with NGOs, and though they may not alvays agree on specific policies, there is a lot of cooperation to achieve their anti-poverty objectives (World Bank, 1996). The point here is that women, especially in rural and outlying areas, experienced changes mainly as a result of both planned and unplanned innovations in agriculture and the economy as a whole, and in many cases the far-reaching effects on woments work derived £rom the powerful drive to commercialise the
potentially profitable sectors of women' s work (Whitehead, 1985; Stamp 1989) .
To be fair, some WID practitioners have questioned the assumption that modernization is the solution to the problems of the Sûuth, but they continue to be firmly situated in the
modernization paradigm.
The World Bank (1993) interna1 report
points to the Weed to bring out the centrality of womenls place in the economy whether or not this is measured or valued and to place adjustment in the broader framework of social and economic
policies
that
critically
defines
opportunities and constraints for men and womenIt.
economic While this
calls for integration of gender dimensions into this approach, it does not advocate a fundamental rethinking of development itself. As Goetz also points out, it merely modifies ttwomenls projects to fit the blueprint of standard development projects
. . . and in the end represent [SI
no threat to the existing
power structures and budget allocations within the development establishmenttt(Goetz, 1991:135).
Indeed, when development
experts continue to disregard the need for a re-orientation
and transformation of action and thought, merely pointing out certain inherent sex and gender-related biases in mainstream development
paradigms
does
not
constitutes
effective
criticism.
Women and Development (WAD) The failings and mounting criticisms against the WID regime led to the search for alternative paradigms.
A new
approach to development for women in the late 1970s known as Women and Development (WAD) came mainly from Marxist and radical feminists.
Their
ideas and solutions influenced
policy and project design of many non-governmental agencies
operating in the South in the 1980s (Parpart, 1989) .
While
Marxist dependency theorists called for more self-reliant development,
radical
feminists
advocated
women's
only
development, arguing that women could not develop within patriarchal power structures. The result was the adoption of self-reliant women-only policies which were meant to be autonornous from patriarchal and capitalist structures. Many NGOs who committed to the WAD discourse prided themselves on their grassroots approach to development and their greater sensitivity to the needs of the Third World (Parpart, 1995). Those assistance agencies which took up these approaches asserted the need to limit governmental interventions and to keep development projects to small-scale women only proj ects, controlled by women.
The WAD approaches also advocated a
recognition of subjugated knowledges and began "to adopt a participatory approach to development in order to avoid domination by development experts and the smothering of grassroots points of viewn (ibid:2 3 3 )
.
The W A D approach, therefore, was quite different from the
WID approach.
However, the main criticism against the WAD
regime was the neo-colonial leanings that still came through in the representation of Third World women by development
experts working within this paradigm.
Their representation
revealed a monolithic concept of women of the South, in their application of the conditions of women
or even most
Third World women. .
The tendency
(Parpart, 1995 :232 ;
also was to portray Third World women as hapless victims with
the result that many of the WAD programmes fell into some of the sarne patterns of development practices of the WID regirne.
The WAD professional became the %nowledgeable expertt who .-
supplied answers to the development problems of the women.-' Participation for WAD then became a complex problematic issue with variable meanings and outcornes.
Some institutions
adopting the WAD approach have been successful in involving local participants in planning and implementation of their programmes so that they reflected local, cultural and social and political patterns. have
resulted
from
a
These successes are documented to rethinking
of
the
process
of
participation, and a reconceptualization of the Third World development expertise (Parpart, 1 9 9 5 ; Macdonald, 1995) .
Gender and Development ( G A D )
In the mid 1980s, there were c a l l s for a new approach to womenls development
especially
by
socialist
feminists
concerned with the growing poverty of women and men in the South, and by feminists in the South concerned about finding their own solution to developmental problems. The resulting dialogue was Gender and Development (GAD) which emphasized gender rather than women in development theory policy and practice.
A reconceptualization of the development subject
and reconstruction of the character of developrnent knowledge is reflected to a large extent in GAD approaches.
The GAD
emphasis on both long-term and short-term approaches to womenls development, however, reconceptualization of
is
a
recognition that
the development subject
and
a
the
character of development is not so easily achieved. GAD differs from WAD in that it calls for a gendersensitive approach rather than a women-only apgroach to
development. Advocates of GAD do not see the gendered division of labour and power as natural and so emphasize how gender roles and relations are socially constructed. GAD advocates a
fundamental social transformation of gender roles in
development policy and practice. GAD resembles WID to the extent that its short-term approaches is cast in similar language. In the short term GAD also advocates programmes for education, credit and income-generation (Parpart, 1995) . Unlike WID, however, GAD has long-term goals of challenging established
rnodernization
discourses
and
practices
international and governmental development agencies.
of
It also
seeks to find ways to empower women through collective action and to encourage them to challenge gender ideologies and institutions that subordinate women. Empowerment perspectives advocate the inclusion of grassroot organizations and the redistribution of power to enable the participation of aid recipients
and
Third World
peoples
in controlling the
direction of development. GAD approaches generally advocate a reconceptualization of development that is grounded in the concrete and contextual realities, experiences and wisdom of
women in the South (Chowdhry, 1995).
This type of thinking may or may not draw on Western scholarship, but it is rooted in the experiences of women and
men in Third World countries rather than those of the West. It is one that transcends gender and political practices that
are exclusive. It challenges patriarchyls ideological claims to universalisrn, not with another universalizing tendency, but with diversity.
context '
GAD therefore emphasizes
and
Idifference', and the need to recognize the multiple realities of women, particularly their situated, localized character. Indeed, the focus on gender rather than woman stems from criticism
of
Western
notions
of
gender
relations
in
development theorizing. Scholars from the South maintain that patriarchy is not universal and that women and men are not antagonistically poised against each other in al1 cultures. Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) grew out of GAD perspectives.
Drawing insights from both
socialist and postmodern concepts and f ormulated by Third World feminist scholars, DAWN and other GAD approaches" from
mainly scholars in the South, have offered the gender approach as an alternative strategy to the WID regime.
DAWN was
established in Bangalore in 1984 by a group of activists, researchers and policy-makers concerned with
I1developing
alternative frameworks and methods to attain the goals of economic and social justice, peace and development free of al1 forms of oppression by gender, class, race and nationu (Sen
and Grown, 1987 :9) Sen and Grownts, Development Crisis, and Alternative Visions presents a theoretical articulation of the DAWN project from a feminist perspective of gender and class
(McFarland, 1988) ." The
manifesto
DAWNts
transcended
çome
important
limitations of previous writings on gender and development while drawing on their strengths. DAWN primarily pointed to solutions
that
took
into
consideration
the
particular
experiences of people in the South. Previous writings such as those of Boserup and Rogers implicitly adopted a modernization approach .
They were
unquestioning of
the
process
of
capitalist development itself, did not critique colonialism or imperialism, lacked a historical perspective and stopped short of a class analysis (McFarland, 1988). These criticisms do not dismiss or disparage the work of these authors who made important contributions to changing patriarchal
views
of
development
publications
in their time.
and
were
landmark
Rogers1 (1980) book, The
Domestication of Women, for example, called attention to the implications of having Western trained development plamers in the formulation, design and implementation of development
policies programmes and projects.
These issues are now also
being raised by DAWN writers who are strongly advocating the participation of aid recipients in these important phases of development. However, DAWN maintained that, it waç not just
77
patriarchy that oppressed women in the South.-- As Burce, reviewing Rogers and Boseruptswritings, points out, New forms of discrimination against women are more symptoms than causes of larger problems facing Third World nations; it is unlikely that food shortages, exploitation or general underdevelopment would be eradicated by changes in attitudes towards women (Burce, 1981:502) . The c a l 1 then was for a more political economic approach to
gender and class analysis that included the spheres of both production and reproduction, that examined systematically the effects of capitalist accumulation on the division of labour and woments subordination.
DAWN appeared to answer and go
beyond this demand with its synthesis of gender and class analysis and the examination of the impact of globalization. DAWN
saw
impoverishment
the and
various inequality,
world
crises
financial
and
including monetary
disarray, food insecurity and non availability, environmental degradation
and
growing
demographic
pressure
to
be
interlinked. They examined these interlinked crises from the perspective of the most oppressed of al1 group - those of poor Third World women.
Sen and Grown believed that it was from
the perspective of the yoor woman that the link between the crises and current economic and social structures could be flrmly grasped. The DAWN manifesto examined the effects of capitalism in the form of colonial, postcolonial and the new international division of labour on Third World economies as 7;
a whole and then the gendered impact of these.-DAWN also examined
the impact of
the basic needs
strategieç, population programmes and other such strategies adopted by development agencies and concluded that these generally failed to address the structural problems in Third World economies."
Sen and Grown also examined the problems
caused by food-water-fuel shortages, balance of payment and debt crises, effects of r n i l i t a r i z a t i o n and their effects on
women.
They pointed out the role of women in mitigating the
effects of these crises through their productive roles and the onerous burdens brought to bear on women as a result of SAP programmes. DAWN solutions, visions and methods for the empowerment
of women are also proposed from poor womenls perspectives. DAWN writers sought long-term solutions that are multi-
dimensional incorporating
political, cultural , legal , and
economic frameworks that meet the needs of the poor."
Sen and
Grown believed that the method for achieving empowerment is organizing at global, national and local levels .
Women are
urged to form alliances with interests that address their needs in order to obtain political leverage.'bey also point to the need to be ready to learn from the experience of others as a means of transcending the limitations of previous strategies as indeed the DAWN publication has done. The DAWN theoretical orientations is acclaimed by some as
an achievement (McFarland, 1988 ; Chowdhry, 1995)
McFarland
believes that the work is innovative in terms of gender and class analysis and in its a b i l i t y to examine curent global
social, political and economic crises from Third World woments perspectives i d .)
.
But a closer look at the GAD-DAWN
approach reveals some limitations. Though theirs is a radical approach to development, it is criticised for not challenging the goals and assumptions of modernization and Westernization (Marchand and Parpart, 199514; Hirshman, 1995). Postrnodern
feminism
challenges
the
assumptions
of
Enlightenment thinking, and therefore questions the claims to universalism and 'truth1embedded in WID, WAD and even in GAD approaches as Hirshmants (1995) criticisms reveal. Wbile some postmodern theorists such as Chowdhry (1995), Stamp (1996) and Shiva (1988) believe GAD-DAWN to be the beginnings of an empowement approach, not al1 postmodern feminists agree with these conclusions.
Postmodern feminist theorists generally
agree that while Marxist and socialist feminists may havs
rightly critiqued WID projects in the South as incidental strategic tools of capitalist expansion, they still failed to challenge the issue of modernity.
Marxist and socialist
feminists rarely questioned the equation between modernization and development" even though they criticised international capital and class structure (Marchand and Parpart, 1995; Johnston, 1991). Postmodern feminist theorists argue that, in as much as Marxism and socialism are rooted in Enlightenment thought, so also are development regimes drawing from these perspectives (Hirshman, 1995; Marchand and Parpart, 1995). Hirshman (1995)
argues that DAWN does not represent a plausibly radical alternative to both practice. maintains
conventional development theory and
Hirshmanls analysis of that
DAWN
iails
to
the DAWN
divest
itself
manifesto, of
WID1s
assumptions, especially with regards to their analysis of tdevelopmentland 'nomant.
Accordin- to Hirshman, Sen and
Grownlsuse of the sexual division of Ilabour' as the means of understanding and analyzing Third World womenls lives as well as the focus on Ipoor wornenl lives, uncovers a Western modernist bias, which obj ectifies Third World women denying them agency and creating a hierarchy among different aspects of womenls lived realities (Marchand and Parpart, 1995). ..
Hirshman accuses Sen and Grown of reductionism." analyzing development
enterprise
from
a
In
particular and
privileged vantage point, Sen and Grown follow Karl Marx who analyzed the capitalist mode of production from the vantage point of the proletariat. offspring
of
This reveals the analysis as "the
phallocentric
(Hirshman, 19% :43).
institutions
and
ideologyrl
It keeps with the Marxist tradition and
logic by presenting socio-economic and political freedom for everyone as predicated upon the "emancipation of poor women who are the real victims of race, class and gender oppressionI1 and like the proletariatlsindispensable function in bringing an end
to
capitalism, women
become
the
al1
important
contributors as "workers and managers of human welfarettwhose contributions "are central to the ability of households,
cornmunitles and nations to tackle the current crisis of s u r ~ i v a l ~(Sen ~ and Grown, 1987:18).
Like the Marxian
analysis, it is womenlç labour and effort in nurturing, in reproduction and in food production and processing that sustains Third world societies. Hirshman directs her criticisms to three main issues in the DAWN manifesto: the deployment of the concept of woments 'labourtas the basis of understanding womenls oppression and social subordination; the relationship between labour and the construction of emancipatory forms of knowledge; and the representation of women as victims in the narratives of Western feminisrn and liberal development practitioners. In the first instance, Hirshman accuses Sen and Grown of
essentialism. Sen and Grown, according to Hirshman, attribute the failure of the development enterprise to their grounding in male ethic and therefore inability to recognize the llessential factIt about women.
By opting to analyze the
developrnent enterprise from the vantage point of "poor womentt, and by giving analytical primacy to the concept of womenls
labour, "Sen and Grown.. [make] . . themselves vulnerable to charges of essentialism, foundationalism and ethnocentricismtr (Hirshman, 1995:45).
Womenrs labour is also posited as the
defining category, the foundation of womenls experiences and the grounds for DAWN1s alternative approach to development.
Such
an
analysis
attempts
to
"establish a
priori
an
indisputable natural and innate essence to Third World woments
lives and experiences biological
facts]
but
. . . [which may not be derived from from
secondary
sociological
and
anthropological universals which define the sexual division of labourM (ibid:45).
In seeking to postulate in advance the
kind of experiences deemed important in understanding womenfs lives, Sen
and
Grown
marginalize
and
repress
'other1
experiences that cannot be explained or accounted for in this theoretical logic. In so doing, they implicitly treat labour and womsn as "cornmensurate analytical categories outside of race, class, history and culture. They, therefore, follow the WID literature and many feminists in the North who have sought
to
explain
women's
subordination
in
the
universal
applicability of sema1 division of labour, and patriarchy. Mohanty also criticises this practice.
As she points
out, privileging the semial division of labour is risky business because the flcontentof this division changes radically from one environment to the next and from one historical juncture to anothertf(Mohanty, 1 9 9 1 : 67) .
At the
most abstract level, concepts like the sexual division of labour are useful only as they are generated through local, contextual analysis . . . [because when] . . . such concepts are assumed to be universally applicable, the reçu1tant homogenization of class, race, religion, and daily material practices of women in the Third World can create a false sense of the commonality of oppression, interests and struggles between and among women globally ( i b i d ) .
Mohanty reiterates this argument later, when she employs the notion of political alliances and struggles based on a
recognition of difference rather than on imputed homology of experience, to criticize Robin Morgan's essay "Planetas.
, '' for not having Feminism: The Politics of the 21st ~entury" a sense of experience as socially constructed in accord with different historical contexts. Experience of struggle is as a result defined as persona1 and ahistorical and the political
is limited to the persona1 conflicts among and within womenrs
experiences (Mohanty, 1998). By privileging woments labour, both as producers of basic needs and as reproducers of human beings, as the structural determinant to womentsexistence, as
an unquestionable permanent and transcendent category, Sen and Grown reduce the ltmultifariousreality of llwornents beingu to the single logic of production and labour (Hirshman, 1995:46). There is no denying that certain human experiences are universal facts, but when we take away their historical and cultural context, anything w e Say about them V a n only be tautological... [to suggest that] work is as natural as b i r t h or death
is
to negate
its historicity, its
different
conditions, modes and ends - specificities which matter ...." (Young, 1990 :122) .
There is no denying also that there are
some common experiences underlying wornentsdifferences. What postmodern feminists like Hirshman, Mohanty and Young are advocating is social theorizing that is more reconciliatory of the
presumed
universal
nature
of
gender
experience
(oppression),and the individual concrete experiences of women grounded in their different and often conflicting social
economic and political sit~ations.~"hile
Sen and Grown
caution WID project against adopting concepts of gender that ignore differences and diversities, they fal1 fou1 of the same trap of universalism. They then attempt a political alliance
of diversity by turning round to argue that difference should be set aside as less important that anything that would unite
women to fight against male oppression. Their solution to the political project is the formation of international support systems or global sisterhood, to gain political clout rather than because such a union is a genuine possibility (Hirshrnan, 1995) .
Sen and Grownts analysis of the relationship between labour and the construction of emancipatory foms of knowledge are also questioned by Hirshman.
Concepts like labour and
production which are integral to the theory of the sexual division of power have been challenged by postmodernists as categories
grounded
modernity, which concepts
in
the
culture
of
capitalism
and
therefore preclude their usefulness as
applicable
to
Iother'
societies
including I f
contemporary non-Western non-capitalist societies."
They are
concepts which bearing the baggage of history, and have becorne cultural universals through questionable power moves.
An
uncritical deployment of these concepts to understand the social realities of lives of 'othert societies according tc Hirshman will only distort those lives and culture and serve to subordinate and eraçe what they seek to explain because of
the productivist ideology implicit in these concepts. This productivist ideology represents human beings as
labouring
machines seeking [their] telos in the conquest of nature (including women and
totherst) in order
to fulfil the
capitalist goal of unlimited and unchained productivitytt (Hirshman, 19% :48).
Baudrillard raises the same concern when he asks whether the Vapitalist economy retrospectively illuminates medieval, ancient and primitive societies?' (Baudrillard 1975:86).
As
he explains, because the economy and production are the determining
factors, other
types
of
systems
are
only
illuminated through this distorting l e m , including "primitive societies [even] in their irreducibility to productionIt(ibid.) The specificities that characterize such societies including the magical, the religious and the symbolic are marginalized
in such analysis. The postmodern argument then is borrowing concepts from
any persuasion without recourse or consideration for its cultural and historical limitations leads any such theorizing into the ditches of that paradigm. Marxist
ideology
led
to
In the DAWN case, the
perpetrating
androcentric
and
ethnocentric bias inherent in Enlightenment philosophy. Sen and Grown, by privileging the productive paradigm which is embedded in capitalism, foreclose the possibilities for a more
radical alternative. Just l i k e the WID project, they fail to question the basic premiçe or ontology of Marxist thought that
I1labourItis the essence of "being humanit(Hirshrnan, 1 9 9 5 : 52 ) . They incorporate the historical and philosophical limitations of the Marxist framework which tends to apply concepts to
describe and comprehend particular forms of production to al1 areas of human life, in al1 historical epochs. According to Flax, " M a r x and Marxists re~licaterather than deconstruct the
capitalist mentality by essentializing what is in fact a product of a particular historical and variable set of social relations" (Flax, 1990:155).
Theoretical analyses çuch as
these misrepresents social realities not only in capitalist societies, but also in different cultures. Hirshmants final criticism of the DAWN rnanifesto 1s the representation of women as victims of development.
In the
theoretical articulation of the DAWN project, poor Third World Women are the
Iobjectl of development.
They are also
represented as silent mute victims of their own menfolk who symbolize patriarchal oppression and domination, and who are in league with capitalism, symbolizing the hierarchical,
exploitative structuring of the international division of labour.
These victims only have the help and support of
activists, researchers and policy-makers from the South and North, people dedicated to empowering the oppressed women . This creates the uneducated Third world woman as the Iother1 vis a vis her educated feminist sister whose help is needed to empower poor women.
According to Sen and Grown, grassroots
attempts at collective action have neither been transformatory
nor effective.
