Gender Mainstreaming
- Gender and Development at the Rural Support Programmes Network
- Training in Gender Mainstreaming
- Gender Training of Trainers
- The Gender Resource Group
- Advocacy with RSPs for Gender Mainstreaming
- Research Study on Gender, Power-relations and Decentralisation in Pakistan
Gender and Development at the Rural Support Programmes Network
One of RSPN’s key roles is to promote gender equality in the Rural Support Programmes’ organisations and programmes. This is necessary because in rural Pakistan, more often than not, women’s strategic and practical needs and aspirations are not addressed. Many women are deprived of basic needs and entitlements as a result of patriarchal systems that exclude them from decision-making, asset-ownership and the ability to engage in activities outside their households. This exclusion often results in economic poverty, illiteracy, poverty of opportunity and lack of access to health care. When women are disempowered, their families and communities also suffer. When women are empowered through social mobilisation, awareness-raising, access to health, education, sanitation and livelihood opportunities, their families and communities also benefit. Including women in RSP programmes and projects also contributes to ensuring the success of those endeavours.
The RSPN Gender and Development Section provides expertise to sectors within RSPN and to the Network’s member RSPs. It also adds value to national policies and strategies for gender equity and women’s empowerment. The purpose is to create an enabling environment and to facilitate the RSPs in adopting effective methods of improving women’s livelihoods, empowerment and participation in life in their communities. The programme is structured around three areas: i) training programmes for mainstreaming gender in the RSPs and in communities ii) gender-focussed analysis of development projects and programmes and iii) the RSPs’ Gender Resource Group and advocacy activities for gender mainstreaming.
Training in Gender Mainstreaming:
Ensures that that programme design and implementation remain responsive to women’s needs. Between 2001 and 2008 the number of women’s Community Organisations nearly trebled. The challenges for the RSPs were to ensure that the staff at all levels were able to understand existing gender disparities and to design and implement special programmes to address those constraints.
In 2007 RSPN began to conduct gender mainstreaming workshops for the senior management and professional staff of the RSPs. Ten workshops were conducted, focussing on gender sensitisation and on ways and means of incorporating gender awareness into the RSP programmes. The workshops were facilitated by Ms Shazreh Hussain, a renowned Pakistani gender expert.
Looking at the positive results, RSPN decided to expand the training through a Training of Trainers programme that would build a core group of RSP Gender Trainers who would conduct further training programmes in their organisations and act as in-house gender mentors and champions. The comprehensive Gender Trainer of Trainers (ToT) programme was developed by Ms Shazreh Hussain and the RSPN Gender and Development Section.
The first Gender TOT began in July 2008 with 14 participants from NRSP, PRSP, RSPN and SRSP and was completed in January 2009. This year a second ToT will train a second group of 14 RSP staff members. This process will be completed in December 2009. RSPN has prepared profiles of the ToT Graduates and has shared these with the
RSPs in an effort to strengthen the roll-out plans and encourage the RSPs to utilise the skills of the trainers.
As a follow on from the Gender ToT, the RSPs have developed plans to roll out the gender mainstreaming workshops by using the Gender ToT graduates. The first batch of Gender ToT graduates has begun the process and will conduct gender mainstreaming workshops for 500 RSP professional staff and/or Local Support Organisations’ office bearers by the end of 2009. As of June 2009, about 100 RSP staff members have attended roll-out workshops. The target for the year 2010 is an additional 500 staff members.
Gender Training of Trainers
The Gender ToT, developed by Ms Shazreh Hussain, is an intensive capacity building programme. It has two central objectives: the first is to provide participants with in-depth knowledge of gender and development, gender and Islam and the skills required for gender analysis. The second objective is to provide participants with the knowledge and skills needed to deliver training programmes themselves. Developing the Gender TOT required developing a written training manual, as well as tools and techniques for delivering and facilitating the entire process. The ToT members are mentored throughout the process and gradually take on full responsibility for delivering the training.
The Gender ToT consists of four steps spread over 6 months.
Step 1: 7-day training on the core concepts of gender and development
Step 2: 3-day gender training for core RSP staff. The ToT participants observe and learn from the Lead Resource Person as she conducts the training.
Step 3: 3-day training of RSP Regional and District Managers observed by the ToT participants
Step 4: 2-day training given by ToT participants from each RSP. The Lead Facilitator observes the entire training event and provides feedback to the TOT graduates.
The RSPN Gender and Development Section, along with the Lead Facilitator, mentors the ToT participants throughout the training period. The graduates are enabled to deliver 2-3 day gender mainstreaming workshops to the RSP staff as well as to community members.
