57

Women in the city of man:

recent contributions to the gender and
human settlements debate
Carole Rakodi

Shelter, Women and Development: First and Third World Perspectives, H Dandekar (ed), Ann
Arbor, Michigan: George Wahr Publishing Co, 1993.
Women and Planning: Creating Gendered Realities, C H Greed, London: Routledge, 1994.
Gender, Planning and the Policy Process, J Little, Oxford: Pergamon, 1993.
Gender, Urbanisation and Environment: A Research and Policy Agenda, D Lee-Smith (compiler)
Mazingira Institute, PO Box 14550, Nairobi, 1994.
Poverty in the 1990s: The Responses of Urban Women, F Meer (ed), UNESCO/International
Social Science Council, Paris, 1994.
'Issue paper: Women, gender and urban development policy', C Moser, in OECD, Women
in the city, OECD:Paris, 1995.
OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), Women in the City:
Housing, Services and Urban Environment, OECD, Paris, 1995.
'Cities and People: towards a gender-aware urban planning process?' in Public
Administration and Development 11, p541-559.

n this volume, we have seen how identity of men and women influence the

I human settlements are the product of

economic, social, and political processes,
of which the built environment is only one
manifestation. It is essential, therefore, to
understand how different forms of work
are performed by women and men, and
how gender roles and relations are
expressed through social and political
institutions, from the state to the
household, if we are to understand the way
in which the experience of urban living is
conditioned by gender.
Administration, policy, and planning
may have a weak or strong hold over the
processes of urban economic, social and
physical development. In all situations,
however, assumptions about the role and
way in which the urban environment is
experienced by members of each sex.
Elsewhere, I have argued that much urban
planning activity has been - and continues
to be - gender-blind; in order to redress
this deficiency, I have urged greater
understanding of women's economic and
social roles in urban society, their exclusion
from economic opportunities and decision-
making processes, and the discriminatory
nature of much legislation (Rakodi, 1991).
These themes crop up over and over
again in recent additions to the literature
on gender and urban development, as
researchers attempt to raise awareness and
influence policy. Many of these contribu-
tions are scattered widely through a
Gender and Development Vol 4, No. 1, February 1996
58 Gender and Development
diverse selection of edited books and
journals; many others, especially those
produced by local researchers, never reach
the mainstream academic publishing
outlets. In concentrating in this review
essay on recent publications on women and
human settlements, we find that most are
the result of international conferences.
Given the increasingly widespread but
scattered nature of gender research related
to towns and cities, these collations
perform a vital function in assembling
knowledge and experience in order to
'mainstream' gender issues and translate
these into urban policy and practice
(Moser, 1995).
Women in the City is a report of an
OECD conference heldin 1994 (OECD,
1995). The conference brought together
national delegations and others, including
academics and representatives of NGOs,
from 27 countries, and a number of
international organisations. The report
incorporates summaries of, and excerpts
from, official contributions and issue
papers, welded into a coherent volume
focusing on the conference themes of
women in the city, urban policies and the
urban process, creating environments fit to
live in, and developing urban services
which are responsive to diverse needs.
Drawing on examples from a wide
range of countries in both the north and
south, the report explores the gender
dimensions of urban change, and the ways
in which these intersect with broader issues
of social diversity in cities are explored.'
Women's participation is considered, and
the development of a gender perspective in
the political area, the policy process, and
planning practice is urged. In order that the
knowledge and expertise of women and
men organised at the community level
aretapped, and their concerns responded
to, the report calls for the development of
both vertical linkages between different
levels of policy making and administration,
and horizontal linkages between actors
involved in urban development.
The living environment within a
community setting, including housing and
services, is experienced differently by men
and women, with the result that badly
designed housing and poor conditions tend
to have an even more adverse impact on
women, who may spend more time in the
home and its immediate environs. The
report also notes that the way in which age
and gender identity cross-cut each other
can have profound effects on how urban
life is experienced: elderly women are often
a particularly disadvantaged group.
These concerns are taken up in another
well-edited product of an international
conference, this time held at the University
of Michigan in 1992 (Dandekar (ed) 1993).
In an impressive volume of over 400 pages,
50 papers are reproduced, organised under
nine themes: shelter policy, law, shelter and
women in crisis, women's participation in
the production of shelter, shelter and
income opportunities, women and shelter-
related services and infrastructure, non-
traditional living arrangements, design,
and the needs of elderly women.
The contributions, which came from all
over the world, are a mine of information
on women and shelter. They, as in the
OECD volume, reveal many commonalities
in women's experience, while recognising
economic, cultural, and social differences.
While women in any country may be
deprived of adequate housing, this issue
should not be addressed merely in welfare
terms because housing, it is stressed, is also
a potential source of empowerment. As yet,
little impetus towards more gender-aware
shelter policy is detected, and the slow
process is attributed to the pervasive
influence of patriarchal traditions, and the
portrayal of the nuclear family as an ideal.
The different ways in which men and
women experience the city should be taken
into account in planning for services,
economic development, and the built
environment, not only for reasons of equity
but also in the interests of effective urban
development. Access to social facilities and

other opportunities is often mentioned and
the need for those planning public transport
to take women's needs into account. Some
positive examples of attempts to improve
women's access to economic opportunities
are given in the OECD report, but it is also
acknowledged that the increasing inequal-
ity and impoverishment which has accom-
panied liberalisation policies in many
countries have had particularly adverse
effects on women. ( and migration; movements, organisation
This theme is taken up in a volume
edited by Meer (1994), in which a series of
papers analyse the responses of women to
urban poverty. Holcomb and Rothenburg
explore how women's work within and
outside domestic space changes as
household composition and role vary with
economic development and urbanisation.
Chant examines Mexican and Costa Rican
experiences. Survival strategies are
analysed by Rodriquez in Quito, Patterson
in Guyana and the Caribbean, Meer in
South Africa, and Kanji in Harare. Finally,
Mangahas and Pasalo analyse urban micro-
enterprises in the Philippines. The built
environment in southern towns and cities is
a reflection not just of indigenous
economic, social, and political relations but
also, and sometimes overpoweringly, of
imported town planning systems underlain
by a set of assumptions about gender
which are those characterising the
economic and social systems of twentieth
century Europe (Rakodi, 1991). Systematic
in-depth gender analysis of land use and
town planning still appear to be confined to
northern countries, for example the UK
(Little, 1993; Greed, 1994). Greed argues
that:
in order to plan'for women, physical divisions
between perceived public and private realms
manifested in land-use patterns must be
dissolved. The nature of land uses must be
reconceptualised, and the likely inter-
relationships between them reconsidered, to
reflect more realistically the way in which
women 'use' urban space.
Women in the city of man 59
Many of the issues raised in the above
volumes also appear in the slim report of
yet another international conference, this
time organised by the Mazingira Institute
and held in Nairobi in 1994 (Lee-Smith
(comp), 1994). Concentrating on the
research and policy priorities arising out of
the papers and subsequent discussion,
critical themes which emerge include the
effects of economic restructuring on work
and the participation of women in planning
and implementation; and the need for
gender-sensitive approaches to urban
planning and housing.
Many of these contributions try to move
beyond understanding women's urban
experience, by considering positive
examples of how those planning housing
and service provision in urban areas have
been made more aware of women's needs,
and by an analysis of gender, rather than
special pleading for women. As yet,
however, the undoubted evidence of many
women's vulnerability, and thus the
importance of increasing economic and
physical security, has, for some analysts,
made an even-handed treatment of the
needs of disadvantaged men and women
seem premature.
While women are excluded from
decision-making and discriminated against,
their empowerment is clearly vital, but we
must not forget that not all women are
disadvantaged nor all men advantaged.
Achieving justice for women is a legitimate
and vital aim, but social justice has
additional dimensions, so that analysis and
policy must incorporate gender alongside
other dimensions of the urban population,
such as age, ethnicity and class.
Carole Rakodi is Professor of International
Urban Development Planning in the
Department of City and Regional Planning,
University of Wales, PO Box 906, Cardiff CF1
3YN, UK.
60
The Centre for Women and Development
A non-profit making research and action
organisation established in 1983. Its
completed research projects include an
investigation into the impact of migration
on the economic participation of women.
PO Box 8205, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Tel: 225801, Telex: 2436 DHL NP
Fax: 220215
CEPAM
Areas of expertise include providing
training workshops and material on
primary health care, and financing
community participation in health projects.
CEPAM also offers assistance in estab-
lishing administration systems in primary
health care centres, and health project
assessment and evaluation.
The Centre Ecuatoriano Para La Promocion
Y Accion De La Mujer, 8vo Piso, Oficina 3
Casilla 09-01-5994, Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Tel/Fax: 593-4-403252.
The Commission for Filipino Migrant
Workers
Campaigns on issues affecting Filipino and
other migrant workers.
St. Francis of Assisi Community Centre,
Pottery Lane, London Wll.
Tel: 0171-221-0356, Fax: 0171-792-3060
Gender and Development Vol 4, No. 1, February 1996
InterAction
A coalition of over 150 US-based non-profit
making organisations working to promote
human dignity and development all over
the world. With a focus on empowering
women, InterAction works in areas as
diverse as disaster relief and public policy.
InterAction, 1717 Massachusetts Avenue
NW, Suite 801, Washington DC, 20036,
USA. Tel: (202) 667-8227, Fax: (202)
667-8236
Interlink Rural Information Service (IRIS)
A non-profit making media and research
organisation founded in September 1992.
ISIS disseminates information on social,
environmental and development issues,
with a special focus on rural areas and
urban slums. The agency has special
reports on community shelter initiatives
and the impact of cost-sharing in health.
Interlink Rural Information Service (IRIS),
P.O Box 12871, Nairobi, Kenya.
Tel: (254-2)762454, Fax: 335438
International NGO Working Group on
Refugee Women
Founded in 1986, it has some 120 members,
representing organisations and individuals,
concerned about the well-being of women
refugees, displaced people, and asylum
seekers. The organisation has been an
important advocate with governments,
UNHCR, and other United Nations bodies
on behalf of uprooted women.
 Resources 61

IWGRW Secretariat, c/o Webster SPARC, Byculla Area Resource Centre,

University, 13-15, route de Collex, CH 1293 Meghraj Aethi Marg, Municipal Dispensary,
Bellevue, Switzerland. Tel: (+44-22) 774 24 Byculla, Bombay 400 008, India. Tel: 00 91 22
52, Fax: (+41-22) 774 30 13 896730, E-mail: sheela.sparc@axcess.net.in.

Habitat International Coalition (HIC) The Women and Human Settlements

Women and Shelter Network Development Programme, United Nations
Formed by over 200 NGOs from over 50 Centre for Human Settlements (UNHCS)
nations working in housing or related (Habitat)
subjects, it acts as an international pressure The Director maintains strong networking
group in defence of the rights of the links with women's and gender sensitive
homeless. It publishes a newsletter and has NGOs working in the area of human
a large database of organisations throug- settlements.
hout the world. Catalina Hinchley Trujillo, WHSDP,
HIC Women and Shelter Secretariat, P.O. UNHCS (Habitat), P.O. Box 30030, Nairobi,
Kenya
Box 14564, Nairobi, or Mazingira Institute,
P.O. Box 14550, Nairobi, Kenya WAFE (Women's Aid Federation of
England)
Internet
A characteristic of the women's movement
You can get into the gender section on the in the UK has been the campaign to
Habitat II briefings with the following establish safe-houses for women and
Internet address: children escaping domestic violence.
http://habitat.cedar.univie.ac.at/ WAFE is a national co-ordinating office in
habitat/gender/ England, providing information, training
This has a number of articles and briefing and resources for the development of high
notes as well as a list of organisations. It quality refuge provision. Resources
also contains a paper which Jo Beall and available include information on local
Caren Levy wrote for the first Habitat II authority provision of refuges, leaflets,
Prepcom, entitled Moving Towards The posters, and videos.
Gendered City. WAFE, PO Box 391, Bristol BS99 7WS, UK.
Tel: 01272-420611
SPARC
Society for the Promotion of Afrea
Resource Centres (SPARC) began its work
with women living in makeshift structures
on the streets of Bombay in 1984. SPARC
lobbies with women who live on pave- Urbanisation
ments for their rights, to mobilise support IIED, Environment and Urbanisation: Women
in the community, and on income-earning in Environment and Urbanisation: Strategies
activities. By targeting the most vulnerable for Action and the Potential for Change,
among Bombay's 1.5 to 2 million pavement Volume 3, Number 2, October 1991. This
dwellers, SPARC hopes in the long term to special issue features a collection of papers
improve the overall position of the city's examining women's role in environment
most marginalised group. SPARC works and urbanisation, for instance, the
alongside two other organisations, Manila changing role of women in families and
Milan and The National Slum Dwellers their household needs. Also profiles
Federation (NSDF) in a dozen Indian cities networks addressing women and shelter
and further afield in other Asian countries. issues.
62 Gender and Development

Ardener S, (ed) Women and Space: Ground modern Indian city. How women's work
Rules and Social Maps Cross Cultural enables households to persist as status
Perspectives on Women, Volume 5, Berg groups within a class.
Publishers Limited, 1993. A collection of
essays exemplifying how particular Sithole-Fundire S, Zhou A, Larsson A and
societies 'genderise' space and time Schlyter A, (eds.) Gender Research on
through the culturally determined Urbanization, Planning, Housing and
intersection of behavioral ground rules and Everyday Life, GRUPHEL, Phase One,
multi-levelled social maps. Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and
Network, 1995. Provides an overview of
Katz C and Monk J, (eds.) Full Circles: women's position and status in Southern
Geographies of Women Over the Life Course Africa within the context of gender rela-
International Studies of Women And Place tions, institutional frameworks, intra-
Series, Routledge, 1993. Presents cross- household approaches and wider develop-
cultural perspectives on issues including ment strategies.
how women at different stages of life create
the spaces of their everyday lives, and how Thorbek S, Gender and Sljim Culture in
male-organised physical surroundings may Urban Asia, Zed Books, London, 1994. This
frustrate women's mobility and freedom study of slum culture and gender relations
compares two slums in Asia - Ratmalana in
Moser C O N Housing Policy and Women: Colombo and Khong Toey in Bangkok -
Towards a Gender Aware Approach (Draft) and shows how the impact of urbanisation,
Draft document commissioned by United economic change and national politics has
Nations Centre for Human Settlements differed significantly in Sri Lanka and
(HABITAT), Nairobi, Kenya. DPU Gender Thailand, despite their common cultural
Planning Working Paper No 7, University background of Therevada Buddhism. The
College London, 1985. Identifies why it is book is written with clarity and warmth,
necessary, in formulating housing policy, focusing on the human relationships which
to distinguish groups not only on the basis are central not only to women's identity,
of income but also gender. How an under- but to their survival strategies.
standing of women's triple role is vital to
the success of gender-aware planning. UNHCS, Women in Human Settlements
Illustrated by examples of "self-help' Development and Management, United
housing programmes. Nations Centre for Human Settlements
(Habitat), 1989. Training manual available
Moser C O N . and Peake L, (eds) Women, in English, French and Spanish for
Human Settlements and Housing Tavistock instructors and planners responsible for
Publications, 1987. Demonstrates the role of promoting women's participation in devel-
women's work in human settlements and opment and management of human settle-
infrastructural services through case ments. Includes a summary of experiences
studies from Asia, Africa, and Central and from different countries.
South America. Reflects the experiences of
women in site-and-service and upgrading Women's Feature Service, The Power to
projects as well as 'self-help' settlements. Change: Women in the Third World Redifine
Their Environment, published by Kali For
Sharma U, Women's Work, Class and the Women, in India and S. Asia, 1992. Zed
Urban Household: A Study of Shimla, NorthBooks Ltd. London and New Jersey, 1993.
India Tavistock Publications, 1986. Explores Compiled from articles submitted to the
the nature of women's household work in a Women's Feature Service by women
 Resources 63

journalists in Africa, Asia and Latin Argues strongly for a genuinely gender-
America, the stories illustrate the necessity sensitive approach to planning.
to locate women at the heart of the devel-
opment debate. Ferris G E, Beyond Borders: Refugees,
Migrants and Human Rights in the Post-Cold
Migrancy War Era WCC Publications, Geneva 1993.
Buijs G, (ed) Migrant Women: Crossing Analyses current movements of people in
Boundaries and Changing Identities Cross their global and regional contexts and
Cultural Perspectives on Women, Volume suggests how the international system
7, Berg Publishers Limited, 1993. Examines might respond better to the needs of
the varied and complex responses of migrants and refugees. Concludes with a
women to migrancy. How the crossing of plan of action for churches and NGOs.
geographical, moral or metaphysical
boundaries can bring about changes in Samha M, 'The impact of migrancy flows
gender relations. on population changes in Jordan', in
International Migrancy, pp. 215-228, 28 (2),
Chant S and Mcllwaine C, Women of a Lesser1990. An article about the effect of out-
Cost: Female Labour, Foreign Exchange and migration and immigration on the pop-
Philippine Development Ateneo de Manila ulation of Jordan.
University Press and Pluto Press, 1995.
Provides new insights into the links Shami S, (ed.) Population Displacement and
between women's employment, migration Resettlement: Development and Conflict in the
and household organisation. Middle East, Centre for Migration Studies,
New York, 1994. Considers world trends in
David, R with Khayri Niang O, Myers M, labour migration and the resultant complex
Ruthven O & Yabre P, Changing Places: configurations of migrants in one state.
Women, Resource Management and Migration Argues that population displacement is no
in the Sahel: Case Studies from Senegal, longer an internal matter for any one state,
Burkina Faso, Mali and Sudan (ESRC) rather it involves consequences for many
Economic and Social Research Council. governments as well as for international
SOS Sahel UK, 1995. bodies. Contains an annotated biblio-
Migration is not a new phenomenon for the graphy.
Sahel but the last 40 years have seen out-
migration from rural areas reach new Refugee issues
proportions. The case studies investigate Agger I, Bille M, (trans.) The Blue Room:
the relationship between male out- Trauma Testimony Among Refugee Women: A
migration and women's management of Psycho-Social Exploration, Hans Reitzels
natural resources. Forlag, Copenhagen, 1992 and Zed Books
Ltd, London and New Jersey, 1994. A
Dawson G Development Planning for Womennarrative about bodily, psychological,
in the Indonesian Transmigration Program cultural, social and political boundaries.
Monash Development Studies Centre, The testimonies of refugee women from the
Monash University, 1992. Suggests that Middle East and Latin America. Seeks to
prevailing gender hierarchies can be draw a map and give a name to some
absorbed and reinforced in transmigration significant areas of the refugee woman's
programmes. Contends that the commonly world.
held strategy of making women 'visible' is
not enough to ensure that transmigrant Callaway H, 'Women refugees, specific
women will benefit from development. requirements and untapped resources' in
64 Gender and Development

Journal of Third World Affairs, p p . 320-325,
1987. Strongly suggests that researchers
and refugee aid policies have overlooked
women. Argues for more research about
refugee women to enable aid agencies to
take account of women's roles and needs.
Pumamaki R. L, 'Relationships between
political violence and psychological
responses among Palestinian women', in
Journal of Peace Research, p p . 75-85, 27 (1),
1990. Compares three groups of Palestinian
women, from the West Bank and Gaza
Strip, Israel, and refugee camps in
Lebanon, to compare the impact of political
violence.
projects and the importance of ensuring
that all refugees have the opportunity to
contribute to activities planned for them.
UNHCR, Project Planning and Review
Checklist: Refugee Women and Children, 1989.
Examples of project design and implement-
ation issues concerning refugee women
and children used in preparing and
revising UNHCR project submissions.
UNHCR, Refugees: Refugee Women,
pp.10-13, No. 100, Volume 2, 1995.
Overview of UNHCR's change in policy
towards refugee women and its attempt to
recognise and meet their needs.