They have been tlsmalland fragmentedI1,but
they
the
point
to
fact
that
if
properly
I1guided and
instructedl!,these women could break out of their "traditional subrnissivene~s~~ into "modernityI1 (Sen and Grown, 1987 : 78) . Poor women could then effectively work towards improving the economic
conditions
of
themselves,
their
f amilies
and
communities, and use cultural forms to raise the consciousness of men and women about injustice and inequality ( i b i d . ) . Hirshman argues that these representations do not go beyond
the
narratives of
developrnent practitioners.
Western
feminism and
liberal
For one thing they imply that
Third world women ehare the same cultural space and political rationality as the West.
Secondly, they present the same
colonial self-image of modernist discourse in that Third World wornen are assumed to be able, or even want to participate in feminiçt politics appropriate to their interest, which is also
assumed to be women vis-a-vis men and male establishments. These representations, in effect, construct these womenls collective actions in terms of feminisms s own narcisçist self-image.
Sen and Grown, in al1 fairness, do point
to
the
contextuality of womenls lives. However, they do so in much the same rnanner that liberal development writings, in their
effort to promote modernization and capitalism, marginalize the historic and cultural complexities and specificities of
different societies in the South. Postmodern theorists also
maintain that the DAWN analysis is riddled with the same economistic bias of mainstream development theory I1which is entrenched in the belief that material needs constitute the sole determinants of human existenceIl (ibid: 53). The focus on the economic realm of womenls lives naively assumes and
suggests that when development projects satisfy the basic needs of food, water and fuel al1 other needs will be resolved. This "ignores the specific historical cultures and social setting in which these needs are articulated and precludes any understanding of Third World women in their lived reality as persons in their own rightI1 i988:94).
(Lazreg,
The complexity of the development process and
womenls lives are reduced to the universal category of 'labourfas the procurement of food, water and fuel or 'gender oppressiont as in exclusion, clitoridectomy, limited mobility etc. The result is that the DAWN alternative ideas is bogged down in androcentric Eurocentric thinking that do not in any way present a viable alternative to mainstream development theory or practice. (Hirshman, 1995) . In sum, Hirshman believes that the Mamist orientation in DAWN makes the attempt to go beyond describing the declining
power and increasing workload of women, as much of the WID literature does, a failure .
The underlying assumptions
(ontology) of Marxism in which the DAWN analysis is embedded, dictated their choice and privileging of those categories (epistemology) which, in sharing those basic premises and
assumptions of Idevelopment1 and Iwomen' like the WID regime, proves quite fatal to their analysis .
Postrnodern f eminist
perspectives are not saying that liberal and Marxist theorists are unable to provide solutions to the developmental problems in the South and North. Rather that, any liberal or Marxist fr m o t m r k wi th nlodemfsi/En1 ioh tenment underpinnings: that
tries
to
develop
alternatives
to
current
development
strategies (because these are themselves built on modernist discourses), will be attempting a miserable impossibility. In other words,
the master's tools will never dismantle the
master1s houself (Lorde, 1984)." The GAD approaches and DAWN manifesto remain an important landmark in gender and development theorizing . "
Like Boserup
and Rogersf publications, Sen and Grownts book opened up important and timely issues for debate and analysis in the development enterprise. Revelations about the actual needs of poor women, from Southern womenls experience, perceptive and analysis, vis-a-vis imposed development strategies was an eye opener for most development agencies. DAWN pointed out that the WID approach assumed that women wanted to be integrated
into patriarchal Western mode of development (Lycklama a Nijeholt, 1987) . Another important strength of these Southern feminists writings was the identification of the multiple nature of women l s subordination flsimultaneously on the bases of sex,
race and class as well as their position in the international
economic order" (Braidotti et al, 1994 : 117) .
Their solutions
based on a people-centred approach consequently promotes
women's empowerment within the context of wider international and societal changes ( i b i d . ) .
Such a method of analysis rnakes
it possible to address empowerment of women at the different leveis
of oppressive sLructür-es siriül'coiieoürly .
mL
Illis ï s
important because woments empowerment is located in interna1 and external contradictions of race, class and nationality. DAWN may have polematically chosen poor women as their focus
of analysis but
this methodology advocates a bottom-up
analysis of macro-level experiences of poor, rural and urban women living in the South and links these to macro-economic analysis and vice versa i d . )
.
This type of analysis is
more holistic than the top-down methodologies that have traditionally
infomed
development
policy
and
produced
programmes which were mainly inappropriate to the needs of the South.
DAWN analysis have managed to incorporate social,
cultural, and political micro and macro level dimensions into economic analysis. The idea of autonomous women organizations as vehicles of empowement also remains an important starting point and alternative for grassroots groups to formulate their own
ideas about development.
DAWN writers
have
also
stimulated women from the North to think of alternative visions of development from a feminist perspective (Braidotti et al, 1994).
DAWN and other Southern scholars 'empowerment approach'
to development was not very popular with many governments and
aid agencies because of its potential for challenging both local and global patriarchal power structures (Braidotti et al, 1994).
But their perspectives on empowerment through
participation
has
eventually
found
international development agenda.
support
in
the
In 1991, the Dutch
development ministq took up DAWNts suggestions and fomulated their women in development policy as empowering women to transform gender as well as al1 other relations including North-South relations."
CIDA'ç
1995
WID
policy
also
passionately espoused gender equity and empowerment through participation.
It is interesting that these transitions from
WID to gender equity and empowerment through participation is
now considered priority on the international development agenda.
Chapter Four of this thesis analyzes how these
progressive
ideas
to
women s
development
have
been
incorporated into policies, strategies and practices by CIDA. Before this analysis, the next chapter will present the adoption of a gender approach in CIDA'S policies on women.
CHAPTER THREE CIDA'S POLICIES ON WOMEN AND GENDER
The
Canadian
International Development
Agency
was
established in 1968 when the government of the new Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau upgraded the External Aid Office (EAO)
to CIDA with Maurice Strong as its first president,
reporting to the Secretary of State for External Affairs (Morrison, 1998). CIDA was Canada's response to the economic crisis in the South and has its roots in a history unburdened
by involvement as colonial actor in any developing nation. The creation of CIDA was symbolic of Canada's commitment to development that subsequently led to an expansion of aid programme to most parts of the South making Canada one of the more generous donors among industrialized nations ( i b i d . ) . CIDA's budget "represents three-quarters of the total Official Development Assistance effortn of Canada (ibid:6). Canada has shown in its official aid policy a firm commitment to treaties
of the United Nations and other international organizations. CIDA oversees Canada's relations with UN development
agencies, regional and multilateral development financial institutions as well as multilateral technical assistance.
Like other bilateral assistance, CIDA1sgeneral format for aid is very much donor driven. This means that aid has involved the transfer of goods and services which is offered in the
form of development p r o j e c t s , commodities or lines of credit for commodities and technical assistance. From the late 1980s C I D A t s focus, Like other donor assistance, has shifted from
projects to policies, mainly as result of I M ~ / ~ o r lBank's d focus on structural adjustment programmes (Jahan, 1995) .
CIDA
seeks to promote policies that create an enabling environment
for poverty reduction (CIDA, 1999).
The Agency seeks to
achieve this through its programing priorities centred in the following areas: Basic Human Needs, Infrastructure Services, Human Rights Democratization and Good Governance, Private Sector Development, Environment and Women in Development.
CIDA and Womengs Development
CIDA
links its policy objectives for women to its
overarching policy and programing priorities. CIDA currently supports many projects and programmes targeting women in the South with the aim of promoting equality for women.
This
support takes the form of funding projects directly or financing local
NGOs
which
subscribe to
CIDA1s policy
objectives in implementing these programmes.
A brief chronology of CIDA1s policies on women and development shows that successive formulations are indications
of evolutions of policy objectives and approaches to assisting wornen. CIDA had moved, over the years, from a WID approach to
a mixture of WID, WAD and GAD. Programmes have included both WID-specific and WID-integrated p r o j ects .
The last two
policies, the 1995 CIDA'S Policy on Women in Development and Gender E q u i t y (hereafter WID/GE)
and the 1999 C I D A r s Policy
Gender Equali ty (hereafter GE) , the object of interest in this
thesis, are presented in more detail below. (See also Appendix B.
CIDA first adopted policy guidelines on WID in 1976 and
established a WID policy in 1984. promote
This policy sought to
women's full participation both
beneficiarieç of development.
as
agents and
In 1986, a Five-year Plan of
Action was launched. Efforts to improve understanding of the impact of structural adjustment
on women led to C I D A t s
involvement in a multi-donor coordinated programme, in 1988, called Special Assistance for Africa (SPA) led by the World
Bank.
CIDAts interest in this programme was to promote
awareness
of
barriers
to
womenfs access
to productive
resources and to operate gender as a variable within economic reform (CIDA, 1998d). In 1992, CIDA issued its Interim Women in Development
Policy.
This interim policy arose out of the review of
activities since the 1984 policy. As a result of the I n t e r i m policy objectives, CIDA and the Canadian North-South Institute (NSI) in 1994 played a leadership role in initiating the
Structural Adjustment and Gender in Af rica (SAGA) programme. This was a broader effort within the earlier SPA framework to
improve the design and implementation of structural adjustment
programmes.
The underlying rationale for SAGA was that
incorporating gender considerations in the design of economic reform policy would produce more effective economic policies and lead to gender equality.
In 1995, CIDA issued its WID/GE policy establishing its Division at the Policy Branch in Ottawa.
The 1995 WID/GE
policy sought to incorporate evaluation recommendations of the WID policy and strategies (1984-92). The 1995 WID/GE policy was
instrumental in the assignrnent of WID Specialists to al1
programme offices. This policy went beyond the 1984 policyts
emphasis on wornen as agents and beneficiaries to an emphasis
on gender equity and womenls ernpowerment (CIDA, 1995a) . present 1999 GE policy is an update of the 1995 policy.
The It
follows the conclusions of the review of 1995 policy that advocated the need to "demonstrate clear and sustainable results in prornoting gender in line with CIDAfs policy on results-based managementf1(CIDA, 1999:l-2).
CIDA'S 1995 WID/GE AND 1999 GE POLICIES
Policies
CIDA views its curent Gender and Equality policy as an
important tool in the 21st century to finally eradicating inequality on a l 1 grounds, be it gender, class, race, or ethnicity.
The goal of the GE policy is to "support the
achievement
of equality between women and men to ensure
sustainable developrnent" (CIDA, 1999A:7). 82
Its objectives
include encouraging woments equal participation with men as decision-makers in shaping the sustainable development of their society, supporting women and girls to realize their
full human rights and reducing gender inequality in access to and control over the resources of development ( i b i d . ) . The L E 9 SE p l i c p shmvs a shift i n erqhasis f r û z the
1995 WID/GE policy.
The visible shift is the change from
emphasizing 'gender equityt to pursuing 'gender equality'. While the focus in the WID/GE policy was on gender equity, the emphasis in the GE policy is the eradication of gender inequality.
Women continued to be the centre of the 1995
WID/GE policy in spite of the new label of Igender equityt which would suggest that now the interest of both men and women would be considered. The 1999 policy is a reflection of
the growing recognition of the importance of gender. Both
policies
have
similar
objectives.
Active
participation of project recipients is one major objective. This objective is framed differently to reflect the emphasis of each policy.
Thus, while the WID/GE policy sought to
increase twomentsparticipationt in decision-making processes, the GE policy emphasized advancing 'womentsparticipation with ment as decision-makers in shaping sustainable development of their societies. The 1995 wID/GE policy also incorporated its new emphasis on gender into its existing WID programming, promoting
gender
consideration
among
its
partners
in
development as well as building the institutional capacities
of CIDA to enable the Agency to fully integrate gender considerations into its policies, programmes, proj ects and activities.
The WID/GE
policy objectives also showed a
cornmitment to traditional WID programmes including income generation activities, heal th and family planning services, improving levels of education and skills and gromotino hurnan rights of women. The rationale for the 1995 WID/GE policy stems from four considerations.
The first consideration is the Canadian
Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which supports Canada s commitments to promote equality for women both in Canada and the rest of the world. The second is its cornitment to equity reflecting a move from the focus on equal treatment of the sexes to differential treatment of groups to end inequality. The third, is the recognition of the mounting evidence that focusing on gender and gender sensitive planning is central to sustainable economic development. As the policy States :
[il nvesting in women leads to lasting economic
growth, improving family welfare and a reduction in poverty -
a more equitable distribution of the socio-economic benefits of developmentft(CIDA, 1995a:4). The final consideration is the incorrect assumption about development recipients which
has led to programme failures.
Beneficiaries have been
treated as a tthomogenousgroup, rather than men and women with different needs and interestsm (CIDA, 1995a:4) .
The use of
gender relations as an analytical category shifts the focus
away from viewing women in isolation from men.
Gender
relations tlexaminesthe relative position of men and women in the division of
[labour], resources and responsibilities,
benef its and rights, power and privilegeu ( i b i d . ) . The policy f ramework for the
policy, therefore, was
process not just as beneficiaries but also as actors engaging in the planning, implementation and decision-making at al1 levels.
CIDA was I1not just trying to incorporate women into
existing models of development1I (1995a:S). Participation was perceived to be an opportunity to redefine development . Through participation
the
aim was
to
ilmove towards a
sustainable development that builds on peoplest potentialM (ibid.) .
The 1995 WID/GE policy proposed gender as a cross-cutting theme. Gender was meant to be a broad developrnent theme which linked other development themes and policies. Gender analysis
was therefore adopted as a tool in al1 programme initiatives. In line with this, the policy consisted of two distinct but interrelated components.
The first was the integration of
gender consideration into development initiatives, through gender analysis at both sectoral and macro-policy levels. The second component was the participation of women as equal and active partners in development work through assessing barriers to womenlsparticipation and designing strategies to overcome these.
Woments successful participation and
equitable
involvement in al1 policy and programming activities was to be achieved through special effort by agency staff and partners. The overall requirement of the 1995 WID/GE policy then was the
"[alttaining of wornenrs full participation as equal partners
in the sustainable development of their societies . . . at al1 levelsl t including, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation and results (CIDA, 1995a:6) . The rationale for the 1999 GE policy also stems from the
four considerations of the 1995 policy. There are, however, some new considerations.
CIDA as a government agency was
required to conform to Canada's Federal P l a n for Gender Equality,
a new law approved by Cabinet in 1995, which
committed a l 1 federal departments to promote gender equality
in a l 1 areas including international c~operation.'~In the 1999 GE policy CIDA reflected Canada's commitment to recent
international agreements such as the Beijing Conference. The
GE policy makes reference to the Beijing P l a t f o r m Action, the final document of the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women which represents the commitment of 189 nations to support womenls empowerrnent, guarantee womenls human rights and achieve gender equality: The advancement of women and the achievement of equality between women and men are matters of human rights and conditions for social justice and should not be seen in isolation as a women's issue. They are the only way to build a sustainable, just, and developed society. Empowerment of women and gender equality are prerequisites for achieving political, social, cultural, and environmental security arnong
al1 peoples (United Nations, 1995:paragraph 41).
The GE policy is also a reflection of CIDA1s Policy on Poverty
Reduction issued in 1996. This involved a strategy to reduce poverty which included analysis of the correlation of poverty with gender and other such characteristics.
The 1999 GE
policy explicitly States that attempts to achieve this goal will f a i l if attention is not paid to the different needs of
men and women. The policy frarnework for the 1999 GE policy differs from
the 1995 WID/GE only in its emphasis on gender e q u a l i t y .
The
eight principles i n which it is rooted promotes gender equality considerations as an integral part of al1 its other policies and projects .
This policy, therefore, points out
that though achieving gender equality requires the recognition that programmes a f f e c t women and men differently, gender equality does not rnean women become the same as men. Woments empowerment is advocated as central to achieving gender equality.
Empowerment is achieved through equal
participation of women as agents of change in political, economic and social processes and is deemed essential for achieving gender equality.
However, the policy recognizes
that gender equality can only be achieved through partnership between women and men. The overall policy requirement is that CIDA's policies, programmes and proj e c t s should contribute t o
gender equality, a change from the WID/GE requirement of womenls active participation.
The GE policy consequently
links gender equality with CIDAfs overarching policy of poverty reduction and al1 its programming priorities.
Strategies
Like the WID/GE policy, the GE policy advocates specific z e a s i l r e s te elixtizate ,er,Uer
ineqialitiês.
A g â i i i t h 2 shift iii
emphasis from women to gender is evident in strategies. Both policies
employ gender analysis and collection of
sex-
disaggregated data to inform policy impact and programme design.
While in the 1995 WID/GE policy gender-sensitive
assessrnents mainly determined the differing impacts on women
and men, in the 1999 GE policy it is more detailed.
The GE
policy identifies gender analysis to include examining the relationship between men and women, identifying the different roles played by each in the household, community, workplace, economy and political processes. It also involves assessing the differential access and control to resources and decisionmaking processes as well as the differential impact of projects. There is another important difference in the way the two policies utilize gender information.
In the 1999 policy,
gender analysis is employed also as an indispensable tool in strategies to understand 'local contextl. A knowledge of the context is deerned
Ilvital to understanding
...
[gender]
relations and their connection to the project in tems of
needs, impact and results~ (CIDA, 1999:14). This interest in
local context is a reflection of the adoption or incorporation by CIDA (and international development assistance agencies) of
the criticism of WID and WAD regimes. As discussed in Chapter Two , these regimes have increasingly been criticized for seeing
women
undifferentiated
and
the
Third
concepts.
as
World
Country
homogeneous
prosrammino
became
strategies to ensure that situations of specific contexts were recognized in programming. In the 1995 WID/GE policy, strategies to increase women's
participation combined both integrative and women-specific actions and projects. WID/GE integrated approaches refers to activities where an understanding of gender differences has been incorporated into the overall planning and activities.
In other words, the goals, objectives and implementation mechanisms were participation.
aimed
at
woments needs,
interests
and
CIDA1s definition then of a WID-integrated
approach is one in which a gender analysis has been done, woments issues identified and addressed, measures taken to include women as decision-makers and one in which women make
up
a
greater
proportion
beneficiaries
of
direct
Women-specific
participants
approaches
targeted women to remedy gender inequity.
and
exclusively
In the 1999 GE
policy the strategies employ gender analysis as an integral part of their methodology.
Both policies
employ policy
dialogue
building as strategies for achieving goals.
and
capacity
Policy dialogue
involves actively promoting CIDA1s WID/GE and GE policy in its consultation with partners and in its dealings with developing countries
government,
bilateral
fora.
strengthening
through
Capacity
involves
local, international building
providing
or
training
and
institutional and
learning
opportunities to CIDA staff and its partners to equip them to work with a gender perspective. The GE policy has several additional strategies to achieve its policy objectives. Programrning framework is one tool for ensuring that programming with any country or organization will support gender equality. It also identifies development needs and opportunities in terms of the areas of concern from the Beijing Platform for Action. is employed by CIDA
This strategy
to link its corporate programming
priorities with its programmes and projects.
It is also used
as the criteria for al1 Canadian international cooperation in
specific countries and with its international partners. Program Assistance, another strategy identified in the GE policy, supports economic and sectoral reform in partner countries.
CIDA believes that program assistance should
recognize the differential needs, roles and interests of women and men.
economic
It involves methodologies to carry out gender-aware
analysis
and
initiatives that respond
designing
economic
assistance
the needs and interests
the
poor . Bilateral Programs projects are employed as a means to
support
gender
equality
through
any
of
the
previous
strategies. Multilateral Programs are strategies that solicit and support the partnership of multilateral organizations such
as
United
Nation
agencies
and
the
IMF/~orld Bank, to
incorporate gender equality in their institutional capacity to support gender equality and to use gender analysis in their own programmes.
The GE policy also supports projects of Canadian civil society partners4- involved in operating international
CO-
operation programmes abroad. Finally, CIDA support is given to humanitarian, emergency assistance and peace-building
activities which advocate gender equality results in their work.