In October 2008, RSPN and the RSPs established a Gender Resource Group as a think tank and coordination and exchange mechanism for gender mainstreaming in the RSPs. Its members include the RSP Gender Focal Persons, gender advocates and gender trainers. The GRG members have participated in various courses, including the Women’s Leadership Programme and the Gender ToT Programme, and have evolved as an informed and active group working towards gender equality in the RSPs.
The GRG meets once every 3 months. The members share their gender action plans and activities, implementation progress and challenges faced, as well as strategies employed in achieving objectives. GRG members are actively involved in the Gender ToTs and have also conducted gender analyses of RSPN and RSP programmes. They are regularly invited to the RSPN Board of Directors’ meetings and the RSPs’ Annual Strategy Retreats, enabling them to share their findings and experiences. The RSPN Board is now much more directly informed of the challenges and opportunities for gender mainstreaming in the RSPs.
To enhance the GRG members’ capacities to undertake gender analyses and make strategic inputs into programme design and implementation, RSPN invited external experts to deliver sessions for GRG on qualitative research methods, analytical skills and report writing. One GRG member attended a one-month gender training organised by Sangat South Asia, and three others will attend Sangat South Asia’s 14th Feminist Capacity Building Course ‘Gender, Sustainable Livelihoods and Human Rights and Peace’ in Nepal later this year.
The RSPN Gender and Development Section assisted the GRG members in conducting a gender analysis of RSPN-RSP programmes with a view to maximising the impact of those programmes for women. As part of the analysis, GRG members critically assess the design and plan of action through a ‘gender lens’, visit the target areas, hold meetings with women and men community members, and make recommendations for course correction.
In 2008-09 the GRG conducted a gender analysis of two major RSP programmes: the Prime Minister’s Special Initiative for Livestock and the RSPN-NRSP Union Council Poverty Reduction Plan model project in District Mianwali. In the Livestock Project, the analysis identified a number of weak areas, including women’s low levels of participation in the Community Livestock Extension Workers’ programme and the fact that many of the women Veterinarians were unable to travel easily to the field sites. The GRG members made recommendations for improvement.
On the Union Council Plan, the GRG members recommended that: women’s involvement in various training courses be enhanced; that women enumerators be included in the Poverty Scorecard exercise, and that focus group discussions be held when conducting ‘situation analysis’ reports and preparing action plans. These were discussed and agreed to by NRSP and RSPN for the Union Council Poverty Reduction Plan model and will be incorporated in the upcoming UCPR Programmes as these expand.
Advocacy with RSPs for Gender Mainstreaming
Recognising that no changes in programmes would take place without having the senior management on board, RSPN held a gender dialogue with the RSPs’ CEOs in December 2008. The subject was gender issues in Pakistan and more specifically how to mainstream gender in the planning and designing of RSPN and RSP projects and programmes. The session was facilitated by Ms Shazreh Hussain, RSPN Gender Consultant, and resulted in commitments made by the Chief Executives of the RSPs to be evaluated every year.
Research Study on Gender, Power-relations and Decentralisation in Pakistan
The RSPN Gender and Development Section implemented the Gender, Power Relations and Decentralisation in Pakistan research project funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) South Asia in 2006. The objective was to analyse the political decentralisation process initiated through the Local Government Ordinance (2001) and to assess its relevance to women councillors’ roles as public representatives.
The research addressed the issue of whether electoral ‘affirmative action’ in Pakistan had granted legitimacy to women as political actors, with voice, agency and the capacity to respond to the expressed needs of their constituents. The study was carried out in partnership with: the Young Sheedi Welfare Organisation (Sindh), the Aurat Foundation (Punjab), the Meirman Women Development Centre (NWFP), the Sardar Bahadur Khan Women’s University (Balochistan) and the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (Northern Areas).
The research was based on 345 individual interviews, Focus Group Discussions, Council Meeting observations and a number of ‘Political Life Histories’. The findings indicated that in many cases, women councillors were proxies for men (e.g. relatives, spouses, Nazims, landholders and others); many women councillors were unable to function effectively because of the Nazims’ unwillingness to share power. Most respondents held ‘reserved’ seats on the Union Councils and, as such, were marginalised, rendered voiceless and deprived of agency by virtue of their gender and the fact that they held ‘quota’ seats on the least significant Councils. Many Councillors, however, were vibrant, active and politically aware. They are able to function well in meeting the needs of their constituents and building political capital. Notwithstanding the problems, the women Councillors felt that with their involvement a new beginning had been made, and they were determined to build upon the strength of women’ participation in the local government in the future.
The findings were presented at a national dissemination workshop held in July 2008 in Islamabad. Participants included public representatives, policy makers (including a member of the National Reconstruction Bureau), male and female Community Activists, researchers and academics. The sharing of the research findings resulted in useful comments and suggestions for the study’s finalisation and for policy makers.
