QUE:

What is gender planning? What is the role of WID/GAD in gender planning? Highlight the importance
of gender planning.

ANS:

gender planning

Gender planning is an active approach to planning which takes gender as a key

variable and seeks to integrate an explicit gender dimension into policies or action. It
consists of planning the implementation phase of policies or programmes from a
gender perspective.

role of WID/GAD in gender planning

The term women in development was coined in the early 1970s by the Womens Committee
of the Washington, DC, Chapter of the Society for International Development, a network of
female development professionals who were influenced by the work on Third World
development undertaken by Ester Boserup and other new anthropologists (see Boserup
1970; Tinker 1982; and Maguire 1984). The term was very rapidly adopted by the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID) in their so-called
Women in Development (WID) approach, the underlying rationale of which was that women
are an untapped resource who can provide an economic contribution to development. USAID,
with its Office of Women in Development, has been one of the most determined advocates of
the WID approach. Together, with the Harvard Institute of International Development,
they have produced a case-study based methodology to identify how women have been left
out of development on the grounds that women are key actors in the economic system, yet
their neglect in development plans has left untapped a potentially large contribution
(Overholt et al. 1984:3).
More recently a further shift in approach, principally in academic research, has recognized
the limitations of focusing on women in isolation and has drawn attention to the need instead
to look at Gender and Development
(GAD). This focus on gender rather than women was influenced by such writers as
Oakley (1972) and Rubin (1975). They were concerned about the manner in which the
problems of women were perceived in terms of their sexnamely, their biological
differences from menrather than in terms of their genderthat is, the social relationship
between men and women, in which women have been systematically subordinated.1
Approaches to issues relating to women in developing countries became concerned therefore
with the manner in which gender and concomitant relationships were socially constructed.
The focus on gender rather than women makes it critical to look not only at the category
womensince that is only half the storybut at women in relation to men, and the way in
which relations between these categories are socially constructed. Men and women play
different roles in society, with their gender differences shaped by ideological, historical,
religious, ethnic, economic and cultural determinants (Whitehead 1979). These roles show
similarities and differences between other social categories such as class, race, ethnicity and
so on.
Since the way they are socially constructed is always temporally and spatially specific,
gender divisions cannot be read off on checklists. Social categories, therefore, differentiate
the experience of inequality and subordination within societies.
Although the critical distinction between sex and gender is well known, the further distinction
between Women in Development (WID) and Gender and Development (GAD) is less clear.
The terms are all too often used synonymously, yet in their original meaning they are
representative of very different theoretical positions with regard to the problems experienced
by low-income women in the Third World. Consequently, they differ fundamentally in terms
of their focus, with important implications for both their policies and planning procedures.
The WID approach, despite its change in focus from one of equity to one of efficiency, is
based on the underlying rationale that development processes would proceed much better if
women were fully incorporated into them (instead of being left to use their time
unproductively). It focuses mainly on women in isolation, promoting measures such as
access to credit and employment as the means by which women can be better integrated into
the development process. In contrast, the GAD approach maintains that to focus on women in
isolation is to ignore the real problem, which remains their subordinate status to men. In
insisting that women cannot be viewed in isolation, it emphasizes a focus on gender relations,
when designing measures to help women in the development process.

importance of gender planning.

Taking into account gender in the design, implementation and review of national forest
programmes adds value to such programmes. In addition, the use of participatory planning
tools and methodologies facilitates the collection of gender-differentiated information on the
social, environmental, technical and economic aspects of forestry development. This will
render the planning and implementation of forest development programmes more efficient
and egalitarian, two points which are essential for the sustainability of development. Among
the benefits which derive from integrating gender issues are the following:

Enhanced social and economic impact of forestry development

Sustainable forestry development depends on integrating environmental, technical and

economic considerations with social and cultural aspects. The active participation of women
and men in gathering information differentiated by gender, and the analysis of this
information and the decision-making process, will lead to a more positive social impact (1).

The economic impact of the programme will be reinforced because the possibilities for
consolidating and increasing income related to natural resources take into account income-
generating activities carried out by both women and men.

Women often have difficulty in fully participating in development activities due to low levels
of education and lack of direct representation in community decision-making bodies. Efforts
to involve women as both direct participants and beneficiaries can help them gain status
within and outside the context of the project (3).

Increasing possibilities for successful action

Forestry planning that takes into account gender-based division of labour and gender-based
access to resources and control of resources will result in development initiatives based on
more complete information. In addition, it is possible to avoid negative impacts if guarantees
exist that the decisions concerning the management of forest resources by the men and
women involved reflect how forest resources are used and managed (1).