This support has encouraged CIDA to build its own
knowledge base of gender-specific needs and interests of people in emergency situations with regards to trauma support, security, food, shelter and health care.
Performance Assesament
The 1995 WID/GE
Policy document did not contain any
information on how the policy was to be assessed, nor were any specific guidelines developed to assess this policy.
The
WID/GE performance review reports, listed in Appendix C, were
prepared by independent consultants in Canada on behalf of the
Performance Review Branch.
Though CIDA has a Performance
Review Policy (1994) which includes the evaluation function, this policy does not specifically address WID and GE issues,
that is, there are no specific guidelines for incorporating WID and GE issues into the Agencyts evaluations. WID and GE
issues are included as part of discussion of evaluation of projects
and
programmes
because al1 CIDA
projects
and
programmes are required to include WID and GE as a crosscutting theme. The GE policy does include a statement on performance
measurement and identifies good practices in evaluation even though there is still no specific guideline on how the policy is to be assessed. CIDA proposes to assesses its performance both at the Corpcrate ~eve1.l~ and at the Branch Level by using the objectives of the GE policy as the yardstick against which implementation of policy is measured.
Branch offices were
also responsible for setting their own results against the general objectives of the GE policy.
Programme and corporate
branches as well as CIDA1spartners and executing agencies are al1 held accountable for the implementation of the policy. Assessments and evaluation would be carried out by the Performance Review Branch as part of their routine. There are however no enforcement procedures (CIDA, 1999b).
As stated
earlier these statements are not guidelines. CIDA has yet to develop specific indicators for measuring progress for the 1999 policy ."
Over the years, therefore, CIDA has s h o w commitment to integrating innovative approaches into its programmes on women.
In 1999, CIDA1s attitude towards gender issues has
become more focused.
The n e x t chapter examines how CIDA has
i n c o r p o r a t e d t h e perspectives of the GAD-DAWN approach i n t o
its own policies on women.
CHAPTER FOUR ANALYSIS OF CIDA'S POLXCIES ON WOMEN AND GENDER
This chapter analyzes CIDAtsattempt, especially from the latter half of the 1990s, to incorporate a gender approach in its policies and strategies on women.
The chapter will
specifically examine the issue of gender and policy discourse, participation and context.
These are issues central to the
GAD approach to woments development as discussed in Chapter
Two. Certain questions will guide this analysis. The first is, how has CIDA incorporated the concept of gender from its previous focus on women, and how have its policy discourses changed
through
this
attempt?
Second, how
has
CIDA
incorporated participatory approaches in each development phase in its efforts to empower women?
Third, how does CIDA
understand Ilocal contextsl in its attempt to address specific needs of the South?
Methodology
There are three sources of information for this analysis. First, are the CIDAts 1995 and 1999 policies on women, the objects of interest in this analysis which have already been thematically presented in the previous chapter. Apart from policy documents, information is also gleaned from several CIDA documents.
These contain elaborations of any of the
three areas of policy, strategy and evaluations which are in sununary form in the policy documents thernselves.
A list of
the documents used in this analysis are attached as Appendix C. The third source of information is from interviews of key informants at CIDA head-offices in Ottawa-Hull.
Informants
interviewed included the Director and one Policy Analyst from the Gender and Equality Division, the Senior Advisor for Capacity Building, a l 1 in the Policy Branch, two officers from the
International Cooperation
Branch
Performance Review ~ivision.'"
and
one
from
the
copy of the topics for the
interviews are attached as Appendix A.
Relevant information
from the other documents and interviews will be referred to in the course of analysis.
Analytical framework
The
analysis
first
examines
CIDAts
articulated
objectives , strategies, and measures of progress to primarily establish whether CIDA puts together a more transformatory programme from previous policies.
Policy documents will be
analyzed to see if they are integrationist or agenda setting, and what institutional and operational strategies are adopted
to incorporate the gender approach." examines
the
participatory
The analysis secondly
measures
adopted
in
the
consultation, planning and policy and implementation phases of the policy.
Finally, C1DA:s understanding of local context is
analyzed. Under this, two main areas will be examined:
Political context - analyses will focus on whether political situations in the South and within the organization allows the irnplementation of these policies.
The basic question to be
explored here is; do particular political contexts allow and provide the space for alternative voices and ideology? Economic context - The f o c u s here will
be
on how
CTDA
recognizes the global economic context within which the South is located.
The question also is, how does CIDA addresç
gender within neo-liberal structural adjustment policies?
It
stands to reason that because of the enormous contribution of global capitalist investments to development in the South some attention should be paid to their practices.
Gender and Policy Discourse
Like other international donor agencies, CIDA'S focus and articulation of policy objectives have changed. Analysis of CIDA policy text and other documents also reveals a shift in
language to reflect the reconceptualization of the development subject. In these last two policies, there is little if any overt negative representation of the 'otherr in the text of policy statements and information documents. Women are now to be ladvancedl and not Iintegratedt (as an afterthought) into development .
They are to be mainstreamed (as the focus)
lempoweredr and through their roles as Idecision-makersl, (agentic beings), incorporated as 'equal participant1 and not beneficiaries
(welfare image), in their own development . 96
Methods
have
been
changed
to
reflect
the
change
in
representation and knowledge production. Strategies adopted in the 1999 GE policy are to include in their programme assistance initiatives active promotion of ttpositiveimages of women and their needs, interests and viewsl!,and to involve tlwomenl s oroanizations . . . . in the dialo-e assistance initiativestt(CIDA, l999a:19) .
on prooramme In other words,
there are to be fewer posters and television images of glassyeyed emaciated starving children and the evident anguish of their equally emaciated and starving mothers, and more on women struggling against the odds to survive (Sawyerr, 1990). The focus has moved from women to gender. Overall policy and strategy indicate a moving away from an integrationist approach to a transformatory agenda-setting approach as measured by the emphasis in the 1999 policies.
While the
focus in the 1995 WID/GE policy was on gender equity and womenls empowerment, the emphasis in the 1999 GE policy is the eradication of gender inequality. The 1999 GE policy shows a growing emphasis on gender rather than women.
There is a
clearer shift in policy from the focus on women in the 1995 policy which in spite of the gender label still pursued an integrationist approach to gender.
Women were still the
centre of the 1995 WID/GE policy inspite of the new label of 'gender equityl.
The WID/GE
programmes were designed to
enable women (but not men) overcome barriers created by gender divisions. The goal of the WID/GE policy as a result was to
strengthen the full-participation of women but not men as equal partners in the development of their societies. The 1999 GE policy is, however, a more visible reflection
of the growing recognition of the importance of gender. This
growing recognition of gender is revealed in the change from emphasizino sender equity to pursuino oender equality and in CIDAts definitions of these two concepts. CIDA defines gender
equity as "the process of being fair to women and menH (CIDA, 1999a:7).
To ensure equity or fairness, certain umeasures
must be available to compensate for historical and social disadvantages that prevent women and men from otherwise operating in a level playing fieldN i
d
.
However, gender
equity for CIDA also meant moving I1beyond equal treatment ..[to]..the differential treatment of groups in order to end and this meant that inequality and foçter a~tonorny~~,
special
measures for women (e.g.women-specific p r o j e c t s ) are often requiredI1 for the WID/GE programmes (CIDA, l995a: 3) . On the other hand, the shift in 1999 to gender equality is with the understanding that "women and men enjoy the same
statusm and are given "equal conditions for realizing their full human rights and potential to contribute to national, political, economic, social and cultural development and to benefit from the results (CIDA, 1999a:7).
Gender equality is
therefore def ined as Vhe equal valuing by society of both the similarities and differences between women and men, and the varying roles that they playN b
d
)
.
CIDA believes that
fi
[elquity leads to equalityl1 (
b
..
As discussed in Chapter
Three, strategies also differed to take into account gender consideration to benefit both men and women in the 1999 policy rather than to use gender analysis to benefit women only.
In terms of institutional and operational strategies, the errphasis ci, ca~acitybdilding icCieatas that t h 2 a,sïîcy
itss:E
is instituting measures to achieve interna1 changes to match up to the new focus in development. include
some
guidelines
on
Operational strategies
gender
disaggregated research information.
analysis
and
sex-
There is also country
programming of specific countries to understand the specific contexts of programmes. And in both policies, CIDA States the use of policy dialogues with local and international partners to promote gender equity/equality. The 1999 GE policy has a statement on evaluation but the specific guidelines are yet to be developed. The 1995 WID/GE policy on the other band, did not have statements of responsibility and
accountability, neither did
it
have
specific information on how the policy was to be evaluated. Successive evaluation recomendations indicate tbat al1 CIDA priority programmes were to have WID and GE as an integral component of projects and were therefore expected to address WID and GE issues in evaluation.
The reality was that
evaluations rarely did this and when they did, the analysis was not systematic, neither was the information provided of su££icient quaiity (CIDA, 1998a, 1 9 9 6 ~)..
In a review of evaluation, llconsideration of progreçs towards WID and GE in assessments of activities, outputs or
results, and benefits, effects and impactsu revealed that only half "of these evaluation reports addressed WID and GE in assessment of activities. The effects benefits or impacts as they relate to women were not addressed in these reportsu . In most cases, the evaluation reports in the sample of some 40 CIDA evaluations did not address
(WID or gender equity)
results, benefits or impacts other than "in general terms. -(CIDA, l999b: 7 - 9 1 . 'This is another indication of the integrationist nature of the 1995 approach to gender.
The
fact that WID and gender equity issues were expected to be a part of al1 existing CIDA programmes, and the fact that they
were in practice not systematically addressed in evaluations, is a tell-tale sign of the de f a c t o integrationist approach of the 1995 WID/GE policy in spite of agenda-setting discourses
of participation and capacity building.
Recognition of Subjugated Knowledges/Participatory Approaches
The 1995 WID/GE policy, in its rationale and framework,
promulgated a more transformatory policy from previous years in terms of its focus on participation. However, a review of assessment documents and information from interviews reveals that a shift in discourse or staternents has not corresponded with a change in actual practice.
The policy "promote[d]
womenls full participation in the development processn (CIDA, 100
1995a:5).
The
policy
States
that
attaining
womenls
participation as equal partners in the sustainable development of their societies requires attention at a l 1 levels including planning, irnplementation, monitoring, evaluation and reçu1ts . T h e Agency aims to foster and encourage women's participation
not j u s t as beneficiaries, but also as actors fully enoaoed in planning and carrying out activities, including decisiond .
making at al1 levelsw b
Furthermore if Itwomenwere to
participate at al1 levels, then there would be an opportunity
to redefine developmenttl, and through fYullerparticipation of women and men, the possibility exists to move towards a sustainable development that builds on peoplets potential1# ( i b i d . ) [italics mine].
Participatory approaches to development still remained an important objective of the 1999 GE policy. The first of the 1999 GE three policy objectives is, I1toadvance womenfs equal
participation with men as decision-makers in shaping the sustainable development of their societiestl(CIDA, 1999a:7). Going by policy statements and discourse, there is no doubt at al1 about CIDAts cornitment to participation.
Interviews with CIDA
staff to seek some background
information on the development of the 1995 and 1999 policies revealed interesting insights .'j Division staff primarily consulted
in policy
The interview with the GE
sought information on who was
formulation and
what
informed the
development of these policies (see topics of interview in Appendix
A).
The
1995
policy,
though
advocating
participation, was developed not through broad consultation but by an interna1 network of specialists who also had a
deadline to meet; the policy was to be developed in time to present at the Beijinz Conference.
Time was s u ~ ~ e s t eas d a
constraint in the development of the policy.
The policy
objectives were also to be in line with recommendations of previous evaluations as well as previous guidelines of the United Nations1 Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development/Development
Assistance
Committee
(OECD/DAC)
Working Party. Considerations other than the views of project recipients also informed the evolution of the 1999 GE policy. development
of
the
1999
policy
was
guided
mainly
The by
evaluations of 1995 policy, federal law" , guidelines of treaties that Canadian government had ratified in al1 the major international conferences including the Beijing Platform of A c t i o n and current trends in international development assistance.
The 1999 policy represents the best attempt yet
at participation. According to CIDA, consultation was broader
and included a network of specialists, other donor agencies, CIDA partners, fifty-three Canadian wornenls organizations and partner NGOs?
An outline of the policy was also posted on
the web in English, Spanish and French, with the aim of
inviting coments from the general public. Gender specialists from South Asia were also invited to comment on the policy. This broad consultation still failed to be informed by the grassroots communities who are the direct targets for the policy.
CIDA acknowledges this failure in their admission - .
that few poor women in the South have access to the internet."
There was only one reported case in Ecuador where a rural development worker actually discussed the policy with some womenls groups in the community in which she worked. 1
was not just at policy development stages that
participation was omitted.
In practice, and at the project
level, participation was still a problem. Experts, recruited to develop gender sensitive indicators for CIDA staff still grappling with the concept of 'gender1,two years after the WID/GE policy, found that:
Agencyts literature, including C I D A f S policy documents, increasingly point to the need for participatory development of indicators, in practice this was rarely done in a systematic way, partly because of the cost and time constraints, partly because of mistrust of stakeholders, and partly because of a lack of methodological knowledge as to how to formulate indicators in -- a participatory fashion (CIDA, 1997a:28; 1997333.' And
yet this product of a fourteen-month research project
found that, devel o p i n g i n d i ca tors i n a p a r t i c i p a tory fashion need n o t be e x p e n s i v e or cornplex, a n d i n the long terrn should lead t o more efficient and effective projects that relate closely to the n e e d s of local cornmuni ties and r e f l e c t their priori ties, a n d
therefore sus t a i n a b l e d e v e l opmen t suppliedl .
.
( ibid )
[emphasis
CIDA'S strategies still look to sources of expertise other
than
local
experts
and
resources
to
implement
programmes. For example, out of ~ightcategories of partners identified to implement CIDA1s health programming, only one category referred to developing country partners who were mainly govemments, civil society institutions and NGOs.
The
other seven categories of partners included four Canadian groups (Canadian experts, NGOs, universities, professional associations,
rivat te
fims including Canadian pharmaceutical
industries and Canadian provincial and regional health boards and institutions); one United Nations technical implementing agencies such as UNICEF, WHO and UNFPA; one group consisting of international NGOs; and finally the World Bank and regional development banks (CIDA, 1996a) Successive CIDA evaluation reports have brought up the failure to achieve the participation objective. The Women in Developmen t and G e n d e r Equi ty 1992-1995: Performance R e v i e w
Report
pointed
out
failure
to
support
"participatory
approaches to development , monitoring and evaluations [even though they] are essential in raising gender issues and getting impact" (CIDA, 1998a:4). This finding, incidentally, had
also been raised previously in 1992 in CIDA,s own
evaluation (ibid.). Another review document, a performance review of CIDA
evaluations, which sought to assess evaluations, pointed out the slow development of participatory approaches in the different phases of WID and GE development programmes. This review assessed also the extent to which observations of a previous 1993-94 assessment and its recommendations had been followed in terms
of
evaluation policy adjustments, in
evaluation design, in irnplementation as well as in the assessment of effects and impacts. evaluations
of
the
implementation
In a sample of 40 of
CIDA1s Women
in
Development and Gender Equity from 1992-1997, the report found this same trend in CIDA evaluation practices (CIDA, 1999b). Examination
of
participatory
implementation practices
approaches
found
that
in
only
the use
32.5%
of
of
the
evaluations reviewed employed some type of participatory approach (ibid:14). The most popular participatory approach used was the inclusion of local partner country evaluators as researchers.
Yet, even when local experts were ernployed only at the research stages of the evaluation, the report found a positive correlation between participatory approaches in evaluations and the inclusion of sex-disaggregated figures and statistics in the evaluation reports. The same has been found to be true also for the extent to which evaluations addressed WID and GE issues
in
assessments
of
outputs,
activities, effects and impacts.
results,
benefits,
Seventy-seven per cent of
evaluations using participatory approaches addressed WID and
GE issues compared to 63% of flnon-participatory evaluations (CIDA,1999b:12). In other words, better quality information
was included when participatory approaches using local experts were employed than when they were not.
This points to the
importance of participation of local knowledges in achieving Yet CIDA has mainly used expatriate
policy objectives.
consultants to do evaluations. performance
WID/GE
reviews
An
examination of al1 CIDAts
listed above
confirms
this.
Evaluations were conducted by management consultants based in Canada."
Yet the review report of the WID/GE policy 1992-1995
recomrnended that practices or variables found to support WID/GE
policy objectives include
the use of local expertise
with a solid background in gender equity issuest1(CIDA, 1998b, Annex
3
c17).
The
few consultants who
employed some
participatory approaches in their evaluation did so from their own initiative and not because there were directives from --
CIDA. ='
Another programme strategy in which participation is still problematic is capacity development or institutional building.
Results related to implementation practices spoke
to uphill struggles in participatory capacity building. Capacity building within CIDA included changes in organization structures by increasing at the decision-making levels, the number and responsibilities of female staff, specialists and consultants to obtain gender equality. The report, however, states that, on the contrary, there was a rnarked decrease in
the proportion of evaluations in which women participated. Though the proportion rose from 42% to 57% between 1989-1992 and 1992-1993, it decreased to 30% for those evaluations conducted between 1995-1997.
Also, none of the eleven
evaluations conducted by individuals between 1995-1997 were conducted by women. The report, therefore, recommended that
any tools or guidelines developed by CIDA on conducting performance management, including monitoring and evaluation, should specify that women be included in evaluation teams and
in evaluation approaches and methodology. Both CIDA programme branches and corporate office rarely employed local experts as resource persons in the training of their staff on gender or .-
other priority programme areas." It is noteworthy that this report also stated that, there "were explicit requirements for incorporating WID and GE into project and programme design, however these were not always enforcedH (ibid:6) .
In other words, though there were
requirements for incorporating WID and GE into project and programme planning and management, " there were no specific
enforcement procedures" (ibid:7). Participation may have been identified as the crux of sustainable development, but it is
safe to conclude here that, as with the WID and GE reporting, with no enforcement guidelines or procedures, there is no
guarantee that it will ever be achieved. Policy may state one thing, as to whether it is carried out is a different matter.
Gender as a Cross-cutting Theme/Understanding of Context
Both the 1995 WID/GE and 1999 GE policies are perceived to be broad development themes which linked other development Both policies advocate that context must
be
understood in any attempt to promote gender equality.
A
sectors.
closer examination however reveals that, the complex dynamics of
context
has perhaps
Programmes and
policy
not
been
recognize
too w e l l
the
effects
recognized. of
social
processes but only up to a point. There are t w o main problems with CIDAfs understanding of context.
The first is the
exclusive focus on interna1 gender relations. The second is the failure to critically assess the international context within which the South is situated. C I D A v s policy dialogues are interested in country and
local social, economic and political policies and practices only in so far as they address gender inequality. Seeking how these inequalities are created in the first place is not an issue
that
is pursued
in policy.
CIDAts concept
of
understanding local context is mainly to understand specific
gender relations in programme communities in order to relate "these relationships and their connection to the project in terms of needs, impact and resultsu (CIDA, 1999a:14). Though the same policy states that it recognizes that development intervention operates within existing "social,
cultural and
. . . political structures . . . [which are not]
homogeneous and which reflect social, economic and political relationships among the people concerned as well as with the outside worldw, the effects of this "outside world" are very left out of these considerations (CIDA, l999a: 14) .
much
Nowhere in policy or strategy does CIDA indicate that it interrogates the development path mapoed out by the IMF/World Bank for the South.
CIDA does not consider the possibility
that the development policies and practices (context) of these international organizations could be problematic .
