The significance of donor gender equality policies in natural resources management

Abstract

Gender inequalities in education, environment, armed conflict, health and political representation can have devastating effects on economic and human growth. Formal mechanisms to safeguard the consideration of gender equality in development activities have been implemented on a global scale. Many International donor organisations developed their own gender and equality policies that impose conditions on Research and Development (R&D) agencies to consider gender in research projects. These conditions are commonly framed as Gender and Development policies. Ostensibly, these policies prompt R&D agencies to consider gender equality issues in all research projects. However, evaluating the extent to which donors influence R&D agencies to consider gender has proved difficult. The aim of the research was to identify factors in the transition of donor gender equality policies to NRM R&D research project implementation, which enable or constrain the consideration of gender issues in NRM research. The Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), an NRM R&D organisation that resides and undertakes research in developing countries, provided a case study for the research. On the basis of interviews with CIFOR key staff and content analysis of corporate and project documents, the research concluded that there was a well established awareness in CIFOR that gender equality is strongly advocated by most donor agencies. Furthermore, researchers were concerned about gender equality issues in their research. Thus, even if a donor agency advocating gender equality does not fund a project, the research is likely to consider gender. However, because consideration of gender is not fully institutionalised within CIFOR itself, the nature of the research question, researcher/s perspicacity on the institutional context of gender issues, and judgement on whether they are crucial to the research, will significantly influence the depth and breadth to which gender is considered.

Date of Award	Aug 2008
Original language	English
Supervisor	Natasha Stacey (Supervisor), Bruce Campbell (Supervisor) & Stephen Garnett (Supervisor)