The MDGs and the Significance of Gender Analysis
blurb:isstoday10Sep2008
10 September 2008: The MDGs and the Significance of Gender Analysis
From 20 – 26 September 2008 a high-level partnership event on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Campaign - with the participation of civil society, governments and development agencies - is to be held at the UN Headquarters in New York.When focusing on MDG3, which looks at Gender Equality and empowerment of women and is aprerequisite for achieving all MDGs by 2015, one cannot but emphasize the importance of gender analysis.
Gender analysis involves studying and assessing the sexual division of labour, the access and control men and women have over inputs required for their labour, as well as the outputs (benefits) of their labour. It also refers to a systematic way of analysing the different impacts of development on women, men, girls and boys. Gender analysis takes into account how factors of class, race, ethnicity or other factors interact with gender to produce discriminatory results. It also involves studying and documenting gender roles; gender structures and relations; gender practices, institutions that promote and reinforce gender roles, maintain gender relations and power structures.
Gender analysis therefore enables us to see what our eyes have been socialized not to seeand is an essential element of socio-economic analysis. It must be understood that since gender relations change in context over time, it makes it critical to undertake gender analysis with each development initiative. The information gathered during the research stage of the analysis should expose the differences between men and women so that policies, programs and projects can build effective actions that promote equality. An analysis of the different situations of men and women can provide an understanding of the different impacts that legislation, cultural practices, policies and programs can have on them. Gender analysis is therefore an integral part of policy analysis.
According to the World Bank, the purpose of gender analysis in application to development interventions, is to help (a) identify gender-based differences in access to resources to predict how different members of households, groups, and societies will participate in and be affected by planned development interventions, (b) permit planners to achieve the goals of effectiveness, efficiency, equity, and empowerment through designing policy reform and supportive program strategies, and (c) develop training packages to sensitize development staff on gender issues and training strategies for beneficiaries. Gender analysis is important in the formulation of country economic memoranda, country sector strategies, structural adjustment, country portfolio management, poverty assessments, environmental assessment, in sector-specific project planning, monitoring and evaluation.Many variants of policy and sector-specific gender analysis tools are available such asHarvard Analytical framework and Gender Analysis in Organization (GAO).
The significance of gender analysis is in economic planning and is therefore crucial to:
- Generate economic and social gains byestablishing legal frameworks, public investments, and well functioning markets. An example of such a framework is the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development that may finally be ready for adoption later this year. If it happens this will be an important breakthrough.
- Improve overall performance in respect to productive and social services such as those on increased access to medical care, portable water, improved sanitation, education, food security and control of HIV/AIDS. Every year at least 585,000 women die of pregnancy or childbirth-related causes around the world (WHO, 2000). A medical approach to maternal mortality can only partly address this tragic and complex problem. Broadening the focus and giving attention to equality issues such as child marriage, limited access to reproductive health services and family planning, female genital mutilation, and women and girls eating last and least can reduce and transform the recurring nature of maternal mortality. Reviewing an issue using gender analysis expands the understanding of the challenges women face and the range of solutions available.
- Overcome gender-based barriers by creating a level playing field for men and women in their various socio-economic activities.For example, the development of a country's environmental policy, should involve a holistic socio-economic analysis that addresses gender relations to fully understand the situation and ensure that the policy and its directives promote equality. This might involve understanding the perceptions of women and men of the environment, a sex-disaggregated account of activities performed and their affect on the environment, and the uses men and women make of natural resources, such as land and water.
- Promote equal opportunities by implementing engendered action plans. For instance to reduce the gaps within the education system, governments are increasingly using gender analysis to investigate the source of the gap and identify the measures that can be adopted to reduce the distortions within the education system as it pertains to the enrolment and performance of boys and girls.
- Increase both men’s and women’s participation in achieving economic growth through rural income growth, poverty reduction, creation of sustainable resource management and remunerative employment opportunities. The fact that a large part of women’s economic contributions are not captured under the conventional mechanisms means that the lack of gender analysis in economic policies can result in the exclusion of strategies for women’s priorities and perspectives in the development agenda.
- Ensure that new technologies will not have an adverse impact on women and any other disadvantage group. Gender analysis can tell us who has access, control, who is the potential beneficiary or loser.It can provide information on the potential direct or indirect benefit of a development initiative on women and men, on some appropriate entry points for measures that promote equality within a particular context, and on how a particular development initiative may challenge or maintain the existing gender division of labour.
In conclusion, as we look towards reviewing the strides made towards the achievement of the MDGs in the fields of development and related research, our approach to gender should assume a specific role – one geared towards analysis of various elements with a view to developing relevant strategies and policies that accommodate the intricate dynamics of gender. Only by so doing, can we achieve the MDGs.
Doris Murimi, ISS deputy director, Institute for Security Studies