CIDA is
quite accepting of this development context, and seeks to strategically support "multilateral partners , especially in
..
the field of economic reform
[to] . . mutually reinforce
each otherls effortsH ( i b i d . ) . CIDA believes economic development patterns currently being
carried
out
in
most
Third
World
countrieç
by
international financial and development agencies like the IMF -.
and World Bank are the best paths to development .'-
Policy
dialogue with international development partners such as the IMF/World Bank is, therefore, to support these financial giants
or
Hmultilateral
partners
to
improve
their
institutional capacity to support gender equalitym (CIDA, 1999:21).
Increasing gender awareness and representation is
not a wrong idea.
More women at decision-making levels may
promote gender equality.
My argument, however is that, it
will not be enough to change the general direction of neoliberal development paths within which these women are
-?
1ocated.'- This is a line of argument 1 return to in the next chapter . It comes as no surprise, therefore, that though previous and recent policies have promoted gender equity/equality policies among partner organizations including international financial institutions, very little success has been achieved in these policy dialogues. Successive reviews and evaluations bring up as a constant issue, the failure to address gender issues successfully and effectively in policy dialogue and in structural adjustment. And they cannot because, as I explain in Chapter Five, the Agency is working to achieve equality within structures which are incompatible with its policy objectives and goals.
In sum, CIDAts understanding of the larger context of supra-econornic and political capitalist accumulation within which Southern economies are located is myopic. As a result, the Agency fails to address one of the main sources of these unequal
relationships in the South.
unwillingness
to
problematize
the
The inability or influence
of
the
international capitalist context leads a myopic view of what constitutes gender relations, and therefore, to a polematic emphasis on national macro and micro-level social, economic
and relational dynamics and processes on gender. Questioning how these inequalities are conçtructed in the first place might provide more effective solutions to gender inequities. Like most bilateral donors, CIDA has associated itself
with progressive ideas by incorporating the perspectives of the GAD approach to its policy on wornen.
Yet there is a
marked difference between rhetoric and actual practices.
next chapter will attempt to explain this failure.
The
CHAPTER FIVE CIDA'S POLICIES
-
A
CRITIQUE
This chapter analyzes the findings of the previous chapter through a postmodern l e m .
Chapter Four found that
CIDA ' s attempt to incorporate progressive practices of the
Gender
and Development approach, especially empowerment
through participation and the addressing of specific needs of the South has not been entirely successful. From a postmodern
perspective, I will here seek to illuminate and explain the failings, problematics and possibilities of C I D A t s gender approach to women l s development . Two years ago, an analysis of the history of CIDA and Canadian development assistance came to the conclusion that; Although Canada has frequently experienced both time lags and marked discrepancies between policy declaration and the reality of project implementation, there have been exceptions: in both rhetoric and practice, CIDA has been a leader internationally in wornen in development and gender analysis... . (Morrison, 1998 : 19) . Unfortunately the findings of Chapter Four reveal that some
major discrepancies still exist. CIDA is to be commended for its willingness to adopt new progressive ideas. Development
assistance, however, benefits communities not just by its profession or sincerity, but by the manifestation of the transforming power of its programmes on tne lives of people whom it seeks to assist.
These problems are not unique to
CIDA and the critiques that will be offered here could be of
utility to other b i l a t e r a l
and multilateral development
assistance agencies that are attempting to adopt these transfomative development discourses and practices.
Policy Discourse and Recognition of Subjugated Knowledges a.-- a b ~ ~ &~V 3 t z ~ u p i e f i t FS a ilaiimark or' P = z ~ i ~ i ~a p y ~ -u yathTC.'
*.ClWh
C
1
----la---
recent development priorities and have been incorporated from Gender and Development perspectives and criticisms of Southern postmodern and Marxist feminist scholars. The gender approach to development advocates empowerment through giving women a voice in controlling the direction of their social and economic
development.
Reflecting
this,
participatory
approaches to development have been the stated goals and objectives of CIDA'S policies on women for the last five years.
The analysis of CIDAts 1995 WID/GE and 1999 GE
policies in Chapter Four indicates a clear shift in policy statements and policy objectives towards a gender approach to woments development.
CIDA demonstrates a visible shift in
policy
passionately
discourse
by
espousing
the
active
participation of women in al1 phases of development. What is not so visible is the effort by CIDA staff and policy p l a ~ e r s to entrench this practice and to secure the incorporation of
indigenous knowledge in al1 phases of their development planning. 1 do not think time is the main constraint accounting for
the lag between policy statements and practice.
CIDA has had
ample time to make good this promise because participation is not a new concept to CIDA in its engagement with women in the South.
Since CIDA first adopted a WID policy, successive
policy statements have seen the progression from integrating women as agents and beneficiaries, to empowerment through oarticigation as decision-makers.
Even in the 1976 WID
policy, CIDA was advocating wornenls equal participation as agents and beneficiary and their equitable integration into the mainstream of CIDA1s programmes (CIDA, 1990) . This objective was carried into the 1984 WID policy in which CIDA pledged to be more lfresponsiveto the development objectives of Third World women by supporting their . . . initiatives to improve their situationsft(CIDA, 1986). policy
stated that
the
full
range of
its
The
development
assistance would contribute substantively to the realization of the full potential of women as agents and as beneficiaries of the development process. The 1984 seven policy objectives mentioned increasing womenfs participation in development intervention, raising awareness of wornentsmultiple roles and the need to close the economic gap between women and men. However
this policy
still maintained an
integrationist
approach with no reference to a specific feminist agenda (Jahan, 1995). The revised WID interim policy of 1992 also made claims to the participatory objective, emphasizing the need to incorporate women as decision-makers as opposed to agents and beneficiaries. Participation was the only goal of
the WID/GE policy.
wornen .
The 1995 policy emphasized empowement of
The main revision in this policy from previous
policies was the promise, with this policy, to ensure the "full participation of women as equal partners in sustainable development of their societiesrl(CIDA, 1995a:2). Though this ooal chanses to an emphasis on gender equality in the 1999 GE policy, the new policy still hast as one of its primary objectives, advancing woments equal participation with men as decision-makers.
There is no doubt that participacion has
been and still is an important concept for CIDA, however after
alrnost a quarter of a century, it remains an elusive concept. Participation has been and may continue to be a problem for CIDA.
and
Again CIDA is not alone in this. Most bilateral
multilateral
development
struggling with this problem.
assistance
agencies
are
Many development assistance
agencies, at the 1995 World Summit on Social and Economic Development and Beijing Conference , committed to the total participation by the poorest in al1 key phases of development planning, implementation and evaluation of programmes, so that programmes can address and reflect the priorities and needs of the poor in their o m terms (United Nations, 1999). With few exceptions, many development assistance agencies have been unable to employ the participatory approach in a sustained and replicable way. One reason perhaps is the relative novelty of the
concept
on
the
international development
..
agenda."
Previous to this, the knowledges, policies and practices were
constructed and imposed from the North. Another main reason is that models of participation being promoted by the United Nations, and development assistance agencies, still need to be well articulated in al1 their dimensions and institutionalized with systematic guidelines, a consideration 1 return to l a t e r in this chagter.
The
main
reason
for
the
failure
to
entrench
participation, in my opinion, is that participation is geared towards re-addressing North-South relations, and as a strategy of development, it fundamentally challenges existing power relations. Participation is an essentially political process, but because it is not acknowledged and recognized as such, it continues to be a challenge to institutionalize. This is an important area in which feminist postmodern concepts codd offer theoretical reconceptualization of development. Feminist postmodern theorists maintain that >developmentt has also become a privileged and contested site for questioning and negotiating control of the South's development and North-South relations. Development has become another major category of social life which is contested and politicised.
In the
development enterprise, development discourse, discursive practices,
policies
and
strategies
become
the
context
(contested terrain) within which North-South relations are constructed, reconstructed and transformed Parpart, 1995)
.
(Marchand and
Within the development business there are
important social actors consisting of experts, policy makers,
theorists and writers who work within the dominant development paradigms, governments, state officiais of donor and recipient countries, the public who ultimately fund these projects and the peoples towards whom the policies and strategies are
directed.
These often are locked in differential power
struggles, and conflicting interest of which they may not be aware, their actions in many ways enacting the historical conflicts of North-South relations. The conflicting interests and power struggles are reflected in foreign policy objectives and development discourse which is translated into policies and projects. Development discourse then becomes a series of statements
and
nvisibilitiestl linked
together
as
a
lldispositiftl or a diagram of power (Crush, 1995:57; Escobar, 1992, 1994, 1995; Deleuze, 1988). Development can be located as a discursive field, a system of power relations which produces what Foucault calls domains of objects and rituals of truth. Charting or locating the history, institutions, social processes and economic relations on which the discursive formation of development is articulated reveals a cartography of power relations. Development, historically, was the rhetoric of hegemonic control in which development discourse became the basis for inclusion and of exclusion in political decision making. As the Introduction and Chapter One illustrated, politics has been and s t i l l is imbricated in the historical-political antecedences of North-South relations and representations in
development discourse and practice.
~ecisions about what
constitutes fdevelopment',and what development path the South is to pursue has been the prerogative of the North.
Policy
discourses and practices from the North dictated the course of lives of peoples in the South. The North's ability to dictate these solutions laid in their 'claims to know'.
The South,
historically, has not had opportunity or power to lay these claims. The North has been able to control and even create the Third World politically, economically and sociologically by placing development in discourse (Escobar, 1984). With the adoption of participatory approaches to development, donor agencies have modified
their
discourses
and
discursive
practices to reflect a recognition of the expertise or indigenous knowledges. But as the CIDA case demonstrates a change in discourse has not led to a change in practice. mipowerment through participatory approaches is a complex process
because
participation
itself
is
a
contested,
problematic concept which has many meanings and possible outcomes (Macdonald, 1995; Gismondi et al, 1995; Barker, 1999) .
Participation is very much a political issue that
involves power relations and aspects of control. It is a contested site. As stated earlier, in the development arena, participation in many ways is a strategy that challenges established power relations. It challenges established power relations because participation ideallyi' involves bottom-up strategies that pass decision-making progressively to the aid
recipients.
Against the centralized practices of hegemonic
control, participation decentralises responsibility to local communities. It gives Third World peoples control over their own lives and in the long-term builds self-reliance and, may indeed, lead to the transformation that development has so far been unable to accomplish. Participation qives the peoples of the South the tools with which to fight against oppressive, hierarchized capitalist structures that have mainly exploited and contributed to their poverty and hardships.
The failure by development assistance agencies to achieve participation is because corporate staff are dealing with structures above and beyond
them which they are
unwilling or unable to challenge.
I say this because
power
participatory approaches to development do not start at the corporate level .
It begins at international and national
levels where North-South relations are negotiated and where overarching state policies on development are enacted.
The
role of development agencies in creating the public space for participation cannot be understated and I will address the dynamics of this in a moment. However the ability of CIDA to
effectively institutionalize participation would depend a
great deal on the extent to which the Canadian federal policy structures allow participation. As discussed in Chapter Three, CIDA has its mandate from
the Canadian federal government which dictates the general direction of Canadian Aid in its foreign policies. CIDA can
only institutionalize and make participation an effective strategy so far as it is not incongruous with its overall mandate and the Agency is not hindered by federal policy and ideology.
It is true that the findings of the previous
chapter reveal that the extraordinary effort that should be made at the corporate level to establish participation is yet I am also not by this argument excusing corporate
to be.
irresponsibility.
My contention is that Canada's (and the
North's) political structures do not provide the ideological and political space for the Third World to dictate the tems .-
of aid." present
The general direction of Canadian aid, and CIDAts approaches to development, undenine and hinder ..
attempts to facilitate participation."
Trade expansion and international competitiveness which were the watchwords for Canadian foreign policy throughout the 1980s very much continue to dictate the terms of development -
-
assistance in spite of lobbying efforts'' to change this (Morrison, 1998).
Aid-trade, tied aid and donor-driven
approaches to aid do not allow room for alternative voices or views which would inevitably challenge political ideology that promotes domestic private sector growth at the cost of humanitarian concerns. For example, the strategy of promoting CIDA policies with other partners in development
(policy
dialogue) and making it a criteria for cooperation and assistance can only promote domestic business interests when federal policy is to increase bilateral aid at the expense of
multilateral, explicitly to increase domestic commercial benefits. When the Trudeau government pledged unequivocally to increase Official Development Assistance (ODA) to reach the 0.7% target by resourros
1991, it
thrmgh N M s ,
also promised to channel more
rooperatives an? o t h ~ rnon-profit
bodies (Morrison, 1998). However when the Finance Minister, Marc Lalonde, announced his budget, it was realized that the
government intention was to commit up to one-half of the increase over O .5% to a new Aid-Trade Fund within CIDA i d . . was
The planned ODA was such that, up to $1.3 billion
made available for this new Fund. Now CIDA1s mandate for
the use of this new fund was mainly to actively encourage Canadian private f i n s to seek out export opportunities. Financial packages to CIDA-eligible countries with this TradeAid Fund was to be without regard to country planning o r eligibility status and be aimed at the more affluent Third World (near-NICs) such as Algeria, Mexico, Malaysia and the Philippines. Though the development content for this new hind
was
yet
to be
appraiçed, extensive
consultations with
businesses had already been promised ( i b i d . ) . This example is not to criticise a federal governmenttspolicy to promote its domestic market interests at the expense of humanitarian aid. The point here is to illustrate how difficult it would be f o r
CIDAts corporate, national or field offices, to plan and establish participatory approaches to development, when the
results of such actions would challenge overarching federal policy directions and their own mandate from the federal government.
It is difficult for C I D A t s staff, amidst these
conflicting
pressures
to
attempt
to
strengthen
the
developmental focus of policy. I will now address the dynamics of participation at the
corporate level. As the previous chapter illustrates it will not always be the indigenous knowledges of aid recipients that will inform successive evolutions of development policy. Other
interests
developed.'" reflected
influence
how
and
what
are
If the views of aid recipients are to be
CIDA
policy
planners
would
extraordinary effort to ensure this. agencies
policies
inform
each
other as
terminology and what is not.
to
need
to
put
in
International aid
what
is
appropriate
It is poignant that CIDA
consulted with other bilateral donors to see what the latest trends and terminology were, what they were doing, and to benefit from their experiences in the field that had produced particular effects.
CIDA also sought to keep abreast with
other donors particularly SIDA and NORAD who are also at the forefront of adopting new initiatives. Since such diligence
is taken to consult peers the same should be carried over to aid-recipients if they are indeed considered lequa1 partnersf in development. Failing to consult the opinions of grassroots groups speaks to the political nature of participation. These omissions are a tell-tale sign that perhaps indigenous
knowledge systems are not yet considered as Itruth' in spite of rhetoric about recognition of subjugated knowledges. By such omissions CIDA policy-makers retain Northern hegemonic control in deciding who is heard as legitimate and whose views
are deemed important enough to be heard. It is noteworthy that bilateral, multilateral and NGOs,
before intenational conferences, make attempts to incorporate the
criticisms and writings of development experts and
scholars in their programmes. Usually before these thematic international conferences, donors
submit papers
on new
policies and comrnitments to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development/Development Assistance Cornmittee (OECD/DAC).
These international meetings, in my opinion,
serve as the public space to articulate and publicise the 'latest thingl in developrnent business and to urge them on those who are yet to adopt these concepts. It is interesting that when CIDA submitted its 1999 policy to the OECD Working Party, it still bore WID in its title. The label for the 1999 GE policy changed after experts at the OECD office told CIDA -
-
that they were not current with terminology."
These fora also
dictate the direction of new budgetary plans and what projects are more likely to be funded. Such practices make it difficult to incorporate a bottom-up approach in the development agenda. And it is no wonder that policy statements continue to outpace
action in the development enterprise. And that is why, though CIDAtspolicy discourse has changsd, new policies continue in
the line of previous development discourses to presume to understand and therefore to propose what the South needs. Because much
of
the process
of
participation
and
empowerment comes d o m to the involvement of programme staff, it is important that detailed guidelines be developed in the context of micro-relations of implementation projects.
As
it
is, CIDA has no guidelines or enforcement procedures to implementing this strategy even though successive evaluations recomend this. Important issues that should be addressed in policy guidelines to implement participation should include d e t a i l s of which participatory approaches to undertake and
implement, and how these public/political spaces will be created. trained
Programme staff and CIDA partners should also be in
interactive skills
developing country
and
in
the
specific participatory
dynamics
of
approaches
in
programme implementation. For example, programme staff should be able to assess how people are elected to participate in forums, who has access to participatory spheres and how this access is shaped by other f o m s of social differentiation. Evaluations should be able to assess the nature of the relationship between NGû or programme staff and aid recipients and how this affects the structure and quality of the public discourse. The above mentioned issues become important in the light of the findings of Macdonald1s (19951 study on NGOs and the
problematics of participation.
The Gismondi et al (1995)
study of local versus expert knowledge at a public hearing for a pulp mil1 in North Alberta in Canada, also haç important lessons for the use of public participatory models being promoted by
the United Nations and other international
development agencies. There are several ways in which expert knowledge may subordinate local knowledge. involves public forums with recipients.
Policy dialogue
These serve as the
means to define the values the community associates with specific proposals, and also acts as a forum in which expert opinions on technical
subjects and
community intersect and merge.
the choices of
the
Typically agencies see no
power imbalance between the cornmunity and the agency staff. The assumptions are that the experts present value-free information and that these meetings are non-political. It is also assumed that the outcornes of these meetings would be based on facts and the communityts choices alone unaffected by
questions of power. Gismondi questionable.
et
al, argue
that
these
assumptions
are
Their study showed that public participation
was not a fair and equitable opportunity for the opinions and values of people in the cornmunity to challenge the authority of experts and specialists. The idea that local communities have differing views which are muted because of their role and place outside of the power structures and decision-making structures of society, the idea that by giving them a voice to speak we allow their views, their consciousness, their values
and ideas to enter the contested terrain of public debate, is a fallacy.
It is "a naive view reminiscent of pluralist
ideologyu, because participation is a contested idea, a contested right and practice
(Gismondi et al, 1995:243;
Macdonald, 1995; Barker, 1999) . I n a meeting between l o c a l communities and devehprnent
experts, the experts, their methodology and the use of expert language may become a control mechanism which produces or creates the problems it then seeks to solve. The very process to
empower people,
could
also
be
another
process
of
domination. Discourse and language f o m an important part of this narrowing process. As Cohn explains, professional expert discourses can define what issues are thought about, how these are thought about, "what may be heard as legitimateH,what is credible and "what must remain unspokentt(Cohn, 1989 cited in Gismondi et al, 1995:243).
At such public hearings experts
take charge, employing the authority of their profession to identify which are issues, which are not, which impacts to measure and how they are to be measured and what concerns raised by the community and public to analyze. Bourdieu calls this Isymbolic dominationv - the proceçs of getting ordinary people to accept the terms being proposed without really knowing
that
a
narrowing
of
the
debate
is
occurring
(1992:113). It is the discourses of development experts and
professionals,
their
language,
pract ices,
tools
of
presentation that construct and control questions, issues, 126
debates and perspectives.
As
Ferguson aptly puts
it,
~outcomesof planned intervention can end up coming together into powerful constellations of control that were
never
intended and in some cases never even recognized but are more effective for being
s u b j e ~ t l e s s(Ferguson, ~~ 1990 :19) .
Participation can taka inordinata
ariioüiits
of t
e âs
programme staff seeks consensus on issues in order to reach substantive agreements (Weiss, 1998) .
Taking an active role
to resolve differences can antagonize one group or the other. Which representatives are chosen to speak for the communities,
the agencyts staff and for state bureaucracy who develop policies
to
accommodate
development
assistance?
In
international development, experience reveals that formal community leaders may lack legitimacy (Salmen, 1989) .
They
may occupy formal positions but do not have the trust or allegiance of community members and therefore are not always effective conduits for information to or from the project communities i d . behalf
The chosen agent may act on his own
rather than for the group whom he purports
represent .