Stoltenberg K, Working with Womenin

Emergency Relief and Rehabilitation
Programmes, Field Studies Paper, No. 2,
League of The Red Cross and Cresent The following videos are available from the
Societies, May 1991. Written just after the UNHCR Public Information Section, Case
Gulf Crisis and the Kurdish displacement Postale, CH 1211 GENEVE 2 Depot -
of 1991, this paper highlights common SUISSE. Tel: (022) 39 8111 or Telex: 28 144.
problems facing women and girls in
disaster situations, with particular emph- UNHCR, Refugee Women, 34mins, UNHCR,
asis on the Middle East. undated. Focuses on the difficulties and
successes of refugee women in South-East
UNHCR, Extract from Draft Document on Asia as a means to explore broader issues.
Gender Analysis Framework, UNHCR,
undated. Traces gender analysis issues UNHCR, Assisting Refugee Women, 9mins
through the five stages which refugees tend 45secs, UNHCR, undated. With specific
to face: departure, flight, entry, asylum, reference to Cambodian refugees, high-
and resettlement. lights how lack of consultation with
refugees can lead to ineffectual assistance.
UNHCR, Guidelines for the Protection of Suggestions for successful emergency work
Refugee Women, UNHCR, 1991. The include using UNHCR people-orientated
guidelines generally follow the UNHCR planning framework and identifying with
policy on refugee women, which is, to women areas in which they can participate.
intergrate the resources and needs of
refugee women into all aspects of its UNHCR, Refugee Women: Partners in the
programme to ensure equitable protection Search for Solutions: An Introduction to
and assistance activities, whilst recognising Protection and Assistance Issues, 8mins,
the special needs of refugee women. UNHCR, undated. Stories of the special
protection needs and strengths of refugee
UNHCR, Policy on Refugee Women, women.
UNHCR, undated. Highlights the issues of
participation and representation of refugee
women in planning and implementing
Editorial
'A!
long with the process of urban-
isation, poverty is also increas-
ingly being urbanised' (Wegelin
and Borgman 1995, 131). In 1950, there
were only 10 cities with populations of 5
million or more; in 1993, there were 33 - six
of which had 15 million or more
(Population Crisis Committee, 1995). The
articles in this edition examine gender
issues and human settlement, and empha-
sise the intercortnectedness of all aspects of
women's and men's lives, and the links
between people's physical surroundings
and what they do to survive.
For the majority of women and men
living in the cities of the developing world
the reality of urban life is survival through
informal work and a shelter in an
unplanned area, which is likely to have few
essential services like health centres and
schools, and may well have no clean water
supply, sanitation, rubbish collection or
power. Rising population in the cities
through births and through migration, and
growing economic and political instability,
mean that many states can no longer cope
with construction or maintenance. There is
increasingly inadequate public provision of
housing and basic services, and a growing
number of de facto female-headed house-
holds, especially in the poorest social
sectors. In some Northern cities in recent
years, growing numbers of homeless
people live on the streets or in sub-
standard accommodation in conditions of
extreme deprivation.
Gender and Development Vol 4, No. 1, February 1996
In June 1996, the Second United Nations
Conference on Human Settlements -
Habitat II - takes place in Istanbul. Since
the Habitat I Conference was held in
Vancouver in 1976, the notion of cities as
focal points for industrial activity, which
would provide employment for the urban
workforce, has collapsed. The overall aim
of Habitat II is 'to generate worldwide
action to reverse the deterioration in living
environments'. Graham Alder points out
that 'informal settlements are not isolated
"pockets of poverty" which can be ignored
in the planning and development of the
city, but are settlements where the majority
of the poor ... reside' (Alder 1995, 86, in the
context of Nairobi).
Increasing impoverishment in the face of
economic crisis and efforts to make
adjustments in the economies of developing
countries has not only deepened the poverty
of the 'structural poor', who have a long-
term, near-absolute lack of resources, but has
also widened poverty to take in the 'new
poor' (terms used in Minujin 1995). This
category, of women and men who may own
a shelter but have used up all disposable
resources and are facing a process of
increasing impoverishment, grew in
Argentina, for example, from 4.2 per cent of
population in 1980, to 18.4 per cent in 1990
(Minujin 1995). The deepening and widening
of poverty is increasing social stratification;
evidence is growing to show that women are
disproportionately represented among those
whose long-term poverty is deepening, and

those for whom poverty is a relatively recent
state (UNDP 1995).
Several of the articles which follow
argue that understanding living conditions
and employment in the city in gender-
neutral terms, has resulted in buildings,
transport systems, and service provision
which hinder, rather than help, survival
and growth. Urban dwellers are suffering
the social effects of living in a physical
environment which impedes, rather than
enables, their survival and prosperity.
Diversification: a coping
strategy
Urbanisation forces both women and men
into greater dependence on the cash
economy. There is likely to be little or no
land for subsistence food production, and
keeping animals may be prohibited by city
by-laws. For many first- or second-
generation city dwellers, distance from
relatives means that the unpaid labour of
family members is no longer available. The
need for cash may mean that women who
have previously not participated in income-
generation are involved in this for the first
time.
As Carole Rakodi says, diversification is
a way of life for women, and is an essential
means of coping with insecurity (Rakodi
1991, 42). Women in the city have histor-
ically resisted attempts by policy-makers to
control their activities and movements
when these restrictions have hampered
their efforts to make a living for themselves
and their families. In areas, such as Eastern
and Southern Africa, where men have
migrated to work leaving their families in
the rural areas, women defied government
attempts to control their movements and
travelled to the cities to provide services
and provisions (Lovett, 1990).
Cities in both developing and so-called
'developed' countries today play host to a
growing population which makes a living
primarily based on small- to medium-scale
production of goods and services. Much of
Editorial
this productivity takes place outside the
formal structures of legally-set standards of
pay and working conditions, contracts and
taxation, in the 'informal sector'. 'In Latin
America, more than 30 per cent of all non-
agricultural workers were in the informal
sector at the end of the 1980s. In 1990, the
informal sector in sub-Saharan Africa
employed more than 60 per cent of the
urban workforce - more than twice the
share of the modern sector' (UNDP 1995,14).
The reality of women's work
Today, women's work within cities remains
characterised by insecurity, low returns,
and the fact that the many different facets
of that work, both unpaid and paid, are not
recognised by urban planners. The reality
of women's work calls into question many
of the neat categories used by planners and
policy-makers; for example, female workers
in export-processing zones (EPZs) or the
factories of transnational corporations
experience conditions similar to those in the
'informal sector' - low earnings, insecurity
and poor working conditions.
Typically, women working informally
undertake activities which fit into cultural
notions of 'women's work', and which are
able to take place alongside domestic and
child care responsibilities (Heyzer 1981).
'Informal' work for women is likely to need
lower investments, and yield lower returns,
than that chosen by men. Much of it takes
place within the home; poor women are
typically working for the survival of
themselves and their families, (ibid) and
have few resources to channel into business
ventures requiring premises and equip-
ment. A future edition of Gender and
Development will deal more fully with the
issues of employment, economics, and
exclusion (forthcoming, October 1996).
In this issue, Jo Beall examines women's
participation in the labour force, and the
impediments placed on such participation
by urban policy-makers, who do not focus
on the work performed by poor women in
4 Gender and Development
the 'informal sector'. Women working in
locked factories in South-East Asia, and
hawkers in the streets of East African cities,
would not recognise the regulated working
environment envisaged by city planners,
who often conceive of breadwinning as a
male activity which takes place in a
business area or industrial area, for a
regular five or six-day week and an eight-
hour day.
Planning: technical or
political?
Male-dominated planning - a technical
skill, requiring expensive education and
training - has perpetuated a misleadingly
one-sided conception of a city through
serving the interests of the small elite who
demand and use facilities such as tarmac
roads, and high-rise office buildings. This
may explain why urban planners them-
selves have proved resistant to acquiring a
social perspective. 'Conflicts, like choices,
lie at the heart of public policy-making'
(Devas and Rakodi 1993,35).
Caroline Moser has asked whether the
reason that urban policy remains
'essentially gender-blind' is that 'policy is
essentially "policing" ... and that in their
recommendations the purpose of policy-
makers is to control rather than empower
local women' (Moser 1995, 231). In her
article on Palestinian refugees in Amman,
Jordan, Seteney Shami relates how com-
munity resistance can influence and change
the course of development at micro-level.
In her article, Jo Beall discusses gender
issues and the city in the light of women's
'participation as entitlement' and 'partici-
pation as empowerment'.
Making the ruralrurban
links
Targeting the rural regions of developing
countries over the last 30 years has been a
logical response on the part of different
actors in development, who have tried to
redress the imbalance created by state and
multilateral funding of high-prestige,
sophisticated urban programmes at the
expense of poorly-served rural areas. Many
development agencies have also seen
funding rural development as a way of
preventing urban poverty, in the hope that
if rural people's livelihoods are improved,
the numbers of migrants travelling to cities
will be reduced.
However, urban and rural development
are not two separate entities which can be
understood and supported independently
from each other. Nor can governments,
multilaterals, and NGOs assume that urban
poverty is less acute or affects fewer people
than rural poverty. As Susanne Thorbek
has observed, 'the city will no longer be
[seen as] a centre for civilisation and
culture if a great part of its inhabitants can
only just eke out a living under poor
physical and economic conditions'
(Thorbek 1994,11).
Analysing social relationships,
including gender, highlights not only the
commonalities between urban and rural
experiences of poverty, but also the fact
that urban and rural life are linked in com-
plex ways. 'Women's lives are particularly
contextual, embedded in a variety of social
and cultural relationships and character-
ised by the inter-relationship of women's
activities with many physical settings'
(Churchman et al, 1995,5). Two examples
are a rural household, who may send a
family member as a migrant worker, and
the passage of goods and services,
travelling from city to village, or vice versa,
to find a market.
Understanding migration
Migration of one family member, or of a
parent or married couple with children, is
often a strategy which is of benefit to a
wider family network at home in a rural
area. The decision of who to send for work
obviously depends on who will find work
most easily. For example, in countries with

Contrasts, Dominican Republic: advertisements
for multinationals and poor urban housing.
EPZs which prefer to employ young
women who do not have child care resp-
onsibilities, young women may be called
on by their families to migrate and send the
money home.
In China, urban areas are growing very
quickly - in 1985, China's urban population
accounted for nearly one-fifth of the urban
population of the developing world and
ranked second only to India in terms of the
absolute increase of the urban population
1970-85 (Devas and Rakodi 1993, 3). The
growing numbers of young women who
migrate to find work in Chinese cities are
finding a form of emancipation in being
able to leave the constraints of 'tradition'
behind them. Delia Davin, who addresses
the issue of gender and 'circular' migration
in China in her article, points out that more
intangible benefits may be had from
migration, in terms of new ideas and
information which may have an emancip-
Editorial
ating effect on both female migrants and,
longer-term, on the sending community.
Land and shelter: a
livelihood strategy
The need for safe, secure housing goes far
beyond the physical need for shelter. It
promotes a sense of stability which enables
women and men to focus their activities. A
longing for rootedness in a place which we
consider home is a basic human character-
istic. In some areas, people who live in the
city for decades may still consider their
home to be in their place of birth. In other
regions, where urbanisation has been a
feature of life for centuries or even
milennia, as in the Americas - the most
urbanised region of the developing world -
people may see themselves as having a
solidly 'urban' identity, rather than
thinking of urban life as a temporary phase.
In her article on refugee settlements in
Afghanistan, Sue Emmott considers the
intense stress which results from people
being forced from their land, and suggests
some implications this link between
displacement and trauma has for the
design of relief programmes. She also
questions the distinction made by develop-
ment practitioners and theorists between
'temporary' and 'permanent' settlement.
What implications does such a distinction
have for the people involved, and for
projects designed to aid them? A related
question to be examined in connection with
the sustainability of development
initiatives in urban areas is women's and
men's commitment to improving their
dwellings and surroundings. Is the city
somewhere they consider to be 'home'?
The security which land tenure and
property ownership gives in capitalist
economies can be used in other ways, too -
to finance loans, for example. For many
women worldwide, the issue of property
ownership is still contested, despite the fact
that, during the 1980s, the focus of much
gender-sensitive research was how women
6 Gender and Development
were marginalised from self-help projects
set up to address infrastructure and
housing needs (Moser 1995).
Women's right to own property, includ-
ing land and buildings, opens the door to
their making a livelihood. For example,
their access to credit may depend on this.
In this light, shelter can be understood as
part of the prerequisites women need to
determine their own lives, not simply as a
welfare concern. Thinking of shelter as part
of a livelihood strategy also provides a way
into thinking about owning as opposed to
renting; people's demand for different sorts
of housing and tenure depends on their
circumstances and household life cycle
(Varley 1995).
Cities, freedom, and fear
How does living in a large human
settlement change, or consolidate, relations
between women and men? Negative
connotations associated with urban crisis
highlight slum living, alienation, societal
breakdown and lack of community
support, and increased desperation result-
ing in violence and fear outside the home,
and even within it. Growing poverty and
the resulting crisis leads, for many women,
to increasing domestic violence and splits
in marital and family relationships. Valli
Yanni discusses these issues in the context
of CEPAM's work on women's health and
empowerment in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
However, as Delia Davin points out,
urban life has the potential to offer emanci-
pation from the constraints of rural
'tradition', and the city can be a site of
wealth generation which offers women the
opportunity to develop strength and auton-
omy. Certainly urbanisation presents a
challenge to social structures; the resulting
crisis obliges both women and men to re-
evaluate old stereotypes. Yet urbanisation
may also entrench stereotypes - cities are
built and run by male-dominated elites,
cities are concerned with wage work -
traditionally associated with men.
Ironically, new stereotypes may be
promoted by unconscious - or conscious -
biases in gender and development research
and projects. It has been pointed out that
much research on women in the city tends
to focus on women-headed households, or
on women's activities outside the home.
This is to deny the complexity of the lives
of the majority of women, who form sexual
relationships with men and care for
children (Varley 1995). Another new
stereotype is thinking of 'women' as synon-
ymous with poverty. Women are not a
homogenous group, and thinking of them
as such risks ignoring those who need the
attention of development planners the
most. Feleke Tadele discusses this point,
and debates the need to focus on age as
well as gender, in the context of Kebele 29,
a well-known urban renewal project in
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, funded by Oxfam
until 1994.
Environmental concerns
Interconnectedness is emphasised again by
feminist approaches to environment (Sayne
1991, 47). 'The acknowledgement of the
contradiction at the heart of the phrase
"sustainable development" is the
beginning of a gender analysis' (ibid.).
What is needed is to re-define 'growth' in
development as the growth of human well-
being in all its complexity, rather than to
define it as economic accumulation.
Nearly three years after the Earth
Summit at Rio debated these and other
issues, environmental degradation -
including pollution of water and air and
the exhaustion of fuel and water supplies -
remains a growing hazard to both urban
and rural dwellers. In inner-city areas,
many of the poorest people live close to
industrial areas which suffer high levels of
pollution. Cities which have a centre of
Western-style infrastucture need costly
maintenance if high-rise buildings, sewers,
and road systems are not to become
dangerous and ultimately unusable.

Habitat II's overall principle, drawing
on Principle 1 of the Rio Declaration on
Environment and Development, is that
"human beings are at the centre of concerns
for sustainable development. They are
entitled to a healthy and productive life in
harmony with nature.' Conservation
depends on the understanding of the user
of the reasons for it, and on the need for
resources not clashing with this. Control of
community resources in urban areas - for
example, water pumps - tends to be by
men, who may marginalise women's need
for resources for domestic use and
production. Domestic energy needs should
be considered in the light of the
complicated lives of most informal sector
workers - energy tends to be seen as either
for domestic use and for formal workplace
use (Makan 1995).
Planners need to start from asking
women what they think they need. Do they
prioritise energy? Other problems - such as
health or education - may be higher on
their list (Ginwala 1991, 60, quoted in
Makan 1995). Sophisticated technology
may entrench or change gender roles for
the worse - for example, electricity
accounts may require a bank reference or
may simply request a man's name (Makan
1995). On the other hand, faith in 'approp-
riate technology' may be misplaced if this is
designed in a way which does not fit into
the realities of life - a solar cooker, for
example, will be of little use if night falls
before the family meal can be cooked.
Finding solutions
In line with the trend to search for solutions
beyond the public sector in many areas of
policy-making, non-governmental organis-
ations are increasingly required to address
the problems of cities in crisis. However,
this is an area which needs massive
funding and the consensus of large pop-
ulations; thus, states and multilaterals need
to be involved alongside community
organisations, and national and inter-
Editorial
national NGOs. It is virtually impossible
for the private sector to provide services in
developing countries after the 'rolling-
back' of the state - the costs of the skills
and resources required are simply too high.
It is also unacceptable for essential services
to be in the hands of unaccountable private
operators. Market forces alone cannot
deliver essential services to urban dwellers;
it is increasingly clear that many states
cannot do so either. Thus, urban develop-
ment demands solutions from different
agents working together.
'If solutions to poverty are to be found,
then ways must be found to scale up
responses and develop an institutional
framework which will enable key actors
having a stake in the future of informal
settlements and of the city as a whole to
participate fully in the development of
strategies which are fully rooted in
economic and political realities' (Alder
1995,91). Commitment to working together
in this way is reflected in Habitat II's
Partnership Committee, a body set up to
convey the views of civil society, including
NGOs and academics, to the Conference.
A comparative lack of attention to
urban issues at Beijing - in comparison to
the traditional focus by development
agencies on rural development - is evident
in the Beijing Platform for Action, where one
gains no real sense of the concerns of
Habitatll except in the most sketchy terms.
This is in marked contrast to frequent
references in the Beijing document to the
proceedings and concerns of other UN
Conferences, including the 1993 Rio 'Earth
Summit' and the 1994 UN Conference on
Population and Development in Cairo.
However, a lack of focus on urban
issues at the Beijing Conference has
perhaps stimulated the activities of gender
specialists and the women's movement at
Habitat II. There has been an immense
amount of lobbying, research, and advo-
cacy on gender and urban poverty coming
from women's organisations and networks,
in all forms and at many levels. Networks
8 Gender and Development
such as SPARC (the Society for Promotion
of Area Resource Centres), based in
Bombay, India, try to help those women
living in the city without shelter, and have
worked closely with other organisations in
advocacy leading up to Habitat II. In an
interview in these pages, Catalina Hinchey
Trujillo of Habitat gives her perspective on
the conference build-up.
Involving all actors in the community in
development needs a commitment to
listening to those whose voices may not
always be heard, or valued. From a
perspective of justice and fairness, it is
critical that women are involved in
decision-making at both community level,
and, as Jo Beall puts it, 'in City Hall'.
However, women's participation in
government does not necessarily promote
the 'gender interests' (Molyneux 1985) of
women politicians themselves or other
women; simply being female is no
guarantee of having a concern for the
promotion of gender equity. For this
reason, it is important to make men, too,
aware of the centrality of gender in
understanding the whole picture of how
human settlements operate, and what
changes to planning should be made to
benefit those citizens who are ignored in
conventional urban planning and manage-
ment. This could go some way to mending
the split which exists between technocratic
approaches to planning and human
development concerns. Two changes which
would promote learning and planning
would be encouraging exchange of
information on innovative projects, and
determining the city's welfare indicators
with women's priorities in mind.
References
Alder G (1995) Tackling poverty in Nairobi's
informal settlements: developing an
institutional strategy', Environment and
Urbanisation 7:1.
Churchman A, Davidovici-Marton R and
Fester T (1995) 'Women and the urban
environment: why women's needs should be
at the core of urban planning' in Countdown to
Istanbul, 1:4.
Devas N and Rakodi C (eds) (1993) Managing
Fast Growing Cities: New Approaches to Urban
Planning and Management in the Developing
World, Longman:UK
Heyzer C (1981) 'Women, subsistence and the
informal sector: towards a framework of
analysis', IDS Discussion Paper 163,
University of Sussex, UK.
Lovett M (1990) 'Gender relations, class
formation and the colonial state in Africa', in
Women and the State in Africa, Parpart J and
Staudt K (eds) Lynne Reiner Publishers.
Makan A (1995) 'Power for women and men:
towards a gendered approach to domestic
energy policy and planning in South Africa',
Third World Planning Review 17:2.
Minujin A (1995) 'Squeezed: the middle-class
in Latin America', Environment and Urbanisa-
tion 7:1.
Molyneux M (1985) 'Mobilisation without
emancipation? Women's interests, the state
and revolution in Nicaragua', Feminist Studies
11:2.
Moser C (1995) 'Women, gender and urban
development policy: challenges for future
research', Third World Planning Review, 17:2.
Population Crisis Committee (1995) 'Cities:
Life in the World's 140 Largest Metropolitan
Areas'.
Rakodi C (1991) 'Women's work or house-
hold strategies?', Environment and Urbanisa-
tion 3:2.
Sayne P L (1991) 'Food for thought: making
women visible', Environment and Urbanisation
3:2.
Thorbek S (1994) Gender and Slum Culture in
Urban Asia, Zed Books: London.
United Nations Development Programme
(1995) Human Development Report, 1995,
UNDP:New York.
Varley A (1995) 'Neither victims nor heroines:
women, land and housing in Mexico cities',
Third World Planning Review, 17:2.
Wegelin E and Borgman K (1995) 'Options for
municipal interventions in urban poverty
alleviation', Environment and Urbanisation 7:1.
Participation in the city:
where do women fit in?
Jo Beall
Women's priorities have often been ignored in the design of human settlements, the
location of housing, and the provision of urban services. New forms of urban
partnership are needed, to develop participatory processes that include women and
men at all stages of urban development.
P
articipation, like equity, is something
we all support, and yet it is a word to
which very different meanings can
be given. As Nicci Nelson and Susan
Wright put it, the term participation 'can be
attached to very different sets of relations,
often seemingly by its "warmness" to be
distracting close attention from the nature
of those relations' (Nelson N and Wright S,
1995). Thus, in writing about participation
in the city, I want to be clear about how I
use the term 'participation', and about the
gender relations involved.
Participation is most commonly
associated with political participation or
activity. In the second half of this article I
address this view of participation by
reviewing some of the critical gender issues
in urban governance, understood both as
government responsibility and civic
engagement.1 I focus on women's involve-
ment in the organisational life of the city -
in public office and in organisations of civil
society - and the importance of this in
incorporating a gender perspective into
urban development planning and practice.
However, in order to understand
participation in political or organisational
terms, it is also necessary to explore the
related issue of how women and men
participate in the social and economic life
of the city, and how they benefit and
contribute, as workers, carers, users,
clients, and pleasure seekers.
A useful distinction in developing my
thinking has been that between participation
as entitlement and participation as empower-
ment (Borner S et al, 1995). I use 'participa-
tion as entitlement' here to refer to how
women and men command resources,
contribute to, and take responsibility for
the well-being of their households, com-
munities, and the city. 'Participation as
empowerment' is used here to refer to the
processes by which organised groups in the
city (and individuals within them) identify
and articulate their interests, negotiate
change with others, and transform urban
organisational life and their role within it.
This article starts by giving an overview
of the 'gendered city', 2 historically
designed by men and for men - but
inhabited by both women and men, who
have diverse interests and needs at
different stages of their lives, and in
different family and community contexts.
Through thinking about 'participation as
entitlement', I examine how women and
men benefit from and contribute to urban
life, through examples of opportunities for
Gender and Development Vol 4, No. 1, February 1996
10 Gender and Development
making a living and for using urban
resources and services.
This picture of the 'gendered city'
provides a backdrop for a discussion of
'participation as empowerment'. Here I
consider some of the problems faced by
women in public office and within grass-
roots organisations. The article concludes by
arguing that a gender perspective will not
inform urban policy and planning processes
automatically. There is a need to transform
City Hall from within, while continually
holding it to account from outside.
Women and men use and experience
cities in different ways, and not always in
ways anticipated by planners. Elizabeth
Wilson (Wilson E, 1991) has pointed out
that historically, gender stereotyping has
profoundly affected urban planning and
urban institutions. Cities are spatial and
organisational expressions of social
relations, which are based as much on
power and conflict as on cooperation and
consensus. This has meant that the needs of
urban women have often been ignored.
Gender and poverty in the
city
By the next century the majority of the
world's poor people will be living in urban
areas, most of them in cities of the Third
World. While the development of human
settlements has led to significant improve-
ments in living conditions for many people
across the globe, cities can also be places
where the quality of life declines and
opportunities are denied, particularly for
the urban poor. Urban people in poverty
are usually those without secure employ-
ment, savings or saleable assets. They are
vulnerable to changes in demand in the
labour market, and in prices of basic goods
and services, and they cannot afford
adequate housing.
Women predominate among urban
people in poverty for three reasons: first,
because the jobs they can obtain are poorly
paid, part-time or insecure (even in contexts
where there are high levels of male unem-
ployment or where women workers are
preferred); second, because of inequities in
resource distribution and decision-making
power within the household, so that
women do not always control their own
income; and third, because of the fact that
women generally do not command equal
resources or assets compared to men in
their society. The increase in women-
headed households in cities everywhere,
and the growing phenomenon of women-
maintained families, make it even more
necessary to adopt a gender perspective in
responses to urban poverty.
Currently, in cities worldwide, there is
evidence of 'new poverty' resulting from
economic reform. Economic restructuring
has made urban people insecure and
vulnerable. For example, cuts in public
sector jobs, reduction in subsidies on staple
foods or services such as transport, and the
introduction of user charges and cost
sharing for basic services, have increased
urban poverty.
While the urban poor are bearing the
brunt of structural adjustment, it is women
among them who are doing most to com-
pensate for declining real incomes (Elson
D, 1989). There is evidence from Africa and
Latin America (Chant S, 1995; Kanji N,
1995) that women are reducing their own
consumption in the face of pressures on
domestic budgets imposed by user charges
or cost sharing. In Europe, demands are
being made on women's time, as a result of
the withdrawal of state responsibility for
welfare and the shift towards community
care. In countries of the South, women are
the ones who take responsibility for the
management of their communities, organis-
ing facilities and services in the face of
inadequate provision.
Women respond to urban problems in
different ways from men. They have
proved inventive and resilient in managing
communities, maintaining social cohesion,
and building homes and neighbourhoods
under conditions of dislocation or disharm-

