Gender Issues and Development Policy Implications, by ... - ERD

ERD 2009
Gender Issues and Development Policy
Implications
Dr Wendy Harcourt, 6 February 2009
Coherency with European and international gender and development policy
Gender and development concerns in fragile states
Indicators and data on gender disparities
Gender and violence in fragile states
Gender and food security
Gender relations, fragile countries and the current global financial crisis

Coherency with European and international gender and
development Policy
ERD 2009 will review the gender and
development policy frameworks (the MDGs, , the
Paris Declaration, the outcome of Accra and the
work of the GenderNet OECD-DAC) DAC) on the
promotion of gender equality and empowerment
of women as essential to economic well-being
and the advancement of the MDGs overall goal
to halve poverty by 2015.

ERD 2009 will also take into account the
findings of the IMF and World Bank Global
Monitoring Report: Millennium Development Goals:
Confronting the Challenges of Gender Equality and
Fragile States 2007 which focuses on gender
equality and the lack of opportunities for
women and the vulnerability of fragile states.

Gender and development concerns in
fragile states
Gender issues are varied and complex in
peacetime, and change or may become rigidified
in pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis situations.
ERD 2009 will examine policy approaches for
fragile states that can move women from a
victimized situation to being an active
participant in development.

ERD 2009 will consider how state fragility affects men
and women differently, and how donor responses
might address gender differences and gender relations
in their fragile states programming.
ERD 2009 will examine current policies for gender
programming in fragile states where states cannot
provide even the most basic public goods such as
protection from massive violence to most citizens.

Indicators and data on gender disparities
The ‘hard figures' produced by quantitative methods
are crucial to building the case for addressing gender
disparities but some aspects of gender (in)equality(
are
difficult to define, such as the gender dimensions of
poverty and the impact of gender-based violence (GBV)
that occur in sensitive contexts like armed conflict.
ERD 2009 will consider how to take forward the new
gender sensitive indicators being developed that reflect
gender inequalities.

ERD 2009 will review the African Gender and
Development Index and consider how to translate
sensitive and complex data into analyses that allow
policy makers to measure achievements and gaps in
gender policy.
ERD 2009 will build on the work of the OECD
evidence gathering project on gender equality, human
rights and social exclusion in fragile states in Africa as
input to the Ghana high level forum on aid
effectiveness and progress towards the MDGs.

ERD will also raise questions about how to incorporate
a broader set of indicators on, for example, female
deprivation, domestic violence and land ownership into
measurements of development.
The new work on gender indicators and gender
budgeting in East Africa will be assessed as part of the
ERD 2009 examination of gender gaps in development.

Gender and violence in fragile states
One of the major consequences of fragility is the increase in
gender based violence during and after conflicts. There are
important initiatives and studies on gender based violence,
trafficking of women that centre around the UN Resolution
1325: protecting women in conflict and enhancing a gender
perspective in peace processes.
Conflict impacts on women and men in different ways and these
need to be taking into account in establishing new more effective
institutions. There is considerable work done in the Great Lakes
area on the challenge of institution building post-conflict from a
gender perspective that can be drawn on that has had major
input by EU donors and the UN.

Gender and food security
The ERD 2009 will draw on the major studies undertaken by
African research organizations as well as EU donors such as
DFID on the gender implications of the food crisis in Africa
where 80% of community farmers are women and are primarily
responsible for their families' food and nutrition.
The ERD 2009 will examine gender in relation to sustainable
agriculture and food security.
The ERD will examine how women and men being impacted
differently and the consequences of the crisis for the role that
women play in household and community decisions as important
lessons on the role of agriculture in the process of economic
development and poverty reduction.

Gender relations, fragile countries and the current global
financial crisis
Development implies the integration of livelihoods into
an increasingly global economy. Individual men’s and
women’s livelihoods and the fate of local communities
cannot be viewed in isolation from national or
international structures and processes.
Micro and macro considerations have to be brought
together in order to provide fresh perspectives and
insights on issues that previously were studied in
isolation from each other. This is particularly the case in
relation to gender and development policy at both the
micro and macro level.

ERD 2009 will profile new ways of thinking about how
the state and market can work together to encourage
sustainable development from a gender perspective.
ERD 2009 will review how gender has been taken into
account by local peoples, governments, scholars,
development practitioners and international agencies in
new policies, programmes and practices to deal with
countries and parts of countries moving into crisis, in
crisis, and recovering from crisis.