Awareness of the politics of expertise,
decision-making processes, of participation
should
be
the
crucial
contested
nature
considerations
participatory strategies in development.
Participation
policy dialogue may not be enough and may require sustained political activity beyond this for a more holistic approach to empowerment .
Developrnent agencies display different understandings of what participation entails and how it is to be accomplished.
My own experience in development work tells me that sometimes project recipients have been able to define what they want and how they receive it. But how and whether this participation flourishes also depends very much on the NGO concerned, their goals and mandate, how they are sponsored, their sponsorsf policies and the relative autonomy from their sponsors and the kind of training their staff has been given in this area. I have worked fully in three different NGOs and volunteered in a number and typically, their participatory policies range
from zero (top-dom methods) to full participation, especially at
the onset of programmes when the NGO
solicits the
cooperation of the local comunity. A lot of factors mediate the amount of participation an NGO incorporate into its programmes. The last NGO I worked with, PLAN International, used
child
sponsorship to
fund
its
activities.
Upon
introduction to the community my mandate was to assess 'felt needsf. This often involved meeting with local people and asking them what they wanted and arranging
(with their
involvement) to provide the financial means and technical assistance to meet the expressed needs.
PLAN, however ,
depended in part on the cooperation of parents
in the
community to allow their children to be photographed for sponsorship advertising and communication with sponsors, as a means of securing money for administrative and project costs .
The other NGO 1 worked with, ADRA-Ghana, had a top-bottom method, It was already well established, heavily sponsored by the USAID and SIDA, and had specific projects it administered. For example, food a i d was given if communities were willing to
plant a number of specified timber trees. Building materials were oiven only t o communities who were willino to p r o v i d e voluntary labour and for pre-determined projects like schools or health projects. Typically communities put in applications
for aid if they felt they met the criteria for help, whereas, with the child sponsorship NGO (especially at the initial
stages), the
project
staff
went
down
to
solicit
the
involvement of the community. This is not to Say that there was
not
a
sincere desire
to help
the
poor, but
that
participation is a complex process and revolves around a wide
range of issues. The kind of sponsorship, t h e r e f o r e , influences whether participatory approaches are used. This is an important area where CIDA can make good its cornmitment to participation by planning, and by systernatic support of its partner NGOs to ensure they employ these concepts in their work in the field. It is also an area where local expert skills can be utilized to reach local people. In conciuding this analysis of participation, 1 maintain that power relations that discriminate against women and
people in the South are not necessarily always included in the dynamics of gender relations of the country.
They can be
practices and omissions in policy discourses of development agencies whose practical interpretation demeans the knowledges and expertise of the South. They c m be power relations which are perpetrated in policy dialogue even in the attempt to involve peoples of the South in decision-making about their
own development.
They often are the dynamics of social
processes which are political but are not deemed so, but which form
the
c
m
of
empowerment.
Policies
professing
participation and empowerment, when consistently neglecting steps and guidelines to effect these, cannot hope to attain Iequality1 or Isustainable developmentt.
This is not to doubt
the sincerity of CIDA or international development agencies, however slow their promises may be forthcoming.
Sincerity
however is never enough. One is never going to get to Ottawa while headed West towards Toronto on Highway 401 no matter how sincere they are about reaching their goal.
C I D A 9 Understanding of Context
Chapter Four found that CIDA1s understanding of 'contextl
was partial.
This failure to understand context results
mainly from two major flaws in CIDA1s policies.
The first is
the failure to problematize Ilocale contextl. CIDA fails to critically assess the international context within which the South is situated. The modernization discourse and theories of SAP is accepted as the best path to development for the South.
The second flaw is the essentialization of gender
relations.
CIDA exclusively focuses on interna1 gender
relations and pays little attention to other relationships which are also unequal. These two problems are complementary and intertwined.
The results of these flaws for CIDA have
been the documented unsuccessful attempts to achieve results within a development paradigm which is incompatible with CIDAfs stated goals and objectives. These criticisms will be
elucidated and explored f rom the pos tmodern perspective of contextualization based on evidence from the analysis of pol icy and independent performance assessment and review
documents in the previous chapter. Context in postrnodern conceptualization is employed in a broad way. often
In postmodern writings, the theme of context is
treated
with
geographical,
emotional, psychological
and
territorial,
discursive
social,
dimensions
and
sometimes a juxtaposition of different dimensions to raise complementary and comparable issues.-C
In other words,
postmodern feminists maintain that context should be analyzed
in an encornpassing rnanner in order to understand al1 the dimensions that have bearing on any situation.
Postmodern
feminist theorists also see context as a privileged and contested site (Rassiguier, 1995; Emberley 1995; Bald, 1995). In the development enterprise, context is an important site for questioning and negotiating control of the South s
development and North-South relations (Marchand and P a r p a r t , 1995).
Development discourse, discursive practices, policies
and strategies become the context (contested terrain) within which North-South relations are constructed, reconstructed and transformed. For the South, the development process becornes the social space or legitimate site for the resolution of social, political and economic conflict. The contested nature of context needs to be recognized in order to understand the
realities, and plan for the complex articulation that surround development in the South. CIDA1s policy daims to recognize specificity.
CIDA
acknowledges that "few communities, countries or regions are
. . . homogeneoustt (CIDA,
The 1995 WID/GE policy
1999:14).
framework requires shaping programmes to addressing practical needs and strategic needs within "specific contextsm with the recognition that these needs and interest I1vary in each context . . "
(CIDA,
1995a: 6).
In
the
1999
GE
policy
understanding local context is deemed vital and is identified as useful especially at the project design stage when planners identify constraints and design projects to meet and measure objectives. Obtaining a knowledge of local context is defined
as "the recognition that development interventions operate within existing social, cultural, economic, environmental, institutional and political structures in any cormnunity or region" (CIDA, 1999: 14). However CIDAts interest in locale context appears not to be primarily in how these factors construct gender relations. CIDA1s interest is rather in how gender
relations operate within
these
contexts.
This
emphasis, manifested in programmes and strategies, is in spite of policy statements like, I1knowledgeof the locale context is vital to understanding these relationshipsm including Yormal and informal power structures within social, economic and political relationshipsn ( i b i d . ) . The
C'u-b
&ALDL
CIDA1s gender
--2
L Z
LAILILL3LtL
r:
-rrr
is linhzd t u the second c r i t i c i s m .
policies
and
programme
strategies
also
polematically ernphasize the effects and impacts of the microlevel social, economic and relational dynamics and processes between men and women. relations
are
The policies assume that gender
naturally
unequal,
that
in
al1
social
interaction between men and women, there are likely to be inequities. The underlying assumption feeds the strategy to
look for these inequities and address them in more equitable programmes for the different sexes.
As a result, advocacy
with international (and local) partners in development is geared
towards
"ensuring
that
programming
frarneworks,
assessments and evaluations of multilateral organizations systematically consider gender equality as a cross-cutting goalu (CIDA, 1999 :21). Unequal access to resources and power is a vital factor in the subordination suffered by wornen, but so is the hierarchical structures that institute or reinforce these structures. CIDA has sought in p o l i c y dialogues to promote gender
equity/equality policies among partner organizations including international financial institutions with very little success.
As
the previous chapter found, evaluation reports bring up as
a constant issue, the failure to address gender issues
successfully and effectively in policy dialogue and structural adjustment.
in
My argument is that the Agency is
unsuccessful in this because the context within which it is working
to achieve equality are
inherently hierarchized
structures which are incompatible with these policy objectives and goals. Jahan
(1995) argues that two main reasons why CIDA
evaluations of past programmes have found the agency least successful in addressing gender issues in dialogue and in structural adjustment is because these dialogues generally dealt with macro-economics and sector policies, while there was little relevant data regarding gender equality.
agree with these argument but only up to a point.
1 would
CIDA is now
doing every thing to obtain systematic information on gender relations including actively promoting gender analysis in al1 programmes, collecting sex-disaggregated data by class, race, caste, ethnicity, age, culture, abilities and disability. The 1995 and 1999 policies are steeped in gender equity/equality
analysis.
1 do not doubt the importance of systematic gender
analysis but would argue rather that these policy dialogues
are not addressing macro-economic and sector policies in their entirety."
I would argue that the very same problem is likely
to be identified in subsequent evaluations in s p i t e of systematic gender data analysis and indeed they are.
The
WID/GE
Performance R e v i e w B e s t Prac tices Study : F i n a l Report,
carried out by independent consultants for CIDA concluded that, tfmainstream projects that have successfully integrated a gender perspective and that support gender equity still appear to be rare within CIDA" (CIDA, 1996~24). There are of c c ~ ~ r cseverz1 e g t h e r TO=ÇCCS
fc r this .
,x. r2aszz :chich is
nn
argued in this analysis is that CIDA's development agenda
largely fails to systematically explore the context of global macro-economic and sector policies in which the South is located. The lack of success in policy dialogue and structural adjustment
can be attributed to the flaw in policy that
accepts context as unproblematic. SAP and the rnodernization discourse on development are seen as the way forward in the South's development. The Agency is attempting transformation within exiting paradigms and sees no need to find alternative routes to development.
CIDAts failure may be attributed to
the fact that its policy objectives are operating within a context or paradigm that is incompatible with policy goals and objectives. Gender equity/equality goals and objectives are operating within paradigms which are inherently sexist and are failing to effect change because CIDAts policies fail, in the f irst place, to problematize the very direction of developrnent of the IMF/World Bank.
The adverse repercussions on women (and
men) of neo-liberal neo classical paradigms that underlie
economic reform policies and SAP prograrmes of the ~ ~ F / W o r l d Bank are well documented. - Gender bias is inherent in the SAP ' I
theoretical assumptions.
These marginalist neo-classical
economics, base their perceptions of how people operate in labour, capital and product markets mainly on male experience .
This is not surprising as they are ernbedded in the experience of patriarchal industrialized economies at a certain epoch in history (Sparr, 1993) .
The centrality of this presupposition
to structural adjustment is that policy-makers have assumed women's unpaid domestic work is infinitely free and flexible irrespective of how resources are allocated (Elson,1987,1991; Moser, 1993 and Antrobus, 1988 cited in Sparr, 1993). This falsity has brought hardship on women especially in countries which have submitted to IMF conditionalities. These theories also have traditionally ignored social mores and male-female power dynamics and their influence on the economy. The results have included increased male control of women to
-
7
meet development directives. -
SAP theoretical assumptions
also perceive household to be harmonious units and pays no attention to the gender compositions and power dynamics inside the household.
However women and men are economically and
politically unequal according to Sparr and the joint utility function that households are assumed to share has different social welfare implications for intended benefits of aid.-' Households do not react to market çignals as the theories assume.
The gender bias of SAP is seen in the multitude of
empirical evidence detailing its impact on women .
The
compounded impact of these policies have touched,
. . . womenls and girl's health and safety; educational attainment; income; employment; working conditions; access to land; marital status; family relationships; mental health; self-concept; birth rates; marriage decisions; use of time; where they live; migration decisions; access to and use of public services; and their understanding roles and responsibilities in life (Sparr, 1993: 20-21). It is important to note that the effects in a l 1 these areas of womenfs lives have been negative. Loss of husbandst jobs have meant women have had to look for sources of income generating work in addition to their main work and housework (Moser, 1993) .
Privatization affected women more that meri
because women held the majority of positions in the state service sectors.
Working conditions have deteriorated for
women widening the wage differential between men and women (Hatem,1993; Manuh, 1993 ; Jayaweera, 1993 ; Sparr, 1993) . Decrease in job opportunities in the formal sector has pushed more women into the informal sector where there is no job security or social security benef its (UNICEF, 1989 ; ATRAC, 1988 ; Tripp, 1992; Antrobus, 1993) .
--
Women become poorer. '
Womenls unpaid work has escalated (Moser 1491). Agricultural expansions and export cropping have not always benefitted women (Floro, 1993). The need to help out much more at home, as their mothers seek extra sources of income, has meant a reduction in school work, lower achievement levels and higher school dropout rates for girls more than boys (Moser, 1991;
United Nations, 1989) . There has also been a marked differential in mortality rates between the sexes as infant and
child mortality
increased for girls (Mahmud and Mahmud, 1993). Woments health and mental health has s u f f e r with a worsening of domestic violence and stress (Moser, 1989, 1991).
With increasing
debt, women have bcrn the shame and harassment of borrowing, selling off or mortgaging assets set aside for their old age to pay household debts .
Household structures have changed
with an increase in women headed households as males migrate to find jobs. This empirical evidence is just the tip of the iceberg. Effects and impacts have sometimes worked to reinforce each other.
Structural adjustment has proved to be extremely
exploitative of women.
Men in the South have also suffered
but women have borne the brunt of adjustment.
Women are
doubly disadvantaged by the sexist nature of SAP rooted in Western ideas of economic development and patriarchy.
SAP
fosters women subordination. Moreover SAP has been criticised for having a "cookie cutterm approach to economic solutions (Sparr, 1993:31).
Critics have consistently argued that the
mode1 does not work, at least for Sub-Saharan A f r i c a , and is internally contradictory ( i b i d . ) . This is a difficult paradigm for any policy which clairns to recognize difference and specificity to locate in.
Policy-
makers at CIDA should be alarmed at the social implications of
such an approach for the people the Agency has pledged to
assist. In the light of this overwhelming evidence, how much of IMF/World Bank policy should CIDA support if it is sincere in its goal to bring about l1achievement of equality between men
and womentl (CIDA, 1999:7)?
The Agency
should be
advocating for alternative routes to development in its policy -'
dialogues with these multilateral development partners.
SAP
have been well argued to be unworkable for many countries of the South especially Africa.
Critics point out the lack of
attention to structural transformation, and the exposure to the vagaries of the international economic environment that the conditionalities of these programmes carry with them. Among the organizations outspoken in these criticisms are the United Nations Economic Commission of Africa, recipient governments, and NGOts, local experts and scholars - the very partners whose valued opinions CIDA fails to effectively consult in the development of its policies. This leads to the issue of CIDAts understanding of political conditions or contexts for the success of their policies.
The two main issues to be explored here are the
extent to which particular political situations in the South and within the organization provide the space for their
implementation.
and
operational
strategies have concentrated, and rightly so,
on building
CIDA1s
institutional
institutional capacity to advance gender equality.
At the
institutional level this has included "encouraging women s
participation throughout the organization and developing strategies to increase their representation at decision-making levelsI1 (CIDA, 1999a:20). Through this programme, CIDA also supports partners to develop their own I1capacityto undertake gender analysis at the policy, programme and institutional levelstland "provid[el assistance for developing capacity at the national and sectoral levels to collect and make available sex-disaggregated dataN ( i b i d . ) . These institutional changes focus on processes within the organization and not enough on the larger structures of Canadian federal government policy which feed institutional policies.
However it is very clear that federal as well as
management support are both crucial to changing the general direction of aid.
As discussed earlier, CIDA like other
bilateral donors is
embedded in its national political
structures.
is
Policy
ideological and
though no
one
conceptual ideology predominates, the rationale for C I D A f s policies identifies that policies are dictated in part by international treaties ratified by the Canadian governrnent and
by changes in federal laws.
Staudt maintains that while
institutions have their own particular ideology these are in -turn shaped by national politics (Staudt, 1998).
Canada's female representation levels are higher than some countries (Staudt, 1998).
Canada is able to cornbine
interest group, ideological and state cornmitment inside various state bodies that address equality agendas and on
which representatives of womenls organizations sit (Gelb, 1993; Vickers et al, 1993 cited in Staudt, 1998).
From these
alliances CIDA and womenfs organizations have been able to recommend an advisory committee to increase project benefits to women.
Though Canada s political structures provide the
space to politicize gender, there are still major problems with the general direction of Canadian aid that hinders attempts to facilitate capacity building. Capacity building is viewed by CIDA staff as a broad concept informing development assistance.
In other words, a l 1
development assistance should be seen as some form of capacity building. Some of CIDA1s present approaches to development, -.
however, undermine capacity building. '
Arnong the adverse
practices to capacity building are the disproportionate use of expatriate personnel, tied aid which stifles initiative, donor-driven approaches to aid and the strategy of promoting CIDA policies with other partners in development
dialogue) and making it
(policy
a criteria for cooperation and
assistance. Many of these overarching policy directions may be centralized in federal departments rather than corporate national offices or field offices in recipient countries. Increasing womenfs representation
within
organizational
structures and at decision-king levels has definite benefits. However with policy objectives to build capacity within organization and in recipient countries, some of these adverse practices need to be reversed to enable effective capacity
--
building.
"
CIDA management has the opportunity and mandate
to inform federal and ministerial policy. strategies will
occur
responsive to the
in those
Transformatory
institutions which
felt needs of the recipients.
are But
management and policy-makers first need to listen to the voices of the grassroots of aid recipients before they can effectively advocate their concerns at
the federal and
national levels. The second issue, briefly, is the extent to which political
situations
in
recipient
countries
irnplernentation of C I D A f s policy objectives.
allow
the
1 question the
political will of governments who are in the process of reshaping their economies to an open-market system to initiate policies
that
are
incompatible with
these
free market
objectives. For example, how do we reconcile the political cornmitment to privatisation and other IMF individualistic policies with the goals of using these same governments as CIDAts partners , to provide equitable service to very poor
comunit~es? Governments of the South with whom CIDA works to administer its programmes are committed to agreements with global financial institutions which virtually tie their hands and ability to pursue such paths to development. CIDA is purported to have been critical of SAP. Any such
claims to criticism would need to be critically analyzed to
see whether and how it mounts an effective challenge to modernization paradigms of IMF/World Bank.
My readings and
analysis of CIDA1s 1995 and 1999 policy and assessment documents, and information from interviews do not tell me that what has been done so far, in the area of women's development,
constitutes an effective criticism of discourses on development.
the modernization
CIDA1s initiation of Structural
Adjustrnent and Gender in Africa
(SAGA)
in 1994, was mainly to
improve design and implementation of SAP in Africa.
The
underlying assumption of SAGA was that I5ncorporating gender considerations in the design of econornic reform policy is a matter of economic effectiveness as well as of equalityI1 (CIDA, 1998d) .'"
gender
This accepts and does not
challenge the basic assumptions of this economic reform policy as 1 have been arguing above. The rnoçt recent initiative, the Gender and Economic Refoms in Africa Program GERA (l996-2OOO), also follows in the lead of SAGA. GERA is a network of researchers, trainers and advocates which seeks to increase the capacity of African
women and their organizations to research, analyze and influence economic policies from a gender perspective ( i b i d . ) . However the ability of GERA to mount an effective challenge to international capitalism remains to be seen. the potential to begin such a process. participatory
initiatives
are
being
GERA may have
1 Say this because supported
in
this
prograrme. The current GERA secretariat based in the NorthSouth Institute, was being moved to an African institution by the end of 1998.
Organizations i n sub-Saharan Africa were
asked to apply to serve as a secretariat and manager for GERAfs next stage.
At a GERA and Af rican Development Bank
CO-sponsored workshop in February 1998, the focus was on
(ADB)
discussing
alternative
gender-aware
economic
policy
frameworks.
Another public meeting held with local NGOs,
policy-makers and the donor comrnunity, debated gender and economic policy
( i b i d .)
.
Students from several African
countries were also hired to assist in collecting information to f i l 1 in research gaps in GERA'S existing research base on gender and economic reform. African organizations have been invited to submit proposais for possible GERA support.
If
CIDA does not make its current ideological policy direction a criteria for such support, perhaps the discursive space will now be created for alternative voices in the South to be heard .
As it is, the present support of modernization
discourses does not allow the creation of this discursive space .
In concluding this chapter, 1 will reiterate a few points.
Countries in the South typically locate in the
context of global capitalist practices.
Their chequered
history with capitalism are important factors which have dictated
the nature
of political, economic
and
social
disarticulation in the past and which largely explains the structures of poverty evident today.