ony. As urban management fails to deliver
urban infrastructure and services, and as
economic restructuring erodes the real
incomes of poor people in cities, there is
increased competition for affordable
shelter, and for employment or income-
earning opportunities, as well as for
services as basic as drainage, sanitation, or
meeting places. There is ample evidence of
women organising to improve their
surroundings and their security. In a
review of the literature Moser cites
examples of a range of low-income urban
women's activities: health issues, child
care, water, waste recycling, self-help
housing, and transport (Moser C, 1993).
Making a living in the city
Millions of people in the cities of Africa,
Asia, and Latin America cannot find work
in the formal sector and have to create work
themselves or find it within the informal
economy. Everywhere, women are entering
the labour market when household wages
fall. It has been pointed out that increased
responsibility as breadwinners does not
always lead to greater status or decision-
making power for women (Moser C, 1993).
From the perspective of participation as
entitlement, women in the city do more,
and command less.
Women are everywhere over-
represented in the non-conventional labour
force. There may be restricted demand for
women's labour, and they might have
inappropriate or inadequate skills for the
formal wage employment available; wages
in the formal sector may be lower than
returns from the informal economy; or
women may find it easier to balance
income-earning activities with their other
responsibilities in the more flexible
environment of the informal economy. At
the same time, in some places demand for
women's labour has increased, resulting in
a feminisation of the labour force,
particularly where production is labour
intensive.
Participation in the city 11
Recognising the interaction between the
organisation of work and other social
relationships and responsibilities is crucial
to the development of sustainable strat-
egies towards promoting urban livelihoods.
Women and men are never just workers,
but have other social responsi-bilities and
relations in the household and community
which impinge on the manner and extent to
which they engage in income-earning
activities and participate in the productive
life of the city.
Urban planning as a gender
issue
The fact that the buildings and structure of
cities last for generations means that the
architecture, urban design, land-use
planning and infrastructure are left to
future generations by past eras. Con-
ventional urban planning has been char-
acterised by cities being divided into zones
intended for specific activities, with houses,
markets, and factories in separate locations.
Today, cities designed along these lines no
longer conform to the reality of people's
lives, both women and men. Stereotypical
notions of nuclear families - with male
breadwinners journeying across town to
work, and women as housewives caring for
their children and elderly relatives in
residential neighbourhoods - have never
applied in some situations, and in others no
longer apply. The separation of home,
work, and leisure is being challenged in
cities in both the North and the South, as
women and men work to transform the
urban environment.
A look at any number of informal
settlements in the cities of the Third World
tells us that many different activities go on
within them; and that with or without
planners, people create and organise their
surroundings in a variety of ways. Women
squatters in Africa build their shacks not in
a grid pattern, but around central spaces, to
facilitate communication and communal
child care. A shopkeeper in India can call
12 Gender and Development
behind a curtain to his wife cooking and
sewing in the back room. Their children
can run between the two of them, and visit
their uncle in his motor-cycle repair
business which he conducts from the
adjoining yard and the street in front of the
shop. In the North, the rise in home-
working and telecommuting means there is
less separation between work, community,
and family lives than in the past.
Getting around the city
Functionally fragmented cities often make it
difficult for people, and particularly women,
to manage the tasks of daily life. Women
often need to travel outside of rush hours,
and to different destinations from those of
men, for example, to shops, schools, and
clinics. Yet cost cutting inevitably involves a
reduction in off-peak services, and private
operators are reluctant to take on routes and
times that are not so busy.
The problems women face are due to
the fact that transport systems have
invariably been designed around the man's
journey to work; and because the current
focus of transport planning is on mobility,
rather than accessibility. As mothers and
carers, women have to escort others; as
working women engaged in informal
sector activities, they often have to carry
heavy loads. Yet public service vehicles are
often designed without these requirements
in mind. This results in women having to
struggle with inconvenient public trans-
port, or to walk (Levy C, 1992).
It is not only the gender roles of women
which require consideration. As Patsy
Healey argues (Healey, P, 1995), we also
need to integrate the concept of social
diversity into public policy, to make the
built environment less like an assault
course or a danger zone, and to make it
more user-friendly, safe, and secure for
everybody: women and men, the healthy
and robust as well as the frail and disabled,
and for people at different stages of their
life cycle.
Access to resources and
services
There are countless ways in which income,
status, and patronage affect people's ability
to use services and facilities. At one
extreme, access to the city itself may be
restricted. Urban authorities have variously
expelled migrants without resident
permits, bulldozed illegal settlements,
arrested illegal workers, harassed street
traders, and closed down unlicensed
enterprises. Gender relations can also serve
to restrict women's access and can intersect
with other social relations to exclude
women from participation.
The urban poor in general are denied
land tenure, adequate housing, and
necessary infrastructure and services. They
are often confined to sites that are unsuited
to human settlement, such as hillsides and
swampy areas, or that are close to sources
of pollution, such as industrial areas or
garbage dumps. When housing pro-
grammes, upgrading schemes or infra-
structure developments present oppor-
tunities for the improvement of human
settlements, women are often excluded,
because their incomes are too low; or they
have no appropriate collateral or patron-
age; or they are illiterate and cannot read
legal documents and fill in the required
forms; or because they do not have the time
and skills to engage in self-build schemes.
Women who are included in schemes as
members of households are rarely con-
sulted, despite the fact that women, as
prime users of housing and human
settlements, often have insights which can
prevent failure and wastage.
Violence in the city
The issue of safety is one of growing
urgency as cities in many countries are
becoming more violent, restricting access
and mobility in the city, particularly for
women. Violence and public safety are
gender issues. Young boys face different
 Participation in the city 13

sorts of pressure from young girls, often participants, and this makes it more
wreaking havoc and creating fear possible to integrate a gender perspective.
themselves, while at the same time being
vulnerable to physical assault and attack, as
a consequence of male gender roles and Women's representation in
norms. Women, too, experience gender- public office
specific forms of urban violence and sexual
assault. Violence or the fear of it can prove There are a number of reasons why women
just as effective as more direct forms of should participate in public office. Firstly,
seclusion such as purdah, in restricting there are the demands of equality and
women's mobility and keeping them in democracy. Secondly, women need to
terror behind closed doors. demonstrate their capabilities if legislation
Fear and violence prevent participation, for equality is to result in real social
either as entitlement or as empowerment. change. Thirdly, women have particular
As stated in the Canadian National Report experiences of, and relationships to, the
to the OECD Conference on Women in the urban environment, and they have proved
City (OECD 1995): themselves to be effective agents of change
at the city or local level on a range of issues.
... violence and the fear of violence prevents However, there continue to be a number of
women from full and equal participation in the obstacles to women's participation in
social life of their community and threaten our public life, such as lack of confidence,
understanding of what should be the democratic know-how, and connections, and of
functioning of our society. courage to stand for office without support.
In many developing countries, there are
additional handicaps restricting women's
Women's participation in participation, such as cultural constraints
urban governance on women taking part in public life.
Recent concern with governance in urban Even in countries which have a good
areas stems from a more general attention record on women's political representation,
being paid to the issue of 'good govern- there is no room for complacency. For
ance' in development. There are two main example, in Australia five years ago, nearly
approaches. One is 'essentially preoccupied half the mayors of the capital cities
with questions of financial accountability happened to be women. Now there is only
and administrative efficiency', and the one female mayor (OECD, 1995). Even
other is more interested in political when the proportion of women remains
concerns related to democracy, human fairly constant, there is a high turnover of
rights, and participation (Robinson M, elected women. One conclusion to be
1995). drawn here is that women themselves
Cities have particular governance become exhausted and disillusioned
problems of their own. They are not through trying to balance multiple respons-
completely independent, because various ibilities. Another is that if women elected
tiers of government intervene in urban representatives are to have a sustainable
areas, and they are subject to national and political career at any level, their multiple
international economic, environmental, and responsibilities have to be recognised and
social pressures. Urban governance used to accommodated by government. In Sweden,
be equated solely with urban management. there has been considerable progress in
More recently it has come to be understood increasing the participation of women in
both as government responsibility and civic policy arenas as well as the labour market,
engagement involving a full range of based on the expansion of child care
14 Gender and Development
facilities and parental insurance. These
made it possible for both women and men
to combine productive and political life
with family responsibilities. Thus there are
legislative and economic prerequisites for
women to take part in public life.
Women are better represented at the
local than the national level, for reasons
such as proximity and convenience,
although they still remain a minority
(Gwagwa N, 1991). Existing male-
dominated interest groups are likely to be
reluctant to give up the power and control
of resources which are associated with local
office and patron-client patronage net-
works. Thus, current trends towards
political decentralisation of power may not
necessarily increase the number of women
elected to local office.
However, the fact that women hold
public office does not guarantee that the
interests of all women will be represented.
Political responsibility to a women's
constituency at metropolitan or municipal
level does not come automatically to
women representatives, and there is no
point in heaping blame on individual
women in public office. It is more import-
ant to ensure that there are institutional
structures which enable the specific
interests of women to be represented by
local councils, and that councillors have
transparent, accountable, and open
channels of consultation and communica-
tion with their constituencies. This is
essential for participation as empower-
ment, and yet in many countries and many
cities the political will is lacking.
Community organisation
and advocacy
Community activism is an important
avenue towards participation in city-level
planning and policy-making processes, and
is necessary to keep politicians accountable.
Issues reach the policy agenda when
powerful or well-organised groups in
society identify and press for solutions to
their problems. Adopting a women's
perspective in policy and planning would
not have been possible without the
sustained organised force of women over
the last two decades. This has been forged
through women organising separately, or
in broad coalitions with men, or through
inclusive networks, in support of social
justice and equitable policy change.
The importance of women's grassroots
organisations is increasingly appreciated
by governments and external agencies and
NGOs. This is particularly the case when
women organise services themselves, in the
absence of adequate provision from other
sources (Moser C, 1987). In Peru, women
organised self-help responses to the
economic crisis. To provide for their own
and their families' survival they started
community kitchens and 'glass of milk'
committees, some of which went on to
become larger health and leadership-
training initiatives (Barig M, 1991).
There is a danger, however, if women
confine themselves to organising self-help
and survival strategies. This can result not
only in other sectors and institutions being
allowed to abdicate responsibility for
provision and redistribution at the urban
level, but in women being left to manage
communities on their own, without
resources or political and professional
support. To ensure 'participation as
empowerment', therefore, it is important
that women in organisations of civil
society, such as NGOs and community-
based organisations, are not only involved
in community management, self-help, and
service provision, but also have the
opportunity for personal self-development,
campaigning, and advocacy.
The Society for Promotion of Area
Resource Centres (SPARC) in Bombay
recognises this problem and while
addressing the basic needs of women, also
works with them to increase their political
effectiveness. Two examples of SPARC'S
work are support for an organisation called
Mobile Creches which provides child care
 Participation in the city 15

for women construction workers; and users of cities have rarely featured as
training in 'legal literacy' for women pave- significantly as those of men in urban
ment dwellers threatened by a demolition policy or investments.
scheme, which enabled them to fight for
their right to shelter (SPARC 1986).
In Sweden, new women's networks
Forging linkages through
have been recently formed to campaign for participation
better political responsiveness to women's To achieve entitlement and empowerment
issues. Women joined forces and threat- through participation, it is necessary that
ened to register themselves as a women's policy makers and planners are not left to
party if the existing political parties did not
transform cities alone. Increasingly there is
take these issues more seriously. This a focus on urban partnerships in which the
challenge, which received excellent media creative energy of the public, private, and
coverage, had the desired effect of making community sectors is combined to meet the
established political parties place women's growing demands of rapid urbanisation.
issues higher on the political agenda All too frequently, women are included
(OECD, 1995). Thus it is primarily the only at the implementation stage and
organisational power of women which remain excluded from the formulation,
holds the 'mainstream' to account, ensuring design, and resource allocation stages of
that political parties, national and local programmes and projects.
governments, international agencies, or New forms of urban partnership,
NGOs involve women and take their therefore, need to foster (on the part of all
interests seriously. actors or groups involved) a commitment
to developing genuinely participatory
Men, too, can plan with a processes that include both women and
men at all stages of development. Gender-
gender perspective sensitive urban partnerships have to
Policy makers, planners and activists, recognise the different approaches that
whether women or men, can fail to recog- women and men adopt in organisation,
nise the specific gender interests of women, negotiation, and planning as a result of
fail to consult them, and fail to address their socialisation and experience of public
their needs. When women are not vocal life, and change their organisational
they become invisible. Thus the importance practice accordingly. Strong links are
of women organising in civil society cannot needed between grassroots organisations,
be over-emphasised. However, it is also urban professionals and their organisa-
important to work within City Hall, for tions, and the decision-makers and
policy makers and development profess- planners responsible for policy making and
ionals and practitioners to be made alert to implementation. The more women are
the impact of their decisions on the lives of involved in all these arenas, the easier it
women and men. Policy and planning with will be to keep local activism robust, to
a gender perspective can be learnt. It does make strong and empowering links, and to
not depend on the sex of the urban prac- fight for equal entitlement for women and
titioner, but on the perspective he or she men to participate fully in the life of the
adopts. A gender perspective needs to city.
become embedded in planning expertise
and development action and recognised as Jo Beall works at the Department of Social
best practice. Together with public action, Policy and Administration, London School of
this will begin combatting a long history in Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A
which women's interests and needs as 2AE, UK.
16 Gender and Development

Notes Gwagwa N (1991) 'Women in local govern-

ment: towards a future South Africa',
1 The terms 'government responsibility' and Environment and Urbanization 3:1.
'civic engagement' are those used in The Healey P (1995) 'Integrating the concept of
Habitat Agenda or Global Plan of Action, which social diversity into public policy', in OECD
has grown out of the preparatory process for Women in the City, Housing, Services and the
the Habitat II Conference in Istanbul in June Urban Environment, Paris: OECD.
1996. Kanji N (1995) 'Gender poverty and economic
2 This term was first used in a paper entitled adjustment in Harare, Zimbabwe', in
'Moving Towards the Gendered City', which Environment and Urbanisation, 7:1.
I wrote with Caren Levy and which was Levy C (1992) 'Transport', in Ostergaard L
commissioned by the Women and Human (ed) Gender and Development: A Practical Guide,
Settlements Development Programme of the London: Routledge.
United Nations Centre for Human Molyneux M (1985) 'Mobilisation without
Settlements [UNCHS (Habitat)] for the First emancipation? Womem's interests, the state
Prepcom for Habitat II, Geneva, April, 1994. and revolution in Nicaragua', Feminist Studies
11:2.
References Moser C (1987) 'Mobilisation is women's
work: struggles for infrastructure in
Barrig M (1991) 'Women and development in Guayaquil, Ecuador', in Moser C and Peake L
Peru: old models, new actors', Environment (eds) Women, Human Settlements and Housing,
and Urbanization 3:2. London: Tavistock.
Beall J D (1995) 'Social security and social Moser C et al (1993) Urban Poverty in the
networks among the urban poor in Pakistan', Context of Structural Adjustment: Recent
Habitat International 19: 4. Evidence and Policy Responses, Washington,
Borner S, Brunetti A and Weder B (1993) World Bank TWU Discussion Paper 4.
'Political credibility and economic growth', Nelson N and Wright S (1995) Power and
Basel, (mimeo): quoted in Nunnenkamp P Participatory Development, London: IT
(1995) 'What donors mean by good govern- Publications.
ance: heroic ends, limited means and trad- OECD (1995) Women in the City, Housing,
itional dilemmas of development coop- Services and the Urban Environment, Paris:
eration', IDS Bulletin, 26: 2. OECD.
Chant S (1995) 'Gender aspects of urban Robinson M (1995) 'Introduction: towards
economic growth and development', paper democratic governance', IDS Bulletin 26: 2.
prepared for UNU/WIDER Conference on Sen A (1981) Poverty and Famines, Oxford:
Human Settlements in the Changing Global Clarendon Press.
Political and Economic Processes, Helsinki,
SPARC (1986) Annual Report, Bombay.
25-27 August.
Wilson E (1991) The Sphinx in the City,
Elson D (1989) 'The impact of structural London: Virago.
adjustment on women: concepts and issues'
in Onimode B (ed) The IMF, the World Bank
and African Debt Vol 2: The Social and Political
Impact, London: Zed Press.
Environment and Urbanization 7:1, April 1995;
and 7:2, October 1995 (special issues on urban
poverty).
Escobar Latapi A and Gonzalez de la Rocha
M (1995) 'Crisis, restructuring and urban
poverty in Mexico', Environment and Urban-
ization,?: 1.
 17