More efficient use of resources

Taking into account social, environmental, technical and economic considerations will ensure
that development activities make better use of often increasingly diminishing resources
available.

Involving groups and individuals not normally party to planning and decision-making can
often lead to gathering information which might not be gained otherwise, better targeting of a
variety of beneficiary groups, and narrowing the gap between rich and poor (3).

Tapping local knowledge

Tapping the respective knowledge of women and men regarding the management and
conservation of natural resources and biological diversity increases the possibilities of
successful forestry programmes. Thanks to the collection of gender-differentiated data for
planning and management, it is possible to guarantee that this invaluable source of local
technical knowledge is fully utilised.

Reinforcing institutional capacities

Training of planners, foresters, technicians and extension agents in the use of planning tools,
(such as Rapid Rural Appraisal, Participatory Rural Appraisal, Socio-economic and Gender
Analysis, etc.) will stimulate a participatory planning process. It will also increase the
capacity of individuals and institutions to address social, economic and environmental issues
in forestry development. These kinds of training and skills are required by institutions at all
levels multilateral, bilateral, NGOs, academic and the private sector.

Recognising and encouraging the role of women as key players in all aspects of forest
development is important. Explicit plans need to be made and budgets and resources
allocated in order to train women to work at technical and professional forestry levels, in
addition to their traditional grassroots involvement. Advocating access for women to
scholarships in forest disciplines, and setting targets for women's participation, can ensure
gender considerations are taken fully into account (9).

Better planning

Basing planning on a full range of social, economic, technical and environmental issues,
rather than concentrating on one single sector (i.e. forests), opens up the opportunity for
greater exchange of ideas and approaches between different sectors. By involving women and
men in participatory forestry planning inevitably facilitates analysis of the interaction
between the forestry sector and other sectors) such as health, nutrition, agriculture,
livestocking breeding, water, fisheries, demography, law, education, etc.).

QUE 02

Compare and contrast WID and GAD.

women in development (WID)

The term women in development was originally coined by a Washington-based network of

female development professionals in the early 1970s who sought to question trickle
down existing theories of development by contesting that economic development had identical
impacts on men and women. The Women in Development movement (WID) gained momentum
in the 1970s, driven by the resurgence of women's movements in developed countries, and
particularly through liberal feminists striving for equal rights and labour opportunities in the United
States. Liberal feminism, postulating that women's disadvantages in society may be eliminated
by breaking down customary expectations of women by offering better education to women and
introducing equal opportunity programmes, had a notable influence on the formulation of the WID
approaches.
The focus of the 1970s feminist movements and their repeated calls for employment
opportunities in the development agenda meant that particular attention was given to the
productive labour of women, leaving aside reproductive concerns and social welfare. This
approach was pushed forward by WID advocates, reacting to the general policy environment
maintained by early colonial authorities and post-war development authorities, wherein
inadequate reference to the work undertook by women as producers was made, as they were
almost solely identified as their roles as wives and mothers. The WID's opposition to this welfare
approach was in part motivated by the work of Danish economist Ester Boserup in the early
1970s, who challenged the assumptions of the said approach and highlighted the role women by
women in the agricultural production and economy.
A dominant strand of thinking within WID sought to link womens issues with development,
highlighting how such issues acted as impediments to economic growth; this relevance
approach stemmed from the experience of WID advocates which illustrated that it was more
effective if demands of equity and social justice for women were strategically linked to
mainstream development concerns, in an attempt to have WID policy goals taken up by
development agencies. The Women in Development approach was the first contemporary
movement to specifically integrate women in the broader development agenda and acted as the
precursor to later movements such as the Women and Development (WAD), and ultimately, the
Gender and Development approach, departing from some of the criticized aspects imputed to the
WID.

Gender and Development (GAD)

