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From: IRIN <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 4:33 PM
Subject: Women and aid: beyond box-ticking
To: Elisabeth Janaina <[email protected]>
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humanitarian news and analysis
*Women and aid: beyond box-ticking
<http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=101794>*
[image: lead photo]DUBAI, 28 July 2015 (IRIN) -
Aid agencies have no problem agreeing that gender-sensitive programming is
a good idea, but few have come up with concrete methods for evaluating the
impact it has on those it is supposed to be helping.
The humanitarian sector’s Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) “Gender
Marker
<http://www2.wpro.who.int/internet/files/eha/toolkit/web/Technical%20References/Gender/IASC%20Gender%20Marker%20FAQs.pdf>”
rates aid proposals on whether they ignore, take into account, or
prioritise Gender Equality Programming (GEP).
However, the tool, introduced in 2009, only looks at projects on paper, it
doesn’t monitor how well (or otherwise) they are rolled out or take into
account their end results.
In an effort to close this knowledge gap, academics from the Institute of
Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex carried out four
in-depth studies involving 2,000 crisis-affected households in Kenya (in
Turkana and Dadaab), the Philippines and Nepal.
As well a detailed qualitative review
<http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2015/7/gender-equality-programming-report>
of how GEP was being received by women and girls in these communities – a
mix of protracted conflict, refugee and rural settings - the team also
created a first-of-its-kind indexing tool to quantitatively measure the
outcomes of gender-focused projects.
Their findings, published this month in a new report, represent an
important step forward in gender thinking ahead of an expected review of
the IASC’s Gender Marker and the wider GEP debate at next year’s World
Humanitarian Summit.
“We were lacking empirical data about what impact GEP had on humanitarian
situations,” explained David Coffey, a humanitarian programme specialist at
UN Women, which commissioned the research.
“Most aid practitioners had an idea that GEP was a good thing and that it
would have a positive impact, but that was not backed up with solid
evidence,” he told IRIN.
“One of the weaknesses of the Gender Marker, is that you can write the most
amazing proposal, but once you implement it, you have no mechanism for
monitoring it.”
*Formulaic approaches*
Jean-Pierre Tranchant, a research fellow at IDS, who co-led the University
of Sussex project, said he had been surprised how little aid agencies knew
about GEP, despite promoting it as a core strategy.
“There is a lot of box-ticking,” he said. “People in HQ tend to approach
gender programmes in a very formulaic way, like setting targets for women’s
involvement, and then ticking the box when the target is met, without
really looking at what that involvement meant on the ground.”
IDS’s new GEP Index tool measures how satisfied women are with humanitarian
aid, their perceived ability to influence programming, their appraisal of
the level of gender equality in the programmes, and the proportion of
programmes that women felt met their needs.
The model is still being worked on but it could become a key tool for
measuring GEP impact in humanitarian settings.
“This is only a starting point because the GEP Index isn’t yet a finished
item, but it’s an opportunity and idea that is full of promise,” said
Coffey.
“The Gender Marker gives us a clue about how well-designed a project is,
but the GEP Index takes us to the other end of the project cycle, giving us
real on-the-ground feedback and allows us to be more accountable to the
beneficiary population.
“Programmes are designed in-country and with specific contexts and nuances
in mind – but this is an additional tool to help guide the design process
to ensure the project delivers the best results.”
*Positive interventions*
Overall, the report noted that despite the current lack of detailed
evaluation about gender programming, interventions were positive.
Examples included: providing school meals and uniforms to increase girls’
attendance in school; involving women in committees to improve location of
water and sanitation facilities; ensuring women were economically active,
which leads to more stable incomes for households; and giving women primary
management of food collection to make diets more diversified and stable.
One issue however that the IDS findings did flag was that aid agencies
needed to make sure they engaged men – and not just women – in GEP.
“If you want to empower women and girls, you need to involve men and boys,”
Tranchant explained.
“Especially in settings like Dadaab [a Somalia refugee complex in Kenya],
where refugees don’t have freedom to move around and already feel quite
side-lined, it can add to that sense of exclusion if humanitarians then
appear to be more interested in women.”
Limited feedback mechanisms have played a part in this consideration not
always getting back to aid organisations, according to Tranchant.
Danielle Spencer, senior humanitarian advisor (gender and protection) for
CARE International UK, welcomed the publication of the UN Women’s report.
“This is a very important and timely study,” she said. “While we at CARE
are already doing a number of the things included in the recommendations,
we welcome anything that moves this conversation along.”
And, she added: “It is rewarding that we are seeing the fruits of our
collective labour. I remember in the past how difficult it was to even get
people to put gender issues on a meeting agenda. Now it’s becoming a
mainstream part of the system.”
lr /ag
Read report online <http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=101794>
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