Context should look at
both micro and rnacro level dynarnics in a l 1 its dimensions because they are often imbricated in each other.
Gender
relations would have a different sort of dynamics if they were not influenced by hierarchized exploitative structures of international capitalism with its unending cycle of crises. The bottom line is, CIDA in policy and in strategy, fails
to
challenge
modernization
discourses
and
concepts
of
development and this omission has serious implications for the successful implementation of its own policy objectives in the Third World.
CIDA, like other development assistance agencies
continues to locate in the developmental pattern mapped out by the IMF/World Bank for the South and do not consider it worthwhile to engage in any dialogue with these institutions to consider other options to development. CIDAts concept of operationalizing gender as a variable within the matrix of Third World economic reform therefore is to improve the design and implementation of structural adjustment programmes by advocating
that
it
be
gender
sensitive
(CIDA,
1998).
Programmes therefore support capacity building within partner institutions
to
ensure
gender
equality
within
these
institutions and to train their staff to carry out Ifgenderaware country economic anaiysistl CIDA, 1999:18). Gender concerns do intersect al1 developrnent areas and sectors, but dealing with patriarchy or unequal opportunities between the sexes does not take away poverty.
As Burce
rightly points out, male attitudes and societies
practices
affect only the differential impact of these on women, however these
. . . foms of discrimination are more symptoms than
causes of larger problems facing Third World nations; it is unlikely
that
food
shortages, exploitation
or
general
underdevelopment would be eradicated by changes in attitudes towards womentl (1981:5 0 2 ) .
Burce made this criticism against
liberal solutions to woments development being advocated by earlier WID liberal theorists such as Rogers and Boserup. But the criticism still holds for present policies because there
has been no directional change in essence. This goes back to earlier arguments that discourse may
have changed but it has not brought about transformation or emancipation from hegemonic development practices.
It is
f a l s e to think that a change in discourse would mean a de
facto change in policy. Analyzing transformatory development strategies from the postmodern perspectives of the politics of participation and context, reveals inherent differentiation
and power relations that are continually played out in the development arena and in North-South relations. These power relations should be acknowledged for what they are so that effective challenges can be mounted to them if developrnent assistance is to alleviate not just temporal needs but the long-terni development needs of the South.
CEfAPTER SIX CONCLUSIONS
The main goal of this thesis, was to inform the debate
about the potential contributions of postmodern feminist thought to gender and development theory, policy and practice.
This thesis sought to accomplish this mainly in two ways.
The
f irst was by examining, from a postmodern perspective, how
CIDA has incorporated strategies and criticism of the Gender
and Development approach in its policies on women in the last five years, and using these assessments to address the debate on the usefulness of postmodern feminism to gender and development.
The second was, through an analysis of a
chronology of development theory and practice, to illuminate the
contributions
of
f eminist
postmodern
criticism
of
development. This thesis also explored certain hypotheses. It is important to make an important caveat before I present my conclusions.
This thesis is written in quest of
empirical information to inform the debate on ferninist postmodernism and development. By taking part in this debate 1 am in no w a y saying that 1 have become an authority in this
realm, neither are the opinions expressed here in any way meant to settle the debate. A mere five chapters in any M.A. thesis cannot possibly treat comprehensively what volumes of books, articles and journals and conferences have failed to
settle. However, in academic scholarship, no one can garner a monopoly of truth and knowledge over al1 others. We still
need to listen to each other. But, as legal scholar Phillip Johnson points out, to enter a field of intellectual arguments is to accept the risk that we may be proved wrong. But accepting that risk is the inescapable price for making any meaningful statements about the world. . . . . Those who will not take that risk end up saying nothing at all, like the violinist who stops playing for fear of hitting the wrong note (1995: All
social theorizing can be understood to encompass package deals which combine interlinked claims in respect of the nature of the social world itself (ontology),the nature of the knowledge in respect of that social world which might be obtained (epistemology), the manner in which such knowledge might be secured (methodology) and finally, the use to which that knowledge might be put by particular agents in practical action within the social world (practice) (Preston, 1996 :4).
In development theorizing, these package deals dictate the structuring of development discourse, policies and practices of the development enterprise.
The production of knowledge
and solutions to development has been until now, a Northern claim, occurring mainly within international development agencies, bilateral donor agencies and the countries within which these are situated.
In recent years transformatory
development paradigms have been adopted in which development, as an empowerment concept, shifts decision-making to peoples of the South and development discourses towards North-South partnership .
Ferninist postrnodern criticisms of development
has played a part in this apparent shift. The claims of usefulness of postmodern theorizing for gender and development is its ability to fundamentally challenge these package deals, that is, the ontological and epistemological foundations of development theory and practice (Marchand and Parpart, 1995). As discussed in Chagter One and Two, the development enterprise, whether drawing on liberal or Marxis t perspectives iç mainly embedded in Enl ightenment thought. Development is perceived as a unilinear path where people in the South adopt Western political and economic systems.
A realization that the modernization discourse of
development has so far failed to yield expected successes, and that it may neither be appropriate, desirable or achievable has influenced the shift in recent developrnent discourses. Application of postmodern concepts in analyzing CIDAfs policy and strategies illuminated the imgortance of rethinking the foundations
of
modernization
development discourses and
strategies.
It also revealed the practical applicability of
postmodern concepts t o development. The claims of development are such that it needs both
conceptual formulations as well as action. Development is a twin process of socio-economic development design and delivery and
political
decision-making.
Development
oriented towards achieving practical results. theory translates into policy.
is
equally
Development
Policy has important effects
and impacts on the lived realities of people because it forms
the institutional basis for strategies and there are practical results of such actions.
Postmodern feminist endorsement of
the adoption of ernpowerment strategies by Third World scholars and by grassroot organizations is a practical alternative to the top-dom strategies adopted by WID and other rnodernization
------- t ~ ]
a r r n v n a chat
-Fr-
? y ~ - m y i _1
s
.
X ~ ~ - r ap l. ~.. n+r*n a n + b
Empowerment perspectives advocate grassroot
organizations
in
policy
the
inclusion of
decisions
and
the
redistribution of power to enable the participation of aid recipients and Third World people in controlling the direction of development. Such an approach is able to incorporate the strengths but
not
the limitations of
the modernization
theories of development. The postmodern focus on difference and the power of narration, and their ability to explore dimensions of other categories like ethnicity, race, and age, in addition to those of class and gender, could provide valuable insights for development scholars and practitioners because
it
affirms
l'the
multiple
realities
of
women,
particularly their situated, localized characterft(Chowdhry, 1995:39).
The postrnodern approach
to
subjectivity in
development practices also places agency as central in social action by placing responsibility and accountability with persons, something anti-racist feminism, in a teleological manner, fails to accomplish."
Postmodern theorizing is not characterized by theoretical extremism of one kind or other. In essence, it is a synthesis
of many ideas from different traditions."
The postrnodern
feminist emphasis on discourse and representation as solutions to hegemonic practices has important benefits.
Discourse
analysis of WID policies and literature revealed the effects of WID s embeddedness in liberal discourses in perpetrat ing womenfs subordination. C h o w d h l ( 1 9 % ) ;
for example: reveals
that colonial and neo-colonial discourses in+ WID policies led to gendered developrnent projects that in fact disempowered the women it sought to help.
The postmodern criticism of the
Western creation of binary distinctions is also shown to sustain the hierarchized
dichotomization and
opposition
between North and South and between male and female. Colonial structures, institutions and images generated over
centuries, form
the
legacy with
which
subsequent
development theorists have comprehended the situation of the Third World.
1 agree entirely with feminist postmodern
theorists that discourse analysis is an invaluable tool in exposing hegemonic discourses in development.
Discourse
analysis should, however, not be seen as an end in itself. As the analysis of CIDA1s policies discourses in Chapter Four revealed, a change in policy discourse does not necessarily lead to a de facto cessation of hegemonic practices in NorthSouth relations.
In other words, exposure of colonial
discourse and misrepresentation does not constitute in itself effective f ighting of hegemonic practices .
Policy is still
being dictated mainly from the North, coated with the rhetoric
of empowerment and participation.
CIDA's policies still
support hegemonic and hierarchical capitalist practices and policies while purporting to fight inequalities and empower the poor whom these practices subordinate. Discourse analysis still remains invaluable to exposing the hegemonic character of knowledge production. The analysis throughout this thesis illuminates the
essential political character of development. Policy tends to be ideological and therefore subjective.
The development
enterprise has so far been ttunwillingor unable to establish criteria for recognizing, correcting and avoiding errorl1 made by policy mistakes (George, 1988:264; Sparr, 1993) .
In the
wake of changes in the international development discourse and political priorities, employing postmodern concepts to analyze these changes provided
tools to
identify new areas of
subordination. By applying a postmodern reconceptualization of participation, Chapter Five not only illuminated the problematics of adopting a participatory approach, it also pinpointed
the
inherent
counter-hegemonic character
of
participation and the probable reasons for CIDAfs inability or unwillingness to institutionalize it.
Participation was
dernonstrated to be a strategy that basically challenged hegemonic practices of development enterprise.
CIDAts and
most donor agenciesl failure to make good this pledge may be attributed to the fact that participatory approaches to development potentially challenge global political-econornic
power structures, powerful ideological structures which these agencies are unable or unwilling to challenge. The
findings of
hypotheses
stated
this
at
thesis
the
lend
beginning
support this
of
to
the
thesis.
Examination of the genealogy of development theories and practices illustrate the fact that oender relations and oppression in the South are also located in specific unequal relationships generated by global economic and political institutioris operating in Third World countries, and that these specific forms of power relations and contexts relates to
the
historical-political antecedences of
North-South
relations. The provided
postmodern
conceptualization of
the
to
development.
tools
reveal
context
the political
again
nature
of
The analysis of CIDA1s failure to address the
specific needs of the South also illuminates the fact that the nature of economic remedies and intrusion in the lives of women by
international aid agencies and NGOs
political
and
this political
nature
is not
is often adequately
addressed even in recent development policies and strategies.
In development theorizing a comprehensive approach to context is useful in providing adequate explanations and solutions to development, as rny attempt to explain the different development patterns of sub-Saharan Africa in the context of time and space, earlier in Chapter One elucidates. Context
plays
an
important
role
in
the
development
enterprise's ability to achieve transformation and sustainable development. The dynamics of the ongoing processes of global political and economic restructuring by the IMF/World Bank have exacerbated poverty in the South. These super-structural contexts
should be
addressed
by
aid
agencies
if
any
t r a n s f o m a t i v e development and a p a r t n e r ç h i p betwsen N o r t h and
South is to take place. This thesis demonstrates that international as well as nationally situated and specific socio-political and economic analyses and strategies need to be adopted which address the social realities of beneficiaries of aid.
Socio-historical
contexts, and their relation to international as well as to local institutional and political forces, form a more holistic picture of the contexts within which Southern countries locate.
The influences of a l 1 these processes need to be
identified in any understanding of local context.
CIDA
however takes a partial approach to local context.
As a
result of this approach, CIDAts recognition of local context is limited to addressing gender relation w i t h i n specific socio-economic milieux without addressing or challenging international macro
economic and political processes in
shaping and constructing these relationships.
By failing to
address the influences brought to bear on the majority of people in the South by the ruling interests of global capitalism, both of CIDA'S 1995 WID and 1999 GE policies f a i l , in
many
important
ways,
to
be
cross-cutting
themes
intersecting al1 development areas and sectors as they claim to
be.
Without
addressing
these
global
financial
institutions, development assistance continues to be
of
benefit to the South only as short term, temporal solutions that slow d o m underdevelopment and makes the South available a little bit l o y e r for the continued exploitation of olobal
capitalism. So, is postmodern feminisrn able to offer useful political
strategies to development? Does postmodern feminism provide political answers to development?
This thesis demonstrates
that it does. The ability of postmodern analysis to reveal the political character of development, as demonstrated in this thesis, points to postmodern feminism as an effective oppositional discourse. Some feminists, including certain postmodern feminists
such as Nzomo, Barriteau
and ~dayyagiri, ?' believe
that
postrnodern feminism can only be relevant to gender and development if it succeeds in showing its potential for achieving political unity .
The apparent obsession with
difference, acceptance of the partial nature of a l 1 kriowledge and subsequent recognition of alternative and previously silenced voices and claims, bas led to concerns about the ability to maintain a unified feminist political project. C r i t i c s of postmodern ideas, who have called into question the very
idea of postmodern politics, maintain that a theoretical
perspective that rejects a concept of the rselffas unified or
as a coherent identity, surrenders any basis for political mobilization (Nicholson and Seidman, 1998) . Feminist postmodern approaches to development did arise out
of
calls
a
for
'differentf approach.
Feminists
sympathetic to postmodern thinking perceived that a strategic enoaoement
between
feminism
rhoughr would
and postmodern
transcend both perspectives rather than form a mere alliance of the two (Marchand and Parpart, 1995).
It is t m e that both
perspectives have sought to develop new paradigms of social criticism that do not rely on traditional philosophical underpimings. However, while postmodernism has been focused on philosophical criticisms, feminism has been more interested in political questions
(ibid.) .
But
to
perceive
the
contribution of postmodernism only in political terms is to sacrifice the benefits of this amalgamation for unspecified political gains. 1
also
do
not
think
that
it
is
a
sociological
contradiction that a theor). that emphasizes 'differencet,as postmodernism does, should be able to achieve political unity. Difference could actually conçtitute the fulcrum for a more effective coalitionally based activism. And this is what an engagement with postmodern analysis should primarily be perceived as leading towards. Marchand and Parpart argue that political action grounded in difference, and open to the limitations of both knowledge claims, "could be more effective in the long run, both for its capacity to build alliances with
oppositional groups, and because it would (possibly) be more difficult for the state to repress or co-opt such decentered alliances" (ibid:i29). However in building alliances certain problems will exist which are not resolvable. The encounter between feminism and postmodernism provides an arena where difference can be celebrated without sacrificino the search for a "broader, richer and more complex and multilayered feminist solidarity . . . . which is essential for overcoming the oppression of women in its Iendless variety and monotonous similarityr (Fraser and Nicholson, 1990 : 35) . Feminism
is
categorization.
a
political
project
that
relies
on
Feminism has been largely about achieving
1 iberation for the category
' womanl who suffers oppression
from the category 'men1 (patriarchy). The postmodern emphasis on difference and its de-essentializing and decentering tendencies makes it inevitable that it would provoke conflict with political projects that rely on strong classificatory systems such as gender, ethnicity or race or class (Rattansi, 1998).
social
Classificatory systems in human sciences and the sciences
have
been
employed
to
construct
and
reconstruct boundaries and to broaden and narrow boundaries about themselves and ' others '
i d .) .
These however are
embedded in the truth regimes of Enlightenrnent thinking, which are quite vulnerable to the deconstructive criticisms of postmodern analysis. Difference speaks of multiple feminisms and the need to
legitimize ferninist language in its usage among diverse women of the South and North (Staudt, 1998).
As Nzomo herself
confirms, postmodern feminist discourse rightly points out that women are not a hornogeneous category.
They are
differentiated by diverse cultural, social, economic groupings based on class, ethnic and racial identities. The result of these differentiations is that gender subordination varies in t e m s of how it is experienced by al1 women.
Evidently an
understanding and a recognition of difference and diversity is important for any p r o j e c t that works with a category that is so diverse as Iwoment. This is an understanding feminism in the past has failed to achieve but which is now being offered as achievable in this alliance with postmodernism. Of course the postmodern distrust of the subject poses a few problems for feminists whose theories are predicated on subjectivities grounded in woments lived realities as are standpoint and anti-racist feminism. feminisms diversityt.
are,
in
essence,
advocating
Ironically, these Idifference
and
Standpoint theorists Say wornen's experiences are
not the same, while anti-racists and black feminists are saying differences in tcolourlmake a big difference in the category 'womant. This tells me that, if anything, feminism should be least suspicious of analysis that emphasizes diff erence .
The obsession with difference is the very
characteristic which gives postmodernism its strength
-
the
power to reveal new relationships, new structures in changing
contexts (Tong, 1989). Recognition of difference in feminism can only respond to the different needs and concerns of different women as "defined by them for themselves~ (Sen and Grown, 1987:19). Diversity should still be able to build on a common opposition to gender oppression and hierarchy which is only a first but important step in articulatins and actino
upon a political agenda (ibid)." Feminism has problems with postmodernism because feminism is essentially a political project. And politics is perceived to be effective when it has numerical support.
But we al1
know that, even in politics, the general will is not the will of all.
Diversity may not be an important concern in the
acquisition and control of power.
However, in a political
project such as feminism which seeks to fight injustices, the
' general will
concept cannot be an acceptable compromise.
Certain adaptations may need to take place in the alliance. It is true that feminism started out as a political movement. However feminism should not still hang on to political activism as its only raison d'etre.
Every
project or
organization continues to exist in space and time only as it adapts its goals and objectives to re-invent and transform itself.
A feminism that maintains that political unity is
essential in a postmodern age, is basically falling into the trap of foundationalism, essentialism and Euuocentricism. To hang on to political unity is to essentialize the political over al1 other reasons to exist.
Postmodern analysis in gender and development points out that the nature and dynamics of gender relations differ across
cultures and the answer may not always lie in focusing on gender power relations. As research has found, women and men
are not always poised antagonistically against each other. This means that the political question is no longer the most
important question to ask in a diverse global world.
This
sounds a death knell for feminism if its sole aim is the political.
1 believe postmodern feminism is offering a
rethinking of existence, and rnay perhaps be the wake-up cal1
to feminism to re-invent itself.
Introduction 1. By Boserup (1970) and other women. 2. The sensitivity to ecological and environmental issues and their relation to the livelihoods of the poor especially women in the South, stimulated the debate on women, environment and sustainable development. Women in the South were perceived to bear a special reiationship with the environment. They depended ori the l a d f o x food water and fuel to sustain their families. Environmental degradation severely affected women. In the North, this recognition gave birth to debates on the nature of feminism and ecofeminism. At international development conferences the debate was on Southern women mainly as victims of the environmental crisis (Braidotti et al, 1994) .
3. The term 'Enlightenment thoughtl is summarily employed to describe major characteristics of Western knowledge and philosophy since the eighteenth century. Enlightenment thought is associated with the belief in progress or modernity, dualistic or dichotomous thinking characterised by the ordering of concepts in binary oppositional pairs, in which the first-term is superior to the second. It is also associated with making a definite distinction between objective reality and subjective interpretation as well as the search for a single grand theory to explain the world (Marchand and Parpart, 1995). 4. Foucaultls concent of discourse draws from several traditions
including Marxism, çfructuralisrn, linguistics and the philosophy of Nietzsche. The term 'discourse' is used in different ways in the social sciences. The classification provided by ~oÜsins and Hussain (1984) for its uses includes the analysis of speech and language to elucidate social dynamics in socio-linguistics. It is also used to explore the relation between human subjectivity and language. It 1 s again employed to examine the epistemological problem of the relationship between knowledge and reality. Finally it is used in Marxist ideology to refer to the rnechanisms of social relations including their discursive and non-discursive practices and their relation to processes of power. S . As 1 have also found in my own research (a statistics path analysis paper tlDeconstructingIdentity: Aboriginal Women and the Politics of Self-Govermentu) in which analysis of data extracted from the 1991 Aboriginal Peoples survef pointed to similar conclusions. 6. Fem .nists,mainly from liberal and Mamist perpectives which are f irmiy embedded in En1 ight,enmentthinking, have opposed postmodern
ideas.