Gender, domestic
and urban upgrading:
a case study from Amman
Seteney Shami

This article examines an urban upgrading project in two squatter areas in Amman.
Through the project, the state asserted its control of every part of women's lives,
addressing most aspects of private and public life in the targeted communities. Women
responded by using the powerful language and symbols of domesticity and femininity
in successfully dealing with public agencies and personnel to turn the project to their
advantage.
n the literature on Middle Eastern refugee camp, and the Jabal is surrounded

I "n
societies, the distinction between the
public and private spheres has long
.public
the
long
been based on an uncritical assumption of
the 'dual and separate worlds of men and
women' (Nelson 1974, 551). In other words,
gender identity has been seen as the crucial
factor in defining the public and private
domains, rather than types of relationships
or activities carried out, or the meanings
associated with these.
Decisions or activities coming from the
'public' (state) level often threaten to
dominate and even to take over life in the
private sphere through, for example, the
possible demolition of an urban site,
inclusion in urban upgrading projects, the
conducting of surveys and research, or
NGO activity sponsored from outside the
area.
The first area in this study (the Wadi)
lies along the slopes and the bottom of a
steep gully, the other (the Jabal) on one of
the highest hilltops of the city. They are
among the most congested and poor areas
of central Amman.1 The families who live
there are Palestinian refugees from the 1948
and 1967 exoduses. The Wadi borders a
by low-income neighbourhoods. The
people themselves do not distinguish
between these different areas or draw their
boundaries according to legal definitions of
urban space, such as 'squatter area',
'refugee camp', or 'low-income housing'.
More important for them are the networks
of family and mutual help that define their
identity, give meaning to their social
relationships, and sustain them through
difficult and insecure economic circum-
stances. Women's relations with each other,
in their homes, neighbourhoods and the
city, challenge prevalent ideas concerning
boundaries between the public and the
private domains of life.
Women in the domestic
environment
According to a 1980 survey, a 'typical'
household in the Wadi or the Jabal lives in
a one or two-roomed concrete house with a
courtyard, roofed with corrugated metal,
connected to water and electricity supplies
(though often illegally and sometimes
shared with a neighbour), but with no
Gender and Development Vol 4, No. 1, February 1996
18 Gender and Development

sewerage. The average size of household In spite of these kinship links, there
was 6.58 persons, and density per room were two separate households within the
was 3.54 persons. The average income was dwelling. Although Hasan contributed
90 JD/month earned by one or possibly something towards the expenses of both
two members of the household.2 Work was (while keeping away physically most of the
mostly in small-scale workshops, the time), Khalil was the main supporter of the
construction industry, and low-level first household (from his wages as a
government employment, and most mechanic) and Aisha of the second one
families had at least one member working (from her alimony), with some income
in the Arab Gulf (UDD 1981). In 1985, obtained through Um Hasan's (rapidly
about 10 per cent of women worked decreasing) activities as a midwife and
outside the home or in relatively regular healer. Although Khalil was the wage
income-generating activities within the earner, Um Khalil was clearly the head of
home;3 69.7 per cent of households were their joint household and took all financial
classified as single families, 10.2 per cent as and other decisions. Aisha's household was
extended families, and 8.8 per cent as poorer than Um Khalil's, and a main cause
multiple-family households. of conflict between the two was over
Yet this description of the 'average' sharing the water tap, which was the only
squatter household does little to help us source of water in the house and the bill for
understand the social circumstances and which Um Khalil paid.
arrangements in which people live. When The ambiguity of these relationships
the survey data is listed in terms of the was constantly being played out in the four
different types of relations within a square metres of the courtyard. The doors
household instead of being grouped into of the two sets of rooms did not face one
types, 75 different configurations can be another, and there was an invisible line
found within this small number of drawn across the courtyard that only the
households. The following case shows the younger children would cross with
complicated situations that poverty creates impunity. The adults kept to their side of
in a dwelling, even when almost all its the courtyard except when entering or
occupants are female and related by kinship. leaving through the common main door.
Sometimes Khalil's wife would be 'visiting
The two households of Um Khalil and Aisha her mother'. This only entailed crossing the
shared a dwelling consisting of three rooms courtyard and yet during her visit, Khalil's
built in concrete and an open courtyard wife would lock up her room as she did
enclosed by a zinco wall. The link between the when she went to the market or to visit her
two households was Hasan, Um Khalil's sisters in another area of Amman. Um
husband and Um Hasan's son. Um Khalil and Hasan once gave a lunch party and invited
her six daughters lived in one room, her son her grand-daughter (Khalil's wife) but not
Khalil and his wife in another and they shared a her daughter-in-law, Um Khalil. The
kitchen and outdoor toilet. Um Khalil's mother- parallel activities of cooking, washing
in-law (Um Hasan) lived in another room with clothes, putting herbs out to dry in the sun,
her three-times-divorced daughter Aisha, and were done separately and in that part of the
Aisha's young daughter from her last marriage. courtyard particular to each household.
They had a separate kitchen but shared the toilet Thus, the courtyard and the dwelling
with the other household. Hasan himself lived were 'shared' and yet 'not shared' by the
down the street with his second wife. Another two households, who were related to one
link between the two households was that another simultaneously as kin and non-kin,
Khalil's wife was Aisha's eldest daughter from and through both descent and marriage.
her first marriage. On rare occasions the two households

The use of courtyard space reflects the complex
social relations between households sharing the
same courtyard. There is constant visiting between
the women and children of the households.
would sit together, for example, during a
visit by Hasan's second wife, Um Khalil's
co-wife and Um Hasan's daughter-in-law
(previously her sister-in-law because Hasan
married his uncle's widow as.his second
wife). During this visit, the tensions of the
complicated relationships were clearly
expressed in the seating arrangements.
Gender, domestic space and urban upgrading 19
Relationships between
women across households
Similar complex spatial divisions also
existed in the more common situation of
multiple-family-households where a couple
lived with one or more of their married
sons and their respective families. Further-
more, in some cases, a household, as an
economic and social unit, was spread
across several dwellings. Women's rela-
tions also stretched across many house-
holds.
20 Gender and Development
One of the most sensitive arenas
through which to explore the way women
organise their relationships inside and
outside the household is that of work. The
intensely social nature of housework
becomes clear when looking at how
women spend their days and fulfil their
obligations. The scope and weight of
women's responsibilities and decision-
making is encapsulated in the fact that
most men in the Wadi (and all those who
are considered to be 'good' men) turn over
their entire earnings, other than a small
amount of 'cigarette money', to their wives
or to their mothers. This money is the
measure of a woman's authority in the
household but also means that it is up to
her to make ends meet and to provide for
the food, the necessities and the
emergencies.
Running a large household on a small
amount of money is time-consuming and
difficult. To manage, women in different
households have to rely upon each other
for help with housework, shopping, and
child-care; for aid, in financial emergencies;
and for information on where the cheapest
vegetables or the cheapest doctors are to be
found. Households that reciprocate daily in
such matters may be said to form 'mutual
aid units'. Although such units are
generally based on kinship, yet they are
formed selectively, and from all the
possible combinations, one or two units
will emerge. The prevalent pattern was that
units tended to be formed between
husband's sister/brother's wife.
Regular reciprocity could also take
place between households which were not
related by kinship, and in this case physical .
closeness was the major factor. Sometimes
these relationships formed because of the
absence of kinsfolk nearby, or because of
conflict in families, but often they existed
alongside kin-based units. They included
groups of women that formed around a
single task. A good example is women's co-
operation in embroidering Palestinian
dresses. The cloth, thread and panels of the
dress circulated among women according
to their expertise. A woman particularly
good at the difficult embroidery of the
neckline may not be as skilled as another at
a certain stitch, or in cutting out the dress.
A dress particularly admired would
circulate in different households for the
design to be copied or adapted.4
These relationships were formed and
maintained by women, irrespective of the
quality of the relations between the male
heads of their households. Such mutual-aid
groups had some continuity, but tended to
subside and re-form according to the
relationships of the women involved.
Reciprocity between households oper-
ated on two levels: women to women; and
children to children. In addition there were
adult/child relations as in child-care and in
the services that children performed for
women, such as shopping, running errands
and carrying messages. Thus there was a
great deal of visiting and a constant flow of
food and children between these inter-
connected households, located at different
parts of the residential area or in other
neighbourhoods. Thus, women were
involved in relationships stretching across
the squatter area, into the adjacent neigh-
bourhoods, and over to far-flung districts
of the city.
These relationships show that people
did not identify with the area as a whole or
differentiate between 'squatter' and 'non-
squatter' in the formation of their social
relations, which stretched across and
beyond the area designated as the 'squatter
area' by the authorities.
The urban upgrading
project
Since 1980, the families of the Jabal area
have been part of an urban upgrading
project, implemented by the Urban
Development Department (UDD), an ad hoc
agency created for this purpose by the
municipality. The aim of the project was to
extend basic services to the squatter areas

The upgrading project has led to sharp contrasts in
the physical structure of the squatter area.
and to enable their inhabitants to acquire
legal tenure to their land and houses. This
involved buying the land from the legal
owners, extending water, electricity and
sewerage connections, paving the paths and
alleys, and making available long-term loans
to enable families to pay for the land and the
cost of the services and thus to acquire legal
title. Loans were made available to build
new houses. The incentives for building a
new house, or upgrading an existing one,
were many. A house would be a more viable
economic proposition with the acquisition of
tenure, but also the municipality would not
connect new services to a house that did not
meet legal building codes. This meant that
the house had to be built of 'permanent
materials' i.e. concrete or stone, and had to
observe regulations concerning the degree
of set-back and percentage of built-up and
roofed areas.
Resistance to the UDD project in the
Jabal was strong. Having been settled in
1948, by 1980 the area was well-established,
Gender, domestic space and urban upgrading 21
its inhabitants generally felt secure from
eviction, and most houses were connected
to water and electricity. At first glance it
would appear that the resistance was
mostly carried out by men, especially
elders. A number of the men were jailed for
inciting demonstrations, until the mayor
interceded to free them, and negotiations
took place to sort out differences between
the UDD and the community.
Eventually the project went ahead, but
with a substantial reduction of its cost to the
inhabitants. While public confrontations took
place with the male elders of the community,
and while the UDD tried to set up an
alternative leadership by encouraging young
men to form neighbourhood associations, it
was the women (in this, and other squatter
areas) who interacted on a daily basis with
the UDD staff, who argued with them, and
tried to negotiate better terms.
There was a heavy UDD staff presence
in the area throughout the major phase of
project implementation. The Jabal was
being invaded constantly by outsiders:
project engineers, social workers, inter-
viewers for successive surveys, visitors
from the government and from the World
Bank. But the role of the project in restruct-
uring the lives of the women and their
families went beyond uncomfortable
interactions with strangers.
Planning to restructure
social relations
The project had a definition of not only
how a family 'should' live, but also what a
family 'is'. Married sons were eligible for
separate plots, which encouraged multiple-
family households to split up. At the same
time, the project, while safeguarding the
ownership of plots, also limited this
ownership, and halted the process of
expansion of plots that some households
had begun. The project also defined what a
'community' consisted of, and how it
should organise its activities. The idea that
the community centre was the main space
22 Gender and Development
for activities and decision-making had to
be imposed by holding public meetings
there, instead of in the houses of local
leaders. The uneasiness felt about the
community centre was partly due to the
fact that it represented a space which
would not be controlled by the people
themselves. Instead, it was a public space
controlled by the state, and its activities
(football, literacy classes, sewing work-
shops) were to be decided by outside
authorities. Furthermore, the use of the
space was indeterminate: it was unclear
whether it was for women or for men, or
when it would be used by one or the other.
A committee for organising sport and
cultural activities was established. This was
mainly composed of educated young men,
who immediately came into conflict with
the elders over forming a soccer team.
Blurring the private and the
public
As a result of the upgrading project, the
area came under the direct jurisdiction of a
government agency that took responsibility
for every aspect of life, from health to
family relationships, to community
activities. Regardless of the possible bene-
ficial impact of these activities and the
arguable importance of 'integrated devel-
opment' approaches, the point remains that
the UDD project led to a major restruc-
turing of space, life, and social relations in
the community. What initially started as
physical urban renewal ended up including
community services, community centres,
vocational training, and income-
generating projects for women.
If we define the 'private', following
Barrington Moore (1984), as the arena
which people try to keep immune from
intrusion by public authority, then we can
say that even the domain formally
designated by the project as private had
also become public. The household and
family were also being targeted for
'upgrading', through lectures, censuses,
surveys, child rearing classes, nutrition
classes, and income-generating projects.
Every aspect of family life, from habits of
toilet use to household budgets, became the
object of enumeration, classification, and
analysis; and the family became part of the
public domain. Further, the body of each
woman and child also became public, or at
least public knowledge, through fertility
and reproductive behaviour surveys and
family planning interventions.5
Women's responses
In recent years, we have become more
sensitive not only to the existence of
informal groups and structures, but also to
methods of wielding power, tactics to resist
such power, and processes for negotiation
and to undermine dominant groups. But
recognising that women engage in these
types of subtle relations and practices does
not (as early feminists feared) cast them out
of the formal arena, or into the category of
the powerless.
The women of the Jabal reacted to the
project by trying to influence and direct the
changes so that they would be of benefit to
them and their families. They negotiated
the amount of monthly payments, the
schedule of payments, and the regulations
imposed concerning the quality of their
dwellings, and sought access to sources of
welfare through UDD staff.
In doing so, women had to physically
transcend community and neighbourhood
boundaries and emerge into the full gaze of
the public. Women continuously visited the
UDD and other municipality offices,
wearing their Palestinian embroidered
dresses, sitting, standing, arguing, and
always insisting on seeing the mudir, the
director. If the women did not achieve
what they needed on the first visit, they
made repeated visits until some comprom-
ise was reached. Ironically, in their
negotiations, women appealed to public
officials as women, and in their roles as
mothers, wives, and guardians of the

domestic domain. In other words, they
brought the power of the private domain to
bear on the public one. The 'public domain'
now seems to be as ambiguous and ill-
defined as the private. The cultural
construction of 'womanhood' takes place at
all levels of society, and can be turned to
women's advantage, in both public and
private domains.
Seteney Shami is Jordanian. From 1982-95 she
worked in the Department of Anthropology,
Yarmouk University, Jordan, and has also been
a visiting professor at universities in the USA.
Her research interests include urban politics,
identity and nationalism, Middle East and the
Caucasus. Address: The Population Council,
PO Box 115, Dokki, Egypt.
Notes
1 The squatter settlements were first formed
in 1948 with the influx of Palestinian refugees
into Amman. They formed around the
refugee camps that were set up by UNRWA
(the United Nations Relief Works Agency) at
the then-periphery of the city. The squatters
were refugees who had either came too late to
be included in a camp, or were crowded out
of one, or were placed in a camp that was far
from work opportunities, kinsfolk, and co-
villagers. They built shacks on vacant land
adjacent to camps where they had kin upon
whom they could depend for support. As
refugees they were eligible for UNRWA aid,
and this was further incentive to live close to
UNRWA schools and clinics. As the city
expanded, both the camps and the squatter
areas became encapsulated within residential
neighbourhoods. In recent years these areas
have also begun to attract poor rural migrants
and non-Jordanian migrant workers.
However the majority of inhabitants remain
Palestinian refugees and, due to the lack of
space, the newcomers are not able to build
houses but rent or buy them from the original
squatters.
2 At the time of the research 1 Jordan Dinar
equalled approximately 3US$. Now it equals
approximately 1.4US$.
Gender, domestic space and urban upgrading 23
3 This figure is taken from the 1985
reassessment survey of the upgraded areas
(Bisharat and Zagha 1986). The survey was
highly sensitive to the difficulties of asking
about women's employment and consequent-
ly the figures are reliable. For more on
women's employment in the squatter areas
see Shami and Taminian 1990.
4 A great deal more can be said on the issue of
embroidery, which acts as a condensed
symbol of Palestinian identity, as a marker of
femininity and its accompanying skills, and as
economic capital.
5 I do not exempt my own research from this
appraisal. The fieldwork in the Wadi and the
Jabal was part of the reassessment project
directed by Dr. Leila Bisharat. It included a
physical-demographic-health survey of the
four upgraded sites and anthropological
fieldwork carried out by myself and Lucine
Taminian. The funding for the anthropolo-
gical component was from IDRC (Canada)
and the research was conducted independ-
ently but under the general auspices of the
UDD. I would like to acknowledge here the
many conversations with Leila Bisharat and
Lucine Taminian that inform this analysis.
References
Bisharat, L and Zagha, H (1986) Health and
Population in SquatterAreas of Amman: A Reass-
essment After Four Years of Upgrading, Urban
Development Department: Amman.
Laslett, P (1978) Household and Family in Past
Time, Cambridge University Press: London.
Moore Jr. B (1984) Privacy: Studies in Social and
Cultural History, M E Sharpe, Inc.: NY.
Nelson, C (1974) 'Public and private politics:
women in the Middle Eastern world',
American Ethnologist 1:3,551-563.
Shami, S and Taminian, L (1990) 'Women's
participation in the Jordanian labour force: a
comparison of rural and urban patterns', In
Shami, S et al, Women and Work in Arab
Society: Case Studies from Egypt, Jordan and
Sudan, Berg Publishers: London.
UDD (Urban Development Department)
(1981) Summary Tables of Comprehensive Social-
Physical Survey. Amman: Urban Development
Department.
24

Gender and rural-urban

migration in China
Delia Davin

Migration by both men and women in search of better economic opportunities is

currently taking place on a massive scale in China. Young women who return to live
in their home villages after several years of earning high wages in urban areas may
face particular problems of adjustment. This article considers the effect this 'circular
migration' is having on gender relations within Chinese society.

destination. But equally important to

M
igration is one of the most
important economic, demo-
graphic and social phenomena in
China today, involving the transfer of tens
of millions of people from villages where
they are employed - or underemployed -
in agriculture, to cities, towns, or other
rural areas where they hope they will find
better economic opportunities. Migration
has allowed the supply of cheap labour to
remain buoyant in China's industrialising
coastal regions, despite the extraordinarily
rapid growth of the economy and of
employment in these areas. Here, I focus on
the gender aspects of this migration,
attempting a preliminary discussion of the
impact of migration on gender relations
and the lives of women in the villages of
the sending areas. Much of the interview
material and other information in this
paper was obtained during a period of
fieldwork which I carried out in 1994 in
Sichuan.
The possible impact and implications of
the internal migration in China are
enormous and complex. The flow most
commented on is, of course, of the migrants
from the sending areas to the areas of
China's development are the flows in the
other direction, back to the sending areas,
of cash remittances, information through
letters, and returning migrants bringing
new skills and ideas.
As this large-scale migration is still
quite new, there have been few studies of
it, and fewer still which cover gender
issues. Much of what I have to say will
therefore be rather speculative.1
China's 1990 Census
Migration is 'a selective process affecting
individuals with certain economic, social
educational and demographic character-
istics' (Todaro 1976, 26). It is widely
acknowledged that migration tends to
involve a rather narrow range of econom-
ically active people in terms of age, and,
sometimes, in terms of gender, altering the
demographic balance of the sending areas.
In many developing countries, it is mostly
males who migrate to seek employment. In
China, judging by evidence from the 1990
census which provided information on
migration (Zhongguo Tongjiju 1991), the