The Gender and Development (GAD) approach focuses on the socially constructed differences
between men and women and the need to challenge existing gender roles and relations. This
approach was majorly influenced by the writings of academic scholars such as Oakley (1972)
and Rubin (1975), who emphasize the social relationship between men and women. These
relationships, they argue, have systematically subordinated women. GAD departs from WID,
which discussed women's subordination and lack of inclusion in discussions of international
development without examining broader systems of gender relations. Influenced by this work, by
the late 1970s, some practitioners working in the development field questioned focusing on
women in isolation. GAD challenged the WID focus on women as an important target group and
untapped resources for development. GAD marked a shift in thinking about the need to
understand how women and men are socially constructed and how those constructions are
powerfully reinforced by the social activities that both define and are defined by them. GAD
focuses primarily on the gendered division of labor and gender as a relation of power embedded
in institutions. Consequently, two major frameworks Gender roles and social relations analysis
are used in this approach. 'Gender roles' focuses on the social construction of identities within
the household; it also reveals the expectations from maleness and femaleness in their relative
access to resources. 'Social relations analysis' exposes the social dimensions of hierarchical
power relations embedded in social institutions, as well as its determining influence on the
relative position of men and women in society. This relative positioning tends to discriminate
against women.
Unlike WID, the GAD approach is not concerned specifically with women, but with the way in
which a society assigns roles, responsibilities and expectations to both women and men. GAD
applies gender analysis to uncover the ways in which men and women work together, presenting
results in neutral terms of economics and efficiency.In an attempt to create gender equality,
(denoting women having same opportunities as men, including ability to participate in the public
sphere; GAD policies aims to redefine traditional gender role expectations. Women are expected
to fulfill household management tasks, home based production as well as bearing and raising
children and caring for family members. The role of a wife is largely interpreted as 'the
responsibilities of motherhood Men however, are expected to be breadwinners whom are
associated with paid work, and market production. In the labor market, women tend to earn less
than men. For instance, 'a study by the Equality and Human Rights Commission found massive
pay inequities in some United Kingdoms top finance companies, women received around 80
percent less performance-related pay than their male colleagues. In response to pervasive
gender inequalities, Beijing Platform for Action established gender mainstreaming in 1995 as a
strategy across all policy areas at all levels of governance for achieving gender equality.
Caroline Moser developed the Moser Gender Planning Framework for GAD-oriented
development planning in the 1980s while working at the Development Planning Unit of
the University of London. Working with Caren Levy, she expanded it into a methodology for
gender policy and planning. The Moser framework follows the Gender and Development
approach in emphasizing the importance of gender relations. As with the WID-based Harvard
Analytical Framework, it includes a collection of quantitative empirical facts. Going further, it
investigates the reasons and processes that lead to conventions of access and control. The
Moser Framework includes gender roles identification, gender needs assessment,
disaggregating control of resources and decision making within the household, planning for
balancing work and household responsibilities, distinguishing between different aims in
interventions and involving women and gender-aware organizations in planning.

QUE 03

Review the methodologies for the identification of the gender needs. The role of state in
control over gender needs is very important. Discuss.

the methodological tools for incorporating gender into planning, within the context of development. The
approach can be summarized as follows.

It starts by recognizing the difference between sex and gender, and the fact that relations between men and
women are socially constructed. It differs from a women in development (WID) approach which, while
recognizing the critical role of women in the development process, does so without necessarily referring to the
nature of womens subordination. An understanding of the social construction of gender allows for the
recognition that because men and women play different roles in society, they often, consequently, have different
needs. This provides the underlying conceptual rationale for the training. It asserts that in the identification of
the extent to which needs are met in policies, programmes and projects, it is important to disaggregate within
communities, households and families based on gender.
Gender planning questions current planning stereotypes. These tend to assume that the structure of low-income,
Third World families is nuclear; that in the division of labour within the family the husband undertakes
productive work, while the wife does reproductive work; and that within the household there is equal allocation
of resources and power of decisionmaking. It identifies that women have a triple role as reproducers, producers
and community managers, while men have a dual role in productive work and community politics. It highlights
the problems experienced by women in balancing their triple role, especially those of women who head
households.
It also reveals the extent to which, within households, men and women unequally share resources. In the
identification of needs this approach makes a critical conceptual and planning distinction between practical and
strategic gender needs. This allows planners to distinguish between interventions that help women to perform
more effectively and efficiently the activities they are already undertaking, as opposed to interventions that
assist women to achieve greater equality, and thus, transform existing roles. It then uses various methodological
tools to evaluate different WID approaches. This is done in terms of their different objectives, with a distinction
between welfare, equity, anti-poverty, efficiency and empowerment approaches.
The basis of this approach is planning, rather than analysis, and gender planning rather than with planning for
women in development. The purpose of the training, therefore, is to provide tools not only for analysis but also
for translation into practice. The methodological tools identified simplify complex theoretical feminist concerns
identified above, such that they can be translated into specific interventions in planning practice.
Tools such as gender roles identification, gender needs assessment, the WID/GAD matrix and gendered
participatory planning procedures help planners in gender planning procedures such as gender diagnosis, gender
objectives and gender monitoring. They assist in showing planners how to ensure gendered consultation and
participation in the planning process, as well as the mechanisms to identify entry points for planning practice.
These relate both to institutionalizing and operationalizing gender planning. These include the appraisal and
evaluation of complex planning interventions, and in the formulation and implementation of more gendered
policy, programme or project-level interventions, within particular socio-economic and political contexts. The
integration of methodological tools into planning practice emphasizes the interrelationship between technical
and political constraints.