Liberal feminists who produce policies for the W'IDregimes,
see improvements in the status of women within the structures of Western thought, and generally refuse to accept the "possibility that 'modernizationJ and 'progress' may be unobtainable and undesirable goals in a postmodern world" (Marchand and Parpart, 1995 : 4 ) . The Marxist feminists' complaints rnay be summarized in Sylvia Walby's criticism that upostmodernism in social theory has led to the fragmentation of the concepts of sex, race and class and to the denial of the pertinence of overarching theories of patriarchy, racism and capitalism...", while the rejection of metanarratives is "a denial of significant structuring of -". ne-: Lez-.= - . * . (133S : 2 ) . r anthropologists, on the other hand, maintain that feminist theory, especially in the contributions to the creation of the "Other" and long standing critique of Western notions of "truth" have always dealt with postmodern concepts. Feminist anthropology, they argue, has more to offer feminism than postmodern theory which they believe to be inherently sexist (Sharpe and Cohen 1989 cited in Marchand and Parpart, 1995). Postmodern feminists have responded to this by pointing out that, ironically, for "feminists looking overseas to the non-feminist 'Other"'the reference Y s not so much to patriarchy as the non-Western woman" (Ong, 1988:80, cited in Standpoint theorists, such as Marchand and Parpart, 1995) . Brodribb (l992), Harding (1992) and Smith (1990), have also felt threatened by the postmodern assault on the subject's ability to know. Their fears stem from the fact that standpoint theory is predicated on the f emale subj ectivity grounded in women's daily lives. The standpoint critique of male hegemony is entirely basea on feminist/feminine knowledge of women's lived experience ..-TC
. C-.
LU
LLLCLC
------- --"
C L L L ~ A A A L A ~ L L L
+
e t i i ~ l ' i i S t
7, Such as the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), the World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF), foreign governments and non-governmental Organizations (NGOs).
8. Even though some like Gunder Frank (1979) and Samil Amin (1974; 1977) called for more self-reliant developrnent in the South. Chapter One
9. For detailed information on the emergence of early development theories up until the 1970s see Colin Leys' The R i s e and Fa11 of Development Theory (1996). 10. And can also be traced to nineteenth-century theological discourses in which development waç seen as redemption, merging Christian and Enlightenment discourses which reified modernity to planetary cause. 11. Roxborough (1979) gives a thorough discussion on the basic tenets of these theories. 12. In this analysis the World Bank and IMF are discussed together except where specific distinctions are necessary. This is because
of their complementary roles, identical ideology and sirnilar objectives. While the IMF under Article 8 of its statute is enjoined to promote trade and liberalization of forms of international payment and to remove exchange rate restrictions, the World Bank has been concerned with eradication of poverty and acceleration of economic growth. With the economic crisis in the 1980s the IMF and World Bank have synthesized roles under the Structural A d justrnent Programme (SAP). 13. These arguments are more extensively presented by Asante (1993). These are oversimplified here as they are not the focus of this thesis. They are however important analyses that contribute to
a fuller understanding of the postmodern criticisms. 14. It bears a great resemblance to the development paths laid out by previous colonial governments. IMF/World Bank appeared to continue where colonial governments left off, only now with a carrot and stick approach. 15. Gold mines in Ghana declared by the state to be unprofitable and bought by LONHRO as part of the privatisation programme quickly turned out to be one of the most profitable ventures made by the Company less than 2 years after the transfer. 16. See Okogo (1989) article in "Structural Adjustment Policies in African Countries" for a theoretical discussion of adjustment policies.
17. USA declared themselves free from Britain in 1776, but it was not untiil 1798, after the war with Britain that the world recognized USA as an independent state.
18. That is, it is a documented fact that capitalism creates unequal development wherever it is practised (Sklair, 1991; Mouzelis, 1988). However, we do not have underdeveloped economies that have operated independent of the capitalist system for us to make cornparisons and make solid conclusions. For this reason these factors alone cannot be the only reasons for underdevelopment, but it is evident that capitalism is exploitative and leads to unequal development wherever it operates. 19. The 'feminization of labour' characterizes this period when the world labour market structure changed. 20. Theçe analyze different theories on the nature of the postcolonial state.
21. This was the thesis in my Msc. dissertation in which 1 established a definite relationship between the IMF/World Bank and succession of military and democratic regimes that have assumed power in Ghana since independence.
2 2 . Kwame Nkrumah led the coalition that brought d o m British colonial rule of Ghana. His government was deposed by a military coup dfetatplanned by the CIA of the USA. Efforts by Mozambiquefç socialist government to bring about social transfo m a tion was severely hampered by FRELIMO rebel forces equipped and supported by capitalist Apartheid South Africa. The activities of the CIA in Africa have been extraordinary. This has included supporting the pro-West political parties in Angola to depose the Marxist Popular Movernent for the Liberation of Angola which maintained tenuous control wi th Soviet and Cuban assistance. In central Af rica, the CIA has been involved in sponsoring military and interna1 coupmakers, political assassination plots, technical assistance for presidential bodyguard and security apparatus, combat and combat support personnel, supply of arms and related equipment.
23. What is left is siphoned into Swiss bank accounts by the ruling capitalist class.
24. As happened in Ghana between 1978-1979. The 'Yentua policyt (we shall not repay) of Acheampong repudiated what he called 'bad debtsr and unilaterally rescheduled the rest. In a quiet 'palace coupt only Acheampong, the head of state was removed. He was replaced with General Akuffo and another attempt began to submit the economy to financial discipline including a significant 58% devaluation and prompt repayment of external debts. An IMF team arriving in Ghana to assess the extent to which their recornrnendations had been implemented on June 4, 1979, were met on the same day with another coup, led by the ranks and junior officers of the Ghana Armed Forces, who overthrew the Akuffo regime, set up a firing squad and summarily executed the majority of Acheampong's government. From that tirne, Ghana moved from a period of non-cooperation with the IMF to the longest period of full collaboration. This same governrnent has also ruled the country since 1979, transformed itself from a military regime to a democratic political party with the support of the British and Arnerican governments whose international elections monitoring team have consistently declared every elections won by this party 'free and fair' .
Chapter Two 25. Of course rnost development theorists believe that their work is
a science and not a reflection of the econornic and political commitments of capitalism or Western societies. 26. See articles of Chowdhry, Ong, Mohanty, Lazreg in Marchand and
Parpart op cit. 27. And continues to be the main reason for the failure to mainstream women in its policies.
28. The World p ut rit ion project for low-weight children provided direct nutritional supplements for 3 years in six districts. The project relied entirely on the communitiesl womenls volunteer groups to do the cooking cleaning and serving, however this labour was never factored into the projecttssuccessful efficiency rating.
29. Parpart (1995) cites the case of a foreign funded NGO delivering primary health care in Burkina Faso in the 1980s which focused mainly on imparting scientific medical knowledge to villagers, ignoring local medical knowledge and practices. The result was that dependence on the PHC experts increased while the public health training component of the project had no impact. It was not surprising that the women involved in this project reverted to traditional health practices when left on their own. In the end the project integrated the women more into government established bureaucracies than fostering womenls self-reliance. 30. A l s o called Empowerment Approaches 1
(Marchand and Partpart,
abc\
31. McFarland (1988) believes DAWN to be more a political economy of women approach. 1 do not think a postmodern analysis precludes It actually advocates the the political and the economic. importance of locating (but not foregrounding as Marxisrn does) any analysis of development in these social processes.
32. While Rogers focused on patriarchal structures in development planning, that is, male development expert and plamers and the resulting 'home economicsf projects they implemented in the South. Reviewers of Boserup and Rogers1 writings therefore called for a theoretical framework that did not see the elimination of patriarchal attitudes as the panacea for woments subordination or underdeveloprnent. 33. It found, for example, that whereas land privatization generally placed Third World economies in unfavourable positions in the international economy, women had the extra burden of reduced access to land because of the increase in commercial farming (McFarland, 1988). Increasing mechanization of food processing reduced women s employment and income while alternative jobs in multinational assembly plants tended to be dead-end and low paying. 34. For example, because planners had ignored womenrs perspective, and the social structures within which reproductive activities took place, they failed to understand woments mixed responses to family planning attributing it to traditional mindedness of Third World Women. McFarland mentions the role of children as assets as workers, as old age security, as heirs of family property as well as the unsatisfactory nature of the birth control methods that were being offered as some of the factors that plamers should have taken into consideration. Many of the birth control methods being promoted were quite unsuitable for the climatic and female
nutrition and sanitary conditions of Third World countries. Researchers showed for example that I U D s inserted in rural women under insanitary conditions and without proper after-care led to heavier bleeding exerting undue toll on women who were already undemourished and suffering from iron deficiency anaemia. The end results of inappropriate contraceptive rnethods were s e r i o u s side effects and even infertility (World Bank, 1984; Pettigrew, 1984) 35. Some of the solutions include more national self-reliance,
stricter control of transnational investments, debt reduction, demilitarization or the reduction of militaexpenditure and reversing internal inequities. 36. The authors also argue that the crises of developrnent rnay inadvertently have forced empowerment of women because poor women
have gained internal resilience for collective non-violent action. shedding traditional subrnissiveness in the process. Women have organised using traditional cultural forms to raise the consciousness of men and women about injustices and inequality (McFarland, 1988). 37. The tendency, as stated previously, has been to see development as "straightforward, linear process in which a nation or people moved from underdevelopment . . . . to full development . . . based on the Northern modelIf (Marchand and Parpart, 1 9 9 5 3 1 ; Johnston, 1991) .
38. Sen and Grown propose that, any alternative development theorizing and practice should begin from the vantage point of "poor womenm because "[tlhe perspective of poor and oppressed women provides a unique and powerful vantage from which we can examine the effects of development programmes and strategies . . . . . evaluate the extent to which development strategies benefit or harm the poorest and most oppressed sections of the people.. . [and] judge their impact on a range of sectors and activities crucial to socioeconomic development and human welfareN (ibid:23-24). Sen and Grown argue that it- is Ilquite natural to start with womenIt , because they constitute the majority of the poor, . . . the economically and socially disadvantaged in most societiesH ( i b i d ) . It is women who are the "most oppressedIt and who suffer Ifonaccount of class , race and nationalityIt and who therefore provide the link in understanding the chain of oppression (ibid:20). Womenls work should be the Nsecondlrfocus of analysis as it 'is vital to the survival and ongoing reproduction of human beings in al1 societies~ (ibid:24). Poor women struggle to "ensure the basic needs of their families . . . [and] . . . it is their aspirations and struggles for a future free of the multiple oppression of gender, class, race, and nation that can form the basis for the new visions and strategies that the new world now needs (ibid:9-10). The provision of minimum basic needs should then be the guiding principle for al1 development policies and as women constitute the human element
linking the availability of food, rural energy resources and water, they should be placed at the centre of development practice. 39. The introduction to her much acclaimed book S i s t e r h o o d is Global : The I n t e r n a t i o n a l Women's Movemen t Anthology. Mohanty's criticisms are also directed at Bernice Johnson Reagan's essay "Coalition Politics : Turning the Century" in Barbara Smith's anthology, Home Girls: A Black F e m i n i s t Anthology. Both essays, though di£f erent f rom each other, also foreground analytical categories which address issues of cross-cultural, cross-national differences among women. 40. A related issue here is the extent to which feminism c a n be a viable political project given the diverse experiences of women's lives. This issue is addressed later in this thesis.
41. A s well as preindustrial, feudal societies according to Baudrillard (1975).
42. This is in actual fact the title of an article by Audre Lorde
"The Masters Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's house" in S i s t e r O u t s i d e r , 1984. Freedom, California : Crossing Press. 43. McFarland
(1988) believes DAWN to be more of a political economy of women approach. 1 do not think postrnodern analysis
precludes the political and the economic. It actually advocates the importance of locating (but not foregrounding as Marxism does) any analysis of development in these social processes. Braidotti et al. (1994) point out that these progressive transformations were surprisingly confined to policy approach to WID and not extended by the Dutch to other areas of their development cooperation. 44.
Chapter Three 45. The Canadian government had ratified al1 major international
human rights treaties and had committed also to international agreements such as the Uni ted N a t i o n s Declaration on Violence A g a i n s t Women, hence this new enactment (CIDA, 1 9 9 9 a A ) . 45. Exampies given of a WID-Integrated Approach include fisheries projects which carry out not only f i s h harvesting but also associated activities usually carried out by women such as preparation of gear and bait, fi& processing and marketing; an economic policy reform project in which gender interests and impacts a r e incorporated into the policy process; a schola ,ship programme in which any problems that would hinder women £rom participating are identified and addressed in the project de ign.
47. Societies including mainly NGOs, unions, professional associations, educational institutions, private sector firms etc.
48. The word 'corporate' is employed by CIDA to refer to its headoffices at Ottawa-Hull and is used with the same meaning in this thesis. 49. This was clarified in interviews with staff in both the Gender and Equality Division, Policy Branch, and the Perfcrmance Review Branch Documents such as the CIDA ' s G u i d e to Gender-Sensitive Indicators and the P r o j e c t Level Handbook: The Why a n d How of Gender-Sensitive ïndicators, developed 2 years after the 1995 policy, were to assist CIDA staff and partners to develop gendersensitive performance indicators for proj ects and programmes.
Chapter Four 50. These included Diane Rivington, Director of the Gender and
Equality Division, Policy Branch, who took part in the development of both policies, Carla Casteneda a policy analyst in the Division, Ok-Kyung Pak, who previously worked in International Cooperation and took part in an unsuccessful attempt to develop a participatory development committee, Peter Craol, currently developing participation techniques to incorporate indigenous knowledges, Heather Baser, Senior Advisor in Capacity Development and AntiCorruption and Martine Villeneuve from the Performance Review Branch. 51. This analytical framework was developed by Jahan (1994, 1995) and also employed by Staudt (1997, 1998), in their analysis of women, development agencies, policies and -programmes. Jahan's framework was -developed as part of a project commissioned by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development/ Development Assistance Cornmittee (OECD/DAC) expert group on WID to elaborate the concept of mainstreaming.
Integrationist approach is one approach adopted by organizations in their efforts to mainstream women in development. The key çtrategy here is to build gender issues within existing development paradigms by widening women and gender concerns across a broad spectrum of programme priorities. Overall development agenda is not transformed in spite of these gender considerations (Jahan, 1995) .
Agenda-setting - is an approach that implies the transformation of existing development agenda with a gender perspective. The key strategy is the participation of women as decision-makers to bring about a fundamental change in the existing development paradigm (Jahan, 1995). Institutional Strategies - are interventions to bring about structural changes within the organizationç and governments to
ensure that policy objectives can be implemented. The instruments and procedures that have been used to facilitate WID/GAD have included accountability, coordination, monitoring, evaluation and personnel policy (Jahan, 1995) . Operational Strategies - are the output-oriented instruments to achieve a change in the work practices of organizations and governments. Operational strategies that have been adopted by aid agencies include guidelines, training, research, special proj ects, analytic tools, country programming, macro-policies and policy dialogue. 52. This was a report of an assessment of women in development and gender equity in CIDA evaluations prepared for the DAC Working Party on Aid Evaiuation in October 1998. As I stated in the outline, there was no specific evaluation guideline for the 1995 policy. This omission made the policy quite difficult to evaluate.
53. The interviews helped clarify some information contained in the document sent to me from CIDA. 1 requested documents on the evolution of both policies, but was told there was no documentation on consultation activities. 54. Canada's Federal Plan for Gender E q u a l i t y approved by Cabinet earlier on in 1995. 55. This information is from the interview with head of Gender and Equality Policy Division, Policy Branch. CIDA sent out to these organizations an outline of the GE policy and invited their comments which they incorporated into the final write-up.
56. Diana Rivington admitted this freely in interview stating also that there was no way of knowing that NGOs who responded to the invitation solicited the opinions of the communities in which they
worked. 57. Both documents, Guide to Gender-Sensi t i v e Indicators and the Project Level Handbook were researched and compiled by Dr Tony Beck of the Institute of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia, and Dr Morton Stelcner of the Department of Economics, Concordia University, for the Division of Women in Development and Gender Equity in CIDAts Policy Branch. 58. Perhaps the only saving grace here is that those recruited have been independent consultants, which improves the chances of some objectivity in evaluation. 59. Probably did so from their own interpretation of the participatory focus of the policy objectives that participation should form part of any attempt to evaluate progress. One consultant, Francoise Coupal, who employed participatory methods in
her evaluation of some CIDA programmes in Haiti did so not because CIDA required her to. 60. From interview with Heather Baser Senior Advisor in Capacity Development and Anti Corruption. 1 appreciate the candidness of Mrs Baser who forthwith told me that C I D A 1 s present approaches to development undermined capacity building. Mrs Baser made the important point that al1 development assistance in her opinion is essentially some form of capacity building.
61. This view is expressed in interviews with the Director of the Gender and Equality Division at CIDA office in Hull, Quebec. The answer to why CIDA policy dialogues had not made any challenges to structural adjustment policy is that CIDA believes that Third World countries who submitted to structural adjustment discipline of the IMF/World Bank are better off than those who had not. 62. If supporting multiiateral institutions also means f inancial support, then I would argue that aid money could be better spent. Chapter Five 63. 1 Say relative novelty because participatory çtrategies did not
start with these conferences. NGOVs have long been recognized as practitioners of development work in which grassroot participation flourished, especially during the W A D regime. 64. 1 Say ideally because, in the effort to empower, participation can result in disempowerment as l a t e r arguments reveal.
65. A consideration 1 return to later in the discussion of context, 66. CIDA staff also identified the adverse practices mentioned
here .
67. By some CIDA staff concerned about the humanitarian content of such development policies, and by Canadian scholars and political activists located in successive federal governments.
68. Changes in management to a result-based management at the end of 1995 led to inclusion of a statement on progress measurement (evaluation) in the 1999 policy. Previous 1995 policy had not included a section on assessments and the policy d i d not lend itself very well to performance review.
69. From interviews. 70. See the articles by Rassiguier, Emberley and Bald in Marchand and Parpart, 1995. 71. Jahan also States that during dialogues concerns were raised about the need to achieve gender equality but the policy
implications of achieving such goals were not systematically explored. 1 agree with this statement in essence but I believe we are coming at this from different angles. 72. Brief discussion of SAP in chapter one. The empirical evidence
in support of the negative impact of structural adjustment on Third World economies and especially on women is too numerous to do justice to here especially since this is not the focus of the argument. For a feminist critique of structural adjustment see Sparr (1993) Mortgaging Women s L i v e s . 73. Failure to include gender relations into economic analysis have led to aggravation of family conflict and domestic violence. Expanding agricultural export crops where female household labour is the primary source of labour has led to marital conflict in certain societies. Women in certain countries where they are traditionally economically independent have seen women refuse to contribute more labour in attempts to expand export crops if it would not result in additional income for them. Men have resorted to more hegemonic control of women to increase output (Sparr,1993). 74. An example is the different spending patterns of men and women. Women tend to take care of the needs of the household (husbands and children) first then themselves if there is anything left over. Men react to increases in income in different ways.
75. Though the World Bank World Development Report 1990 argues otherwise. 76. 1 address CIDAts contribution to this later in this chapter. 77. For example, proportional parliamentary systems provide more
representative voice for women inside of multiple political parties, legislative bodies and government bodies whose influence according to Staudt, may not always coexist with autonomous womenls lobbies and movement groups that engage with government. 78. Heather Baser, Senior Advisor Capacity Building, supports this view and also identifies the adverse practices mentioned here as stifling capacity building in the South. 79. Bilateral institutions have historically consisted of malemajority professionals and it takes special initiatives to e n s u r e the involvement of more women professionals. This, however, can be done at the corporate level.