Gender and Development Vol 4, No. 1, February 1996


sexes are comparatively evenly balanced: of
all migration recorded by the 1990 census,
54 per cent was male and 44 per cent
female. However, this picture is likely to be
somewhat misleading, and does not reflect
the complexity of the situation.2
Marriage in China invariably involves
the bride moving to her husband's home.
Moreover, it is still the norm for the woman
to marry into a different village, possibly
some distance away. Females who move
within their own province are most likely
to be marriage migrants. Comparatively
few marriages would involve moving
across provincial borders (Goldstein S and
Goldstein A, 1990).
In rural/urban migration, the focus of
this paper, men outnumber women in all
categories, whether they come from cities,
small towns, or the countryside, and
whether their destination is a small town or
a city. Women made up 41 per cent of the
total of migrants from the rural areas.
Although some of these migrants are also
no doubt marriage migrants, we know that
the great majority of rural to urban
migrants move to urban areas in search of
work. The 1990 census enumerator had to
record the reason for the move under one
of nine categories. The third of these
categories - that of work/business/
trade/commerce - is the most important
nationally, accounting for almost 29 per
cent of all movement, as well as almost half
the in-migration to Beijing. Thus the census
confirms all the other evidence we have
that economic migration is of major
importance migration between provinces in
China.
Migration and the sexual
division of labour
It is generally recognised that where
migration alters the sex balance in a
sending area, it has the potential to alter the
sexual division of labour. Parnwell says
that a common response to migration is for
the old, the very young or women to be
Gender and rural-urban migration in China 25
drawn into work they would not otherwise
have done (Parnwell 1993). He omits to
point out the possibility that men may take
on what is normally thought of as women's
work, where there is heavy migration of
women. Such developments will inevitably
be affected by culture. For example, In
Africa male migration from the rural areas
normally results in a greater female
participation in agricultur; in Pakistan,
where the seclusion of women is favoured,
it is more usual for a male relative to farm
in place of a male migrant.
The data of China's 1990 Census, which
show that the numbers of male and female
migrants are not vastly different, probably
masks considerable differences at the
micro-level. In many cases, male and
female migrants go to different places, and
find different types of work. Some flows
are dominated by one sex or the other: for
example, most migrants from Anhui to
Beijing are women who go to do domestic
work; migration flows from some counties
in Sichuan are dominated by young women
who go to work in the new export indus-
tries of south-east China (Wan Shanping
1993). In other areas, many men leave the
rural areas to do construction work,
transport work or trading, while women
remain in the villages.
As we could expect in such areas, there
are many reports of the breakdown of the
sexual division of labour. Women may take
over most of the agricultural work, even
doing tasks which traditionally were
always performed by men. By contrast, in
Anhui it has been reported that men cook,
clean, and even sew when the female
members of their family have gone to work
in the cities (Wan Shanping 1993).
Migration and child-care
All over rural China, old people take care
of children whose parents are busy else-
where. In some cases, the mother may be in
the city, although young unmarried women
outnumber married women among the
26 Gender and Development
migrants. Where a young father has
migrated, the wife may have to work on
the land, and may look to the older genera-
tion for help with the children. Although
old women certainly do more child care
than old men, men no doubt do more than
they did in the past.
It is common practice in many develop-
ing countries for the children of migrants to
be left in, or sent back to, the sending areas,
where child care is cheaper. However, in
China, there are other factors which
encourage this. Under the household regis-
tration system, migrants to urban areas,
even if they have obtained temporary
residence permits, do not have the same
rights as people with permanent urban
household registration. Specifically, they
cannot send their children to school in the
urban areas, and do not have rights to free
or low cost health-care there.
These restrictions induce many mig-
rants to send their children back to their
home areas when they reach school age,
even if they have not already done so
earlier. Even migrant women who marry
urban residents may face this problem, as
the children's household registration
follows that of their mother. I interviewed
one new mother from Sichuan, who had
married a man from Nanjing where they
both worked. Her child's registration was
in the remote village from which she had
migrated. She was already saving to
purchase permanent residence for her child
in Nanjing, which she thought she would
need to do at the cost of several tens of
thousands of yuan, when the child reached
school age. She had asked her mother if she
would consider caring for the child later
but the mother had told her that she could
not, on the grounds that she would have to
care for her son's baby, 'a child of her own
family'.
Other mothers return to the sending
area to care for their child or children. In
Sichuan I interviewed one grandmother,
who cared both for her son's child, and for
her daughter's child during the day. Her
two sons and her daughter-in-law were
working in Guangdong Province, as was
her daughter's husband. Her daughter had
also worked there until the birth of her son.
She was forced to stay in Sichuan after the
birth of the baby because there were no
child care facilities at her Guangdong
factory, and her mother-in-law was dead.
Her mother was prepared to care for the
child during the day while she worked in
her in-law's fields but had refused to take
total responsibility for him. She said, 'I can
do that for my son and my daughter-in-law
because we are all one family and they
send money back home. My daughter is
married so she belongs to another family.'
'Circulation': the influence
of returning migrants
Chinese migrants keep close ties with their
home villages. In Sichuan we were told
repeatedly that between 70 per cent and 90
per cent of them return home at least once
a year, usually at Spring Festival. Such ties
are, of course, commonplace elsewhere in
the developing world, but again the
Chinese experience is shaped by legal
institutions.
We have already seen how even legally
registered migrants lack certain rights in
the urban areas. One of the justifications
offered for denying them rights to the
urban system of social security is that their
security is supplied by their right to land
back in their villages. Rural migrants retain
a link with their villages through their right
to that land, which is cultivated for them,
usually by other family members, in their
absence.
Migrants also lack other types of
security in the urban areas. They are
usually on short-term contracts and can be
fired if their enterprise runs into problems.
They are sometimes rounded up and
bussed out of town by urban authorities,
who feel that they pose too many
problems. Although a temporary residence
permit affords some protection, it costs
 Gender and rural-urban migration in China 27

money, and in many towns must be household, they would inevitably take
frequently renewed at the police station. some part in reaching this decision. Their
Only the most successful migrants could very departure challenges the traditional
consider purchasing a permanent residence concept of woman as the 'inside person'
permit, which was said to cost 20,000- responsible for the home. The cash
100,000 yuan in Beijing, or 4,000-20,000 in remittances sent home by some female
Shanghai (Jingji Wanbao 1994, Wenzhaibao migrants make them the biggest
1993). contributors to the shared family income.
Negative images of migrants are Even when they are less significant,
constantly put forward in the media, and remittances always make a considerable
open hostility is not infrequently shown difference. Few families appear to rely on
towards them on the street. Many migrants them for subsistence; rather, they are able
live in poor shanty-type accommodation, to set them aside for house construction,
which they must hesitate to improve given financing events such as weddings, and
the danger that it could be razed to the investment in small 'sideline' production.
ground in some anti-migrant drive We know from the work of Salaff in Hong
(Wenhuibao, August 1994). All in all, Kong, Kung in Taiwan, and Bell on Wuxi
migrants are not made to feel at home in silk-workers, that the mere fact that
the city, and not surprisingly most see their daughters become important wage-earners
sojourn there as temporary. in the family does not mean that they are
All these factors contribute to a necessarily accorded equal status with their
situation in which most rural-urban brothers (Salaff 1981, Kung 1983, Bell,
migration in China is of the 'circulation' 1994). The boys, after all, remain in the
type, where each year a number of young family all their lives, unlike the girls, who
migrants depart for the city; most will marry out.
return, probably permanently, in a few But girls do gain something from their
years' time, and their place be taken by contributions. They apparently feel a sense
other young hopefuls. of self-esteem at repaying their families for
Obviously, the effects of this circulation their upbringing; they may be able to
migration are likely to differ in important negotiate greater personal autonomy; they
ways from migration which is very long- are likely to marry rather later tha'n non-
term or permanent. Notably, circulation migrants; and they acquire savings, clothes
produces greater and more continuous and other personal property during their
flows of information, skills, capital, sojourn in the urban area (Wan Shanping
innovation and life-style influences back to 1993). In exceptional cases they may even
the villages with all sorts of implications for use their earnings to purchase greater
developments there. personal freedom. I interviewed one
Sichuan migrant to Guangdong who had
made a marriage arranged by her father
The influence of young which turned out unhappy. She said that
female returnees during her father's lifetime she could do
Young women who leave the villages and nothing about it. When he died, she
come back after a few years of experience applied for a divorce, which her husband
working in the towns are likely to have the was willing to agree to provided that she
greatest influence on gender relations and left her son with him and paid 7,000 yuan
assumptions in their home areas. Although for child support. She had found a factory
the final decision on their initial migration job in the south at 600 yuan a month,
will normally be taken by a male head of specifically in order to save this sum. Once
28 Gender and Development
it was paid, she was looking forward to
'being able to save for my own future and
help my mother'.
Young women who have worked in the
city are easily identifiable on their return to
the villages. They wear bright-coloured,
more fashionable clothes, more expensive
(and impractical) shoes, and sport modern
hairstyles. No doubt their appearance
inspires other village girls to attempt to go
to the city. Researching in Anhui, Wan
Shanping found that the desire to buy
clothes was an important motive for female
migration. To what extent are these
changes merely superficial? Have female
migrants changed in ways which are likely
to bring changes to their villages?
There is evidence that a sojourn in the
city can influence both the roles and
attitudes of women. Most female migrants
earn a wage which they receive into their
own hands. Such is the gap between the
poor counties and the booming coastal area
that their monthly wage may be double, or
even treble, the average per capita annual
income in their home villages. The
knowledge that they are able to earn so
much money must increase their sense of
self-esteem. Even when they save and send
most of their earnings back home, the
experience must give them a sense of
power and autonomy which working as
part of the labour force of a peasant house-
hold could not give them. Later they are
likely to carry into their marriages an
expectation of at least some control over
their new family budget.
Migrants to the towns are likely to be
influenced by urban lifestyles and customs.
The strongest influence will perhaps be on
the young rural women who work as
maids, because living within an urban
family they become most intimately aware
of a different way of life. However, factory
workers who live in dormitories, too, are
able to observe from real life, from
magazines, and from television and films.
They take back with them to the villages
notions of love, more companionate modes
of marriage, home comforts and luxuries,
smaller families, and so on.
In all probability, for many individuals
this will result in conflict and difficulty.
Control over arranged marriages has long
been an area of struggle in the Chinese
rural family. In many areas, parents still
expect to choose partners for their children
and would certainly insist on a right of
veto. The influence of urban ideas about
courtship and love on whole cohorts of
young women is likely to exacerbate such
struggles, as peasants of the older genera-
tion will still see marriage as an important
affair for the whole family. Older people
are also likely to shake their heads at the
extravagance of the young, when returnees
seek to furnish and equip their houses, or
dress themselves and their children,
according to their new tastes.
The returnees may experience consider-
able difficulty in resettling in the country-
side and feel deep frustration at the things
they cannot change. Wan Shanping noted
the dislike felt by young women who had
lived in the cities for rural latrines; they
found it hard to re-accustom themselves to
these, and to other hardships which for
most of their lives they had taken for
granted.
The fertility of returnees
Much concern has been expressed in China
by officials and in the media about the
fertility of migrants (Beijing Wanbao, 1994).
Migrants in the urban areas are perceived
as having too many children, because they
are 'difficult to control' and 'no-one is
responsible for them'. Such concerns are
perhaps understandable, for they are
voiced by harassed urban officials, anxious
to keep within their low birth quotas.
The one-child family rule is severely
enforced in the cities and urban fertility is
very low. The situation in the countryside
is quite different. Firstly, the regulations
are less strict; peasant couples whose first
child is a girl are usually allowed a second,
 Gender and rural-urban migration in China 29

and in a few areas, even a third birth is Conclusion

permitted. Secondly, the regulations are
more commonly ignored in the rural areas. I conclude this consideration of the effects
However, there are other ways of of rural-urban migration on gender
looking at the problem. Many migrants relations and the lives of women in the
come from poor remote areas of China, sending areas by speculating that the
where fertility is still comparatively high. If demands and expectations of young
they move as families to the urban areas, women who return to their villages after a
their fertility may indeed be higher than period spent living in the urban areas will
that of local people, but it is likely to be be affected by urban norms. This may lead
lower than it would have been had they to initial conflict, but it is likely that these
remained in the villages. The difficulties women will successfully retain greater
associated with giving birth to, and personal autonomy. It is also likely to lead
bringing up, children in areas where they to a higher degree of material consumption
do not have rights to health and education, in the rural areas. Although women will
and the opportunity costs for the mother remain disadvantaged by the marriage
whose earning power will almost certainly system and other customs, their earning
be reduced, will be powerful inducements power as migrants, and the money which
to migrants to restrict the size of their they send and bring back to the villages,
families. will help them to realise at least some of
their demands. The economic, social,
Some migrant couples in urban areas cultural, and educational gap between the
may even have fewer children than the poor countryside and the prosperous urban
locals (Yangcheng Wanbao 1994). In the moreareas of China will remain wide for the
common situation, where married migrants foreseeable future, but migration in the
leave their spouses in the villages, their form it takes at present in China has the
fertility will be reduced by separation; potential to return human and financial
while single people who migrate tend to resources to the villages, and thus helps to
postpone marriage, at least by a year or two prevent the gap becoming even wider.
(Wan Shanping 1993). Finally, migrants to
the urban areas will be influenced by the Delia Davin works at the Department of East
different aspirations of the urban popula- Asian Studies, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2
tion regarding family size, and are likely to 9JT, UK. Research on which this paper is based
be both more receptive to, and more was funded by grants from the Nuffield
knowledgeable about, birth control. Foundation and from the Academic
There are many reports of young Development Fund of the University of Leeds,
women who have brought back capital to and travel grants from the Ford Foundation and
their villages with which they set up shops the British Academy. Delia Davin would also
and even small manufacturing enterprises like to thank her co-researcher, Dr Mahmood
(Wan Shanping 1993). If such develop- Messkoub of the School of Economic and
ments are general and sustained, they will Business Studies at the University of Leeds, and
contribute substantially towards changing the Institute of Social Studies at the Hague.
gender relations. As managers in such
enterprises, individual women will attain
greater autonomy and respect, and also Notes
offer a new role model to other village 1 I should however acknowledge my debt to
women. the many Chinese colleagues who have been
generous with their time and their research
data and especially to members of the
Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences, to Ms
30 Gender and Development

Tan Shen, of the Chinese Academy of Social thousand yuan for urban and suburban
Sciences, and to Wan Shanping, whose MPhil residency', 22 June 1994.
on the migration of Anhui maids to Beijing Kung L (1983) Factory Women in Taiwan,
has been extraordinarily useful to me (Wan Columbia University Press.
Shanping 1993). I am also very grateful to the Parnwell M (1993) Population Movements and
many Chinese with whom I have discussed the Third World, Routledge.
migration, migrants themselves, officials, Salaff J (1981) Working Daughters of Hong
colleagues, students, and chance Kong: Filial Piety or Power in the Family?,
acquaintances. Cambridge University Press.
2 Although the 1990 census was based Todaro M (1976) Internal Migration in
primarily on de facto rather than de jure Developing Countries: a Review of Theory,
residence, the instructions given to enumer- Evidence, Methodology and Research Priorities,
ators probably resulted in the omission from ILO, Geneva.
the migrant totals of millions of temporary Wan Shanping (1993) 'From Country to
migrants. Moreover, it seems probable that Capital: a study of a female migrant group in
some migrants without any sort of residence China', unpublished MPhil thesis, Oxford
papers might have sought to avoid Brookes University.
enumeration, although I am uncertain how Wenzhaibao, 'Farmers buy residence permits,
these omissions might have affected the at cost of 4-20 thousand yuan, popular again
figures for male and female migrants since 1992', 15 April 1993.
respectively. Wenhuibao, 'Putuo (Shanghai) sends hundreds
of migrants home, dismantles 5,000 square
metres of shacks', 19 August 1994.
References Yangcheng Wanbao, 'Guangdong finds
Beijing Wanbao, 'Changing district in Shanghai population makes fewer babies than natives
opens school for migrant labourers to teach contrary to previous theory', 25 July 1994.
law, hygiene and birth control', 23 May 1994. Zhongguo Tongjiju,(1991) 10 per cent sampling
Bell L (1994) 'For better for worse: women tabulation in the 1990 population census of the
and the world market in rural China' in People's Republic of China, State Statistical
Modern China 20:2. Bureau. For a more detailed discussion see
Goldstein S and Goldstein A (1990), in Nam, Davin D and Mahmood Messkoub 1994,
C, Serrow, W, Sly D (eds), International 'Migration in China: results from the 1990
Handbook on Internal Migration, Greenwood census' Leeds East Asian Papers, University of
Press, Westport, Conn. Leeds, UK.
Jingji Wanbao, 'Beijing to charge 20-100

'Dislocation', shelter, and
C r i s i s : Afghanistan's refugees and
notions of home
Sue Emmott
There has been war in Afghanistan for 17 years. During that time millions of people
have become refugees or been displaced within the national borders. Conversations
with women in a camp for the displaced reveal what it means for women to lose their
home, particularly in a situation of persistent instability and conflict.
A
t present, it is a fortunate Afghan
who has a dwelling-place that he or
she can really call home. The
communist coup in 1978, followed by the
invasion by forces of the Soviet Union in
1979, led to a resistance war during which
five million people - one-third of the
population - left the country, mostly as
refugees to Pakistan and Iran. In 1992 the
communist regime fell, but the anticipated
peace turned into an even bloodier
struggle, centred on the capital city, Kabul.
In Kabul, a city of a million people, it is
said that all families are poor, but that one
family in four lives in dire poverty
(ICRC/Kabul Emergency Programme
Research, 1995). If you ask Kabulis why the
family were able to stay there throughout
all the bombardment they will tell you that
they could not afford to leave. In the last
three years, hundreds of thousands of
people have left Kabul, adding to the
numbers displaced within the country.
Peace seemed to triumph for a few brief
months, before a battle for the city began
again, this time on the part of the student
militia Taliban, who are in control of about
one-third of Afghanistan and are poised
around Kabul, attacking with occasional
guns and rockets. In areas they control, the
31
Taliban are imposing a radical regime,
which.greatly restricts women's rights.
Oxfam UK/I has worked with
displaced people from Kabul since the first
major destruction of the city in August
1992. The programme reconvened in Mazar
i Sharif, where a programme of assistance
to about 20,000 displaced was set up in
Mazar and Pul i Khumri. Another fierce
round of bombardment in January 1994 led
to 100,000 leaving Kabul for the eastern city
of Jalalabad.
Kabul was once a thriving and vibrant
capital city, with an educated middle class
used to a range of social services and civil
institutions. Social justice was high on the
early communist agenda, and women had
improved their status considerably. Kinder-
gartens were common, enabling women to
work, and the public sector offered benefits
which recognised the hidden costs and
contributions of family life; for example,
the widows of former public sector
employees received a pension.
In the 1970s and 1980s, women wore
sleeveless dresses or jeans and T-shirts.
They covered their heads when and if they
wanted to, rather than by decree. These
same women, in the displaced camps, have
lost these freedoms and must now be
Gender and Development Vol 4, No. 1, February 1996
32 Gender and Development
careful where they move, and have to cover
themselves fully.
Homelessness in Kabul
Afghanistan is full of homeless people. The
fortunate few are those who live in the
house they have always known. They have
suffered great privation, lost relatives, and
their house may have been damaged
during the regular bombardment but, one
way or another, they have managed to stay.
The rest have lost their homes for a variety
of reasons; at worst their home was in the
front line and was totally destroyed, at best
they have fled from the bombardment but
the house still stands and they may one
day be able to return. Many hundreds of
thousands live in tents, in camps for
displaced people; and many millions live in
neighbouring countries as refugees in
camps which look like permanent settle-
ments. The least fortunate do not 'live'
anywhere. They are urban nomads,
moving from place to place in search of a
roof over their heads, and employment
which will enable them to buy food.
For this article, Oxfam staff talked to
women from Kabul, now living in camps in
other areas, notably Jalalabad, in 1994,
where I carried out a series of four focus
group discussions, each with 8-10 widows.
In the focus groups, I asked about loss - of
husband, home, and city. The quotations
used in this article are all from this source.
In the groups, most found it hard to talk
about the notion of 'home'; they were clear
about what home was not, but had great
difficulty in articulating what it actually
was. It was clearly not the tent. That was
where they lived, but it was not home. It
was where they slept, but where they slept
all together without the kind of privacy
they had known. It was where their
children were, but where their children
wandered aimlessly about in the day-time
because there was no school to go to. It was
the place where problems were continuous,
but not the place where there was any
space to resolve them. It was the place
where, for many women, the only way to
cope was to take tranquillisers. It was the
place to sit and wait for the future; to exist
but not to live.
Linking psycho-social and
practical needs
Oxfam's programmes in the Afghan camps
typically cover water, sanitation, and
health education. The context is one of an
emergency, in which a wide range of
people suddenly find themselves together,
in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions.
Afghanistan has a climate of extremes; it
may be 45-50C in summer, and freezing or
below in winter. In the camps, there is no
shade from the summer sun or from winter
blizzards. Most people have been in the
camps since the 1992 or 1994 influxes,
remaining because the camps offer a
degree of security and the alternative is
highly uncertain; and because factional
fighting has blocked roads, restricting
movement around the country.
The middle classes, who have been
used to piped water in their homes, central
heating in their apartments, and flushing
lavatories, suddenly find themselves in a
barren place with none of those facilities.
Poorer people may not have had the benefit
of such facilities, but they too face an
environment which is totally unfamiliar to
them.
Health education in this context is not
about teaching basic hygiene, since many
of the women understand that very well.
Rather, it is about helping people to
identify the new health risks they face in
the potentially dangerous camp situation.
Overcrowding and lack of water and
sanitation can easily lead to epidemics. An
'empowering' model of health education
should enable women to analyse their new
environment, understand the health risks
they face, and then, most importantly, to
take action to counter the risks.
Since women are mostly responsible for