80 . The long-term t t objectives of SAGA include : building Af rican civil societytscapacity to undertake gender analysis in economics, as well as support for gender training for economists and key decision-makers; engaging in policy dialogue with government officials and creating awareness through workshops and training . . I l
(CIDA, 1998d:3) . In light of my earlier (postmodern) arguments, these barely constitute an effective challenge to the structures of
the modernization discourse on development. Chapter Six 81. Black and standpoint feminists articulate more specifically the particular experiences of women as quite remote to the average white (or other) person. Of course it requires a particular engagement with any oppressive experience to understand how repressive and primary it is. Making experience the ultimate arbiter of what is known, however, has a few problerns . Does i t mean that it is only those with a particular experience who have subjugated knowledge? The d a i m that without a particular experience, people lack the capacity to understand, analyze and explain, also leads to teleological arguments (Miles, 1989 : 5) . To claim for example that racism is a 'blackl experience which a 'whitef person is unable to understand is to absolve the white person of capabilities and responsibility. On the other hand, to Say racism is an exclusive experience of black people leads to the logical point that it is perpetrated by white people. If experience then is the central arbiter of the ability to investigate, to learn, and to know, then racism is de facto, the prerogative of 'whitef people, a unique product of their practices. Logically, it may be asserted that only 'white1 people can understand its motives and origins (ibid:6). Yet by the standpoint postulate, the perpetrators are denied the opportunity to understand and the capacity to deal with and take responsibility for their actions. 82. Except of course Enlightenrnent/modern thinking. Its distrust of modernist assumptions of development is not entirely without base. For a long time modernization theories have mainly contributed to the lack of development in the South. 83. See their different articles in Marchand and Parpart. Despite differing assessments of postmodern feminism, al1 three agree that Vostmodern feminism can only be relevant for the field of Gender and Development if it succeeds in showing its potential for political action" (Marchand and P a r p a r t , 1995: 128)
84. Sen and Grown however believe that dlfference should be disregarded in favour of political unity. 1 think that is an unsatisfactory way to deal with the problem of difference.
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Open-structured questions used in interviews with CIDA staff. POLICY
1. How were the 1995 and 1999 policies developed? That is what research, studies government enactments etc guided the evolution of each policy? a. 1995. WID/GE Policy? b. 1999. GE Policy? 2. Who were involved in the evolution of the policies? Who took part in consultations, in the planning and development of the policies? What were CIDAts c r i t e r i a for selection of the people who were consulted? a. 1995. WID/GE Policy? b. 1999. GE Policy? 3. Was there any consultation dialogue between programme communities (local people) before any of these policies were developed? a. 1995. WID/GE Policy? b . 1 9 9 9 . GE Policy? If yes what were these dialogues that is, what form did these take? And are there any documentation on this? Could 1 have access to these? STRATEGIES AND APPROACHES TO IMPLEMENT POLICXES 4. Who informed CIDA1s decisions about which strategies to adopt? (consultation and planning phases of strategy
development) . a. 1995. WID/GE Policy? b. 1999. GE Policy? 5 . What informed CIDAts decisions about which strategies to adopt? (eg. past evaluations, management reforms, government legislation etc?) a. 1995. WID/GE P o l i c y ? b. 1999. GE Policy?
6. How did CIDA identify development needs for these two
policies? a. 1995. WID/GE Policy? b. 1999. GE Policy? 7a. What resources does CIDA employ to build organizational capacity? 7b. Who does the staff training in at the corporate and Branch p r s g r r r n e ~ f f i c e s ?Eces CIDP. r s e ge"er c m s ~ l t ~ ~ t r / e x ~ o ~ ~ 7c. If yes are these resource people from the project country or from Canada/ West? 7d. Did CIDA use local consultant to do evaluation, staff training, baseline studies etc. If yes do you have documentation on who and the criteria for selection? 8. CIDA has a cornputer-based training prograrme for the WID/GE policy . Who were the resource consultants/people for the development of this programme? 9. Participation is an integral part of both policies. Could you tell me how participation by local cornmunities informed the development of the 1999 policy? PERFORbiANCE ASSESSMENTS
10. The 1999 policy indicates CIDA had indicators to assess
performance. What were these? 11. For which policy were the indicators documented in the 'Guide to Gender-sensitive Indicatorsl and the 'Project level Hand Book developed? 12. The 1995 policy does not give any information on how the programme was to be assessed. Were there any criteria for assessments? How were these developed? And has CIDA ever used local consultants to evaluate its policies? If yes what is the criteria for selection? If no, Why?
OUTLINE OF 1995 C I D A ' S WOMEN IN DEPELOPMEXW AND GElWER EQUITY
POLICY AND 1999 CIDA ' S POLICY ON GENDER AND EQUALITY
Evolution of Policiea on Women 1976 The year CIDA first adopted its policy guidelines on
Women in Development. 1984 First WID Policy released which sought to promote womenfs
full participation as both agents and beneficiaries of development . 1986 Five-year Plan of Action was launched. 1992 The Interim Women in Development Policy was issued.
1995 Wornen in Development and Gender Equity Policy issued and
its Division at the policy branch established. This waç after an evaluation of the WID Policy and strategies (1984-92)which led to the assignment of WID Specialists
to al1 programme offices. 1999 Gender and Equality Policy. An update of the 1995 policy
to reflect the growing recognition of the importance of gender.
It follows conclusions of the review of 1995
policy t h a t there was a need to Ifdemonstrateclear and sustainable results in promoting gender in line with CIDA1spolicy on results-based management" (CIDA, 1999:l2)
I I
1999 GE POLICY
1995 WID/GE POLICY CIDA'S Women in
CIDA views its Gender and Equality policy as a tool to finally eradicating inequality on any grounds, be it gender, class, race, or ethnicity in the 21st century.
Development and Gender Equity Policy was the means of going beyond the 1984 policy emphasis on women as beneficiaries and agents of development to an emphasis on gender equity and woments empowerment .
GOAL : The policyts goal is to lfsupport the achievement of equality between women and men to ensure sustainable developmentl1 (CIDA, 1999).
OBJECTIVES: * Woments equal participation with men as decision-makers in shaping the sustainable development of their society.
* Supporting women and girls to realize their full hurnan rights. * Reducing gender inequality in access to and control over the resources and benefits of development.
GOAL : To strengthen the full participation of wornen as equal partners in the sustainable development of their societies OBJECTIVES :
* To support, encourage and respond to initiatives within and among developing countries to achieve ; a. increased womenls participation in decisionmaking processes, b. increase income levels and economic conditions, c . improve woments access to basic health and family planning services, d-improve their levels of education and skills and e. promote and protect human rights of women.
* Promote and support CIDAts partners in Canada overseas & in the South in
their efforts to integrate gender considerations in their development work.
* Build institutional capacities to effectively integrate gender into policies, programmes projects and activities .
1995 CIDArs Policy on Women in Development and Gender Equi ty
Policy Framework/Rationale
The rationale for the 1995 CIDAisWID/GE stems from five
considerations.
The f irst makes reference to Canadian
Constitution and the Charter of Rlghts and Freedoms which supports Canada's comrnitments to prornote equality for women both in Canada and the rest of the world.
This policy is
thought to be a reflection of CIDAts dedication to these principles.
The second
The policy reflects a move from
the focus on equal treatment of the sexes to differential treatment of groups to end inequality, in recognition of 'genderi and gender roles and the fact that these roles vary
across time and space. This focus calls for specific measures for women and hence women specific strategies adopted under this policy. The third, is the evidence that focusing on gender and gender sensitive planning is central to sustainable economic development, lt[i]nvestingin women leads to lasting economic growth, improving family welfare and a reduction in poverty a more equitable distribution of the socio-economic benefits
of developmentil(CIDA, 1995a: 4). The last rationale is that gender analysis is crucial to
good development practice. development
recipient
has
Incorrect assumptions about led 192
to
programme
failures.
Beneficiaries have been treated as a llhomogenousgroup, rather that men and women with different needs and interestsu (CIDA, 1995a:4). The use of gender relations as analytical category shifts the focus away from viewing women in isolation from men. and
Gender relations examines the relative position of men women
in
the
division of
[labour], resources and
responsibilities, benef its and rights, power and privilegeN ( i b i d ).
The policy framework for the 1995 policy includes: Womenls Full Participation - the policy is deemed to promote full participation in the development process not just as beneficiaries but also as actors engaging in the planning, implernentation and decision-rnaking at al1 levels. Redefining Development - participation was an opportunity to redefine developrnent. VXDA's is not j u s t
trying to
incorporate women into existing models developmentH (ibid:5), Through the participation the aim was towards a sustainable development that builds on peoples potential. Gender as a Cross-cutting Therne
-
The policy was proposed
to be a broad development theme which linked other themes and policies. Gender concerns intersect al1 development areas and sectors. This the reason for the adoption of gender analysis
in al1 development initiatives. Policy
Components
-
consists of
two
distinct but
interrelated components. These are: a. integration of gender consideration into development
initiatives (through gender analysis at both sectoral and rnacro-policy levels) and b. involving women as equal and active partners in
development work
(through assessing barriers to women's
participation and designing strategies to overcome these; through special effort by agency staff and partners to ensure womenls equitable involvement in al1 policy and programming activities. Policy Requirement - The overall requirement of this policy then is the I1[a]ttainingof womenls full participation as equal partners in the sustainable development of their
societies
...
implementation,
at
al1
monitoring
l e v e l ~ ~including, ~ and
evaluation
planning,
and
results
(ibid:6). It also involves integrating women's 'practical
needs
and
strategic interestsl into al1
policy
goals,
objectives and priorities . These needs and interests are defined as "inmediate necessities within a specific contextu and
include housing needs, water, income, health
care.
Strategic needç refers to the relative status of women to men in society and are related to resources and power depending on context .
Strategic
interests
refer
to
legal
rights,
protection from domestic violence, womenfs control over their bodies and increased decision making.
CIDA believes the two
concepts should be used j ointly to effect any sustainable change.
Strategies and Approaches to Achieving the WID/GE Policy 1.
both
Approaches to Increasing Woments Participation - combines
integrative and
women-specific actions, which
are
mutually reinforcinq. WID/GE integrated approaches refers to
activities where an understanding of gender differences has Yeaz i n c o r i ; o r a t ~ d i n c û t h e ûvsrâll plânning and ac t i v i tiés .
In other words the goals, objectives and implementation mechanisms
are
aimed
at
womenls needs,
interests
and
participation as much as menls. Gender-sensitive assessments
are the tools employed to determine the differing impacts women and men.
CIDA1s specific definition then of a WID
integrated approach is one in which a gender analysis has been done, womenls issues identified and addressed, measures taken
to include women as decision makers and one in which women
make up a greater proportion of direct participants and beneficiaries.
Examples given of a WID-Integrated Approaches
include; fisheries p r o j e c t s which carry out not only fish harvesting but also associated activities usually carried out by women such as preparation of gear and bait, fish processing and marketing; an economic policy reform project in which gender interests and impacts are incorporated into the policy process; A scholarship programme in which any problems that would hinder women from participating is identifies and addressed in the project design. 2.
WID-specific Approaches - exclusive targeting of women to
remedy particular gender inequity. This is believed to ensure
the meeting of womenis specific and practical needs which are not addressed through mainstreaming approaches. Examples of such approaches include strengthening institutional capacities if womenis organizations, national womenls ministries and networks that work for womenfs strategic interests. Another such project would be providing legal aid clinics to give
counselling for women and advocate legal reforms to remove inequities. Womenlsorganizations are especially though to be invaluable in promoting womenlscontrol over their own lives. 3. It
key
Consultation with Women - is clearly identified as the tO
the
Development
effective implementation of and
Gender
Equity
Policyn
the
Women
in
(CIDA,U 9 5 a : 9).
Consulting women at the planning stage of, input from local organizations and WfD
consultants are deemed essential.
Mechanisms for ongoing consultation in the course of the programme would provide the necessary feedback to make adjustments. 4.
Support
for Womenls Organizations
-
to be
strong
articulating organizations representing wornentsinterests in the econorny and political levels. 5.
Partnerships - relying on Canadian executing agencies
both at home and overseas, woments groups, other governments and NGO l s to take equal responsibility for achieving CIDA1s policy objectives. 6.
Policy dialogue
-
actively promoting CIDA1s WID/GE policy
in its consultation with partners and in its dealings with
developing countries govemment, with other donors and through local international and bilateral fora. 7.
Capacity Development and Institutional Strengthening -
involves providing training and learning opportunities to CIDA staff and its partners to equip them to work with a gender
perspective.
PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT
The WID/GE
Policy document itself does not contain any
information on how the policy was to be assessed. There were no specific guidelines developed to assess this policy.
1999 CIDArs Policy on Gender E q u a l i t y
Policy Framework/Rationale
The rationale for the 1999 GE policy stems from the five considerations of the 1995.
CIDA as a government agency in
this policy also seeks to confom to Canada's Federal Plan for Gender Equality, approved by Cabinet in 1995 which cornrnitted al1 federal departments to the promotion of gender equality in al1 areas including international cooperation. In the 1999 GE policy CIDA also includes Canada ' s commitment to recent international agreements such as the Beijing Conference. The GE policy makes reference to the Beijing P l a t f o m Action, the final document of the Forth United Nations World Conference on Women which represents the commitment of 189 nations to
support women ' s empowerment, guarantee womenfs human rights and achieve gender equality;
The advancement of women and
the achievement if equality between women and men are matters of human rights and conditions for social justice and should not be seen in isolation as a womenls issue.
They are the
only way to build a sustainable. just. and develooed society. Empowerment of women and gender equality are prerequisites for achieving political, social, cultural, and environmental security among al1 peoplesu (United Nations, 1995).
The GE
policy is also a reflection of CIDA1s overall cornmitment to achieving sustainable development and poverty reduction. CIDAfs Policy on Poverty Reduction (1996) involved poverty analysis in which a strategy to reduce poverty includes analysis of how poverty correlates with gender and other such characteristics.
The GE policy explicitly states that
attempts to achieve this goal will fail if attention is not paid to the different needs of men and women. The policy framework for the 1999 GE policy is rooted in the following eight principles , that gender quality must be considered an integral part of al1 its policies and projects; that achieving gender equality requires the
recognition that
programmes affect women and men differently; that gender equality does not mean women become the çame as men; that women s empowerment is central to achieving gender quality ; that promoting equal participation of women as agents of
change
in political, economic and
social processes
is
essential for achieving gender equality ; that gender equality can only be achieved through
partnership between women and
men; that specific measures are required to eliminate gender inequalities; and
that
CIDAis policies, programmes
and
projects should contribute to gender equality. The GE policy links gender equality with al1 of CIDA1s priorities.
STRATEGIES
Gender Analysis
-
The GE policy
identifies gender
analysis an indispensable tool in strategies to understanding local context and hence for promoting gender equality. Gender analysis involves examining of the relationship between men and women identifying the different roles played by each in the household, community, workplace, economy and political processes. It also involves assessing the differential access and control to resources and decision-making processes as well as differential impact of projects. Gender analysis is also employed to understand local context. context is deemed
A knowledge of the
"vital to understanding
...
[gender]
relations and their c o m e c t i o n to the p r o j e c t in t e m s of needs, impact and resultsu (CIDA, 1999:14), The strategies below therefore employ gender analysis as
an integral part of their methodology: a.
Policy Dialogue is a strategy for achieving gender
equality. Policy dialogue involves promoting and exchanging
information and issues related to gender equity with C I D A 1 s partners through consultation groups or informal contacts. b.
Programming Frarnework is a
tool for ensuring that
prograrnrning with any country or organization will support gender equality.
It
identifies development needs and
opportunities in terms of the areas of concern from the Beijing P l a t f o m for Action.
This strategy is employed by
CIDA to link its corporate programing priorities with its
programmes and projects. It is also used as the criteria for al1 Canadian international cooperation in specific countries and with its international partners. c.
Program Assistance is used to support economic and
sectoral reform in partner countries.
CIDA believes that
program assistant should recognizes the differential needs, roles
and
interests
of
women
and
men.
It
involves
methodologies to carry out gender-aware economic analysis and designing economic assistant initiatives that respond to the needs and interests of the poor. d.
Institutional Strengthening and Capacity Development
involves building the Agency s own resources to bring about organizational change that promotes and supports gender equality. This involves staff training and representation of more women at decision-making levels, building the capacity to collect and make available sex-disaggregated data and active promotion of women in positive images. e.
Bilateral Programs P r o j e c t s are employed as means to
support gender equality basically through any of the previous strategies. Multilateral Programs involve soliciting and supporting
f.
the partnership of multilateral organizations such as United Nation
agencies,
international
and
regional
financial
institutions to support gender equality in their institutional capacity to support gender equality and policy dialogue and the use of gender analysis in their own programmes and policies. Project and Programs of Canadian Civil Society Partners.
g.
This Basically involves supporting these societies (mainly NGOs,
unions,
professional
associations,
educational
institutions private sector firms etc), involved in designing
and operating international CO-operation programmes abroad. h.
Humanitarian and Emergency Assistance and Peace -Building
involves advocating and supporting gender equality results in institutions engaged in the delivery of humanitarian and emergency assistance. It also means building CIDA1s
own
knowledge base of gender-specific needs and interests of people in emergency situations with regards to trauma support, security, food, shelter health care etc.
HOW PROGRESS IS MEASURED
The GE policy does have a section on performance rneasurement and identifies good practices in evaluation. CIDA assesses its performance both at the Corporate Level and at
the Branch Level.
At the corporate level the objectives of
the GE policy becomes the yardstick or results against which the implementation of the policy is measured.
CIDA still does
not have specific indicators for measuring progress for the 1999 policy.
At
the branch level Program Branches are
responsible for setting their own results against the general objectives of the GE policy. Accountability - Programme and corporate branches as well as CIDAts partners and executing agencies are held accountable for the implementation of the policy while assessments and evaluation is carried out by the Performance Review Branch as part of their routine. procedures (CIDA, 1999b) .
There are however no enforcement
APPENDIX C The following CIDA documents were t h e source of analysis f o r this thesis: Policy Documents a. CIDA1s Policyon Women inDevelopment a n d Gender Equity, July 1 9 9 5 . b. CIDAIS Policy on Gender and Equality, March 1999. Strategy ~ o c u m e n t s / ~ i e lInformation d a. Crea ting a Worlci of Equal i t y : CIDA, Women and Eznpowennen t i n Developing Countries, August , 1 9 9 5 . b. Strategy f o r Health, November 1996 c. Project Level Hanübook: The W h y and How of GenderS e n s i t i v e Indicators. d. Guide t o Gender-Sensitive Indicators, Auguçt 1997. e. Gender Mainstreaming and Insti tutional Change, J u l y 1998. f. Gender and Poverty Reduction, January 1998.
Evaluation and Assessment Documents a. Gender a s a Cross-Cutting Theme i n CIDA , s Development Assistance - An Evaluation of CIDA1s NID policy and A c t i v i t i ç s 1984-1992. »WID Country Case Çtudy: Zimbabwe": Working Paper Number 2D, December 1992. b. W / G E Performance Review: Survey of Southern Women, Final Report, March 1 9 9 6 . c. WID/GE Performance Review: Best Practiceç S t u d y : F i n a l Report, March 1 9 9 6 . d. Development and Women i n A f r i c a : CIDA ' s Contribution, April 1 9 9 8 . e. Women i n Development and Gender Equity 1992-95: Performance R e v i e w Report, J u l y , 1 9 9 8 Performance R e v i e w Division, Ottawa: CIDA. An Assessment of Women i n Development and Gender Equî t y i n Evaluations: A n e x t e n d e d version o f a report prepared for the DAC Working Party on AID Evaluation, (October 1998) , February 1999. CIDAts Evaluation G u i d e , Work i n Progress, January 2 0 0 0 . Framework for R e s u l t s and Key Success Factors: Building P r o g r m e E f f e c t i v e n e s s , March 2 0 0 0 . How t o P e r f o m Evaluations: Getting Started, N o 1 , March 2000. How t o Perfom Evaluations: Model TOR, No.2, March 2000,