maintaining family hygiene, it is crucial
that they are fully involved in the provision
of services which affect family health. Work
with women should, therefore, be at the
heart of programmes in such a situation.
What is needed in an emergency is for a
communication mechanism to feed
information about safeguarding health
quickly and effectively to women and to
receive back their views and opinions.
In my experience of emergencies in East
and Central Africa as well as in
Afghanistan, networks of women, set up to
meet health objectives, very quickly
become supportive social gatherings, and
provide a forum for them to share their
experiences. The fact that health issues are
seen generally as women's responsibility
means that there tends to be little oppos-
ition to women meeting in this way. It is
hard to say whether trauma leads people to
be intimate with each other sooner than
they would be normally; I would say that if
women have shared the same experience
this is certainly true, but distinctions such
as class still affect relations.
In the grieving process people need to
talk through their experience over and over
again, often without coherence, because
somehow and after some time it starts to
make more sense and become more bear-
able. Nowadays it is popular to refer to
such programmes as 'psycho-social', and to
see that as the main purpose. In my exper-
ience this is not really accurate; women will
cry and laugh when they feel ready to do
so, and not because an agency starts a
programme! In a sense, all an agency can
do is to set up women's networks to meet
practical aims of ensuring the physical
health and well-being of refugees, in which
the promotion of health goes hand in hand
with interventions such as clean water and
sanitation. The strength of the women's
networks in terms of supporting the
members through trauma - and they
undoubtedly do have a strong positive
impact on mental health - comes from the
women themselves. This mutual support is
'Dislocation', shelter and crisis 33
natural and heartfelt. It is theirs, and they
own it. The role of relief programmes such
as Oxfam's is not to try to create it
artificially, but rather to recognise it and
facilitate it.
Coping with 'dislocation'
Through these women's groups we have
had the privilege of sharing the concerns of
women. They have lost homes, husbands,
and loved ones, their community, and their
city. They are struggling to cope with the
mental and physical 'dislocation' that they
have suffered, and preparing themselves to
come to terms with what may effectively be
new lives. Fahima, a young widow whose
husband was killed during a rocket attack
the year before, voices the dilemma:
I lost my husband and that was the most
difficult time. Now we have lost our home and
we are like crazy people. I cannot live in this
desert. Even if they make me governor of
Jalalabad, I cannot stay here.
Fahima was not alone in her
desperation. During the long years of war
widowhood has become common. Accurate
statistics are not available, either nationally
or within the camps. (In part, this is due to
the fact that widows are a target group for
many aid agencies and donors, and
therefore claiming to be widowed is a
rational tactic for women to resort to if they
are in need of assistance or supplies.) So
many men have been killed and so many
more are missing, presumed dead by those
who can accept it. Some widows are
fortunate to be cared for by their husband's
family and retain a degree of security;
others find themselves alone. Shazia was a
teacher whose husband was killed by a
rocket which partially destroyed their
house. She and her in-laws left for Mazar,
and for a while she retained a measure of
security:
My mother-in-law was very kind. She helped
me with the children, and I felt okay, even
though I had lost all my nice things. Then her
34 Gender and Development
Collecting water in a camp for the displaced, Afghanistan.
other son came because their house was also
destroyed, and his wife did not like me being
there. She always accused me of trying to steal
her husband. After some time I had to go, and
now I am in this camp alone. My children don't
understand what is happening.
In times of war, there is a limit to how
much families can help each other, and
how long they can maintain good relations
when they are so stressed. Sharing can
soon become a burden which can lead to
great tension. Alongside the physical
destruction of Kabul, there has also been
destruction of the social fabric, within the
private sphere of the family and friends,
and, additionally, in the public sphere. This
last problem hits middle-class families in
particular, since many of them have been
accustomed to legal protection - for
example, where a husband had a govern-
ment job his wife received a pension, and if
she worked herself there were kinder-
gartens for the children. Now, family and
friends must take responsibility for
replacing the social provisions, and legal
protection, formerly afforded by the state.
Shazia had great difficulty in accepting
these losses:
We are all widow ladies here now. All Afghan
women are widows and there is no law to
protect us. There is no law for women in
Afghanistan now. They destroyed it all.
All the women quoted here had once
had comfortable homes and valuable
possessions. They worked hard, and were
proud of their achievements. They were
secure in their family lives, and most
played an active role in their community.
Their children went to school. They had not
appreciated what they had until they had
lost it:
My house was completely destroyed and I came
with only these clothes. I was born in Kabul,
and I always lived there. When my children saw
this desert they said, "oh, what kind of place is
this, what kind of life is this? Even the teachers
are living in tents". But I told them we should
be happy to be alive. We saw such terrible
things, but at least we are alive.

Stability and land
ownership
It seems that whether a family owned their
own home or rented it made a difference to
what they considered to be home. For those
who owned their home, there was a sense
of real belonging because they owned land.
Those who still had a house standing, but
had had to leave home because bombard-
ment was fierce, felt that they would be
able to return one day. But those whose
house had been destroyed felt that,
although they might be able to return to the
land, their hope of rebuilding their house
was slim because they had lost their ability
to earn a living. Women in this position
reported a sense of desolation and empti-
ness to parallel the empty space where their
home had once stood. They had a 'place'
and were heartbroken at losing it.
Even more unlucky were those who had
also lost their land because the area was
occupied by hostile forces, and they felt
that situation would be permanent. Many
more would only be able reclaim their land
when the landmines which were laid
everywhere in Afghanistan were cleared.
Vast areas of Kabul are uninhabitable for
this reason.
When we talked with widows about
their various losses, it was clear that the
loss of a husband and the loss of a home
were devastating to them. However, it was
also evident that the loss of hope and loss
of belief in a better future is the most
difficult thing with which to come to terms.
For many, the loss of houses and land was
linked to feelings that this homelessness
spelt the end of life itself. Fatima told us:
I lost my home. This tent is not my home and I
feel like a nomad. Home is home, but the tent is
like the place for a deadperson. I feel dead. If
God brings peace to Kabul, I will be the first to
walk there. I will walk without eating or
drinking, and I will be the first there. But God
will not bring peace how. We wanted an Islamic
Republic of Afghanistan, but not this kind.
'Dislocation', shelter and crisis 35
What did this Islamic Republic bring? Eight
days and nights without a blanket and my
children nearly freezing to death. God has
deserted us.
The sense of futility and loss of hope is a
phase of grief which has to be gone
through before anyone can begin to want to
live again and find meaning in existence.
There seems to be no end to the pain and
no possibility of change. Children feel this
very acutely, and understand even less the
reasons for such disruption to their lives.
Jamila's children were bewildered and
constantly asked her things she could not
answer:
Why can't we go back to Kabul? I would rather
live in the trees. What is this tent? I never saw
a house like this before which blows in the wind.
This is not a house, it is a piece of cloth to sit
under.
Another woman's children told her
every night to put some poison in the food
and let them die together. They really
thought it would be for the best.
Mobility and security
In Afghanistan, there used to be many
ways of getting a roof over one's head,
most commonly by working for a land-
owner or working in a large house. Such
jobs, while poorly paid, brought shelter
and security. This way of life meant that
many families did not live in one place but
moved regularly for seasonal or temporary
work. They were nomadic, but not
homeless.
This was also the case for true nomads,
who moved in summer and winter to new
pastures for their animals. Many of those
people have now also become homeless, in
the sense that their preferred destinations
have become closed to them by war. Many
have crossed national boundaries, never to
return. These days, after so many years of
relentless war and pointless in-fighting,
there are so many people who have become
36 Gender and Development
nomads that the expression 'homeless' has
come to be accepted as a concept by
women in the focus groups.
The homeless now are those who have
lost security. Not only have they lost a
home, they have also lost family, social
relationships, jobs, education and a sense of
'life' and 'place'. Pashtuns, a tribal group
who make up 40 per cent of Afghanistan's
population, talk about being homeless and
'fireless'. The fireside is the place where the
family sit together to stay warm and to feel
secure. Women I spoke to often equated
security with the fire. A typical statement is
that they can cope without the home, but
when the fire is also gone life feels cold and
empty.
Family breakdown
The profound stress that results from
homelessness is felt by both men and
women. In terms of holding on to the social
identity ascribed to women and men, it can
actually be worse for men. While women,
wherever they are, are typically busy
preparing food and caring for their child-
ren, men can lose their sense of identity
when they have no means of supporting
their family in economic terms.
One major difference, however, is that
men can leave the home and find comfort
in life outside in the public sphere, finding
entertainment or company with peers,
outside the family. For women this is not
possible, not only for practical reasons like
caring for children, but also because of
tension over religious differences and the
enforcement of seclusion. In the Jalalabad
camps, many women from Kabul, who had
lived free from veiling and seclusion, have
begun to observe these practices as a result
of pressure from the local Pashtun
community. One widow, Humeira, was
experiencing great problems with her 14-
year-old son. In Kabul she had worked and
walked freely, and was in control of her
own life. In the camp, with so many
strangers and so much resentment against
these so-called 'communist' women, her
son was beginning to see her as a source of
embarrassment rather than the tower of
strength that she really was. When she
went to the bazaar to get food or out to
collect wood, he became angry, saying to
her:
Why do you walk around like this so everyone
can see you? Have you no shame? You are
going around like the bad ladies!
Because of seclusion, the home is the
only space women have available to them.
In the camps, they live side by side with
other families, and any noise can be heard
through the thin walls of the tent. One
woman, Faiza, had begun to despise her
husband:
He is not a good man and I am afraid of him.
Before, if he was behaving badly, I would go to
my mother's house and stay there. After some
time she would tell me to go back and I did. It
was okay like that. Now I cannot go anywhere
and I think I will go mad. The neighbours can
hear everything, and I am so ashamed, but what
can I do?
Considering 'temporary'
and 'permanent' settlements
To the women in the camps, a profound
sense of loss of an ideal of 'home' is allied
to the practical problems of life in a refugee
camp. While marital and family problems
may become worse for women who have
their husband with them, many more
women face isolation as heads of house-
holds, with a resulting lack of family
support of all kinds. Practical problems
relating to health may be addressed
effectively by relief programmes, and
networks of women can offer support to
each other. More permanent solutions,
however, are elusive.
The scale of need, after such a long and
unfinished war, is enormous. Even if there
were peace the reconstruction needs are far
beyond the capacity of NGOs. But it is not

War damage, Kabul, Thousands of homes have
been totally destroyed, and landmines have been
laid in many parts of the city.
only that people need assistance to repair
their homes; rather, hundreds of thousands
of people have no home to go to and it will
be decades before all the issues of land
ownership can be addressed. For many it is
not a question of when or how they can go
home, for they will need to make a
completely new start. It is little wonder that
the displaced persons' camps linger on.
The sense of frustration and inability to
control the situation affects aid workers
too. There are too many people in need of
help, and too few means of providing any.
Discussions about targeting the vulnerable
take place, but the reality is that almost
everyone in Kabul is vulnerable. This
makes assistance highly problematic. But
vulnerability is not synonymous with
helplessness. Whilst the aid agencies
struggle with ways to respond which are
meaningful, women and men in the camps
'Dislocation', shelter and crisis 37
are resourceful and resilient, and are
beginning to reconstruct their lives.
Meeting needs and creating
dependency
A critical aid worker cannot but notice that
people actually seem to rebuild their lives
sooner and more successfully where there
is not a great deal of aid available. I believe
that this is because they retain the self-
sufficiency and self-reliance which relief
agencies often struggle to promote after
hand-outs have been given. In many
camps, a dependency syndrome develops
rapidly and people become reluctant to
leave. A camp soon becomes a settlement
and a village grows up where none was
before.
Ironically, the very strength and
solidarity fostered through the women's
networks means that women may be less
anxious to leave the camps and move
onwards to a more sustainable way of life.
When we asked Gulgotai, who had been a
teacher in Kabul, how she would decide
when to go back to Kabul, she replied
You know, I like it here now. When I first came
I thought I could never live in a desert but it's
not so bad. I get all my food and I have lots of
friends here now. What will I have if I go back?
I will be alone and everything will be so
difficult. I will rest here for a while!
This is a dilemma. Oxfam's pro-
grammes in camps are no more sustainable
than those of any other agency, and, in the
same way that a massive initial input in
water and sanitation soon becomes an
ongoing day-to-day commitment to
maintenance, which cannot be borne
indefinitely, so an input in health education
cannot continue long beyond a crisis. In a
Muslim country, where it may be difficult
to work with women directly, it is easy for
relief agencies to see any work as an
achievement in itself, and not to look
critically at the intended and unintended
effects. If our aim is to help people to stand
38 Gender and Development
on their own feet, however, we need to be
much more rigorous. So-called 'empower-
ing' programmes can soon become disem-
powering and paternalistic.
Networks of women, once so crucial,
may become lack-lustre and purposeless
gatherings, since the potential to make a
living is not present in the camps. If this
stage is reached, agency support seems to
be critical in maintaining the purpose of the
group; without it, the group may wither
away. Scaling down water and sanitation
activities is rather easier than reducing
support for women's groups. However,
people have to move on emotionally as
well as physically, and agencies need to
help them to do so. The most effective way
to help is far less clear. We in Oxfam UK/1
intend to monitor our work much more
rigorously; when we learn lessons, which
happens all the time, we need to change
our practice. Asking refugees what they
want at the beginning of work with them
results in a degree of confusion since their
practical needs are so great; and anything
that is offered to desperate people may be
eagerly accepted. Asking them later on to
assess how we could have done better or
differently is likely to yield much more
critical responses. One lesson we have
learnt is that working in emergency
situations with a gender perspective -
which encourages questioning - is very
different from implementing the paternal-
istic 'women's programmes', which many
aid workers accept so uncritically.
Conclusion
In a country so long at war and where
displacement from home is a phenomenon
which affects almost everyone, there are no
easy solutions. What is very clear is that
people's homes - both as they exist
physically and in people's hearts and
minds - are inseparable from people's
lives. When the 'home' is lost, the 'fire'
must kept burning, if life is to be worth
living and hope retained. To develop this
metaphor further, it could be said that the
role of relief agencies in this context is to
keep providing some forms of fuel, to
enable individuals and their families to
keep the fire burning. It is inappropriate to
provide so much fuel that people stop
looking for it themselves, or to dump so
much fuel on the fire at once that it roars
for a while, and then dies later.
Oxfam has been working beyond the
camps, in a return to the city of Kabul,
since July 1995. Finding a role has not been
easy because the needs are enormous and
our ability, as an NGO, limited. Further-
more, the patterns of human settlement in
Kabul are very complex, and people move
for many reasons. Unlike a camp there is
no obvious entry point for an agency
intervention, and the danger of acting
inappropriately is high. At the time of
writing we are part of a joint venture to
restore the piped water supply which, like
the electricity supply, was looted and
damaged. We also plan to distribute plastic
sheeting for use as roofs and floor covering
during the bitter winter.
Oxfam's current plans are for discrete
activities rather than an integrated
approach. In theory, we know that our
interventions must address the rebuilding
of lives alongside the rebuilding of homes.
In practice, we all have a great deal to
learn.
Sue Emmott is the Oxfam UK/I Country
Representative for Afghanistan. A nurse,
midwife, and health educator by training, she
has worked mostly with refugees and in
emergency situations. Address: Oxfam UK/I,
Afghanistan Liaison Office, House 10B, Street
25, F-8/2, Islamabad, Pakistan.
 39

'Women with self-esteem

are healthy women':
community development in an urban
settlement of Guayaquil
Valli F K Yanni

CEPAM is an Ecuadorian women's NGO, which has an integrated approach to work

with poor urban women on health issues, legal advice, and group formation, based on a
gender analysis of life in the area. This account of its work in a poor urban settlement
in Guayaquil describes how women came to understand that their health and well-
being were determined by their status as poor urban women, and that as a result, they
decided to set up their own health centre.

T
he urban settlement of El Guasmo is
in the south of Guayaquil, Ecuador's
main port city. El Guasmo, now
home to almost a quarter of the two million
people of Guayaquil, used to be a large
private hacienda (estate). In the late 1970s
this hacienda was taken over by people from
poor sectors of the city and from other
towns in their search for proper housing.
There was a struggle for many years
between the owners of the hacienda, the
state, and the 'invaders', that led in the end
to the legalised settlement of the land in
many parts of El Guasmo.
Women in this settlement have there-
fore had a long history of organisation and
participation in the whole process of taking
over the land, legalising it, and in
providing basic services to the area such as
land reclamation, electricity, water,
transport, schools, and creches.
El Guasmo Norte is the oldest and most
established area of El Guasmo. This is
where CEPAM (Centro Ecuatoriano para la
Promocion y Accion de la Mujer) began its
work in 1984.
Determinants of urban
women's health
I usually wake up very early in the morning to
prepare breakfast for my husband. And then I
prepare breakfast for my sons, take them to
school, clean the house, buy things from the
shop, prepare lunch, wash the dishes, wash
clothes, iron ... We women are the first to get up
and the last to go to bed!
I live in a half-shack, half-built house, dusty in
the winter, muddy in the summer. The rubbish
collectors do not come when they are supposed
to so there are heaps of garbage on the road. It is
difficult to get enough water to do the house-
work. Transport is always difficult. Buses are
crowded and full of gangs that try to steal
everything from you. Where can I leave my
children if I go to work? There is no children's
centre nearby.
It is important for my husband to find his
lunch readyJor him when he gets back from
work and enough water to have his shower. Yes,
he beats me when something is lacking. He
comes home drunk in the evening and he
sometimes beats me again.
Gender and Development Vol 4, No. 1, February 1996
40 Gender and Development

The scenario described by the women One is made a woman for her husband.
speaking above can get even more He has changed. He used to be full of love for
complicated when women have a job me, but now getting to know him more he is
outside the house or are involved in com- rough.
munity activities. Their lives tend to It is as if I were his, that he owns me. I also say
involve three different types of work: some he is mine, but it is to do with sharing feelings
obligatory and not paid (housework); some rather than the physical ownership.
voluntary (community work); and some
Conventional health services fail
paid outside the house (including domestic
women. Beliefs about what is 'normal' and
work). They themselves express this work
'natural' in a woman's life not only exist in
overload in the following way:
the household but also tend to be perpet-
As the time goes by, our faces tend to reflect uated
the within community activities and in
the health services (Carriel, 1995). Their
work we do and the type of life we live (Carriel,
1995) domestic role and their role as a mother are
These double or even triple workloads two significant factors in women's partici-
are one of the determinants of women's pation in health through the formal health
health. Women come to accept that this services. Women are expected to be
heavy workload is part of their 'natural' role involved in cleaning campaigns and
as a woman. Women's health, as a result, vaccination campaigns. Mother and Child
suffers greatly. Severe varicose veins, back Health programmes exemplify the assump-
pain, renal problems, urinary tract infections, tion that women's health is reflected
and vaginal infections are examples of through their children's health, rather than
common health problems suffered by urban standing in its own right.
women in El Guasmo Norte.
Domestic work, duties as a mother, and Reflection and action
violence against women are other deter- This revelation of the reality of women's
minants of women's health. Women lives and their role in the household and in
believe that it is 'natural' or 'normal' for a the community was developed through a
woman to be responsible for all the long two-fold process of reflection and
domestic work in her household. Since it is action, instigated by CEPAM, who began
the woman who bears the children, it is work in El Guasmo by approaching urban
'natural' and 'normal' for her to look after women through issues of health: organis-
them. Physical, sexual, and psychological ing, and running training courses. The
violence is seen as a 'normal' part of every- CEPAM team had already been working
day life. Women come to the health centre with existing women's groups such as
with symptoms such as headaches, Comite de Mujeres, Unidad progresista del
muscular tension, problems with digestion, Guasmo Norte. The Guayaquil courses had
loss of weight, loss of appetite, depression, two components. The first component was
loneliness, and irritability (Carriel, 1995). training on issues such as nutrition, breast
Such symptoms give an indication of the feeding, women's health, first aid, women's
much wider context where the determin- rights, and violence against women
ants of their ill-health lie. As a result of (Carriel, 1995).
their chronic symptoms and general The second component was focused on
attitudes women tend to have very low helping the women to reflect on their lives
self-esteem. It is difficult for them to as poor urban women. The women were
recognise their value as women rather than involved in the organisation, implementa-
as mothers or wives. In the women's words tion, and evaluation of these training
(Women's testimonies in Carriel, 1995): workshops. Women reflected on their

experiences and began to understand the
root causes of their ill-health. They acted (in
an organised manner) for their own
development and for the development of
their community. The organisation and the
participation in this process led to the
proposal for a health centre for women.
The centre would be a place for women to
share their experiences; to find out about
their health and ill-health; and inform
themselves about ways to improve their
health, and thus their self-esteem.
The training courses led to the form-
ation of other women's grassroots organ-
isations. One example of this was El Grupo
Despertando (The Awakening), which was
formed by a small number of young
women who felt awakened to the reality of
being a woman as a result of the process of
reflection promoted by the courses.
The training and reflection aspects of
the courses produced two inter-related
results. The first was the organisation of
women for community activities strength-
ening their participation in health.
Examples of such activities were school
breakfasts, community cisterns, growth
monitoring, vaccination campaigns,
cleaning campaigns, and training work-
shops. Through their participation in such
activities women were able to talk about
their aspirations:
I would like to travel, to have more freedom, to heart of the work of CSIM: the integration
feel that I own myself with my own rights.
We are house-bound, but since I started turning
up to the meetings I feel happy in some way.
Although one sometimes is lazy about going, The concept of integration
the meetings have helped me a lot including The first aspect of the concept of integrated
giving me self-confidence, (ibid.)
However, these activities were more in
the interests of the community than of
specific benefit to women themselves.
Because of this, the CEPAM team put an
emphasis, in each aspect of its community
work, on distinguishing between the
interests, the needs, and the problems of
the community in general and those of
women specifically.
'Women with self-esteem are healthy women' 41
The second result of the courses was to
reveal that the determining factors for
women's health and ill-health lay in their
status as poor urban women. This involved
women's own understanding of the gender
roles they are expected to play as women
and as mothers; their self-value and self-
esteem; their potentials; their needs; and
their problems.
The health centre
The setting-up of the integrated women's
health centre (Centro de Salud Integral de
la Mujer, CSIM) was a victory for women
in El Guasmo Norte. They had been
involved in the whole process: organising
and carrying out participative research in
the community; sorting out the agreement
for the centre; making decisions about the
land for the CSIM; and campaigning for
construction funds.
The CSIM functions on the basis of a
formal agreement between CEPAM and the
Women's Committee (Unidad Progresista
del Guasmo Norte). When it launched its
activities at the beginning of 1991, the aim
was to develop an experience of integrated
health care for women that could be replic-
ated by other health organisations or even
the state health system (Carriel, 1995).
There are two major concepts at the
of both health and the service itself; and
women's participation in its functioning.
health as applied by CSIM refers to the
understanding of women's health in the
wider context of their lives. CSIM applies a
holistic view of women's health as opposed
to a narrow medical one. The latter tends to
limit women's health to what occurs in
their body only, missing out other external
factors determining their ill-health. For
example, a woman's repeated vaginal
infection is seen by CSIM not merely as a
42 Gender and Development
Home-made poster to publicise the work of the health centre. Women were actively involved in all aspects
of planning and setting up the centre, and now take part in its day-to-day activities.
health problem that might be resolved by a
course of medical treatment; rather, it is
analysed in the context of her relationship
with her partner and most likely his
relationships with other women. So coun-
selling and advice to both partners is a vital
part of dealing with the problem.
The second aspect of integration refers
to the application of the four aspects of
work of CEPAM in health. These are:
providing the health service, which
includes doctor's appointments, ante-natal
clinic, pharmacy, and counselling; training
of community women on health and
health-related issues; research into gender
and health of poor urban women; and the
dissemination of the experience of the
health centre aiming at its replicability.
A significant feature of these two
aspects of integration in practice is
demonstrated by the way the staff of CSIM
are trained to perceive women from the
community. The staff do not see women
simply as patients that come for diagnosis
and treatment of certain diseases, but as
women who have problems which are
manifested in their physical health but are
deeply rooted in their domestic life, living
conditions, economic resources, relation-
ship with their partners, and other external
factors. Women who come to the health
centre are called neither 'patients' nor
'clients' but 'consultantes': that is, people
who come to consult about a certain health
problem or concern.
Participating in health
services
The involvement of women of the com-
munity in the running of the health centre
is seen, by all involved, as crucial. Through
their active participation women feel
confident in making decisions about their
own health and their own life, thus
building up their self-esteem. Women,
individually and collectively, are involved
in the work of CSIM in several ways: in the
planning, implementation, monitoring, and
evaluation of health campaigns; in annual
evaluation and planning of the centre's
activities; in monthly monitoring of the

accounts of the health centre (including the
payment of the staff from the community);
and in the one-to-one contacts with health
centre staff (doctors, receptionists, and
social workers).
For example, the appointments with the
doctor are seen as a time for mutual
learning, which helps to develop women's
self-esteem; this in turn can have a positive
effect on their health. The knowledge and
experience of the consultante, as well as the
doctor, is recognised and respected. As a
result of this interaction and the fact that
they are listened to, there has been a
perceptible change in women's attitudes
towards the importance of their health, and
attendance at the health centre. They now
visit the centre in order to find out about
their health or talk about their concerns as
women; and not only when they are ill.
They are more conscious about their bodies
and alert to changes, so that if they find an
unfamiliar symptom they are able to take
action in good time (Carriel, 1995).
Campaigns, such as for vaccinations or
cervical smear tests, are another major area
where women from the community are
actively involved in the whole process of
planning, implementation, monitoring, and
evaluation, and this comprehensive invol-
vement ensures the effectiveness and
impact of such activities. The campaign for
1995 in CSIM has been focused on the
theme, 'Women with self-esteem are
healthy women'. It has included training
and reflection on women's self-esteem, and
also campaigning on cervical smear tests,
sexuality, contraception, and against
violence against women. Women have also
been involved in the co-ordination and
organisation of workshops on sexuality in
adulthood for adolescents in the area.
Lessons learnt
There are two main areas of learning from
the experience of CEPAM and CSIM: the
process, and its sustainability. The process
of CEPAM and CSIM's work with the
'Women with self-esteem are healthy women' 43
community is characterised by the stages
that CEPAM went through with the
women of El Guasmo Norte. These
included working with women through
organisation, training, reflection, and
community activities, and then the
provision of the health service through the
women's integrated health centre. The
process offers an example of the role of
NGOs when working with grassroots
organisations and communities. The health
centre has been the result of a need felt by
the women from the community them-
selves, rather than one perceived by the
health professionals of the NGO.
The process also refers to the develop-
ment of the health centre through its
activities, and its relationship with the
women in the community. The work of the
centre has always responded to changing
needs. For example, it started with an
emphasis on the quality of service provided
in order to reach a reasonable coverage of
women within the outreach area. The
emphasis has now moved towards the
consolidation of the experience aiming at
sustainability (Carriel, 1995), involving the
strengthening not only of the health team
but also of the structure, procedures,
systems, and policies of the centre.
The sustainability of the experience is
the second area where lessons can be learnt.
Sustainability is an on-going concern for
NGOs in general and funding agencies in
particular. Over the years the health centre
has established mechanisms for its sustain-
ability. These include women's partici-
pation (including working with women's
groups); gender analysis in all activities; the
integration of the service; the inter-
relationship of community women and
health team; sharing the experience with
others; continuing education and training of
staff; self-reliance; strengthening the admin-
istration and management of the health
centre; and the direct collaboration with and
involvement of the Ministry of Health.
These mechanisms do not function in
isolation but interact. For example, the
44 Gender and Development
health centre has begun to analyse its costs
and resources, and look at its future
potential for cost recovery. The issue of
self-reliance in health is one of the main
topics for staff training and reflection in the
health centre. Other topics that cover the
philosophy and practice of CSIM are
primary health care, gender analysis in
health, community participation, and inter-
institutional coordination.
Another example is the unique
experience in which an NGO and a grass-
roots organisation (the initial two parties of
the agreement for establishing the CSIM)
recently entered into a formal agreement
with the Ministry of Health (MoH). As a
result, MoH employees have joined the
health professionals of CEPAM and
women from the community as part of the
health team. This agreement is aimed at the
dissemination of the experience of
women's health service into the state health
system. It is also aimed at direct and long-
term support and commitment from MoH.
A number of challenges exist now and in
the future for all parties involved; for
example, the need to strengthen the
administrative and managerial structure
and procedures of the health centre.
Gender analysis in all its activities is
very significant for the sustainability of
CSIM. The danger of omitting to analyse
the gender component of working with
women was demonstrated when a beauty
contest' was one of the ways used to raise
funds for the health centre suggested and
implemented by the women of the
community. The level of participation of
women in this activity was high, but the
level of reflection on a beauty contest from
a gender perspective was low. It was clear
that the health team had a role to play in
the incorporation of gender issues in its
work with and in the community.
The gender analysis is not only applied
with the women of the community but also
within the team of CSIM, hence all are
women. The team continue to reflect on the
gender implications of their work, for
example, with reference to their working
hours, relationships within the team, man-
agerial structures, and self-development.
To conclude, the experience of CEPAM
in health with urban women of El Guasmo
Norte, before and through the CSIM, does
not provide a blueprint for all circum-
stances. What it offers is some elements for
analysis and reflection on women's health
in urban settlements, in all its complex
reality.
On a personal note, I feel enriched by
the experience of working with CSIM and
CEPAM, both professionally and person-
ally. As a health practitioner I am reassured
of the importance of incorporating a gender
perspective in my work. As a woman, I feel
confident about my potential and my
limitations. I am more aware of my self-
esteem, and the self-esteem of others.
Valli Yanni is an Egyptian woman who has
worked in Yemen, Egypt, and Ecuador in health
and development. With CEPAM in Guayaquil
she worked as a Health Administrator/Manager
with ICD (International Co-operation for
Development, formerly CIIR). At present she is
a freelance health trainer, administrator, and
manager based in the UK. Address: 1 Monks
Hill, Saffron Walden, Essex CB11 3BW, UK.
Reference
Carriel A, 1995, 'Mujeres que se autoestiman,
mujeres sannas', Sistematisation de una
experienceia de trabajo en salud can mujeres
urbano-populares. CEPAM Guayaquil
(unpublished)
 45

Sustaining urban
development through
participation:
an Ethiopian case study
Feleke Tadele

How sustainable are income-generating activities set up as part of many urban

development projects instigated by development agencies? What likelihood is there of
inhabitants generating enough income for the upkeep of new or improved
infrastructure? Can the necessary commitment from the community be created in a
situation where civil organisations have been banned, or discouraged? This article asks
these questions in the context of Oxfam UK/I's involvement in the Kebele 29 Project in
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, set up to address many different but interlinked issues in a
rapidly-growing area of the city.

cent used public facilities and 29.6 per cent

A
ddis Ababa was founded in 1886
and covers an area of 540 square
kilometres. Today, its population is
over three million people, which represents
about 40 per cent of the total urban
population of the country, with an annual
population growth rate of 5 per cent
(Solomon G., 1993). Kebele 29 is estimated
to have a population of over 6,500 living in
about 955 housing units.
In the past, the state was the sole
provider of infrastructure in the urban
areas of Ethiopia; all buildings, including
dwellings, were in public ownership.
However, providing adequate infrastruc-
ture and services, and maintaining these,
has been a problem due to a lack of state
resources. Before the project got under
way, one third (30.3 per cent) of housing
was estimated as being in bad condition,
with a further 60.1 per cent being of fair
condition; 97.4 per cent had electricity.
Only 2.31 per cent of households had
sanitation inside their houses, 65.32 had
sanitation inside their compounds, 2.2 per
had no form of sanitation.1
Now, under the new regime, 2 the
economy is being privatised. Aspects of
service provision and maintenance can
potentially be provided on a small scale by
NGOs, other organisations, or individuals.
Oxfam was one of the few NGOs to be
directly operational.3 The Kebele 29 project
was instigated by Oxfam after an initial
study, and came into being in 1986 at the
request of the then City Council of Addis
Ababa." Oxfam withdrew from direct,
operational involvement in 1994.
The ultimate goal of the project was to
ensure a self-sustainable development
programme, in line with Oxfam's ultimate
aim of helping people not only by
improving their material situation, but also
by making them more conscious and more
aware of their power to bring about
changes in their lives. Poverty is endemic in
Kebele 29, which is a place of refuge for the
poorest of the poor in Addis. About 70 per
cent of the household heads could not
Gender and Development Vol 4, No. 1, February 1996
46 Gender and Development

afford to cover the minimum food basket deputy, who take responsibility for review-
(worth birr 181.6, MPED 1992), and more ing the priority need of households,
than half of these households were headed relaying information between the project
by women. It was decided that the project and the community, and following up the
should target women as the main project interventions.
beneficiaries. The potential beneficiaries (both women
and men) were consulted at all levels, to give
them a say in the development activities and
The context to gain their input into how new kitchens,
The area was first settled around the time toilets and houses were built. Women's
of the Italian occupation of Ethiopia in participation seems to have been high:
1939. In the early 1940s, squatters arrived, almost 60 per cent of the neighbourhood
after their previous area had been taken group members were women, while two out
over for the construction of new govern- of the three current senior officials of the
ment buildings. The settlement grew fast, Kebele Administration are female - the
attracting small-scale traders and beggars. Deputy Chairperson and the Secretary. After
Today, most people are traders attracted by consultation, Oxfam addressed three main
the bustle around Teklehaimanot church, priority problems identified by the target
the Grand Mosque, and Merkato market - populations: income generation, physical
the biggest open market in Africa. Traders upgrading, and community development,
range from large-scale business owners to especially primary health care.
pedlars, and come from a variety of ethnic
and religious backgrounds. It is said that
people are asked 'what do you sell?' rather
Building and services
than 'where do you come from?' Nobody is During the project period, about 68
a stranger in Merkato. dilapidated houses, 37 latrines, and 81
kitchens were either built or improved. A
total of 1590 metres of main and 1285
Community participation metres of internal drains and 403 metres of
To this end, the Kebele 29 project started by retaining wall were constructed. Stone
stressing the importance of active com- paved roads, two concrete bridges, and
munity participation, and promotion of compound pavements were also
social groups. However, it was not so easy constructed.
to do this. Kebeles are newly-imposed The most needy people were selected
community structures. Mengistu's regime by way of home visits, and suggestions
imposed its repressive hegemony over the given by neighbourhood groups. At least 5
entire society. The main target of this per cent of the total cost of the construction
repression was the invasion of traditional had to be covered by the beneficiaries, on
civil society. Under the Mengistu regime, the principle that if it were completely free,
Addis Ababa was divided into six zones, 28 that might reduce the degree of sense of
woredas, and 303 kebeles, the latter being 'ownership'. Some poor households asked
the smallest grassroots administrative unit. for assistance from their neighbours in
To enhance community participation in order to participate in the scheme. About
this difficult atmosphere, the Kebele 29 30 per cent of the households taking part
project promoted the setting-up of grass- were female-headed. During the
roots community groups by dividing the construction work almost half the daily
kebele into four zones and 37 neighbour- labourers were women.
hood groups. Each neighbourhood group is A suction truck was provided and
represented by a chair person and a water taps set up for 73 households who
 Sustaining urban development through participation 47

through home visits. The CHAs also

worked with the community during the
handing-over process of newly constructed
latrines. This work was mainly with
women since they are the ones who clean
the latrines.
Discussions held with some households
revealed that both women and men felt
that, through the CHAs, they now have
better access to the out-reach health
services (immunisation, ante- and post-
natal check-up, family planning). This is
because the nearest health post is in the
neighbouring district of Kebele 41, and is
meant to serve four kebeles. The CHAs in
Kebele 29 have played an important role in
liaising between the health post and the
community in Kebele 29 and giving health
information. The fact that they are paid
keeps up their motivation.

Constructing pavements in part of the kebele.
were in most need. However, this did not
necessarily cut down the time spent by
women in fetching water. Although the
water points were usually close to hand -
within a ten to fifteen-minute walk - the
long queues meant that the time spent in
collecting water actually increased, in many
cases. As a result of learning this, Oxfam
provided more public tap or pipe-line
connections.
Community health
A link between the activities taking place in
Kebele 29 and the health post services of
the neighbouring kebele was formed,
through recruiting two female community
health agents (CHAs) from the community.
The CHAs, who are paid from the kebele-
based income-generating scheme outlined
below, have been conducting personal
hygiene and environmental sanitation
education with women twice a week,
Income generation
Involvement in the kebele-based income-
generation scheme was intended to raise
funds for the implementation of social
service programmes which are intended to
serve all the residents, and to provide good
services at a reasonable price.
First, a Recreation Centre was built,
which is used daily as a venue for leisure
activities and for social gatherings,
including women's group meetings, AIDS
education, Credit Association workshops,
and so on. The Centre screens educational
videos and entertainment programmes, and
provides cheap snacks. The idea is to
encourage young people and children to
spend their leisure time wisely, in line with
programmes run for street children else-
where. Second, six shower units were built
to serve the community; the charge for a
shower was 0.50 birr. Finally, three shops
were constructed, in the same compound as
the Recreation Centre, which were rented
out at a monthly rate of 190 birr each.
The schemes are apparently operating
smoothly, and are running above the point
at which they break even financially. The
48 Gender and Development
people in Kebele 29 appear to appreciate
the services, not only because these are
cheaper than those in other areas, but
because they maintain the standards and
quality which is normally found in private
sector facilities. While one danger might
have been that the schemes could take
trade from existing small businesses, this
has not occurred since such services were
very limited - almost non-existent - in
Kebele 29.
Credit and savings schemes
Tenagne is a mother of five children, who
has lived in Kebele 29 for 20 years. Her
husband, Bikila, died ten years ago when
he was serving in the militia in the internal
strife between Eritrea and Tigray, which
ended in 1991. Tenagne does not have a
permanent income or a pension from her
husband. She makes her living by malting
grain for sale to be used for brewing beer.
She had found it difficult to expand her
business, since she could not get credit
from a bank nor a loan from relatives.
Tenagne learnt about Oxfam's saving
and credit scheme, the third element of the
Kebele 29 project, five years ago, when the
project was in the process of identifying
clients. A seed capital of birr 67,500 was
given for the establishment of a saving and
credit cooperative, to provide loans and
promote saving among women members
who earn their living from petty trading.
Currently, the cooperative has 196
members, and a total capital of birr 101,000.
Ninety per cent of the members of the
saving and credit co-operative are women.
However, there is not necessarily a direct
link between economic empowerment of
women and added power in their daily
lives in the family and community. So far,
the co-operative has only been involved in
meeting its members' economic needs, but
there are plans to include some social
components in future, for example,
meeting medical expenses, leases of
property, and so on. Tenagne says:
I was happy to know about the possibility of
getting a loan. I have saved for four months at
two birr a month to qualify for the co-operative
loan, which has to be repaid in eighteen months.
With the loan, I was able to buy food grain in
season, when it gets cheaper. I was able to easily
send my two kids to the kindergarten for which
I pay 14 birr a month. I'm happier and satisfied
with the co-operative.
One component of the Kebele 29 project
which did achieve a social objective was a
nursery school that caters for 180 children,
which was constructed, furnished and
handed over to the community. The
nursery charges a comparatively low fee
(birr 7 per month) and, in addition
subsidises about 25 children from poor
families at a fee of birr 1.50 per month (as a
comparison, according to Ministry of
Planning and Economic Development
figures of 1992, the monthly income needed
to feed a family of five is birr 181.6).
Promoting community
'ownership'
By June 1994, Oxfam had phased out its
direct 'operational' involvement in Kebele
29 and had transferred responsibility for
the project to the Development Committee,
composed mainly of Kebele officials. While
the previous regime had been reluctant to
transfer power to grassroots development
groups, the election of Kebele officials was
seen by the new government as part of the
process of change from the transitional
government to the permanent federal state
government. Thus, in May 1995, the
community members were given the
opportunity to elect a new Development
Committee.
Oxfam's central concern was to ensure
that local capacity existed to manage the
project initiatives - even after the eventual
phasing out of the project itself. This was to
be done by building the capacity of the
Development Committee members
through training and direct experience, and
 Sustaining urban development through participation 49

sharing knowledge. The sex ratio of the

Development Committee5 - two women to
one man - was in line with government
guidelines. The national gender policy,
formulated in 1991, outlines the need for
women to be involved in community
decision-making, and in politics (at the
election in May 1995, 30 per cent of the
seats in Parliament were won by women,
according to an informal speech given by a
member of the Women's Affairs Office of
the Prime Minister).
During the final year of its involvement,
Oxfam had ceased to fund the project and
was working on capacity-building with the
community, with the aims of:
ensuring a strong Development
Committee, elected by the inhabitants of
Kebele 29;
strengthening the capacity of the
Development Committee, in project
planning management and fund raising;
ensuring that the various development
schemes initiated by Oxfam in Kebele 29 Disposing of waste water in a newly built drain.
were functional, effective and
sustainable. concerned the loan repayment period
Regular meetings, dialogues, and which, in the days of Oxfam project
discussions were held with the management, had been agreed as 15 days.
Development Committee and community However, since then this period had been
leaders, to acquaint them with the basic found to be too short. This was linked to
principles and approaches of participatory the fact that most of the participants in the
development. Additional training needs Co-operatives are engaged in grain
were identified, including community malting. This product can take as long as
development and fundraising. one or two months to reach a marketable
stage, especially in the rainy season. Those
who took on loans found it hard to pay
Participating in evaluation them back, while other potential clients
Apart from routine follow-up, participatory have declined to take loans. The Savings
review exercises were conducted to and Credit Co-operative management
examine the operation of the Saving and decided to extend the loan repayment
Credit Cooperative and the functioning of period from 15 days to one month. Their
the nursery school. The review revealed decision was accepted by the National
that, on the whole, both schemes were Bank, which has been involved in the
functioning well, in line with their intended monitoring and follow-up of the scheme
purposes. since Oxfam's withdrawal.
However, regarding the Savings and Another problem was that the 'seed
Credit Co-operatives, there were two major capital' fund of birr 67,500 has not been
set-backs identified. The first of these effectively used in the manner intended, to
50 Gender and Development
set up business ventures; instead, the co-
operative members have merely used the
interest arising from it. The Committee was
given six months by the membership to
come up with viable proposals that would
enable the co-operative to use the seed
capital properly. The members have set up
a sub-committee to identify possible joint
business ventures, including grinding
mills, bakeries, and bars.
A central tenet of the project was that, if
individuals' right to property is respected,
then the sense of ownership that this gives
is the best way to ensure upkeep of
infrastructure and services. However, this
commitment must be allied to financially
profitable schemes which will ensure that
smooth running and maintenance is
possible. Unfortunately, as far as the
maintenance and operation of public
services like health care, the suction truck
service, the maintenance cost of latrines,
kitchens and housing, and the running of
the nursery school are concerned, there is
no financial stability on the side of the
community in Kebele 29 that can as yet
guarantee long-term sustainability.
Additional work needs to be done to make
this a reality. Regarding the nursery school,
parents have suggested an income-
generating scheme component which
would cover the 40 per cent of the budget
which is not covered by the fees paid by
parents.
A second learning point on infra-
structure came from the fact that gender
considerations were not fully taken into
account in planning the sanitation. Three
households were to use one latrine, with
women and men using the same latrine.
Some women do not feel comfortable with
the design of the door and feel that the
latrines are not safe enough, since they
usually do not have electric light. A similar
problem was experienced in the communal
shower scheme outlined earlier in this
article; women do not use it. Women are
not accustomed to use a public place,
shared with men and far from home, for
their ablutions. Women have therefore
benefited less than men from the sanitation
schemes.
During the project, 37 latrines were built or
improved in the kebele, but some women were
critical of the design of the latrines.

Conclusion
Many questions could be asked as a result
of Oxfam's experience in Kebele 29. These
include:
Should Oxfam keep on working in slum
areas?
Our experience has taught us that the
problems in slum areas are vast and
interrelated, but the opportunities available
to tackle social problems are minimal.
Poverty is actually worsening, mainly due
to migration into urban areas. Unless the
factors which pull women and men to
migrate to cities are counteracted through
appropriate government policies and
concerted action, a big social crisis is
unavoidable. In recognition of this, and to
complement its interventions in rural
development, Oxfam should explore the
opportunities for working in peri-urban
areas with the aim of reducing the pressure
of people flocking to live in urban centres.
Rural and urban poverty are interlinked,
and cannot be addressed singly.
How can NGOs like Oxfam improve
their impact?
One of the mechanisms that would help to
improve project impact is the identification
of programme focus. Oxfam can be said to
be selective in its programme interventions,
since it has been primarily engaged on
improving sanitation conditions, and
income-generation opportunities, which it
has considered the priority problems of
urban communities. These undoubtedly
should remain important focal areas in
future. But another fast-growing problem
that affects poor urban households is their
dependence on fuel-wood and kerosene.
Oxfam could contribute by helping poor
communities to develop cheap and envir-
onmentally safe sources of energy.
Another way of increasing the impact of
the Kebele 29 project, and others like it,
would have been to target young people as
well as women, who were identified as the
Sustaining urban development through participation 51
main stakeholders. Gender and age are two
of the many parts of people's identity
which interlink to affect their chances in
life, and the resources and rights that they
have. In an urban situation, where
unemployment is perhaps the worst social
problem, and in a context where young
people form the majority of the population
and have the highest rate of unemploy-
ment, there is good reason to target young
people as potential beneficiaries. The point
is not that women should not be a main
target group, but that young people should
receive equal attention.
Sustainability in urban development: is
it possible?
Sustainability is a catchy word that we
often encounter in development forums.
Although Oxfam speaks of sustainability as
a crucial element of its development recipe,
it is challenging to put words into practice
and make sustainable development a
reality.
In retrospect, we could see that women
and men living in Kebele 29 were highly
enthusiastic at the birth of the project, and
that they worked around the clock to deal
with some of the most important problems.
However, this big response to the project,
and participation in it, could not change to
leadership of the project immediately
Oxfam ceased its operational involvement;
it was not even possible to continue
ongoing activities at the same pace.
Another factor that challenges sustain-
ability is the lack of institutional linkage
and commitment. Through playing a
leading role rather than a facilitating role,
NGOs risk the projects in which they are
involved being unsustainable. Although
the Kebele 29 project had signed agree-
ments about its future, the co-operation by
government agencies during and after the
project period was unsatisfactory. Part of
the problem were successive changes in
administrative structures and lack of
commitment on the part of government
officials to discharge their responsibilities.
52 Gender and Development
Changes in administration are also a threat
in themselves to long-term work and
sustainability. When projects are designed,
planners should seriously consider the
political context.
Under the socialist regime, the central
role for the state in urban development
weakened the role of community-based
organisations, which could otherwise have
made a big contribution. In other situa-
tions, consideration could also have been
given to linking with partner community
organisations in development.
This weakness in 'civil society' cannot
easily be restored, even now that the
regime has been changed. Although the
degrees of their repressive power have now
been reduced by the new regime, the
kebeles still fulfil the government's agenda
rather than serving the needs of their
fellow community members. The majority
of kebele officials continue to prioritise
politics above strengthening the social
cohesion of the community. Under such
impotent development structures, people
lack confidence to work for self-help, so
that it is unlikely that the management of
the schemes which have been handed over
to the community could easily be
sustained.
Feleke Tadele is Community Development
Officer in Oxfam UKjI's Programme Support
Unit; address: PO Box 2333, Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia.
Notes
1 Although these figures might suggest a
reasonable level of provision of sanitation
facilities, due to the very high density and the
absence of other services, a large percentage
of latrines are unsafe and unusable and most
of them seep their effluent into pathways,
open drains and the like.
2 The EPRDF - the key political party that
overthrew the Mengistu regime - played a
determining role over the last four years of
the terms of the Transitional Government of
Ethiopia. In 1995, a new federal republic
government was set up. The previous
president, Meles Zenawi, is now the prime
minister of Ethiopia, the most powerful
position under the federal state
administration.
3 Other organisations, such as Save the
Children and Concern, were involved in
other kebeles in Addis. The Regional Relief
and Rehabilitation Bureau is the responsible
government agency for the coordination of
NGO operations in the city. The bureau took
over this responsibility from the International
Coordinating Committee for Welfare and
Development of Addis Ababa (ICC) in 1992,
which used to act as a coordinating body
since 1977.
4 This changed its name to Region 14
Administration when the new transitional
government took power in 1991.
5 This consists of three executive members,
who are all residents of the Kebele. They are
usually members of the EPRDF or individuals
who are committed to the programme of the
party.
References
Gebre S (1993) Profile of Poverty in Addis Ababa.
Tadele F (1988) Mid-term Evaluation of
IHAUDP's Urban Development Project.
idem (1993) Proactive Participatory
Development: Challenges and Achievements.
PSU (1993) Review ofEWTH-^03.
Goshu Z (1994) Final Report ofETH^i03.
 53

INTERVIEW

Chris Peters talks to Catalina Hinchey Trujillo,

about her work for the UN Agency Habitat

Catalina Hinchey Trujillo was born and grew up in Colombia. She is by profession a
sociologist and social worker with a Master's Degree in Sociology from the University
of Colombia. She spent most of her professional life working with 'popular movements'
predominantly in South America, and was, for a number of years, the National
Director of a confederation of self-help housing organisations in Colombia. Catalina
has worked for the UN's Habitat programme for over five years. She was interviewed
in her office in the UN complex in Nairobi, Kenya, where she is presently based and
where she is preparing for the global Habitat Two Conference which will take place in
Istanbul, Turkey, in 1996.

First of all, please tell our readers about
Habitat: what it is and what it is trying to
achieve.
Habitat is the only UN agency which
specifically has as its mandate human
settlement and urban development.
Although we at Habitat work on both rural
and urban settlement, the major focus of
our work is urban issues. That being said,
Habitat never forgets the important links
that always exist between rural and urban
settlements.
If one were to seek for a simple, all-
encompassing definition of Habitat, then I
would say that its basic mandate is to be a
think-tank for urban issues and to help to
formulate, but also to change, urban
policies at all levels. Although we work
from a mainly grassroots and local govern-
ment perspective, we try to ensure that
national governments will approve such
policy changes as we are supporting and
promoting, and put them into effect.
Gender and Development Vol 4, No. 1, February 1996
Working in such a way means that we can
affect legislation, budgets, and urban
initiatives at a national government level.
Without taking such an all-encompassing
perspective, many community projects
would never get off the ground, or they
might be denied the backing and support
of those who make decisions nationally.
Similarly, working in such a way means
that we can directly influence overall
national policy and lobby for crucial
changes to be made.
What constituencies of women do you
represent?
We don't really represent individuals, but
organisations; and not just organisations
for women, but those which are involved in
human settlement issues throughout the
developing world. We do support,
however, organisations where women are
more actively involved, not only in doing
the hard work but in decision making.
54 Gender and Development
Catalina Hinchey Trujillo in her office in Nairobi.
So, we bring a gender perspective to our
work rather than specifically supporting
women's groups. It is very clear to people
who have been involved over the years in
the women's movement that many of the
issues - for example, inheritance, and land
and property rights for women - have
remained as women's issues only, and have
therefore been marginalised within the
broader sphere of human settlement.
We know that it is crucial for everyone
to participate in the creation of better
towns, villages, cities. Unless we have such
a gender perspective, taking into account
the needs and the roles of both men and
women, and girls and boys (and we
distinguish between the needs of boys and
girls because they are not the same), then
our work is not addressing the real needs
and aspirations of urban populations.
The particular programme I lead is now
called the Gender Unit of Habitat. We have
different programmes, not just women in
urban settlement, although when I began
five years ago, we only had that one
programme. Now the Gender Unit has as
its first mandate one of ensuring that
Habitat has a clear gender perspective in its
policies, in its programmes, projects and
activities. It's a long process - it's capacity
building. So it takes a lot of work, and we
need more people! We do workshops with
our own staff and are now developing an
action plan, a comprehensive policy for
putting into effect a gender perspective
throughout Habitat, so that gender is no
longer my responsibility but everybody's
throughout the agency.
For example, a colleague of mine was
joking about what has a gender perspective
to do with the programme he is working
on: the recycling of solid waste - but it is
relevant. Who are the people cleaning the
garbage from the garbage dumps? How
many men do it? How many women do it?
Or boys and girls? Who controls the
money? It is all gender specific, whether or
not you view it in that way. And if we do
not acknowledge that fact and see it clearly,
then whatever policies or programmes
Habitat might adopt will not respond to the
real world.

In recent articles for Habitat you talk of a
'gendered city' What does that mean?
I'll answer that by giving you an example
of people realising their rights. My driver
here in Nairobi told me that his brother had
recently died, leaving two wives. The
younger wife immediately agreed to be
inherited by her late husband's younger
brother. The older wife didn't agree to this;
didn't want to be 'inherited' by anyone, but
fought for her own inheritance, to which,
under Kenyan law, she, as a woman, has
rights equal to those of a man. Well, she
went to court and she won her inheritance.
The point is that she saw herself not as an
object, a 'thing' to be inherited, like a cow
or a goat, but a person. Her brother-in-law,
the driver, also now understands this
crucial point: that women are not property,
but human beings with equal rights to
choose. This is a simple thing, but myself,
people with a comparative advantage, are
trying to support people in their struggle to
realise such rights.
We are trying to get local and national
authorities to really understand such things
in the laws they pass and in their imple-
mentation. In areas such as transport
systems; the proximity of schools; and day-
care facilities. All these things are
important. If they fulfil such things, then
they have a gendered perspective on what
they are doing, whether planners, decision
makers or local or national governments
know it or not.
What do you view as the major problems facing
poor women ?
I have been privileged to travel all over the
developing world, not only talking to
grassroots women, but actively supporting
them, from Habitat, so I think I am in a
position to know what the major issues are.
In Africa, especially in Islamic countries,
and the Islamic world in general, it is very
clear that the main priorities and issues are
equal inheritance rights, and the rights of
women to inherit and own land and
property. In housing, the traditional
Interview 55
structures were wide and spacious, accom-
modating women who spent a majority of
their time in the house. Now, particularly
because of a number of things such as class
differences and the fact that new houses are
designed by men, the houses are small, and
women just can't adjust. In some instances,
women have committed suicide because of
this. From the very beginning, from the
design of the house and the neighbour-
hood, the building process itself does not
take a gender perspective.
In Africa many people are employed
within the informal sector. So they need a
place to carry out their work. For example,
a woman who cooks samosas and sells
them on the streets needs to have legally
secure and proper facilities to cook in. A lot
of zoning laws are totally against women.
For example, here in Nairobi it is forbidden
to gather wood within the city limits. The
women are not cutting down the trees, but
are taking the wood that has already fallen:
they need it for cooking and heating, but
especially heating. And now they have to
go far outside the city to collect wood or to
sneak it away under cover. If they get
caught they face a high fine.
In Asia, the main thing is housing,
which as a human right is a right for
women as well as for men, and the popular
slogan in Asia, is 'Say no to mass evictions'.
Mass evictions, of course, affect everybody,
but, because of their particular responsibil-
ities for the home and the family, women
are obviously affected far more. The other
big issue is credit, not only credit for
housing but for starting, or improving, a
small informal enterprise, be it an individ-
ual or collective enterprise.
In Latin America, women have the same
rights as men before the law in most
countries. The trouble now is, because of
Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs),
there is (and we can prove this statistically)
a strong process going on of the feminis-
ation of poverty, particularly in households
that are headed by women. Those female
household heads, and indeed many, many
56 Gender and Development

other women, are being hit hard by SAPs. local governments have both a voice and a
Even though women are legally entitled to vote in the actual conference itself. Even in
buy houses, for example, they have no way Beijing, as you know, there was the NGO
of doing this; it's impossible. We, and I'm Forum and then the main conference; they
not talking just about Habitat alone but the were, to all intents and purposes, two
organisations it supports, say that separate entities. Two: Habitat in general is
economic development should be subord- convinced that if anything concrete is to be
inate to human development. For the achieved, then local governments have to
Caribbean and Latin America that is the be involved. In UN conferences it is always
focus. In fact in Beijing, women protested national governments. This fact, that local
twice on this issue. Once, when one of the governments will have a voice and a vote
NGO representatives had the floor at the at Habitat Two, has been very difficult for
plenary, she did not speak but held up a some national governments to accept!
sign which said that development must
have a human face. Then, of course the So you are seeing Habitat Two as not just a
Chinese officials stepped in. So at noon that string of national government resolutions but
day all of the Latin American NGOs took something much more concrete and more
over the escalators, going up and down binding?
with signs against SAPs. As the signs were Yes! It is a global plan of action where
taken off them they simply took out other concrete actions are not only approved, but
signs they had hidden in their coats! delegated to both national and local
governments within an agreed timescale -
You and many other people involved in urban a chromogramme of activities - so that by
issues are very keen to put across to a wider the end of the conference, it will be agreed
audience the whole concept of space being that such and such has to be done, and so
'gendered'. Could you say a few words on this on. Local government in the area of land
obviously crucial topic? policies, for example, must respond clearly
Most men (and women) do not realise that and in a gender-sensitive way to address
space is most definitely a gender issue. For the needs of everybody.
instance, take playgrounds: playgrounds, Now, the question is, will it work or
particularly in the developing world, are not? It depends really on all of the different
for boys, not girls. They are for football, or, interest groups present and how they push
depending on the culture, baseball. Girls to get their issues on the Agenda and
have to play on the streets. We need a responded to. I can say that in certain
whole now concept which responds to this: countries, such a process is well advanced.
our work needs, our leisure needs. The And even way ahead of where we, Habitat,
nature of cities would change drastically if are ourselves; and that's really exciting! In
women were more involved in the design other countries it has hardly begun.
and planning of cities or, in existing cities,
their maintenance. Such things need to be Catalina Trujillo can be contacted at: WHSDP,
more organised and more thought out. UNHCS (Habitat), P.O. Box 30030, Nairobi,
Kenya
In one of your press releases you describe
Habitat Two as being 'a different type of
conference'. Could you enlarge on this
statement?
It is different for two basic reasons. One: it
is the first time ever as far as a UN
conference is concerned that NGOs and
 Edited by Carol

Oxfam Focus on Gender

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted
in any form or by any means without the written permission of the Publisher.

Front cover: Health education class, organised by local women; Philippines. NANCY DURRELL-MCKENNA

Oxfam (UK and Ireland) 1996

Published by Oxfam (UK and Ireland), 274 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 7DZ, UK.
Designed and typeset by Oxfam Design Department OX 557/MCA/96
Oxfam is a registered charity No. 202918
Oxfam (UK and Ireland) is a member of Oxfam International
ISBN 085598 348 5

This book converted to digital file in 2010

Contents

Editorial 2
Caroline Sweetman

Participation in the city: where do women fit in? 9

Jo Beall

Gender, domestic space, and urban upgrading: a case study from Amman 17
Seteney Shami

Gender and rural-urban migration in China 24

Delia Davin

'Dislocation', shelter, and crisis: Afghanistan's refugees and notions of home 31

Sue Emmott

'Women with self-esteem are healthy women':

community development in an urban settlement of Guayaquil 39
Valli F K Yanni
Sustaining urban development through participation: an Ethiopian case study 45
Feleke Tadele

Interview:
Chris Peters talks to Catalina Trujillo about her work for the UN Agency Habitat 53
Women in the city of man: recent contributions to the gender and
human settlements debate 57
Carole Rakodi

Resources: 60
Organisations working in urban development 60
Further reading 61
Audio-visual resources 64

Gender and Development Vol 4, No. 1, February 1996